Session 33 summary
Chewang had the opportunity to work with many organizations. His first and one of his major projects was Pokchi the Red Panda (2016) which was a project for the Sikkim Biodiversity. The name Pokchi is often used to tease chubbiness which leads to bullying, so they used this name for the project because it is very catchy and to remove the stigma attached to it. This project came with a lot of parameters and challenges like strict budget, tight time frame of 3 months, etc. Chewang had been a young animator then but with encouragement of seniors he proceeded to work on this project and at that time he could only hire one person to work with him on this project. For the longest time nothing was working but luckily with the internship bringing many interns things started moving forward. Together with the film they had to make three posters which would go with it. Till now the film has gone to many schools in Sikkim. Some of the key takeaways were that a lot of children were able to recognize Pokchi and soon it became a favourite of all and since then 11th August is celebrated as Pokchi Day in schools.
Another of his major project was a SERT Project-Kitab. This project had a similar intent like Pokchi. Usually education content is created by the Council in Delhi but some regions are not able to relate to the content. The Sikkim government was able to recognise this flaw and started the Project ‘Kitab’. The content was localised, 180 content writers were selected to write the contents. One of the chapters is ‘Things on my plate’ which starts with picture reading of the exercise, the picture had to have great details so Chewang tried to include all kinds of vegetables both below and above the ground, show community practise, terrain, secondary activities and so on, so that the child may see, think and decide for themselves. For story time, the Potato story was added which talks about empowering women. There was also the concept of opposites through visuals. Colouringexercises, recipe of salad, food song, local food, conversation between older generation and younger generation about food and farm to table concept was added to encourage the children to read. A lot of back and forth happened between the content writers and the designers before the final designs were confirmed. Another chapter is ‘Our Family’, through this chapter the child is supposed to understand their own family and identify their family structure. Some portions in the exercises were deliberately left blank to let the child fill it up. In this chapter they tried hard to show the real sense of family harmony. The story of HarkaDaju, a commonly occurring practise in the North, was also added in the chapter and tried to show the positive aspects of this practise. It was followed by questions which the child must understand through the visuals and content and then answer them.
About the Speaker
Chewang Rinchen Lepcha
Animation Designer
Gangtok, Sikkim
He is a graduate in Animation Film Design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. He is currently based in Gangtok, Sikkim and work in collaboration with EchostreamPvt. Ltd, a multi-disciplinary design studio at Gangtok. Right after graduation, he worked in Mumbai for two years and decided to come back to Sikkim. During his time in Sikkim, he has collaborated with the various state government departments, private clients and NGOs to find best design solutions and practices in the mountain context.
