The winner of Technical Achievement Award of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 2016 Cottalango Leon has said that there was good opportunity for engineers and technicians in movie production.
Mr. Leon, who had won the award (Oscar) along with Sam Richards and J. Robert Ray for ‘scientific and technical achievement,’ told reporters, staff and students at a felicitation function organised at the PSG College of Technology here , that there were huge opportunities in movie production, as the use of image processing and graphics was on the rise.
Though very little of what was taught in colleges was in use in the industry, students of computer science or other engineering disciplines still could make it to the industry as they would have learnt the basics.
In fact, that was how he made, said Mr. Leon, an alumnus of the 1992 batch of the college.
“You will be surprised to know that only after joining the computer science department in the PSG College of Technology, did I see and touch a computer for the first time.”
The use of visual effects and graphics in Indian movies was on the rise but not comparable to Hollywood movies because of the investment required.
The Oscar had no doubt given him press and publicity and brought focus to an extent on the technical side of movie production but what gave him satisfaction was the challenges involved in the technical side and solving those, said Mr. Leon, who worked for Sony Pictures Imageworks.
PSG College of Technology Principal R. Rudramoorthy said the college planned to create a chair in honour of Mr. Leon and also a lab, where he could share his area of expertise with students.
Mr. Leon had agreed to support the move and create the syllabus, he said and appealed to the alumni association to join the effort.
R.S. Krishnaswamy, president, PSG Tech Alumni Association, B. Giriraj, Principal, PSG Polytechnic College, A.V. Varadharajan, Chairman, Sandfits Foundries Pvt. Ltd., and others were also present.
Students of
computer science have an edge,
says Oscar winner
Cottalango Leon
