Monday, September 13, 2010

What happens next year? Paris or pizza?

No matter where you plan to go or what you plan to do, keep animating, improving your skills, sketching your ideas and updating your reel.

Today in class some second years were outlining their plans for after they graduate.

The conversation took us down the path of further study. As compared to employment, work experience, or freeing your lance and chasing the festival circuit to build a reputation.

Be creative. Sometimes it takes some thinking. Consider getting a job as a pizza delivery person, as long as you are delivering pizza to the animators at the studio at which you wish to work. There is an animator, in our very building at SBIT, who tells the tale of applying for a parking attendant job at a studio and eventually animating on a feature film.

Two animators are currently in the articulation process to the Griffith University animation course. Four others are looking at a further year of study. One animator has done an interstate research trip and met some people. One student expressed a wish to study at Ringling College in the USA.

Last week a first year animator was mapping out their student path and we gathered some information about links to the Queensland University of Technology animation course. In that discussion animators were encouraged to research a 'summer school' somewhere, with my preference being, arguably the best animation school in the world, besides the Southbank Institute of Technology, Gobelins in Paris (from personal experience).

One of the second year animators expressed an interest at studying at Gobelins. My first bit of advice is to start learning French. If an animator can produce a good reel of student work, they may get accepted to attend the Gobelins summer school, which happens in our long mid-year break. Summer in Paris. It needs some planning and saving. The summer school may lead further to an invitation to apply for the Gobelins animation course.

Here is Eric Riewer, head of international relations at Gobelins, talking about what makes a good student film (and the Gobelins school demonstrate annually that they know about that) and how animators are selected for the school.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the inspiring and realisticly useful advice! I think this video and advice is awsome and is very productive for our work. I agree with the options to also try some other work that can lead to professional industry work. It all goes to who you know many times and how you network and socialise with animation fields etc. Also interesting lil useless story, did you know...Steven Spielberg worked as an assistant simply fetching Coffee's and Food for Producers and Director's etc and doing some crappy work before he snuck his screen plays to Producers and people he began to meet, and he may not have got anywhere that big, but I think he is popular and known by a few people, I also think this can be a good idea for socialising with people and also for learning and developing work from professional's without paying student industry fee's. I plan to either study and work creating animations and films when I leave, and if that doesn't work I'll most likely just sell crack to the druggy animator's and film producer's, so become a crack dealer and drink my life and slump into depression around a gutter with a wine bottle and then after which deal crack with the animators and artist's and become a famous animator, I think this is the most likely and most possible outcome for studying and finding work in the animation industry after a course, what does everyone else think? :)

Frank said...

Thanks Zade. I think. I am sad to hear your pipe has a crack in it and hope you get a new one for your birthday. Ahoy!

Corey said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Corey said...

Hey Frank!

Whoa... Eric Riewer knows his stuff. Very articulate and straight to the point.

Thanks for posting! it kind of makes me think I should steer towards a more realistic goal, such as Griffith. Then I could enter festivals :).

Who is the animator at SBIT with the parking attendant job? Yourself? Jane? Jason Lynch?

Oh man I gotta know!

Tim D. said...

Great video Frank. There was definitely a good point made at the end to show exactly what it is you want to show to potential employers, and to not become caught up in fancy lighting and special effects.

Cassandra Vanderkop said...

Definately going to learn French and head overseas!!

Great advice =D

Frank said...

Every animator should schedule a summer in Paris in their career.