Rebecca Explains 1/Transcript


 * Rebecca Parham: This is, I've started something really cool or really awkward. Hello my geeks and peeps, my explainers and entertainers, my little oo-de-lallies, are you? I am Rebecca, you know, the animator of this channel. What's the premiere of the live-action, Becca? How do you live-action anyway? Something about a lot of jump cuts, huh? I'm your ball. I'm filming on a potato. I like potatoes, so what am I doing here, you asked? What I am doing here is I am making you guys a live-action video, because I feel like I don't upload enough, and you guys are awesome and you deserve more videos, so I'm making a new live-action series called "Rebecca Explains". I get a lot of questions and most of them are about the animation industry and general art tips, and so, I wanted to start addressing those. The other day, I was looking through the comments, and this one popped up. This one right here. Pause the video, if you want to read. It's long, but it's important, and I kind of read through that, and I was like "Oh, boy, she covered a lot of issues in one comment.", so this is gonna be a video answering that one particular question, because a lot of baggage was loaded in that comment. Disclaimer this is all based on my personal experiences in the animation industry and in animation school, try to remember you could probably ask another animator the exact same question and they will tell you something completely different. We're all different. We all have different experiences. We all have different opinions. Alright, so one of the first points that this comment brings up is: "I can't afford my dream school", to which I say "Yeah, not a lot of people can afford their dream school.", but in animation, it's worse. What I say animation is not a poor man's game. There's equipment and hardware and software, so it's an expensive game to play, and I'll tell you what. I went to one of the most expensive schools out there, and it was quite a dent in my pocket, but here's the thing: everyone's in debt over art school. I have friends who did a full five or four years on nothing but loans. They are in debt, like over $100,000. I'm lucky enough that I only got saddled with like partial that, because my mom and dad actually footed a lot of bill, so unfortunately, one to be an animator usually means you're gonna be in some debts, but that's the price a lot of schools have to ask in order to afford all the hardware and software and guest speakers and staff that they use to teach you which, I guess. That kind of cascades into the next point of this question does. "Which school you go to matter?". You know what they tell you in the industry all the time, "Oh it's not which school you went to. It's what you can do.". Yeah, you know what, that may be true, but not all animation programs are created equal. Some schools have all the money, some schools have all the software, some schools have the amazing staff that actually worked out in the industry at places like Pixar and DreamWorks, some schools have a higher standard of what they consider to be an A+ versus what another school would consider to be an A+. I'll give you an example: Before I went to Ringling College of Art and Design. I went to a small reputable private university. and they had an animation program there. but here's the thing: on their website, this is the student work that they decide to showcase. This is what's on their website. This is what they're proud of. This is A+ material to them, and if you go to the website of one of the big animation schools, you see material like this this an A+ material to a school like Ringling ,or Cal Arts or SCAT. SCAT stands for "Savannah College of Art and Design", in case you wanted to know. They won the ante this year, and I know there's been so much controversy about whether your school matters, and if you really want a job, the animation industry you have to go to Cal Arts. If you have a really solid portfolio and demo reel, recruiters are not going to care what school you went to. If you're amazing without even going to art school, you'll get the job. But if you're like me and had never touched animation before, like literally the first time you even attempt animation or open up an animation software is going into school and you need someone to hold your hand and tell you this is what you need to do, then you need to go to the school. That is going to build you up correctly. It's all up to you. Next point, people telling you to stop dreaming. The dreamers are the ones who make history. The people who step off the beaten path are the ones that people, the people who step out of their comfort zone, and for sick what everybody else is telling them, they're the ones that accomplish things, and that can be you. People are always going to tell you that you need to stop dreaming, you need a safe job, that you need a stable job that you should do what everybody else is doing. Risk taking is not for everybody. Hey, I'm not even sure it's right for me, what am I doing? But just because someone is too afraid to step out of their own comfort zone, doesn't mean you should be, and you're not going to be able to until you believe that yourself. This really is starting to sound a little cliched, and what every single successful person ever tells anybody, anywhere, but here's the thing: it's true you can fail all day long at something you hate. It's something that is considered safe. You can work for 10, 15, 20 years in a safe company doing a safe job that provides you stability, and one day, they could just up and fire you, and so you failed at something. One, you thought was safe, and two, you hated. That was not your dream, and you've wasted all this time, and you failed. It's something that you didn't even like. Doing so you might as well give your dreams a shot. You might as well fail at something you love doing because at least you enjoyed yourself. If she had fun, you can do it. I know you can. And the fourth point: "small competitive guys only". Small industry, hmm, I don't know. If I call it that, although it just keeps getting smaller with all the layoffs happening at this very moment, the industry is going through a really weird place. It's like animation doesn't sound if: one, animation movie is a flop, then the whole industry is a flop. Hollywood is stupid. That way, I believe if you're in that tier of people who are good enough to make a living out of it, I think there is always a spot for you somewhere. One of my best friends immediately left school and worked for a medical animation studio. It's a job. It pays the bills. It's animation. So if you don't try to hang on to the idea of you "Oh, you have to go to a big-name studio, and you have to work in story driven animation at all times", and you'll find a job somewhere. Competitive, yeah? You are trying to get that job over someone else, but the thing is, animation is such a collaborative art form. It's-it is the most collaborative art form on the face of the planet. You can't hold grudges in animation. You can't be mean to each other in animation. You can't burn bridges in animation. I've gotten so many freelance jobs, because my friends in the industry would pass people along to me. That's how a lot of work is given out in the animation industry. That's how a lot of jobs are filled. It's through connection, so you've got to have friends in the industry. You got to be nice to people. Competitive? Yes. Cutthroat? No. There's a difference. And then last but not least, "women in animation". I'm trying too hard. Women in animation, yeah, here's a fun topic to speak about: animation for the most part has been a boys club. Pixar has gotten in a lot of trouble for that, but they're trying. They did make Brave and have Brenda Chapman director, and then fire her in the middle of it, but she still got the Oscar. Politics, politics, politics, politics... But here's the thing: it's changing. One of my animation teachers, who was an actual alumni of the same school, said that his class was 80% men, and then he looked around at our class and noticed that over half of the students were women. And in the class below mine, 60% of them were girls. It's a brand new wave of women entering the industry. Come ride it with me. I actually feel more exception and more love and more inclusion in my industry from men and women than any other place I've been. You just got to change a couple of things constantly pushing to better yourself, so I guess that wraps up that question. Let me know how I'm doing. Did I do okay? Did I do my first live-action all right? I needed more jump cuts, didn't I? Yeah, dude. Hello there, darling. Terrible rarity impression, and now that you've seen my face, you can recognize me at the conventions that I never show up to. Not hurt, let's make this a thing so I don't upload it every five months. So, if you want me to continue the Rebecca Explains video series, then go ahead and ask away in the comments section below, or you can ask me at either of these Twitter handles, and hey, also ask me questions at either of these two Instagram handles, and don't worry, more animation coming your way, and don't forget to subscribe. Anyways, guys, thank you for tuning in, but now, I gotta tune out. Bye!