Thursday, April 12, 2018

And One Last Gasp!!!

2:30 in the afternoon. There's something that had been bothering me, I'd thought it rather silly but it was worth looking into... Half a credit hour for a normal semester of five, hour-and-a-half seminars, but the special study course I'd signed up for, to get that course in retroactively and thus be able to graduate tomorrow, was for a full credit hour's worth of class (one credit hour being the minimum possible, on the independent specialized study program.) I'd completed five seminars already, of course, so it was possible, if it was the case that it was to be just a normal semester's load, that I be done....

Nope, going into Kathy she said that, unless my agreement with Lisa was explicitly otherwise, I WAS expected to do ten seminars. Alright.

2:30, five seminars at an hour and a half each, due today... That put me out at 10:00, 11:00 if I needed to take breaks in between seminars. Well alright. Glad I got to her in time.

I got on it, and finished up of course.

And now I'm finished with classes, and can graduate.

Five seminars in a row, though; I tried to get a good balance with my choices the last round of five, with semesters and semesters' worth of art seminars from which to choose, all these different people talking about all their different occupational experiences in all these different occupations. I made sure to get in a painter this time, probably should have gone for a printmaker too, but I had the run of the crop and could just choose whatever looked interesting. Video game design, 3D modeling, architecture...

Why are the photographers more fascinating to me than the painters? He's talking about his artwork, exploring with the medium itself, cutting into paintings, disrupting the surface itself. Limiting his oeuvre, focusing it. Like he's got a goal with why he arts. What draws me to art, I think, and cast my mind back to a few hours ago, going to get my cap and gown, in public with all the life around me. It's the human stories. And that's what the photographers are, documentarians. The value of technical artistry isn't to be admired, it's to be invisible.

The speaker is Japanese, TAC architect Tony Yamada. He talks about Japanese minimalism, turns off the slideshow when he doesn't need it, as opposed to the American slideshow tradition of having the whole thing be illustrated. If I'm learning so much that's going to influence my creation from now on, I'm always going to be learning, shaking it up, so I may as well start now.

So last time I saw Kody (Bro Keller) he told me to get in touch with him again, regarding what my decision was regarding my future and everything, and I could do that today. Before the seminar scramble, coming back home after getting my cap and gown. Last time we'd talked he'd given me some suggestions of graphic design people on campus, but after the thoughts, fasting and prayer I'd put into it, I could be confident and be forthwith with him: I want to go into filmmaking.

It's what I've always wanted to go into; funny how I'm not really able to admit these things. Even back in high school and before, when my parents thought I was undecided; nope, filmmaking.

I guess I expected him to give me the contacts of the folks he knew in the Church's filmmaking unit, but that's not the way he talks. When you're talking to him, he's like an interviewer, he stays quiet, and lets you do the talking.

But so am I.

He mentions film school, though; it's funny but that's not something I'd ever really considered for myself till now. Film school costs money. So does filmmaking; seriously half my day till then was trying to work out, in the back of my mind, how to pay for a few particular assets I want for a film I've been increasingly moving to the front burner. President Workman, in my exit interview talking about getting myself an education, said get a job and put myself through school. Cool, but I've never been the best at job hunting, coming recently to the conclusion that finding a job for me is like finding a spouse; I'm not one to date around, and don't want to come in through the front door (by which I mean, the whole resume, job interview, process.) But maybe I don't have to.

Chris Grim, character modeler at BLUR, in his seminar mentioned repeatedly the importance of networking. Which is basically what it is, that I need, how that would work for me. He gave great tips on landing jobs, even through the front door being sneaky about it.

Also, filmschool, great networking tool.

No comments:

Post a Comment