Staying ahead of the curve - School Days

Post, Sept, 2003 by Matthew Armstrong

These days, people of all ages and experience levels are going to film schools and training centers. For some, the reasons are obvious: young people are lured by the intoxicating prospect of working in this glamorous industry of film and television. (Yes, all you film veterans can laugh now but I'm willing to bet you thought the same thing right up until your first job as a production assistant.)

Some reasons are relatively new and are driven by the quantum leap in technology that has occurred in the past 10 years causing many already firmly rooted in the industry to go back to school to learn the new gadgets or refine their chops.

And of course there is the general trend of people going back to school during bad economic times, but since we're probably all tired of hearing about the state of the economy, that's the last time we'll mention it in this article.

As technology advances exponentially, the new products, updates and techniques popping up every month are leaving those in the film industry both excited and daunted by the seemingly endless possibilities of the medium, "Our customers are in a more confused and complicated position than ever before because they have more to learn, says Megan Cunningham, principal of NYC-based Magnet Media (www.digitalmediatraining.com), which produces a series of DVD training programs. "It's an exciting time but I empathize with those making their living in post because it's extremely challenging. Whenever we do a presentation or seminar I see the faces in the crowd have a mixture of awe and terror because there's so many possibilities and so much to know."

Compounding the challenge of keeping up to date with the rapidly developing technology, today's filmmakers are being asked to do more. The director of photography must learn how to shoot HD, the editor must know about effects and how to best manage the huge amounts of data on his or her NLE, visual effects artists and animators have to figure out which among dozens of programs work best for a particular effect, and sound gurus are still adapting to life without faders.

"One thing we're seeing now is more and more is being integrated into the editing process," says Mike Flanagan, president of Video Symphony (www.videosymphony.com), which opened in 1994 as an Avid rental and training center but has since grown by leaps and bounds, and now offers hundreds of courses in editing, effects, sound, animation and DVD authoring. "More DVD functionality is being built into the editing timeline and editors are expected to be fluent with Photoshop, After Effects and do motion graphics as well as the conventional editing. What we're also starting to see more of is editors being asked to be fluent with audio editing and mixing."

While today's post professionals are more technologically savvy than ever, training is still vital in order to work efficiently. The heads of the training centers note that these post veterans should not be afraid to ask for help.

"Autodesk did research on the return of investment with training," explains Mark Doran of Oregon 3D (www.oregon3d.com), which offers many courses ranging in length from half-day courses on Discreet updates to a four-week Maya camp. "It showed that if a person goes for $1,500 worth of training when they purchase new software and hardware programs, the return of investment over three months is around 150 per cent compared with someone who does not get the training--as they know how to work more efficiently. Also, the study showed that even if a person gets training later on, they never quite catch up to the production level of the person that gets training immediately because you can learn bad production habits and it's virtually impossible to unlearn those habits."

To fill the need for increased training, many education centers have opened in recent years and the established schools have altered their curriculum to address the growing technological needs.

WIDENING PUPILS

Not too long ago, most film students went to school with one intention:to be a director. Then, after watching their films, most opted for a different path. While that may still be the case overall, more and more students are going to school to learn visual effects, animation and sound.

At Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) in Georgia, a small computer arts program has exploded in popularity, and this fall the school will offer majors in animation, visual effects, interactive design, game development and sound design. Today, SCAD (www.scad.edu) has approximately 600 students in its traditional film program and 1,200 students in the computer arts department.

"We try to provide the most high-end technology we can but we always try to keep in mind that we are still artists and that has to drive what we do ... not the software or hardware," says Becky Wible, professor of animation and graduate mentor at SCAD. "Sometimes it's easy to become dazzled by all this great stuff and forget we are doing this to tell a story or entertain people."