Friday, December 16, 2005
The terse sarcastic and biting note in my teacher`s mailbox said:
THINK before you grade down your students for not following directions. YOUR SYLLABI were due the first week of class and you have still not handed them in!
The problem with the note is that it is completely false. I did hand in my syllabus on time along with a request for a enough copies for all my students. Then I come in the first night of class a couple hours early just in case and the copies I had ordered of said document for my class were not made and I spent and hour and a half of hell with a work study student trying to get enough copied through a screwed up office copier for my class that night and the file copy I had handed in, the file copy went missing in the ensuing mess.
Now I am not here to bag on my support staff at this school for this cock up even if it burns me up to get blamed in such a biting way by people for their own mistakes. I am not even blaming the support staff at this school for this mess up even if I do resent the tone of the note. (which I think you have already figured out)
The 3 ladies running the office are sharp and efficient. The problem is that they are new to so many of the tasks they are called on to do because the lady that ran this art department, a well oiled machine, has just retired after 25/30 years.
The Annies are coming up and after them the Oscars and the winners will be thanking their support staff for making it happen. It sound trite, just something to say. The truth is that this is not just polite lip service. The support staff make or break us all.
Great as they are where would Tex Avery be without Mike Lah and Preston Blare? Or Chuck Jones without Marcus Noble or Mike Maltese?
The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archives aims to deal with the history of animation in a manner more natural to the process of animaiton than the studio driven histories that currently own the field. We are following the animators not the studios. Looking at the people that made animation not the companies they worked for. We are telling the stories of the people who make animations by following their career arc. Studios want to tell the story of their studio and nobody can blame them. But that is not how animation happens.
People make animations. People that work for studios on projects and them move on to other projects and other studios. This is something I try to deal with in my animation history classes but it is up hill because books aren`t put together that way.
If you haven`t checked out the ASIFA Animation Archive site you need to. Steve has been putting up some outrageous killer images. He is making my job easy. He is making ASIFA the support staff for anyone who studies animation history. And if you can get to the animation center in Burbank there are some amazing things going on.
We are open Tuesdays and Thursdays 1 PM to 9 PM. 2114 W. Burbank Blvd., Burbank. ¶ 7:22 AM
THINK before you grade down your students for not following directions. YOUR SYLLABI were due the first week of class and you have still not handed them in!
The problem with the note is that it is completely false. I did hand in my syllabus on time along with a request for a enough copies for all my students. Then I come in the first night of class a couple hours early just in case and the copies I had ordered of said document for my class were not made and I spent and hour and a half of hell with a work study student trying to get enough copied through a screwed up office copier for my class that night and the file copy I had handed in, the file copy went missing in the ensuing mess.
Now I am not here to bag on my support staff at this school for this cock up even if it burns me up to get blamed in such a biting way by people for their own mistakes. I am not even blaming the support staff at this school for this mess up even if I do resent the tone of the note. (which I think you have already figured out)
The 3 ladies running the office are sharp and efficient. The problem is that they are new to so many of the tasks they are called on to do because the lady that ran this art department, a well oiled machine, has just retired after 25/30 years.
The Annies are coming up and after them the Oscars and the winners will be thanking their support staff for making it happen. It sound trite, just something to say. The truth is that this is not just polite lip service. The support staff make or break us all.
Great as they are where would Tex Avery be without Mike Lah and Preston Blare? Or Chuck Jones without Marcus Noble or Mike Maltese?
The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archives aims to deal with the history of animation in a manner more natural to the process of animaiton than the studio driven histories that currently own the field. We are following the animators not the studios. Looking at the people that made animation not the companies they worked for. We are telling the stories of the people who make animations by following their career arc. Studios want to tell the story of their studio and nobody can blame them. But that is not how animation happens.
People make animations. People that work for studios on projects and them move on to other projects and other studios. This is something I try to deal with in my animation history classes but it is up hill because books aren`t put together that way.
If you haven`t checked out the ASIFA Animation Archive site you need to. Steve has been putting up some outrageous killer images. He is making my job easy. He is making ASIFA the support staff for anyone who studies animation history. And if you can get to the animation center in Burbank there are some amazing things going on.
We are open Tuesdays and Thursdays 1 PM to 9 PM. 2114 W. Burbank Blvd., Burbank. ¶ 7:22 AM
