Dear Pratt (specifically DDA),

Students have concerns with the current system not allowing to work in teams; therefore, we ask for the choice to create a group to produce more professional and innovative animation films. After asking around, 3/4 of the 3D majors are unhappy with the idea of not being able to work together in an environment that fosters collaboration and creativity. The concern for this urges for some provisions to change.

Not giving us the choice to make groups is frustrating us. Here are some reasons why groups would benefit us.

 
-Is Pratt giving up on 3D Digital Arts majors?
 

Some students have felt neglected over the years. This is not what we signed up for.

I contacted some of my friends while I’m away in Japan to get feedback about Pratt’s recent curriculum changes. They expressed their concerns and even thought about transferring to different schools, which allow teamwork for animation film. Another student mentioned about her parents’ urge to leave school because they work as team, which is the norm in today’s industrial standard workflow. Even some teachers feel that Pratt isn’t giving its all for the 3D students.

Although the curriculum has changed (to improve students’ work) it still has not touched on this topic.

 

-Specialization
 

There are many parts in creating an animation film. We are asking for the choice to have 1~2 partners (making a team of maximum three people). People can still work individually if they would like; we are not forcing students to join a group, only giving an option to those who would like to join in a group.

 We feel that the technical skills need to be narrowed in and honed to perfection. Personally speaking, I can’t be the best in animation, lighting, modeling, hair grooming, and rigging at the same time (to name a few) because if the person is best at the category, that one person is the entire Dreamworks Animation company.

The teachers are worried that if one student is working on one part of the animation they won’t be working during the other stages and contribute as much. However, the industry saying is, “Jack of all trades, master of one.”

Have you seen all the subcategories under the internship tabs on Pixar’s career page? Talking for myself, I don’t know if I should apply for TD rigging or animation, because I feel I am only decent in rigging and good in animation. I want to be great in one of two categories instead of subpar in all. Working in a team, we would be able to demonstrate our interest and make that part of the animation spectacular. Thus we have a different teacher per class.

Imagination Vent kindly critiqued my portfolio when I applied for an internship. I was told that they see potential in my work but I am only average in the things I do. I try my best but if my best means I have to spread out my attention and skill around the board is only average then I would like to not divide my attention and concentrate on one aspect of the animation process.

 

-Pratt “produces artists not technical directors”.

With the new curriculum, we are getting practice in creating a full animation from start to finish in the studio class. However, that film is not on the same level of the importance of the senior project film. That of which is one of the heaviest influence that decides if you get a job or not in the first year out of college. We need to push the school program to be tailored with this change.

“With the new curriculum in which we create new films per semester, we should specialize in our preferred target job area so then it would be possible to create professional film with everyone’s skills and talents.”

 -Too stubborn?

Every other school and company practices team collaboration in a film. College should mirror the real life world, so why isn’t Pratt DDA allowing this? I have studied abroad in Japan and the animation class there works as a group. We were forced to work with strangers that I didn’t know. The class was a group of animation project. In Pratt, the 2D animation studio class allows group works and they rotate roles to simulate the “outside life” in a company. That is a step in the right direction! We have groups that animate a bouncing ball in the 3D Animation Studio II. ANIMATE! Not a start to finish group project.

If this sort of practice exist globally, why is Pratt so stubborn about this?

 

-It happened once, and failed…

-I keep hearing about the dreaded incident that the group didn’t give their all for the film and fought. Or that groups will fight. Even in a normal cooperation, arguments will always happen. This is due to the lack of collaboration and social skills to work with each other in teams. Practice is key! There is a risk to this all but you cannot give up after one or two tries. 

 

-Example of other great films
 

Orca’s title for The Present  by Jacob Frey is a great example. It is a 3 minute film about a heartwarming story of a human and a dog. In the credits, you can see bunch of helpers, Markas Kransler who did all of his lighting. He also had separate person for models, five different riggers, and three others who helped in story and animations. After this films was aired, he was immediately accepted to Disney Pixar Animation. That's the kind of animation I want to produce, along side with other animation students. In year 2016, there were two groups that worked together and they produced an amazing film! And the year before that, Mark and Ian had one of the best animations and they got to be in a team. School of Visual Arts, Animation Institutes, California Institute of the Arts, etc. are all working in this format. Pratt Institute needs to get on board with this so that students do not feel left behind or under prepared.

-Our request

We would like a choice to choose if we work as a group or not. Students who want to are able to gather a team and work together. Maybe we could even have a conference with students and faculty to discuss any questions.