What am I talking What am I talking about?about?

Creative industries have fundamentally changed in the past 20 years and have become high tech industries

Budgets are exploding, expectations are exploding, risk is exploding, time and patience are completely absent

The Academy has been slow to embrace the changes forced upon industry by the technology

The old partnership between Academy and Industry is no longer valid

Why Industry needs Why Industry needs thisthis

30 years ago, companies had a stable of internal talent, both technical and artistic, that could handle any project

Digital revolution completely overhauled both the media and the product – new tech needed new skills and talents

New technicians knew their bits and bytes, but not how to entertain or tell a story.

Human bridges to span both technical and artistic realms are in HIGH demand

Why they don’t hire Why they don’t hire kidskids

Stakes are too high to take a risk on unproductive team member

Veterans know the drill, earn their money and are low risk

Big industry is actually a very small community, veterans come with recommendations as well as a reel

Why they would if they Why they would if they couldcould

Fresh college grads work cheap

They strive to please

Willing to work long hours

Full of ideas

Least likely to take vacation, sick days, family leave

Why Academia hasn’t filled Why Academia hasn’t filled the billthe bill

Historically, the academy narrowed the focus and enriched the individual, left contextualization to industry

Academy still using antiquated concept of disciplines and career paths, industry abandoned them 20 years ago

Academy prides itself on being separate from industry, but separation may lead to irrelevance.

Enough talk, we go in!Enough talk, we go in!

An Example…An Example…

Building Virtual Worlds

Initially conceived by Randy Pausch after a sabbatical at Disney Imagineering

Originally an UNDERGRADUATE course…

Eventually birthed a Masters Program, the ETC

How was it set up?How was it set up?

Semester long class, MFW 2 hrs per day

1 Professor of record, mostly guest lectures, cross listed

Students assigned to groups of 4, given a goal

14 days to achieve that goal

Mix up the teams, new goal, 14 days

A total of 5 “rounds” then a show for the public

Who can register and Who can register and how…how…

The class must be balanced, so registration by permission only

4 groups/disciplines of students

Programmers, writers, artists, designers, technicians…

Grouped by DEMONSTRATED SKILLS ONLY

Size limited by facilities, 48 a likely limit

How it runs…How it runs…

1st week is individual with goal to establish a workflow

Instructor assigns groups, present at 7 day mark and 14

14 days later, show your work, evaluate, shuffle teams

Rounds 3 & 4 work just like 1 & 2

Round 5 teams can self form, set their own goal

Any project can be brought to jury for final show

Groups! Devilish detailsGroups! Devilish details

Groups need to be 4 students, 1 of each type

No kidding, 4 is the magic number!

Check your ego at the door

Be open to good ideas, they will likely not come from you!

You can put up with ANYTHING for 2 weeks, so NO WHINING!

Projects!Projects!

14 days total time

4 students per group

Present status at 7 day mark

Present finished piece at 14 day mark

SCOPE is KEY!!!!!!!!

Failure is OK, as long as you fail big!

LecturesLectures

Mondays are lecture days

Most are guest lectures

Relatively low level (aimed at the non majors)

Project goals usually linked to lecture topics…

Evaluations!Evaluations!

After each round, group members evaluate each other

3 evals per round, 5 rounds 15 evals total

After 2 rounds, if you have 6 negative evals, not good.

The show must go on!The show must go on!

Independent jury selects 12ish best projects for show

Students then have to make them “show worthy”

Plan A, plan B, Plan…G!

Invited guests up the ante!

Roll film!Roll film!

Discussion!Discussion!