I just have not been motivated to add to this blog in the last week. I started and stopped a few entries, but none of them really seemed worth posting. Maybe it is time for just some mindless babbling.
- Pixar's 'Cars'.
- Stock update.
- Stock options at DreamWorks and Pixar.
- School rant.
Pixar's 'Cars' is being publicized and even an image has been passed around in the media. After all, the teaser will be shown in front of Incredibles. What better way to get even more advertising for an upcoming movie- release some press about a new movie that hardly anyone has seen footage of.
The presidential election has come and gone. Wall Street is happy with the re-election of George Bush and it is shown in the way the market reacted. DWA (DreamWorks Animation stock symbol) was falling after the IPO but began to rise again after the election and now sits at $39.70. PIXR reacted much the same way and is trading in the $81 range.
Speaking of stocks. It seems that most DreamWorks employees got some shares to play with. It is good to see a company reward their employees with some potential extra money. It not only makes them work harder but they take a stronger interest in how well the company does. On the same note. It seems that Pixar has stopped offering stock options to new employees (I heard this from a friend, it has not been confirmed yet). Too bad. The options acted as a way to soften the lesser pay that Pixar generally offers to their employees.
I’m currently up in the San Francisco area helping a new startup to get going. While I sit here typing listening to Howard Stern, there is a commercial for Xpression New Media (a school that offers training in animation (among other things)). Remind me someday to go into a tirade about the dozens of schools taking advantage of wannabe animators. It is a sick-sick industry. If someone would intervene with these students prior to spending all this money on school, perhaps they would save a butt load of cash and not be presented with such a false sense of what the career has to offer. The pictures these schools paint of the industry is just pathetic.
3 comments:
Oh please do rant on the endless amount of Animation Training schools. I would love to hear what you think about them since I always have people ask me.
Almost every trade school around here has either removed, integrated, or transferred their animation degree programs into video game design degrees. The cash cow that 3D animation once was is now over, and schools in the Chicago area are smarting over it. No jobs to offer and few companies to recruit from means very low job placement percentages. Which means no one wants the degree. And the game company crunch will hit just as soon, as people will end up interning for free longer, or work 80-80 hour weeks for under 30k a year. Tough times indeed.
-willryan
Please continue to comment on schools and pathways to animation. I have had strong interest in pursuing vfx and animation, however, I have surmised that there are way too many schools out there relative to jobs. Please comment on the value of schools with respect to animation in general, which schools are worthwhile, and how tough is the job market out there in getting and retaining work. Thanks.
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