Bob Dylan is in Chicago this weekend and as always he has me thinking about the times we live in.

Not too many years ago if you were a Chicago based filmmaker and didn’t have a production office in the 312 area code you were not a player. All of the major production houses, post-production facilities and recording studios were within a few blocks of each other. While many still are there, the film community has expanded and your physical location is nowhere nearly as important. These days an ftp server or secured website is as important as an office. More often than not we post rough cuts and let the client see them when and wherever they want to. This comes in very handy when a handful of people need to screen a cut.

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Last week I met with a potential student for the fall of 2008 who is trying to decide which discipline to select at Flashpoint Academy. I began as I always do in this situation, asking just one question: “Of these four creative areas, can you identify where your passion lies?” He started with detailed descriptions of his love for filmmakers and sound designers from the Czech Republic, “You’ve got to check out Daisies by Vera Chytilová,” he said. “It’s got an amazing soundtrack for a film from 1966.” He went on to say he’s planning a trip there next summer that will last three weeks, starting and ending in Prague—one last jaunt before school begins. He told me about the music he’s making, the videos he’s shooting and editing, the animation he’s messing around with. He also told me about his recent wanderings—to the East Coast and back—trying to find something that works for him. Finally, he said, not any one of these disciplines seems to speak louder than the others.

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That Was The Week That Was was first broadcast in Britain in the early 196os and gave David Frost his first wide television exposure. A short time later an American version appeared giving TV audiences their first real glimpses of performers like Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Woody Allen, Alan Alda and Buck Henry. Both shows were satirical looks at the week’s news, a precursor if you will to The Daily Show. I bring this up because last week at Flashpoint was both very typical and oh so atypical. Let me explain.

On Saturday the 13th the actor Jeffrey Wright and rapper/actor Mos Def came to school as part of The Chicago International Film Festival. Sometime around 10pm there was Mos Def pounding on the drums in one of our recording studios.

Tuesday, representatives from Morocco and the Chicago Sister Cities program came to school to explore cultural exchange opportunities. And that evening about 1/3 of our students went to a screening of The Darjeeling Limited where writer and director Wes Anderson and co-writer and star Jason Schwartzman answered our questions.

On Friday Mesh Flinders, creator of the Internet phenomenon Lonely Girl 15, was on campus speaking with students and high school counselors and administrators. Friday afternoon the first ever Flashpoint Academy Machinima Challenge took place. We divided students into eight groups and using the Team Fortress 2 game engine, created eight short films in the span of five hours. At 5pm we had a screening and later this week those films will be posted on the web.

All of this happened under the lens of Channel 11 (the local PBS affiliate) who came to do a piece on us for their program Chicago Tonight.

On Saturday Flashpoint had an open house and 180 perspective students and their parents attended looking to enroll in January or next fall.

On Sunday (some of us) rested.

That Was The Week That Was.

PeterH

When I was in high school I was given the chance to be an intern (a nice word for free labor) on the production of a United Cerebral Palsy Telethon. The broadcast was produced by Allen Hall, the producer for 25 years of Bozo’s Circus on WGN-TV. I only got the job because my dad met Al Hall at a cocktail party and quick to get his kid out of the house Dad volunteered me. (At this same cocktail party my dad had his picture taken with Cesar Romero and it made all the papers. I still have no idea what Dad and The Joker were doing together, but there they are forever together in print.)

I went to the studio that evening not really knowing what to expect. I had no skills or experience. I didn’t know anyone, BUT I was smart enough to keep my eyes open and see what I could do. For the most part I ushered clowns- Bozo, Cookie, Whizzo- back and forth between the green room and the set and took messages and food between the control room and Al at the front of the stage.

As happens in 24-hour telethons there is a lot of downtime and that is when this internship really paid off. I was just starting to think about colleges and asked Al where he thought a young guy like me should go- Syracuse, Northwestern and Boston University, I still remember his answer. I also spent a lot of time with Jose (Joe) Cornejo who was the associate producer and was a regular member of WGN’s Cub broadcast team. I asked him where he went to college and he said, “Hard Knocks.”

Thinking he said Knox College I said, “In Galesburg?”

He laughed and said, “No, the school of hard knocks.”

I still didn’t get it, then finally it dawned on me. “You didn’t go to college!” I asked as if he had two heads. Nope, and lesson learned.

I must have done something right that night because Al Hall gave me his business card (the first one I ever received) and invited me out to the station. A couple of years later he gave me a letter of recommendation for college and a year after that recommended me for an internship at an NBC affiliate. Joe Cornejo invited me to the ballpark to watch a Cubs broadcast from the booth.

This one night of experience quickly went to the top of the work experience portion of my resume- pushing aside Soda Jerk, Paper Boy and Camp Counselor. Getting in the door was the first step, but knowing how to act professionally once there was the key. Had I been bored, inattentive, less curious or fallen asleep- all very real possibilities when working all night- I would have missed out on the chance that really helped define and shape my career.

The moral of the story is obvious (it’s not become drinking buddies with Cesar Romero) take every opportunity you get and make the most of it when you can.

Lesson Learned.

-Peter Hawley

 Chicago’s first digital media arts college introduces two-year immersive courses in 3D game development, visual effects and animation with SOFTIMAGE|XSI 3D software

Click here to read article on SoftImage.com. 

Montréal, Québec – October 15, 2007 –Softimage Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc., today announced that the new education institution, Flashpoint, The Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, is offering SOFTIMAGE®|XSI® training as part of its digital arts curriculum. Flashpoint Academy, the first digital arts college to open inside Chicago’s prestigious “Loop” in 40 years, provides a hands-on, collaborative approach for students embarking on a career in digital media arts, where 3D training is an essential course requirement for a large portion of the students. 

“Our primary objective at Flashpoint Academy is to train students to harness their artistic ability, and to learn to observe the world around them, in order to become better animators, visual effects artists and story tellers using 3D tools like SOFTIMAGE|XSI software,” said Perry Harovas, Chair, Visual Effects and Animation Department at Flashpoint Academy. “With the growing demand for skilled 3D artists—now is an excellent time for anyone to come to Flashpoint Academy and embark on a career they will love, and one that will challenge and reward them every day,” added Harovas.

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Despite creating the biggest single-day entertainment release of all time, game developers continue to get a bad rap.

I’ve noticed that many people characterize game developers as lazy, socially incompetent basement-dwelling underachievers. Sure, there’s a segment of our community that certainly might qualify for this great description. But to routinely build entertainment experiences that last ten to sixty hours or more, it takes constant perspiration. It takes determination and skill like that which is found only in the trenches of a battlefield. Any game “playing” we do is measured and desperate, as the industry and market can run over us like a freight train if we miss out on what happens to be going on around us.

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FLASHPOINT TAKES DIGITAL MEDIA ARTS EDUCATION TO ANOTHER PLANE AND GC PRO IS A KEY PARTNER IN PUTTING THE SCHOOL AT THE CUTTING EDGE

— As a GC Pro Education Partner, Flashpoint students receive great discounts and sound advice —

AES SHOW, NEW YORK, OCTOBER 5, 2007 – When it opened in September, Flashpoint, The Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, set out to change the way media technology is taught and learned. The school’s four main areas of study which include Game Development, Visual Effects and Animation, Film, and Recording Arts, literally converge rather than exist separately from each other. In order to remain focused on that goal, Flashpoint turned to GC Pro, the outside sales division of Guitar Center, to equip much of the school’s Recording Arts program. Through GC Pro, Flashpoint acquired a vast array of technology platforms and equipment from brands including Digidesign, Shure, Neumann, Sennheiser, Apple, Argosy, Tascam and Soundelux. The comprehensiveness with which Flashpoint accomplished outfitting its audio needs underscores the benefit of working with GC Pro, which has the largest range of professional audio gear under a single roof anywhere in the world.

Flashpoint was designed to be different from the start, and it would be the first new higher-education facility in the Chicago area in nearly 50 years. “Traditional schools that have digital media arts studies break them into separate departments that, because of politics or bureaucracy or just antiquated teaching philosophies, don’t communicate with each other,” explains John Murray, Chair, Recording Arts, at Flashpoint. “What our approach is based on is collaboration and workflow – the way the real world works. Today, when a major film is released, there is often a computer game version of it and a soundtrack released at the same time. The world is no longer linear, and neither should education be.”

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Drums were recorded for Digital Audio Workstation I at Flashpoint:

Kick – 421 with a Chandler LTD 1 Mic Pre/Eq
Snare – 57 with a Chandler LTD 1 Mic Pre/Eq
Toms – 421’s with Api 512 Pre’s/Avedis Eq’s
Over Heads – Sound Deluxe 95’s with Wunder Mic Pre’s/Eq’s

Friday, September 28th, Michael Santucci spoke to the Recording Arts Program at Flashpoint about hearing conservation and preservation.

Michael inspected my ears – turns out my left ear is perfect, my right ear had wax buildup over the ear drum! I immediately took care of this issue.

Michael Santucci (M.S., F-AAA) is the founder and president of Sensaphonics Hearing Conservation Inc., based in Chicago, Illinois. As a fully credentialed audiologist and ardent music lover, Michael has made it his life’s work to help preserve the sense of hearing for those whose professions involve exposure to high sound pressure levels.

As president of Sensaphonics, Michael provides audiological consultation and customized earphones to many of today’s top music performers. His articles on hearing health have been published in over 40 periodicals and he has been featured in Crain’s Chicago Business, the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, and a wide variety of music industry publications. As an advocate for hearing conservation, Michael has been featured on a variety of electronic media as well, both in Chicago and nationally.
Also George Luif was introduced to the Recording Arts student body.  George is Flashpoint’s Audio Technician and Acoustic Designer.  He will be teaching the “Science of Acoustics” and “Trouble Shooting and Studio Maintenance” courses for the Recording Arts program.
 

Not a long post today, but just wanted to log the feelings
I think a lot of us felt today as we kicked off
the start of something magical.

Magical, not in the way we teach (although
I’d like to think the students think the experience is magical),
but in the way it will change
the way media arts education is taught from here on out.
When something as groundbreaking and impactful
as Flashpoint comes to a field as important
and fast-paced as the media arts,
the effect upon the way it’s taught from this
point forward will change as if it was done
with a snap of the fingers, leaving no doubt
in anyone’s mind that it is the best way to teach this.

I felt the awe and wonder in some of my students that I recognized
as feelings I felt when I first started working in the industry (but
NEVER felt when I was in school). I am so happy that they are
able to have that experience even before they enter the fields of
their choice. It’s that excitement, that sense of wonder, of, yes, MAGIC,
that will have to carry them through the hard 2 years that lay ahead of them.

I have no doubt that it will be enough. More than enough.
The way I felt today, and the looks I saw on their faces,
were proof positive that this journey
we are teaching them how to take,
will be one that they will
never forget and will serve them
for the rest of their professional lives.

Congrats to our students on their first day!

All of us at Flashpoint are so excited to be helping to teach them to be
the artists they want to be, and in doing so, they are helping us to be
the type of teachers we want to be
(and the type we always wished we would have had).