As a part of Flashpoint’s Jumpstart Speaker Series, Pixar animator Warren Trezevant visited Flashpoint to share his personal journey from his youth as a “Star Wars kid” in Oak Park, IL to one of the most renowned animation studios in the world.

Last week, guest speaker Chris Conley of Gravity Tank visited Flashpoint as a part of the Jumpstart speaker series. First year Recording Arts student Rob Levere offers his reflections in this guest blog.

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In today’s Jumpstart, we got to hear from an awe-inspiring entrepreneur, Chris Conley. He told us about his creation called “Gravity Tank.” What I took out of his presentation was his definition and the way he presented the concept of innovation.

Not only did I find what he said to be true to my beliefs, but I found it inspirational. He was talking about innovation in business and how to open up product marketing and things like that but the way I interpreted it for some reason was from a musician’s point of view, regarding musical style.

It has been a dream of mine since I was young to be a pioneer of a certain genre of music that I had a hand in designing myself, and if that’s not innovation then I don’t know what is. Chris opened up my mind and gave my thought process a field to run in, metaphorically speaking. This could apply to anyone trying to create their own business, but in the way Chris explained I was easily able to match it up with my own life.

It was really cool to hear from someone with his background and knowledge, but it was even cooler to have a presentation on originality and innovation and how to give people what they want and, in the end, get what you want. I took some really key things out of this presentation and am grateful for the knowledge bestowed upon me.

This week, Flashpoint’s Women in Media joined Broadcast Meteorologist Mary Kay Kleist for a behind the scenes look at CBS studios in Chicago. After their visit, second year Recording Arts student Elena Rubin shared her reactions.

Our tour of CBS studios with Mary Kay Kleist was an absolute blast!

Mary Kay was gracious enough to give us a comprehensive tour of the CBS floors where we had the chance to meet with anchors, producers, directors, editors and many more. Everyone was so warm and inviting and seemed genuinely interested in our career prospects and offered up meaningful words of wisdom that they have gained throughout the years in the industry.

Mary Kay finished up our tour by bringing us down to the main studio where we had the opportunity to see her and the rest of the anchor crew in action. We were all taken aback at how everyone handled their jobs with such ease .

This tour was incredibly inspiring and educational. Students from all media background (broadcast, film, recording arts, visual FX) will learn a ton from this terrific touring opportunity!

As a part of Flashpoint’s Jumpstart speaker series,  CEO Howard Tullman took time to talk with students about his history, his experience, and the things he’s learned along the way.

Dylan Morris, a first year student at Flashpoint, shares the following reactions.

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Howard’s speech for me summed up what Flashpoint is about: perseverance, dedication, work ethic, and excellence.  He began by discussing his personal history and some of the businesses he started like the Cobalt Croup, Jam TV, and tunes.com. Howard’s speech was about what one needs to be successful here at Flashpoint and in any industry one wants to make a career in,  in my case the film industry.

What Howard said one needs is a good work ethic, perseverance, and the dedication to whatever one does, whether it be a film project, video game, or writing a paper. “Be focused,” he advised; If you make a pitch and say “I have this idea, but I also have this other one,” no one will think you believe in what you’re pitching.  In a pitch, you need to believe in your project and yourself because you’re also selling yourself and your abilities.

Howard also said that you can’t let a crisis stop you; you’ve got to keep fighting!  There will always be crises, especially in the film industry. If you let the crises stop you then you will never finish the project. Never settle or, in other words, if you think you can cheat a shoot instead of doing it right, then you might as well not do it. But what Howard said that got my attention the most is you can’t control success. No one never knows if a movie will be successful (except James Cameron). What you can control is excellence. That’s what this school is about, and that’s what I am about.  If that’s what you’re about, then this is the place you can achieve excellence.

The March 2010 issue of AP Magazine called Cavashawn Chicago’s “Hometown Hero.” Via Flashpoint’s association with Grammy U, Cavashawn came into our studios for a terrific day-long workshop with both first and second year Recording Arts students. This is another wonderful example of FPA’s connection to industry professionals and regular opportunities for our students to engineer bona-fide real-world recording sessions.

Flashpoint Academy Film and VFX students combined efforts to create a short video for the American Lung Association’s Fight for Air Stair Climbs. This video will be played over 6 million times in prominent skyscrapers citywide.

About Fight For Air Climbs:

Fight for Air Climbs are unique fundraising events for the American Lung Association. They usually happen in prominent skyscrapers, stadiums or arenas and involve climbing multiple steps. Sometimes called a “vertical road race”, teams and individual participants can use the event as a fitness target, as a race, with you challenging yourself or you racing against other people, or as a great way to be active and meet new friends. American Lung Association Climbs are also a wonderful way to support someone who has lung disease or as a memorial to someone who has passed away.

Watch the video here:

Flashpoint Academy Film and VFX Departments Combine to Create Video for American Lung Association (from Howard Tullman on Vimeo).

February 7, 2010
CHICAGO NEWS COOPERATIVE

A High-Tech Alternative for Hollywood Hopefuls
By JAMES WARREN

James Warren is a columnist for the Chicago News Cooperative.

“House lights up!” proclaimed the silver-haired former lawyer who, with blue jeans, black T-shirt, black safari jacket and Nikes, looked oh-so Hollywood in an oh-so Chicago bastion, the Merchandise Mart.

As four understudies from the Second City comedy troupe entered the sound stage, they were trailed by film students climaxing three weeks of labor by taping a half-hour faux “Saturday Night Live.” It featured comedy sketches, droll pre-taped mock commercials and a live performance by Rhymefest, a hip hop artist.

The students get academic credit by handling sound, cameras, lights and the funny people, all with the help of professionals, and their polished handiwork, “Live at the Mart,” may soon be shown on NBC locally or nationally. It underscored the glitz, teamwork and market-driven pragmatism at the core of Chicago’s Flashpoint Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, one of the country’s most curious and disorienting educational institutions.

Imagine Pixar, Disney, Nintendo and Dreamworks all melded into a vocational setting. Started in 2007, this is a pricey ($25,000 a year) two-year school intended for those not motivated by high school, or brief college stays, but who are captivated by technology.
“I was bored by high school,” said Craig Reuss, 18, a red-haired, somnolent-looking first-year student from Lake Geneva, Wis., who wants to work in video games.

Focused in four areas — students can earn an associate of applied science in recording arts, visual effects and animation, game development and film — Flashpoint has drawn visits and testimonials from directors like Ken Burns, Harold Ramis and Quentin Tarantino, as well as executives from Microsoft, broadcast producers and video game development firms.

Howard Tullman, the ex-lawyer with a sleek West Coast look and air, runs the academy on a belief that too many students are “demotivated” by technology-poor four-year schools, and that the convergence of digital technologies necessitates a cross-disciplinary curriculum, mandated collaboration and faculty from high-tech industries.

A workaholic P.T. Barnum with an eclectic modern art collection that is on display throughout the hallways, Mr. Tullman is unabashedly derisive of old academia. He labels “a joke” the tradition of professors’ lecturing, and finds most university film schools a waste, producing “coffee fetchers.”

The academy has 450 students, 26 full-time faculty members and a core curriculum of basic communications skills, English and math. Students work 30 to 40 hours a week producing video games, films and animation. Microsoft and others use the school to test next-generation technology.

“This is the Julliard of digital technology,” said Lyn Niemann of Downers Grove, a former Chicago Tribune reporter and, at 45, one of the older students.

Start-up costs were $20 million, with 90,000 square feet at the main building at 28 North Clark Street, and 50,000 square feet at the Mart. Even pros are taken aback by the facilities: two large performance and broadcast stages; four sound recording studios; five 36-station computer labs for film, recording arts, animation and game development; 10 classrooms with multiple projectors and surround sound; a vast digital media storage infrastructure and a screening room also used by big-time movie productions filming in Chicago.

Amanda See, 21, an aspiring film producer from Huntley, Ill., spent a year at the University of Iowa, and then decided to go to Flashpoint. “They just couldn’t keep up with the fast pace of the industry,” she said of Iowa.

Nicholas Gerger, 21, of Barrington, spent three semesters at Harper College. “I didn’t do well and didn’t apply myself,” he said. He was entranced during a tour of Flashpoint and delighted when he got a camera and a mandate to “go out and do something” on his first day of cinematography.

Classes meet three times a week for nine weeks. Flashpoint said it placed 70 percent of its graduates — most impressive, given the economy — and it was just awarded degree-granting authority from the Illinois Board of Higher Education, a key step in the ultimate goal of formal accreditation.

Local employers lauding the academy include Josh Tsui, president of Robomodo, a Chicago video game developer who created the latest version of the popular Tony Hawk series. Bruno Cohen, general manager of WBBM-TV, finds Flashpoint inspirational. “It’s all about preparation, focus and hard work,” Mr. Cohen said.

Ultimately, the academy appears to be a welcome experiment: a vocational school not for traditional blue-collar trades but for creative tasks.

Mr. Tullman is probably too harsh in his assessment of the many inspiring professors in liberal arts lecture halls. But the market will be the final arbiter.

James Warren is a longtime Chicago journalist and the publisher of The Chicago Reader.

On Friday, January 29th, Flashpoint Academy students across multiple disciplines came together to join in a worldwide event called the “Global Game Jam 2010″ held at universities and game studios around the world (well over 1000 participants are now working in 38 countries! — these crazy people are known as “jammers”). At Flashpoint’s sound stage in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart we started a 48-hour marathon to build games according to parameters kept secret from our jammers until the launch of the event at Flashpoint at the start of their 48-hour adventure. Jammers at Flashpoint are working in teams of about ten students to build these games by 3 pm on Sunday local time.

This year the theme is “deception” and jammers must include one or more of the following in their games: a man, a plan or a canal. Key outcomes include providing an intense opportunity for jammers to collaborate and work together in “crunch mode” doing what they love doing…making games. This is not a school assignment and it is not a business-driven game studio console game effort. These jammers are the true artists of the future. This weekend will stay for them for the rest of their lives.

We have a few special guest “judges” for the end of the weekend where we will allow the teams an opportunity to present their games to the judges. Teams will be awarded recognition in different areas, but only one game will get trophies for top honors here.

I started the ball rolling at Flashpoint after we had a student team join in with the wonderful people at DePaul who graciously invited them to be a part of the experience there in January of 2009. We would have been there again this year but we had such high interest here that we had to set up our own location. After months of preparation and the efforts and dedication by a really enthusiastic team of staff and faculty…here we are, starting up day 2. I am honored to be directing our location, but I could not have done it without them — and without our really amazing students who surprise me from time to time when they finally realize that they have the potential to do anything in the world they want to do.

Flashpoint Academy continued its support of CG Society: Chicago Chapter on Friday night, hosting another well-attended workshop with a presentation by Heinz Schuller from Day 1.

Heinz presented an in-depth look at lighting for games that included:

• Heinz’ background and the background of Day 1
• Who lighting artists are, what a lighting artist needs to know, and what a lighting artist does
• Day 1’s approach to lighting from an aesthetic point of view
• Comparisons between dynamic and static lighting
• Deferred shading
• The relationship between light volumes and light complexity
• The elements within an artist’s toolbox for lighting
• Global lighting
• Local lighting
• The future of lighting for games, including radiance sampling