In addition to Advanced Storyboarding, I am taking two other classes this semester at the Academy of Art University. One is essentially a one-on-one class with Sherrie Sinclair (the amazing and inspiring Director of the 2D Animation department) and the other is Storyboarding and Animatics, which is actually a class from the School of Game Design. I'm working on my thesis projects in Sherrie's class and I'm working on my first heart attack in the Gaming class. Never have I been so frustrated with a class! It's truly an intro to storyboarding class filled with five other students that are all gamers and want to create concept designs. One of them actually said last week that he doesn't see the value/connection in doing storyboards if he's a concept designer! [*raise blood pressure here*] Ever hear of story? Or character? What about composition?? It's all there in one package!!
Anyway, while I certainly don't mind refreshing myself on the basics of what I plan on doing the rest of my life, the teacher is mind-numbingly uninspiring. Can he draw? Yes, he's shown us his own concept design work, and he's beyond capable of drawing. But should he be teaching a storyboarding class? While he did show us some really neat layout work that he did for FernGully 2 (which is more than I can say for my actual Layout instructor), he has been in China for the past three and a half years and is clearly teaching this class for the first time. So his "teaching" method is to read through (and I do literally mean READ through) the online modules of the class. [*raise blood pressure some more, here*] It makes storyboarding seem incredibly bland, and I can truly imagine where the other students are coming from when they say they don't see the importance of boarding.
So what I'm learning most in this class is the importance of knowing and understanding what you teach. Perhaps I was spoiled last semester with my storyboarding class taught by DreamWorks story artists, but story is just far too important to myself and to the creation of great movies, television shows, graphic novels, and yes, even video games to be treated so unjustly! I would expect (and indeed, actually took) this kind of class in an undergraduate program, but Masters degree students deserve more.
...so yeah, that's part of what I plan on writing in my review for the class. Meanwhile, our first week assignment was to pick a scene from a movie/TV show and deconstruct the shots in board form. I chose this scene from my favorite drama, Breaking Bad! (WATCH THIS SHOW!!!)
