If you are in or around the Saskatoon area in Saskatchewan, Canada or would like to be and need some animation education, then RedHouse is the place to be. Click the link to find out more. :cool:
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Thanks Ken, we appreciate the good word.
I understand your frustration with those other schools. It was a tough start. We're just happy to have all that behind us.
Our school is artist run. The people making the decisions are animators, who are passionate about animation, and understand the realities of the industry. We don't make grand promises, we tell it like it is. And why not, it's a great industry. Not a perfect industry, but it sure beats 9 to 5 in a monkey suit.
You certianly made a great impression while you were here, I still run into old students of yours, who have nothing but praise for you. You're a talented guy, and an inspiration to a lot of people here.
Anyway, take care, and keep fighting the good fight.
-Gord
Actually, to fill me with more confidence in this school, who are the "bean counters" this time around? Just in case they turn out to be as sleazy as the last bunch, we have their names here in print so that a manhunt (or personhunt) can begin. :D
Order my book Jesus Needs Help on Amazon or download on Kindle.
You can also read the first 18 pages of my next book for free at this link: The Hap Hap Happy Happenstance of Fanny Punongtiti
Dave, we're artist run. That means we count the beans. That's why we were able to lower the tuition. We have less overhead. This also allows us to operate without a deficit. No small task for a new business. Which means we're assuming all the expense, and the risk.
It requires careful management of our resources, but in the end it allows us the autonomy to develop the program our way. And since we're very familiar with the industry, we can make the best use of our capitol, by distributing it where it will do the most good.
In the end, students win because they get a better program, and we win because we have the freedom to build a school that has a solid connection to the industry. No middlemen.
-Gord
Animation schools in Saskatchewan???
Oh no!!! NOT AGAIN!!!!!
Someone help me, I'm channelling Johnathan Harris!!
The PAIN!!! The PAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
--Ken
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
:D :D
Well, this one promises to be 97% corruption free. All sleaze-bags must leave their second face at the door. :p
Who's Jonathan Harris? Was he the little blond kid on Who's the Boss? :confused:
Order my book Jesus Needs Help on Amazon or download on Kindle.
You can also read the first 18 pages of my next book for free at this link: The Hap Hap Happy Happenstance of Fanny Punongtiti
He was Dr. Zachariah Smith..............on the original Lost in Space.
To be candid and blunt, I'm not sure another school in Saskatchewan is such a bright idea.
The............ahem, "other" players in the school game in that province have a collective reputation of being idiots. Its pretty clear when they say they "want to look at 2D programs for another 6 months" or claim instructors and programs as being on their roster when they've signed and secured neither.
This new venture........by these familliar faces ( not the crowd mentioned above) might have the means to turn that around, but.............
I have a rant on the tips of my fingers, but this isn't the thread for it...........yet.
--Ken
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
Well, right now they're just getting started.
Check back in about a year and see if you have anything to rant about then.
Order my book Jesus Needs Help on Amazon or download on Kindle.
You can also read the first 18 pages of my next book for free at this link: The Hap Hap Happy Happenstance of Fanny Punongtiti
Hey Ken, it's Jordie Doubt, from the last class before you took off from V.F.S.
sounds like it didn't work out......
wish I brought a photocopy of your bible to Switzerland.
Hi Jordie--
Yea, it kinda went..............oh, think of a noisy rude. flatulent sound effect--that'd describe it pretty good.
The school that was there before this Redhouse was...............well its was horribly mismanaged. I suffered...............well, just about everyone else suffered and it closed its doors for good almost a year to the day I arrived there.
Redhouse is a different entity, but with some of the same instructors as the previous place--though, I understand, none of the same money people.
My "complaint" doesn't come from that, it comes from the environment in that province, one which seems to be chronically wishy-washy towards the animation industry. its to be expected in a agri-industry based economy, but still ..........one could hope there'd be some investors with a bit of vision and some other support.
Time might still tell, but personally, I don't hold out any hope.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
Well, SK isn't all wheat fields and unpaved small towns. (Some fields grow canola now :rolleyes: ).
But, there is a budding film industry here. There's a big sound stage in Regina that has been used for some Hollywood products.
But, yeah, because it's so new, there are people here that will have a hard time understanding it at all. But hey, there was a time when Vancouver never had any film indusrty and look at it now. I believe the affectionate nickname is "Hollywood North". Give SK time, they'll come around eventually. And, hopefully, in that time they won't ***k around with Redhouse. I'm sure James and Gord STILL can't sit down from the "Deliverance" treatment they got at the two previous attempts. :mad:
Order my book Jesus Needs Help on Amazon or download on Kindle.
You can also read the first 18 pages of my next book for free at this link: The Hap Hap Happy Happenstance of Fanny Punongtiti
Hi, if Ken won't rant, then I would like to...a little.
Animation is not looking as bright as it did after Lion King when several new feature studios opened for business and needed experienced character animators, resulting in high wages and great jobs. Many animation schools opened up. Some by people with no understanding of the industry as a way to earn a profit, as you might open up a shoe store or cleaning service at a time when the need for shoes or cleaning was high.
The industry is not the same now. Although there is work out there for a few, the industry is very competitive, without unions, with little full time, salaried work and with no guarantee that your services will be needed ten months from now. It will all come down to how good you are, how fast you are how determined you are to succeed and how open you are to relocating to wherever the work is (which could be India or China).
If a school, private or public could actually tell students this, in their marketing material and in person when the students arrive for the tour as well as on their first day of classes, then I would wish them luck and success.
Students usually enter programs with no real idea what it's like out there and it's the school's responsibility to tell them. Instead, I see schools still painting a wonderful picture of great jobs at big studios and talking about "the grad who's pulling in six figures". Sure, we have grads at EA and Maineframe, but not everyone gets those jobs.
The information sessions at Capilano are actually kind of depressing and you see a lot of shocked parents. But it's like testing spaghetti to see if it's done: whatever sticks to the wall is ready. My instructor told me that in 1980 that there was no work in Vancouver and even if there was it wouldn't pay anything...and I didn't care. I just had to learn how to animate. That kind of "I don't care what you say....I'm doing this and I'm going to succeed!" kind of determination was a skill I needed for many stages of my career.
Okay, my rant has started to ramble.
So is that new school in Saskatchewan going to tell it like it is, hire the best people they can (and pay them appropriatley) to go to Moosejaw or Saskatoon and build an industry or just sweet talk so many students into paying a lot of money for homemade curriculum taught by people who can't find work themselves?
http://www.gradshow.com/gallery.html
Heheh, Don, my rant isn't a "won't"........its just waiting for "when".
I went to Saskatoon to do what I helped do in Vancouver back in 1985--which is help "start" the industry.
I was a young pup back then and started at Delaney and friends--which aside from Rocket-ship, Malchom Collet's shop and Al Sens was about all that was happening. Graphiteman was around back then too--he and I go that far back.
Folks that started at a lot of those places veered/spun off into a lot of their own shops. Barry and Delna into Bardel, Chris Bartleman and Blair Peters into Studio B, Danny Antonnuci off on his own at AKA, etc, etc......and it attracted other names and faces from back east, down south and so on.
Soon we had a lot of folks with good credentials under their belts here. Steve Evangelatos, Bob Jaques?Kelly Armstrong/ The guys at Atomic cartoons, the list exapnded exponentially.
Now what dragged those folks here? Spot jobs on projects offered by shops like Delaney and Friends and early, early Bardel, and Studio B when they were on Water street--that's all be around the late 80's and early to mid 90's--and those talents saw what the city and climate was like. more than a few made their homes here, and many still do. That pretty much all those jobs went....reasonably well spke that alot of those faces turned up time and again. Money was good too--for the most part.
Saskatoon.............had that chance, IMO. When I was there, it was the second go around--for the most part, and i saw, firsthand the utter dicklesh*ts that run some of the other schools there.
Its not so much that NONE of these places can legitimately claim they can place a student in industry--one that the school isn't running itself--they outright LIE about the resources they offer to their prospective students.
One ................um............."esteemed institute" "hired" me--put a contract in front of me that I did NOT sign and they proceeded to advertise that I was on board. Ludicrous stuff--and they were shameless about it.
What these other schools have told their stuents, parents and government are LIES--pure BS.
My impression is that these nitwits might have been running profitable schools, but they were nincompoops when it came to the animation industry.
Now, to Redhouse's credit, they've got a core of 3 good instructors--folks that know what they are doing in terms of the teaching material.
But three good instructors out of the whole province...................its gonna be a looooooooooooooong time brewing up more talent to add to that.
Hell, the prairie winters alone scare off most people.
I cannot help but notice that quite a few "schools" in the Vancouver area also offer "animation" curriculum--like you I have to wonder out loud just who the hell is teaching at these places because i know quite a few names in town and not a lot of them teach. those that do are at cap College, VFS or AI--soooooooooo who are at these other schools?
Mystery for the ages...........I guess.
Damn, got a rant of me anyway.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
Right on, Ken.
I was there when it started in Vancouver too, but not for long. Marv and Al...that was about it for the local industry. In '84, Chris Delaney came to our grad show and said to stick around, but I had seen that business with Mouse Hockey League and figured there must be greener pastures somewhere else and headed east to work on the Raccoons (and became friends with Graphiteman there before he moved to Vancouver!). Then Europe for a couple years, back to Ottawa and then a chance to help set up Algonquin College as the second full time instructor. Four years of that was a good apprenticeship and when I got the chance to set up the first community college program in Vancouver I did everything I could to win the job!
Searched and found the Redhouse College website. It doesn't look too bad and I know James from my few weeks on Werner II at Natterjack. The tuition is reasonable too for a private school. Good luck to them.
http://www.gradshow.com/gallery.html