The Big Meeting
Wherein our narrator is introduced to the cast of
characters, and gets to ask his host, "What do you really want?"
Today was a good day; I feel as though something
was really accomplished. In the morning I met with the lecturers from the
Screenwriting program. Peter thought they were a bit standoffish at first,
though I didn't really sense any antagonism. He though that they might be the
most threatened by the move toward interactivity - whereas I do believe that
writers have the most to gain - in work, in visibility, in ability to translate
their ideas into realized content. Anyway, being a writer myself, I have a
natural affinity for other writers (take a look at my friends) and we had a fine
conversation, peppered with some interesting ideas, one that's such a novel
idea, I wonder that no one's thought of it before. (I can't really delve into
details as that would be a breach of confidentiality.
Sorry.)
I took Peter to lunch, so I
could sit him down in our "cone of silence" and have a real chat. "What do you
want out of all of this?" I think it's important to ask because he's been
moving so fast on so many tracks I don't know that he's seriously though it out.
Or rather, hasn't thought about it lately. Good to remind folks that they do
have first principles when they're in the midst of executing them. He gives me
some details at first, so I continue to press him. Finally, he comes down to
it: "I want a place where the students can continue to explore and be creative,
without a lot of the constraints they'd encounter in the other (and more
established) programs." OK, that's a good starting point. Now we just have to
figure out how to get him there from
here.
Finally we sat down for the BIG
meeting, with folks from most of the departments (no Radio or Directing or
Cinematography, but those will be handled on an individual basis further along).
Peter and I had established some baselines and a timeline during our lunch
meeting, and what I witnessed at that point was an enormous creative outburst
from the collected folks. Lots of ideas, lots of things to see and learn. In
some sense, I'll be helping to educate the educators. In order to do that,
every other week we'll have some serious talent come to the school at lunchtime
and show & tell. Next week we'll be covering video gaming (PS2 and MMPORG,
I hope) and perhaps some really nice Flash animations, to show folks how good
the very best Flash is. Flash is actually being used as a motion graphics
format - for professional-grade work, which is proof that the street finds its
own use for things, which sometimes its makers never intended. Meanwhile, on
the alternate weeks, we'll meet as a group with invited guests to pick their
brains on a more private scale about what kinds of things we should be teaching
to get these graduates jobs in the
industry.
It's so much ground to cover,
in so little time; at this end of this, I could probably write a book on
educating for interactive. Might not be a bad idea, either. But one thing at a
time. The meeting broke up and we all went our separate ways. I think Peter
and Tanya (his assistant, who has been wonderfully helpful) are really getting a
sense of the amount of work they've signed up for. I hope we can all handle
it.
Ah, Central Station
beckons.
Posted: Thu - October 16, 2003 at 04:38 PM