The End

Craig Church
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I write this sitting in the Angwin apartment that'll be my home for the next few months. Using what I'm sure are your very powerful skill of logic, you can deduce that my time at DreamWorks has come to a close and that I've successfully made my pilgrimage back north to finish school in order that I can eventually do what I've been doing for a living.

As this is my last post in the blog, I'll treat you to the following closing essay required by Pacific Union College in order to complete the internship class:
I'm told the best thing one can learn during an internship is whether or not your dream job is really, truly your dream job. If that's true, mission accomplished (in the non-George Bush meaning of the term). If there's one thing for certain, I know exactly what I want out of my career. I've met and worked side by side with the best in the business, been exposed to every side of professional animation, and loved every single minute of it.

The drive south to LA was one of the most terrifying things I've brought myself to do in my entire life. This really wasn't due to the fact that I'd be hundreds of miles away from the familiarity and comfort of the places and people I love so much (though that had something do with it), but rather the fear that I simply wasn't good enough to do what I've dreamt of doing since I graduated from diapers. I'd never had this kind of chance to take a dive into the deep end and see if I could tred the water. Visions of various horrible failures kept swimming through my head as the miles passed by (one of the drawbacks of an overactive imagination), all of which saw me returning hat in hand, tail between my legs, and my time, money, and education all for not.

Then again, I've always underestimated myself.

The drive back was nearly the opposite of the trip down. Not only had I received some of the best education I've ever had, I had the unanimous approval of all three of my supervisors as one of the best interns they'd ever had, and a plethora of encouraging notes from the people I worked with who I can now sincerely call good friends. I try to not stroke my ego that often, but I see no harm in taking pride in a job well done - especially when I put so much blood, sweat, and tears into it (oh yes, there was blood - thanks to the magic of paper cuts). While the drive south was all about my fear of failure, the drive north was filled with hope and confidence for the heights I not only think, but believe, my career can go.

I spent close to four months working with and watching the men and women who currently have my dream career. From the story artists to the writers and directors, I got to see how they work and what it takes to operate on their level - and I have what it takes. 

It's more than that, though.

To say that DreamWorks is a family would be an understatement. I was surprised to not find what I expected to be a very "I" centered community where the kind of competition, selfishness, and backstabbing you read about runs rampant. On the contrary, it was one of the most refreshing team atmospheres I've ever encountered. Whenever mistakes were made, it was never "Your or his mistake," it was "Ourmistake." Likewise, when successes came around, everyone celebrates together. The level of collaboration was unlike anything I've experienced in filmmaking, and according to Jeffery Katzenberg one that only exists in the world of animation. Everyone is very open about the problems they're having with certain assignments and is always ready for suggestions and critiques from their co-workers, and everyone is always so excited when someone pulls off something incredible. Everyone works together to make the best movie possible, and never lets ego interfere with that. When you think about the level of talent that such a major studio like DreamWorks attracts, that's a major accomplishment. That's the kind of community of artists I want to work with, and nothing else I've read about or seen can compare.

Simply put, I've seen and experienced exactly the type of career I want in the type of place I want to grow it in. I know what it takes to make that happen, and what I need to work on in order to actually have what it takes. Not everyone can say they know those things, and for that I consider myself quite fortunate. Then again, pursing a career path that allows to get paid to do what you love is never easy. It's exciting and challenging at the same time, which, after all, is what makes life interesting and fun.
To close, I thought it'd be fun to end with a few highlights that took place between my last entry and this one, as well as PHOTOS!! Yes, finally photographic evidence that I actually did the things I've written about. Sort of. Shut up.

* Got to meet and talk with Jeffery Katzenberg. Chill guy, but very straight forward. He's not worried about your feelings, and will answer questions point blank with his honest opinion. While some of his meetings that can make him come across as harsh, but it's always nice to know you're getting the truth. Anyway, got to ask him questions like what he looks for in a pitch, how the economy has effected Hollywood and the animation industry in general, as well as his now-famous 3D crusade.

* Monsters vs. Aliens rocked the worldwide box office, bringing in over $325 million at the posting of this entry. Thanks to everyone who saw it. There was a big party at the studio when the flick opened, complete with costumed characters, frisbee golf, and a lunch of McDonald's happy meals. What other job does this?

* The film I worked on, How to Train Your Dragon, has been coming along quite well. It opens the end of March 2010, so make plans now to see it. I'll be asking each and every one of you if you have, so be ready to say "yes." If you aren't able to truthfully say "yes," prepare to lie. If you aren't able to lie, convert to Catholicism and book a confession. If you aren't able to convert, well, invest in some urban camo for when I'm in your vicinity. Keep tabs on the film at the movie's newly launched website.

(Yes, the site will improve as the release date nears. Calm down).

PICTURES

From left to right: Scott Sakamoto (Story Coordinator), David Joyner (Story Production Supervisor), me, Jabari Phillips (Script Coordinator)

Prepping for a voice recording session at LA Studios

Larissa and I at the studio gate

The lagoon in which many lunches were had.

The main courtyard

Not much, I know. But it's something, right? Anyway, thanks to everyone who's cared enough to follow my adventures. You're cool for doing so.

So, yeah. That's it. The end.

Bye.













No, seriously.

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#8 - An Actual Update

Craig Church
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Find a 3D theater next weekend to catch 'Monsters vs. Aliens' and you too can look as mentally handicapped as these two winners here. In all actuality, the new 3D is pretty cool looking. Seriously.

Once again, I get to start a post by apologizing for the lack of updating. For all of you out there who still check the blog - in vain - I salute your patience.

Things have been either very busy or very laid back the past couple of weeks. The routine at the studio has become comfortable. I no longer feel like the deer in headlights I was when I first started, and am feeling more and more competent each day. My supervisor in Modeling and Surfacing lost his coordinator last week, and so he's been calling upon his intern (hint: me) to jump in and hold the fort until he can steal away someone from another department or show. The level of personnel piracy around the studio amuses me. The needs ebb and flow as different shows reach different stages in their productions, so it's not uncommon for a single employee to have dipped his hand in the sweet honey pot that is film credit of most films we crank out.

The aforementioned "laid back" portions of the past couple weeks haven't come on studio time, but rather during the weekends in between. I enjoyed a birthday weekend in the magical kingdom (well, that was just one day... I really wouldn't consider the rest of LA to be all that magical*) with two of my favorite ladies, followed a couple weeks later by a fantastic visit to Angwin for a brief 'hello' with friends and other delinquents.

Any spare seconds I've been fortunate to have during this time has been devoted to working more at honing my skills in my quest to someday become a story artist. Perhaps towards the end of my time here I'll get brave enough to share some of the work I've been drawing up. No promises, though.

It's hard to believe there's only a month left down here. The part of me excited for and loving this experience is stunned at how fast it's gone. The part of me under the intense pain of being away from the familiar and loved ones (well, one loved one in particular) has me counting down the minutes.

Anyway, if it isn't completely apparent, there's very little I can be talking about here. I keep trying to think of ways to entertain and make reading this blog interesting, but alas telling you anything remotely interesting would probably result in something terrible happening to me (which, ironically, would probably be pretty interesting).

This coming weekend holds a couple fun highlights, one of which being the premiere of Monsters vs. Aliens on Sunday. For all of you PUC readers, I urge you to visit the Cameo Cinema in St. Helena, where the flick will be playing in 3D for two weeks beginning the film's opening day (March 27). Check that out: two shameless plugs for my employers in one. Hot. The other actually comes before that, with a special resume/interview workshop for interns put on my the studio's recruiters. I'm excited for the opportunity to fine tune my portfolio and resume, you know, just in case I decide to take a stab at some other major animation studio that isn't in LA... just sayin'...

Some exciting things are in the works for next week, so I'll do my best to tell everything I can without enticing certain doom upon myself.



*unless you think traffic is magical, in which case LA should avoid witch trials and/or Bono's eyeliner:

Let's see if he weighs less than a duck.

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#7 - Hugh Jackman is far more talented than me.

Craig Church
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Behold the heart-warming cuteness crushing the hopes and dreams of violent pandas everywhere.

So the Oscars happened. While Kung Fu Panda met the expectations of most (failure) last night, it was nice to see Pixar add another deserved golden boy to their roster. It's seriously reaching the point where that studio should just melt all their statuettes together and form a super Oscar that can be seen from space. But all golden nakedness aside, KFP was still one of DreamWorks' best, and it's sad to know that out of all the studios who put so much work and love into their films only one can dance with Hugh Jackman.

Oh, and who could forget this:



Screw Sean Penn, the best actor of the night was Jeffery Katzenberg at :30. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAJackBlackisadeadman... *cough* what, honey? Oh, yes, the joke was very funny, which was totally why I was laughing."

Actually, I found the joke quite entertaining and bit too accurate.

In news not involving Jack Black in a back alley dumpster, things continue to go smoothly at the studio. I enjoyed a wonderful Valentine's/President's Day (Valendent's?) up north, getting to see most of the people cool enough to be bribed into friendship. To those I missed, I WILL BE BACK sometime, perhaps, IN THE FUTURE.

I've been able to meet with my supervisors for one-on-one Q&A sessions, and have been getting some awesome advice at how to totally get a job with such a fancy outfit as a major studio (I've heard this thing called "talent" can help one bypass the casting couch altogether). Not to mention I've been getting exposed to what these high-ranking dudes do on the producing side of things, which is always very interesting because I enjoy knowledge. This week, despite flying at breakneck speed, I get to begin meeting with story artist on the production, which is awesome as that's the job I'd love to start my career off with. More on how that goes in future posts.

Excitement is also brewing at the prospect of dual birthday visits from both the mother and the girlfriend, who, despite all my grey hair and ape-like habits love me anyway.

As always, I offer the empty promise of more frequent updates. I'm touched by how many of you are reading this thing, despite the lack of comment ability and the fact that I've become even more terrible at returning calls and e-mail (if that's even possible). As for all of you saying you read my posts but harbor the secret that you're just saying it, I have a secret, too. *












*You were adopted.

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#6 - Man-ing Up

Craig Church
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Like Mr. T, I fear not the asking of special privileges from my supervisor. I pity the fool who does.

The past couple days have been good. I've been able to really see how the voice recording of actors goes down, as well as being a part of the immense preparation that goes into each and every session. It's a lot fun when the actors riff off of each other. While most of that material isn't used, the results (especially when you have Apatow Troupe and SNL members in your cast) can keep you laughing to yourself all day.* During bits of down time, my office mate and I like to pull up his reference videos and watch the hilarity. Why stuff like this isn't added to DVD bonus features is beyond me.

The really exciting thing that transpired lately came when I decided to ask my supervisor about scheduling meetings with various heads, sups, and leads around in the department to talk with them about their jobs and any tips they might have for a young up-and-comer like me. We're in a crazy crunch time right now, and taking time to spend with an intern is a pretty big favor to ask as the people I wanted to speak with have precious few minutes to spare. But I finally manned up and decided that there was no harm in asking. The response was overwhelmingly positive. My supervisor seemed very excited about my interest in meeting with people one-on-one and immediately started giving suggestions of the best people to talk to. He told me that when anyone who works here would be more than happy to mentor me - all I have to do is be willing to ask. He'll be working with me to book times with the Head of Story, a few of the best story artists in the studio, and various heads of other departments (at my request - I want as much knowledge of this process these guys will give me) as early as next week. I'm not only going to be able to talk with these people about the pros and cons of their positions, but also ask what they did to get where they are, how they do what they do, and have them critique my own work on some of my past projects. The thought of amazing professionals giving me tips on how to improve excites me beyond all reason. I've been glowing all day (more than usual - if I glow any more I should work for the Hallmark channel). Who better to learn from than the literal best of the people doing exactly what you want to do?

Tomorrow we have department mixer with all the other Dragon departments, which should enable me to meet even more of the people around here. It seems DreamWorks is never short on fun events like this that keep the studio connected socially. They're even planning a Rock Band competition between the Dragon and Shrek 4 crews. It's nice, especially for nervous, shy interns like myself.

It's hard to believe that before long I'll have been here a month already. While my time here has, in some spots, been painfully slow (i.e. being away from friends, family, and the girlfriend), I'm still not over the blissful, surreal feeling of waking up in the morning and driving to the DreamWorks campus.

*Which, as I found out, is a decent way of making people around you uncomfortable.

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#5 - I Have In Fact Not Fallen Off the Face of the Planet

Craig Church
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See bottom of post for related geeking out.


I've been pretty apathetic blog-wise lately, and for the few of you who read this regularly I'll try and get better.

The past week was interesting in the way that I finally felt as if I was falling into a routine. I've been waiting for that to happen so I could begin to tell if the studio environment was, truly, everything I wanted it to be. However, it's pretty hard to dislike the daily routine of living the dream you've had since you graduated from diapers. I'm continually amazed by the level of talent that I get to see on an active, daily level here. On the occasions when my supervisors invite me into meetings, I get to see the level of detail and work that goes into every single shot. It kind of makes me sad knowing all the blood, sweat, and tears that went into animated films that sucked (I'm looking at you, Beowulf). While I can't give any specifics as what exactly is discussed in the meetings I've attended, I can say that it isn't uncommon for these artists to spend hours trying to figure out the best way a character's eyebrows can express something.

The other week also saw the beginning of special intern programming for myself and the other people assigned to other various shows at DreamWorks. The studio has put together a great series of meetings just for us - two of them a week - that allow us to meet and have Q&A time with heads from every department in the animation process. It allows us to understand exactly what goes on from start to finish, which is very cool. This week was Story (my department) and Editorial. I have to admit that I thought I knew the animation process down cold. I also have to admit that I can sometimes be an idiot. The volume of work required by these departments is vastly more than that of a live-action film. For example, one of the storyboard artists I was able to talk to had come from live-action (he had worked on films like Spider-Man), where he would draw up storyboards for a scene the night before it was shot and everything would be cool. That doesn't happen in animation. He revealed the average story artist spends a week or so on a scene, with the director popping in and out every so often to approve things or request changes. Then it's sent down to editorial where it's assembled in real-time with scratch audio, music, and voice acting to see if it works. Even if it does, in fact, work, there are always revisions and clean-ups needed, as a lot of times the clips are shown to test audiences (and, of course, executives). And that's without any script revisions. So much effort goes into creating the final shots that appear in theaters that only story panels that are fully approved and perfect get sent to animation.

This week is all about prepping for voice-acting sessions with the stars of the film. All last week I worked with the script coordinator to prep all the sides for the actors to use during the recordings in New York and here in LA. It's quite amazing, we have the technology here at the studio to turn a wall into a screen that projects the room in New York where the actors and directors are. It's basically like looking through a big window, where you can talk back and forth in real time. It enables the team here in LA to help with anything needed on the other side of the country - it's only an e-mail or a fax away. Not to mention that Gerard Butler, America Ferrera, and Jay Baruchel don't have to perform in a room full of executives. They just get to have the quiet thought in the back of their minds that they're being watched 1984-style.

Also, if you guys have a chance to check out Coraline, do so ASAP. In my book it's one of the greatest animated films of the past decade. Pure awesome. I'd love to hear what you guys think of it and publicly ridicule anyone who speaks ill of it.

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#4 - Round Two

Craig Church
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An Annie Award voter revealing his choice for film of the year.

As predicted, it seemed everyone around the studio was buzzing about Kung Fu Panda's total domination of Pixar's Wall-E at last Friday's Annie Awards. Today's Daily Variety even bore a cover ad congratulating the studio (as well as giving a not-so-subtle nudge to Academy voters). Monday afternoon, CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg brought the entire studio outside for a few moments cake, champagne, and toasts to celebrate the recognition (calm yourselves and change your pants, my dear Adventist readers - for I did not partake in the boozing portion of the festivities). I know a lot of people are very excited, as an Annie is voted on and awarded by our peers, unlike the Academy Awards, for which most voters have no idea and therefore a solid appreciation of every element of craftsmanship that has to fall into place correctly for a great animated film to happen.

Aside from that, it was business as usual back inside Dragon HQ. I'm constantly flustered whenever I post here because so much cool stuff happens that I can't talk about. I can say, however, that I am having the opportunity to sit in and be a fly on the wall during a lot of the meetings that take place. It's a fantastic time for me to use my stunning power of observation and soak up the knowledge, in addition to the occasional slightly confused glance from people in the meeting who have no idea who I am or why I'm there. In all seriousness, though, my supervisors and others I work with have been great on exposing me to the entire process of their filmmaking whenever I have some downtime.

Not that I wasn't before, but now I'm really beginning to miss PUC. It's beginning to dawn on me that many of the people I know and love the most only have a few months left in Angwin, and I'm going to be MIA for a good chunk of them. It's thoughts like those that get me even more weepy and lonely than I already am (I'm thinking about auditioning for the next Nicholas Sparks movie). That's life, I suppose.

All hankie-inducing thoughts aside, I still really am having a great time learning down here. I'm excited to think that one day I'll hopefully be working in this kind of environment, with friends and loved ones close by when I clock out. That'd be all kinds of nice.

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#3 - Monsters vs. Pandas

Craig Church
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This past week has been quite exciting not only for me, but for the DreamWorks Animation family as well. Last night Kung Fu Panda dominated the Annie awards, sweeping every animated feature category. The Annies are animation world's own Oscars (think along the lines of the SAG or WGA awards - but for cartoonists). The 10 wins broke the record (nine) previously held by Pixar's Ratatouille. No doubt the studio will be buzzing come Monday. Save for one lone year, the film that has won the best feature Annie has gone on to win the best animated feature Oscar. 

In other news the studio's next film, Monsters vs. Aliens, has a fun promotion this Sunday. Pick up some free 3D glasses at any Safeway (or similar, less safe stores - swish) and catch a clip from the movie during halftime in all three of your favorite dimensions. While I've been able to see the film, I don't believe I'm at liberty to talk about how great it was. However, if you're a fan of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, Hugh Laurie, Keifer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson, Stephen Colbert, or animated hilarity, you owe it to yourself to at least rock the headgear and check out the preview tomorrow.

With that said, I'm sure you'd like to hear about the rest of my first week. How do I know this, you ask? The answer is simple. *

Well, the production I have the fortune of working on, How to Train Your Dragon, is in full steam right now. I've been having an exhilarating (and exhausting) time working in the Story Department. The people I work with are great, which is always nice. I really believe the story the directors have cooked up is great, and it's awesome to work in an environment where everyone is so passionate about what they're doing. It's then when work ceases to be "work." It doesn't matter how tired I am in the morning, I'm as eager and excited to get to the studio and do what I can for this movie as I was on day one.

However, having the weekend is nice. Whoever said sleep is overrated is a moron. I logged a good 12 hours last night and a 3-hour bonus this afternoon. I now find myself with quite a decent amount of energy. 

But make no mistake about it, I'm already to expend it all again come Monday.

*I am inside your house.

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