The walls are covered with character stills, fliers and movie
posters. Large wooden drawing desks dating back to the 1930s border
the large classroom in Melnitz Hall; sprawled in the middle are
more tables, splotted in every known color of paint. The wooden
desks were, once upon a time, where the Walt Disney magic happened
in its early days, and now it’s where the magic happens for
the UCLA Animation Workshop in the UCLA School of Theater, Film and
Television ““ home to a long string of successful leading
animators, animation production heads and animation professors,
among others.
Two recent alumni who can now be added to that already long list
are 2005 graduate Shane Acker and 2002 graduate Gil Kenan.
Acker’s senior-thesis film “9” went on to win
both the Student Television Academy Award for Best Student Film and
Motion Picture Student Academy Award, and will vie for Best
Animated Short at the Academy Awards this Sunday. Acker has also
struck a deal with Focus Features to direct a feature-length
version of “9” with the backing of Tim Burton.
Kenan, on the other hand, is prepping for Sony’s summer
release of his feature animated film “Monster House,”
backed by Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis; the film shares
many aspects with his UCLA award-winning student film “The
Lark.”
The UCLA Animation Workshop was established in 1947 by Bill
Shull, a former Disney animator, and founded on Shull’s
philosophy of “one person, one film,” where one student
is solely responsible for every aspect of their film, from the
opening shot to the closing credits. The program is still based
firmly on that philosophy today.
“The purpose of “˜one person, one film’ … is
so that you can put your personal vision on film,” workshop
chairman Professor Dan McLaughlin said. “They take away their
personal view of animation, what it can achieve, their love for it,
and what they want to do in animation. They also know the process
of making an entire animated film.”
Acker credited the “one person, one film” approach
as a major factor in the workshop’s success.
“That philosophy has really prepared me because now I know
all of the aspects and possibilities,” Acker said.
“It’s more about training you as a filmmaker, not just
an animator. It’s up to you to choose your
direction.”
Kenan emphasized the approach’s flexibility. “What
makes school so great is that it is an individual effort,” he
said. “What fails and succeeds is totally on you. At every
other program, there is a very rigid program but (at UCLA) there
was a lot of room for experimentation. The reason I went there was
that I knew I would really be able to find my own voice in
Dan’s program.”
The three-part undergraduate courses teach basic animation
skills, storyboards and production skills, while the graduate
program covers everything from the basic principles of traditional
animation to the ins and outs of computer animation.
“We train people so they can have their own studio,”
McLaughlin said. “We don’t train people for the first
job they have, but for the last job they have. The purpose of all
animation programs is to learn by doing. All (the classes) are
production-oriented.”
The supportive atmosphere created by staff and fellow students
is vital.
“Faculty resources allowed me to do what I did; I
couldn’t have without their support,” Acker added.
“The greatest strength (of the workshop) is your peers. You
lean on each other a lot for feedback and criticism. It creates an
interesting environment to learn and grow together.”
Now that both are deep in work within the industry, they are
prepared to learn a few new lessons, one of which is the ability to
communicate with the team involved with the film.
“It’s still you and a story. The difference is now
there are 100 people working to make it happen; it’s a
process of learning to work with others and keep your
vision,” Kenan said.
The only major problem in the UCLA Animation Workshop, according
to McLaughlin, is the number of students who are able to find
full-time work quickly and thus leave the program before earning
their degree.
Acker, for example, left for Australia in the middle of his work
at UCLA to work on animation for the “Lord of the
Rings” films. Fortunately for him, he felt compelled to
return.
“I really believed in the film that I was making
(“˜9′). I had a feeling this film would open a lot of
doors for me,” he said. “I remember (animation
director) Mark Anderson lectured saying, “˜You’re never
going to have this opportunity to tell your own story again.’
I tried to take that to heart as much as I could.”