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Published: January 21st 2005
Back from my 4th day at Gobelins, my 5th in Paris. I'm learning alot about how the school, and the country, works.
At 9am, there is a roll call. Everyone must be at their desk or they get marked off. If you come after the roll call, you have to pop into the director's office personally and let him know where you were. There is an hour for lunch, then another roll call, then the building closes at 8pm. It's not open during the weekend either.
Last night I decided that it was time for me to arrive at 9, with the rest of the class. I tried so hard.... I made 9:10 with messy hair and no makeup. There is a starbucks next to one of my metro stops, one day I will make it early enough to buy a very large and very strong coffee (the coffees here are teeny and expensive.) I know, Eww american corporate Starbucks, you say! But it is somehow comforting. I ate McDonalds on my second day, when I was feeling down, and it helped abit, at least mentally. Physically is another matter. I have also eaten some very good french pastries...
The school is one building housing a few diffrent flavors of art majors. Photo, graphics, animation, ect. It's u-shaped, and about 5 stories high. Animation is one portion of the second floor. It's not really as small as I thought it would be. But like calarts, there is overflow, and the french version of "the lodge" is the basement.
Each year-group has its own workroom. There was no room with the 3rd years, so I am with the 2nds. I quickly hunted down any students who spoke english, there are a good few! I decorated my small wallspace with things from my old cube, and quickly found out that the students are as huge fans of Nicholai Marlet as the Calartsies. I met a lot of people when they came by my desk to stare at that awesome tiger design. I brought more for them the next day. Animators are animators, just as fun and quirky in any country.
There are no permenent teachers in the animation department. Instead you have a diffrent teacher for each excercize, on whatever that teacher specilizes in. The excercizes take 1-3 weeks, but most must be cleaned up, scanned, colored and given backgrounds and the after-effects treatment. This is part of the big emphasis on making everything "beautiful." The students are after effects and photoshop whizzes, and the lab is large with pretty nice computers.
I'm not sure if they know quite what to do with me. Regular classes such as film or motion analysis are out due to my lack of french. The main focus for 3rd years is the Annecy project, (they speak of annecy as some heavenly place where good animators go when they die- or finish their films) which is too far along for me to jump in on. I can go to the once-weekly lifedrawing, but right now, that's about it. So... I plopped myself down and finished and scanned my storyboards. They sent one of the teachers by after class for me to pitch to, and it went well. I forgot to bring a blank cd to burn my scans on, so there will be no working on the film this weekend. That's fine with me. The only Paris I've seen is the walk from my apartment to the metro to the bus to the school- My commute. Tomorrow I may just point my feet at that big iron tower and walk till I hit the river, with just my sketchbook, coat and camera. Horray first weekend in Paris!
I miss people and home the most at night, when I stop trying to speak french and am alone in the apartment, telling my brain to fall asleep at a time that still confuses my system. Visit? I will make you good instant coffee.
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anonymous
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WE MISS YOU KELLY!!!!
Hey Kelly: Your Paris adventures seem awesome. But we definitely miss you here at Cal Arts. Sarah and I went into your cubicle the other day and there was No Kelly there. But I'm glad that you seem to be having a great time there at school. - Sergio P.S. Stay away from that starbucks coffee. The portions are small, but the caffeen level is HIGH... you'll be awake for the six months you're there. :-) - Sergio