Critical and contextual analysis of the way I learn

In issue 15 of Imagine magazine they published a debate on the standard of graduates with points put forward from Shelly Page International Outreach for Dreamworks:

" What I've noticed, particularly in the last five years, is how many of the more interesting opportunities for graduates from animation courses are taken by graduates from outside the U.K."

"Also, I (personally and Dreamworks) in general are generally in favour of the group project approach, and this tends to run counter to the way the British University system in structured"

"In France, especially Gobelins, it's a highly structured environment where they have to do very specific skill development and they don;t even start making films until they've completely mastered the skills like lip sync...what I tend to see in the U.K is maybe a more experimental approach to animation, but doesn't have that tight focus on he technique tht really works best for us in our environment"

Also an interview with Gini an animator from Pixar caught my eye

"what’s your background?
For college, my parents sent me back to the Philippines to study. My dad was a banker and wanted me to take commerce. I told him no, that I had to be an artist. So we agreed on advertising, which I studied at the University of Santo Tomas. After graduating I went into advertising for about five years in Guam. It was great, because I was a big fish in a small pond. I was able to work with big clients, like Nestle, that I would never have been able to work with at my age here in the United States. After a while I burnt out and wanted to go back to school. There was a course in computer animation at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. For our thesis we had to make a short animated film and then send it out to the companies you wanted to work for. I sent mine to Blue Sky, Disney, Pixar and PDI. I actually got job offers from Blue Sky and PDI. Pixar was the last one to call me, but told me they couldn’t do the interview me for a whole month. I had to take a big leap of faith when PDI and Blue Sky said they didn’t know if they could wait that long. But I knew if was going to learn anything, it’d be at Pixar."

After reading these statements it got me thinking about the way I work and how the industry sees that. I didn't before think that the way I experiment or feel my way towards a practice that feel new exciting or just right, is due to the freedom a U.K. university structure brings. I feel that yes sometimes I don't have a specialised skill set within animation but then again I don't want to work in a big 'animation factory' style like Dreamworks.

I decided to look at this interview for Pixar after reading the article from Imagine and noticed that Gini hasn't come to Pixar straight from graduating and they liked her for targeting detail, famous in Pixars style of animation and something that I think is lacking in Dreamworks, loosing me as a viewer. You see I think that attention to detail, mannerisms, the way people talk, can't really be taught, it needs to be observed and if you dont observe it then your really not that interested in it.

I don't think the quality of U.K. animation deteriorates as a result of experimentation, after all would I still be making my own typography and trying to be aware of other mediums. Maybe a graphic design course with so much freedom is whats suited me, or maybe it just allows my ideas a little more creative freedom, fore thought and ultimately allows me to do what I enjoy.