Animation Production: aka, channeling whatever it is that makes me who I am into helping create what I love.

I realized that, outside of the small and wonderful circle of people whom I see or speak with constantly, many of you probably haven't heard the details of what I'm up to nowadays. I want to keep everyone I know and care for in the loop, so I ought to take a moment from my hectic life to explain myself and share my excitement with the world at large...

A year ago, I arrived here in San Francisco to follow my dream of working in animation. My life since then has been a dream come true, and for every moment of it, I have been 100% sure that I am exactly where I'm meant to be. Through many challenges and adventures in academia and beyond, I have learned so much about the animation industry... and gotten much better acquainted with my own self in the process.

I came here determined to absorb as much as I could from all of the beautiful art forms utilized within animation production... and have realized recently that my true passion is the art of production itself. To be the orchestrator of the collaborative process--helping and supporting the talented people around me--has proven to be the role in which I feel most at home.

Now that I can say, "I want to be an Animation Producer", I've realized I also need to explain exactly what that means. The job is a hard one to define, because it covers many areas and is almost always a different job, depending on who's doing it where and for what production. Here's a few definitions I've found that help make sense of it, though:

"In our opinion, the producer is the one person with the full overview and responsibility for a project from a creative, financial, and scheduling perspective." ~Catherine Winder & Zahra Dowlatabadi

"[A producer] has to be part therapist, union negotiator, customs broker, technologist, artist, storyteller, international trade leader, attorney, filmmaker, talent agent, studio executive, mentor, and friend." ~David Lipman

I owe it to my friends and family and the wonderful faculty here at AAU for their votes of confidence in helping me find my niche here, and now I hope I can return the favor in diligent service of the exciting collaborative animation projects which I am now a part of--the 2D animated short Prelude (as Producer) and 3D animated trailer/vingette The Lattice (as Co-Producer)!!!

Since it just wouldn't feel right to post without an image, here's a shot of me with the Prelude Crew:I'm so excited to be helping them keep the project on track, wish me luck!