Art Director Training

(This was someone else's comment left under "The Last 12 Months." I just moved it here so we could talk about it.) Over and over again the subject of training for Production Designers and Art Directors comes up as an issue. Over and over again the Guild skirts this by either ignoring it or offering training in skills that have little to do with actual Art Direction on a daily basis. The need for training has a true level of importance well beyond the almost nonexistant attention currently given to the subject. There are many reasons for training yet somehow they never really get voiced, here are just a few: 1. Our craft is one that is not, nor cannot be taught in schools. Much of what we learn is passed on from form one Art Director to another. Without a system in place, the true knowledge and techniques of Art Direction are being lost on a regular basis. Art Directors are forced to figure it out for themselves and often don't really get there and run the risk of making very expensive and very public mistakes in the process. 2. As the level of training and consistant standards diminish, so does our status within the industry. This is important in that it is reflected in the initial budgets Studios put together in order to greenlight a project. Virtually 100 percent of the time, the Studio places a very low dollar value on the ammount they consider it necessary and worthwhile to spend on Art Direction. This happens because we have a very public job where our knowledge and mistakes are very visable and openly put to the test for all to see. What they currently see is not what they want to spend much money on. If I had it my way I would set up a series of classes whose structure would be round table discussions lead by no more than two Art Directors, experienced in the subject at hand. The reason for just two is that beyond that the session can become a contest of egos and who can tell the best story. I would limit class size to 10 people so all would have a chance to bring up their questions. Also, the reason for round table discussions as opposed to a lecture structure is that this is more in keeping with the way we learn best, through stories and experiences where a situation presents itself and clever solutions or nasty failures follow. My suggestion for Classes that every Production Designer, Art Director and Assistant Art Director should take (if they existed) are: 1. Budgeting for the Art Department and Construction, and Art Department staffing stradegeties. 2. Set Lighting and Rigging 3. Backings, all the various types, their appropriate application and how an Art Director sets them up and oversees their production. 4. Scheduling practices and stradegities as they relate to the Art Department, Construction and the project as a whole. 5. Visual Effects and how the Art Director plans for and interacts with the vast range of visual effects possibilities of today. 6. Blocking and understanding how to plan and design for all kinds of action. Understanding the camera and how various types of sequences are shot. How long? How high? How wide? How far? Too big or too small? Is it over built, or underbuilt? These are questions we ask ourselves constantly and there are fast, reliable techniques to help answer all of these questions. 7. Studio Practices. This could be potentially the biggest and most important one. Most Art Directors do not know how a project comes into being, the steps it goes through from development to release and how those steps have a direct impact upon their efforts during production. There are a great many hidden agendas during the physical production phase of a project that we wind up unknowingly addressing and suffering for if we are unaware. Feel free to add to or comment on my list.