On May 23, 2005, at 1:50 PM, Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
At 12:29 PM Monday 5/23/2005, Dave Land wrote:
As it was, the weekend was a real bust for Ryan: we drove down to
CalArts in Valencia from San Jose (about 7 hours' drive and back) to
see
his cousin graduate from film school. For a school that has graduated
the likes of Tim Burton, Ralph Eggleston, Ed Harris, Brad Bird and
John
Lasseter, they sure don't know how to produce a graduation ceremony,
at
least not one that keeps a reasonably bright 8-year-old entertained. A
drum circle. Some Alanis Morissette wannabe singing "L.A., L.A., L.A.,
what have you done to me?" Grey-hairs accepting their honoris causae.
3-1/2 hours ... and only *then* his cousin cross the stage.
One (at least one who is cynical^H^H^H^H^H^H^H realistic about the
industry) question one might ask is whether "keep[ing] a reasonably
bright 8-year-old entertained" is the primary purpose of the film
school
graduation, or is it possibly acknowledging that although the ones you
mention did graduate from there, the odds are good that for at least
some of the graduates the graduation ceremony may indeed be the high
point of their film careers . . . ?
Even as I wrote my message, I realized that the purpose of the
graduation ceremony was certainly not to keep Ryan entertained. That is
his parents' job. If, indeed, it is anyone's other than his own.
A number of attendees opined that the purpose of the ceremony seemed to
be to prepare the students to attend events like the Emmys, Oscars, the
American Music Awards and so forth.
As for your other comment, I suspect that graduating from CalArts may
represent the career pinnacle for many graduates, whether from the film
and video, theater, fine arts, or other schools there, but that's true
for many, many schools and many professions around the world.
Dave "The Envelope, Please" Land
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