Breaking into the Industry with Allysa A Lewis
It is easier to imagine the world as one huge labyrinth. However, it does not have one entrance, neither does it have one exit — there are a thousand entrances and a thousand more exits, ranging from north to south, east to west, downhill to uphill, uphill to down. Its patrons, you and me, all have to find these exits somehow, and sometimes we will cross paths and help each other, but inevitably, we will not leave the labyrinth together. We may see each other at our exits, but the exits will not be the same, merely just near each other, at best. Maybe your friend finds some clippers and cuts through the labyrinth, or maybe they are a bit taller and can see over the hedge to see where to go next, or maybe they broke their leg on the way and you are unable to find them but can only hear them scream from a distant, leaving you to wonder whether they are in front of or behind you. But that’s the thing, in my opinion, there is no “front” (further ahead) or “behind” (falling behind), because this labyrinth is long and it winds its paths like our bodies’ intestines.
Currently lost in searching for happiness and satisfaction in pursuing my future career, I feel as though I am a little hopeless and that reaching the end, the exit of this annoying labyrinth is nearly impossible, but upon listening to ASIFA-South’s first podcast episode, New Ventures in Animation ft. Allysa A. Lewis, I feel that I have further discovered a new path that wasn’t immediately a dead end. I think that, upon listening to Lewis’ input and commentary, I was able to relate in several ways in terms of experience and opinion, which put me at much ease.
Listening to this reminded me of my own situation, whereas I am surrounded by other aspiring-animator students who have different experiences and skill sets, in which, inevitably, find different paths and exits through this labyrinth. Similar to Lewis, I also had (some) access to an art institution, as she had attended Savannah College of Art and Design, and I had attended Massachusetts College of Art and Design for just my freshman year of college. She also had former education in high school, where I can only assume that she had a lot of attention from her high school teacher. I was privileged enough to attend an art high school, so I was also able to learn and develop skill sets before starting college. She proposes the idea of not striving to be the best or being competitive, but to just finish the task at hand and assess and reach your own goal with the skill sets you are working with, even if you believe you don’t have any. There can be people with amazing grades and amazing GPA, but it really does not have much to show in terms of 1. their own enjoyment or desire to create the work and 2. employers in the industry do not particularly assess their potential animators/creatives on their grades, but on their portfolio. As my good buddy, Anwar, says all the time to reassure us, “C’s get degrees.”
However, Lewis proposes an interesting view, that in reality is more so just common sense, about enjoying your work and work ethic, basically, why you enjoy something, which helps explain and put in perspective of my thought process over the last few years. “…Second step, think about where you want to go and really define that… there are a million things you can do and, often, people get overwhelmed with the things you can learn and which way to go. Decide what you enjoy doing…if you figure out the “why” of why you enjoy doing something then it probes you to go down other paths. Is there another thing with a different title you could be doing?” She uses the example of being an aspiring animator versus being an aspiring director — if you only like the result of seeing things come to life instead of creating its life, why not become a director instead of an animator? Which is, quite similarly, the exact dilemma I have been facing recently.
I am not particularly sure exactly how an entrepreneur would be defined in terms of being in the animation industry, but reflecting on it, I suppose what I considered “common sense” is actually entrepreneurship: being able to assess, adapt, and achieve, which is what Lewis is successfully able to do. And through this process, she would have had to have taken many risks with taking time to take these different paths and finding out exactly what she wanted, expanding her knowledge on the basic, but significant, foundational concepts, which is characteristically of an entrepreneur. To be fair, even pursuing art in the first place is risky enough, let alone marketing yourself and your skills to the public. Although I was not as fortunate to have found myself and found out why I enjoy doing something early on as Lewis suggested, upon the Spring 2019 semester, I’ve had a lot of inspiration from several of my classes to pursue directing and/or screenwriting rather than the physical act of animating, which, even though it took a long time and ache, is relieves me. Lewis is able to portray her entrepreneurship abilities through personal anecdotes: assess, adapt, and achieve — she is able to overcome her fear of public speech. Although still afraid, she bravely reaches her goal at the end of the semester of her speech class: she does not cry while speaking. This success is not defined by a letter grade or salary, but whether or not the patron is able to reach their objective, which she proves she is able.
The goal of the labyrinth is to find your way out, and it doesn’t get simpler than that. People get overwhelmed by being stuck in the labyrinth, possibly making them feel claustrophobic when they hear of other people being able to exit the labyrinth. However, the goal still remains: find your way out. The labyrinth was never a race or competition to begin with.
