Entrepreneurial Artist

ASIFA South of Atlanta, Georgia is a chapter of the world famous Association Internationale du Film d’Animation also known as ASIFA which is an international animation society that was founded in 1960 in Annecy, France. Recently ASIFA south had a podcast that interviewed animation entrepreneur Allyssa A. Lewis.

Lewis is an entrepreneur who founded her own animation resource and staffing agency called My Animation Life (MAL). She puts her skills into practice every day when she tries to find new animators either online on in person to help work on various projects, her website is also based around searching for and giving a platform to new animators from all over. Lewis also brings in animators from different studios to talk to students giving her a chance to listen to what new things they bring to the table but also give the students a chance to learn from these professionals. Though she is not unfamiliar with the animation field herself having worked on a critically acclaimed show such as FXs Archer.

During the podcast Lewis talked about how she started or helped start all these different organizations at SCAD to help give herself a stronger resume. While she was explaining this I learned the importance of working with others around you in and out of your field to give yourself more opportunities because she helped start many things at SCAD from a magazine to a newspaper but in the end everyone involved in those things benefitted greatly. I like this because being an animation major I know from experience that working with others is key especially in my pursuit of working on my own series with my own team or even starting my own studio.