the yak occidental

It’s all about engagement - to appear disengaged, absent, or uninterested, can be indicative of a bad attitude and poor leadership. I’ll start this video with a question: do you want to be here? I mean at work, with your job. Do you make it clear that you are happy to be at work and have the job that you have? You’d be surprised how often I wonder about this for some of my crew.  Now, as I film this, the animation industry is in the midst of another concerning downturn . Most of us are just grateful to have jobs doing what we do best, whether it be Production, Creative, or Technical. I’m not saying that you have to be especially demonstrative in your gratitude for a job, not at all. It’s more about engagement - to appear disengaged, absent, or uninterested, can be indicative of a bad attitude and poor leadership. A couple years ago we were buzzing about “quiet quitting,” and there are ongoing discussions about generational attitudes towards work and entitlement to having a job in t...

Training a new recruit in the way they prefer is fastest way to get someone to be a thriving, productive member of your team. The rookie mistake in this video is to refuse to meet people on their level, and to not adapt your leadership or training methods to different learning styles. In the animation industry, we are working with adults in a creative industry. We all have our habits and don’t have to conform like when we were kids in school.  The animation industry in Vancouver is constantly growing, changing, shifting, and so we are constantly all training and adapting to make the latest and greatest shows. For Production staff, a key part of our role is to not only train other Production staff but to train our artists.  Meeting people on their level also helps you get to know them, and as I have said many times before in A Course In Production, you are only as good as you know your team. Andrew Hill and John Wooden say in Be Quick - But Don’t Hurry! Too many coaches adopt...

A rookie mistake is thinking your technical proficiency is more important than your soft skills. I have been in Production in Vancouver’s animation industry for a decade now. And while our industry is ever-volatile, one thing that has remained true and consistent is that those in leadership positions almost always prefer to hire someone for attitude rather than skills if they have the choice to. A rookie mistake, therefore, is thinking your technical proficiency is more important and valuable than your soft skills.  Some Production staff think it is enough to be a wiz with google sheet formulas, Shotgrid/flow, or whatever shot and asset-tracking software your team uses. Even strong knowledge of your studio’s pipeline or technical problem solving is not enough. You can’t advance through Production on mere technical skill alone. You must have good soft skills as well. This belief extends well beyond animation. Renowned basketball coach, Coach K identifies a few key points below throu...

Here is a selection of memorable quotes  from The Employees by Olga Ravn (translated by Martin Aitken)  I carry out my work the way I’ve always done, though with a certain melancholy, and at the same time, because of her, with a joy unknown to me until now. I exist in this new combination of melancholy and joy; this double emotion has become my companion. p.59 But I like being alive. I look out at the endless deep outside the panorama windows. I see a sun. I burn the way the sun burns. I know without a doubt that I’m real. I may have been made, but now I’m making myself. p.84 But at that moment, before I fully realized what I was doing, I was filled with affection, and I knew, the way one knows in dreams, what it means to love something living. p.99 I think I’m going to encounter a great love in my life. My love is waiting for me already, I’m already immersed in it […] Everyone on the ship is doing their utmost. I believe in the future. I think you need to imagine a future an...

If nothing else, skip ahead to the 15 Minute Rule! Asking for help is still something that gives many Production people pause. Isn’t asking for help admitting weakness, that you can’t manage the job you are lucky to have, or a sign that you aren’t willing to work hard? Thinking any of these things is a rookie mistake. Martha Beck says in her book The Way of Integrity: In fact, the further I go on the way of integrity, the more I know that I don’t know much about how reality works [...] We’re socialized to think that not knowing is stupid and shameful. But in traditions like Zen, ‘don’t know mind’ refers to a way of thinking that’s free from rigid concepts […] From a place of enlightenment, the mind’s job isn't to shore up beliefs, but to let them go. - from The Way of Integrity by Martha Beck I have a few quick things I want to say for this video: first, saying you understand something or will have a task completed on time is you accepting responsibility. If you say you got it and ...

Production staff please remember: you’re on the Production team, not the team you coordinate/manage. The second rookie mistake I want to talk about in this series is forgetting that you are on the Production team! Especially if you are a Production Coordinator, it is easy to start to think that you are, say, a Lighter on the Lighting/Comp team, if you are coordinating the lighting team. You are not, you are a Production Coordinator on the Production team , full stop. Being on the Production team means keeping an unbiased perspective as much as possible. Remember, more often than not, Production has to be the bad guy. You can still deliver bad news, performance feedback, etc in a way that is constructive, informative, and professional.  In order to do so effectively, you need to maintain some professional boundaries , and part of that is fulfilling your role as a Production team member. Andrew Hill and John Wooden say in Be Quick But Don’t Hurry : One other pitfall you must avoid i...