‘The Extra Help Problem’ Disadvantaging Our Animation Seniors

Out of safety for active animation majors, this article is written and published by a student outside of the ANIM department, with interviews from alumni. The SCADHoneyDripper has freedom of press under the first amendment, and any concerns can be discussed with the Editor in Chief of our media group. 

‘Extra help’, in context of the animation department, is anyone brought onto a senior capstone film that was never part of their main crew that students picked in the spring of their junior year. The way capstones are organized tends to fluctuate frequently, however, for at least the past two years it steadily seemed to be a ‘free game besides hiring a studio’ situation… Up until this year. This article aims to explain the current events that have been causing unnecessary stress for students of all grade levels within the SCAD Animation department. 

While talking to a handful of different people, it seems as though the conflict started in 2022, when a past capstone had raised concerns with SCAD with claims of studio help being used to enhance one of the capstone films. This alone sounds like a violation against the rules, however, many brought up the fact that the director was a member of said studio, and a lot of the ‘studio help’ involved came from close colleagues. It’s also not entirely clear whether this film is considered controversial or monumental as SCAD still praises it and advertises the department with it in many different school wide events. Nevertheless, though, many claim it to be the root of the conflict and recent students are bearing the punishments with an ongoing debate as to whether extra help should be allowed or not. 

From May 11th-18th (2024), the school board decided to ban extra help all together (with the exception of sound), which meant that capstone crews would have to depend on the ten people they picked in the spring to do all the visuals, from pre to post production. This caused an upset from the students and in the heat of it all, I interviewed some alumni to get first hand opinions on why this ban would mean the newest generation of seniors are facing extreme disadvantage: 

“We had about 30-40 extra help people, all being scad students. We had the bulk of the work done by the core crew but having extra help has made our workload way more bearable. They also all worked in different areas, so it wasn’t like 40 people were working on animation,” said one anonymous interviewee,

“we finished our film early due to the help we received. I think it’d be extremely unfair to both the seniors and underclassmen at scad to not allow extra help on capstone films. It helped us out with getting work done and gives the extra help crew more portfolio work. I’m sorry that other films that hired professional help are causing punishment on students who had nothing to do with it”. 

Another former director spoke up against the ban to me that really elaborated on the point that this helps not just the main crew but the juniors, sophomores, and freshman who are brought on board and learn from the special opportunity of helping out on a big senior film; 

“As a Capstone director, the ability to have extra help was imperative to not only creating a well-made film that was wrapped on time, but also to prepare the next generation of directors to run capstones of their own.

Letting underclassmen participate in senior’s capstone projects provides them with invaluable hands-on experience that simply can’t be provided in any other class. 

The scale of capstones compared to 395 classes are drastic, and if you are a story-con major, that is one of your only chances for collaboration with your peers. I have learned more in a month of capstone than in a year of standard coursework. Why would we not want to build up the underclassmen as much as we can? Do we not want the quality of our films to grow year by year as the underclassmen learn from their senior mentors? The scale of networking you’re able to do throughout capstone also increases; I would recommend my extra help members to any recruiter that may ask about them, and I would hope that down the line they would do the same. There is NO SOUND REASON to get rid of extra help unless you want stressed crews, inexperienced directors, and a rushed, lower quality product. I am incredibly saddened that my junior peers won’t have the same amazing opportunities that I did, and I hope that the faculty will listen to the outcries of their students in the future”. 

A little bit after these interviews, SCAD partially lifted the ban saying that, while extra help was now allowed, all members of it had to go through an approval process, and it would be limited to capstone students part of the School of Animation and Motion. There is also a rule against job titles, despite that being a basic industry standard, but I digress. 

I once again reached out to former directors, interviewing a third anonymous person to see what this updated rule meant to them. It did not surprise me that this lift was seen as a step in a good direction, but still not good enough; 

“Extra Help on capstone films provides opportunities for collaboration and portfolio additions to not only students in SCAD’s animation department, but those in the graphic design, illustration, motion media, sequential arts, and visual effects departments as well. My film would not have had over half of its layouts without our underclassmen. While my crew is full of several talented artists and animators, none of us would have had the creativity, drive, and technical skills to pull off some of our most vital and intricate environments. The underclassmen that took on these responsibilities allowed us more time to focus on our animation, compositing, and more! As for the animation itself, my core crew would have been able to pull it off without help, but at the cost of our mental and physical health. I know of crews that were prohibited from recruiting underclassmen extra help that inflicted permanent damage to their bodies and minds throughout the course of the year. Extra help not only lessens the workload of a full animated film, it helps core crew members maintain sanity and better manage their time and health. Underclassman Extra Help is not only beneficial, but crucial to the SCAD animation department. 

The fight for these guideline revisions was an enormous step into preserving the health, safety, legacy and success of every animation student studying at SCAD, and it’s not over yet.” 

I am writing this as a non-animation student who has worked on capstones since freshman year. As a matter of fact I went into SCAD as an animator, but switched after the first capstone I worked on praised me for my ability to create backgrounds. Without that early expirence in the pipeline I likely would have stayed in a major I wasn’t as passionate about, nor get expirence that glows on my resume to this day. It’s clear to both those who worked as a crew and as extra help that the ability to collaborate with younger SCAD students is an exceptionally valuable one, which is completely being taken for granted by the higher ups. From my own experiences as well as what I have learned from interviewing others, it seems to have no valid reasoning for existence besides the higher up board wanting to prove they have control over the students. 

As of now the current standings are still what’s listed in the guidelines above, however, students from all departments are encouraged to continue expressing opposition against the restrictions on extra help- it lifted some of the rules once and hopefully the students can continue to unify in lifting the rules to exterminate the unfair punishment against the class of 2025.

The HoneyDripper is the Savannah College of Art and Design’s juried comics and illustration blog, dedicated to publishing, promoting, and showcasing the finest in student work.​