On The West Coast Trip, ETC Students Take on Hollywood & Silicon Valley

Students are given a demonstration by ETC lighting designer and Entertainment Regional Manager R. Christopher Stokes
Credit: Chris Klug
Students are given a demonstration by ETC lighting designer and Entertainment Regional Manager R. Christopher Stokes
Credit: Chris Klug

Every year since the start of the program, the ETC has taken all its first-year students on an annual West Coast Trip where students and staff fly cross-country to spend a week in California split between Los Angeles and San Francisco. There, students spend their days visiting companies from across the entertainment and technology industries and their evenings connecting with ETC alums.

Students flew into Los Angeles on Sunday, January 5th ahead of an early morning start on Monday. Monday morning, all 71 first-year students split into four groups on four buses — each with their own itinerary. Students visited the Sony Pictures backlot for a tour of the studio and a deepdive into the worlds of digital animation and sound editing, Lux Machina for a behind-the-scenes look into the worlds of visual effects and virtual production, and (a different!) ETC to learn the ins-and-outs of lighting in location-based entertainment. 

Group photos at first-year students at Activision
Credit: Chris Klug
Group photos at first-year students at Activision
Credit: Chris Klug

Tuesday was even more packed, with visits to Netflix to learn about location-based entertainment and VFX technology, trips to both Activision and Riot Games for a look inside the world of triple-A studios, and even stops at indie studios like FUN-GI and Gravity Well to see how these smaller studios are disrupting the industry. And at Netflix, they learned about the far-reaching effects of the work they’re doing now.

“The ETC has been so influential,” Matt Usi, technical lead for Netflix’s experiences team, said to students during their visit. “I have a background in themed entertainment. I worked at Walt Disney Imagineering, Universal Creative, and primarily in advanced technology. What has been really great is a lot of prototyping and a lot of inspiration — especially with white papers and projects — has come out of schools like UCLA, NYU ITP, and CMU. It really sets the groundwork for making ideas. So whether it’s pitching to a company or putting your work out there on YouTube, it’s noticed. That’s why I love programs like this.” 

After a full day, students and staff headed back to the hotel for a reception with Los Angeles-based alumni working in the industry. The alumni who managed to make it braved not only LA traffic, but also an outbreak of dangerous wildfires that became a national news story in the days that followed  — all to meet with our students. 

Group photos at first-year students at Riot Games
Credit: Chris Klug
Group photos at first-year students at Riot Games
Credit: Chris Klug

Wednesday, students travelled by bus from Los Angeles to San Francisco and had the evening free to recharge for another two days of company visits. The next day, students visited Pokemon Go’s developer Niantic where a panel of ETC alums talked about the work they do and the career paths they took, as well as smaller studios like Never Forget Games and Free Range Games. Students also took a trip to the R&D department at the Asian Art Museum for a talk with Cheng Xu, the museum’s first curator of video games before heading back to the hotel for another alumni reception with alumni working in San Francisco.

Never Forget Games 2D Animator Natallia Horbik talks to students about her work
Credit: Chris Klug
Never Forget Games 2D Animator Natallia Horbik talks to students about her work
Credit: Chris Klug

The trip ended strong on Friday with visits to George Lucas-founded visual effects studio Industrial Light and Magic, interactive animation company Baobab Studios, video game giant Electronic Arts, and more. Exhausted but energized, students headed back to the hotel to prepare themselves to travel back to Pittsburgh for their first semester of ETC project work. Projects that — as they learned from their 5 days of back-to-back company visits — have more influence on their future and the future of industry than they could have ever imagined.

Students serve as playtesters during a visit to Free Range Games
Credit: Chris Klug
Students serve as playtesters during a visit to Free Range Games
Credit: Chris Klug
Sketches done by first-year ETC student Junjing Ruan documenting the connections she made on the West Coast Trip 
Credit: Junjing Ruan
Sketches done by first-year ETC student Junjing Ruan documenting the connections she made on the West Coast Trip 
Credit: Junjing Ruan

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