We are excited to have Joseph spend some time with us as one of the many interns who have passed through our doors over the past 18 years.. We find that we learn from them, as much as they learn from us.
Joseph is a St Mary’s College alumni and is pursuing his BFA in Animation at the School of Visual Arts (SVA), New York. He expects to graduate this year. He hopes to land a job working as a background designer for animation upon graduation. He says his second choice for a career would be to pursue writing or any other creative field. “In an ideal world, I’d have the flexibility to travel the world, whilst still having a fulfilling creative career.”, said Joseph.
Hello! My name is Joseph Chang. I’m from Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and I’m a rising senior at The School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York! I’ve always wanted to work in some creative field, as creating is how I flourish and express myself best. From a young age I’d always be shifting my focus onto whatever creative practice grasped my interest. Making a living off of this is the challenge I am excited to be tackling. For me, it starts with and ends with drawing and storytelling. My mother says I’ve been drawing from the moment I’d first laid eyes on a pencil, on any and every piece of scrap paper she’d bring home. No matter the interest I was juggling, any instrument I’d pick up, or school subject I’d find my footing in, I’d always feel an ever-present desire to create. In such consistent desires, I’d find myself an adolescent with a brain filled with so many thoughts and aspirations that it seemingly exceeds its capacity.
During secondary school, I’d have multiple art teachers and mentors make common observations of my scatterbrained nature and propensity to linger in my brain prior to tackling my work. So many ideas, so many ways I could execute them. I’d realize if I wanted to succeed, I needed to channel these ambitions into a more focused lens. The solution I found to this is to make it my utmost priority to master one creative field as an occupation, while maintaining consistent dabbling interests as outlets and hobbies. Doing this has given me the confidence that I can, and will do anything and everything that I aspire to. This leads me to the path I’m currently walking, and have been walking for the last few years.
I chose to study animation due to the thrill of an art form I’d have no experience in, but one I’d admired for many years. Now, I am enrolled in the BFA Animation Program at SVA! As an SVA animation student, I am annually tasked with the challenge of completing 2d animated short films. This past year, I worked on two films. The first, was a class collaborative film, “Alone”, which was nominated for an award at the ASIFA East Animation Festival. “Alone” stars robot “404” who wakes up on a post-apocalyptic earth, and his journey to discovering a surviving robot community. For this film, I designed locations, did background layout and paint, and also animated 3 scenes.
The second, “Scrap” is my junior independent short film! The film stars the eponymous “Scrap”, a muddy nymph who defends his community from an alien invasion in an unorthodox way. For “Scrap”, I was in complete control of the production. Thus, I played the role of the director, writer, pre-production, production and post production. With this film, I wanted to spotlight my skill set in background design and paint, whilst also having fun challenging myself by tackling more complex animation. Working on both of these junior-year films has taught me a significant deal of animation industry practice. For one, the group film gave me the experience of a team-driven production, similar to that of animation studios. Here, I felt excited to be part of something greater than my individual abilities. The independent film gave me the experience of working every job in the production pipeline, and the ability to fully flesh out my own vision on tight deadlines
