Welcome to Alumni Live: The Podcast.

These are conversations with Grand Valley State University film and video

graduates about the industry, the film, video, major and alumni profiles.

Hello and welcome to another episode of alumni live, the podcast.

I'm host Randy Strobl and today we're talking careers in the art department.

We have two excellent alumni here.

We've got Jamie Bartkowicz.

Hi, Jamie.

And we've got JiL Szewski JiL how you doing?

Hey there.

So let's get right into it.

We're talking of course today about different art departments,

different ways you've applied your Grand Valley degree to your careers.

Just broad level, let's start with what is your current job And

what do you love about your work?

Let's start with Jamie.

Yeah, so I currently work at Walt Disney Studios as an Asset

Coordinator for physical production.

So that means I basically get to work on all the live action films

for Disney Live Action, 20th Century Fox, and Searchlight Pictures.

It's more of a management type job where I get to work with the heads of departments

for costumes, props set dressers and manage all of the fun things that they

build and buy for the films and work with them throughout production and

then become the keeper of it at the end.

JiL Szewski tell us about what you do.

What do you love about your work?

I work as a set decoration co lead person.

I work closely with the set decorator to come up with budgets

for individual sets and episodes.

I track budgets and I'm also in charge of clearances, making sure everything

on screen we have permission to use.

So if I'm hearing it correctly, we have brought in two different ends

of the art department spectrum here.

So we've got Jamie really working with the look the feel and then

we've got JiL making sure all of that can happen it can work.

We've got logistics.

We've got schedules budgets the things that make what we see on tv

and on screens and movies right So we're looking at art departments.

What is an art department on a film, on TV?

What do you do?

You have your production designer who creates the look and the

overall feel of the show.

The production designer works closely with the director.

If it's a TV show, they work with a director and a showrunner.

Once that idea is formulated, art department works with construction to

build the sets, communicate with set decoration to make it feel real, look

lived in, add those layers, and then also props is part of that equation as well.

Making sure the props function with the overall look of the show.

So you're talking, we got construction, right?

We got nails in wood, putting these things together.

Jamie, can you take that broad view and just narrow in on one scenario

in the last week or two that you like we're dealing with pulling all of

those pieces together where we really saw the art department collaborating

in all those different functions.

Yeah actually today I had to pull a bunch of stuff for insert shoots, so

I had a bunch of different HODs, or heads of departments, contact me saying

this is the scene we're doing, we need to pull all these things and there's

a lot of collaboration there because there were tables that were a part of

the set that we needed to pull, but then there were things on the tables

that were technically part of the props because the actors interact with it,

so we had to make sure we had that.

There was even a prop that's also technically a costume piece.

So there's a lot of crossover in those departments and a lot of times those

departments have to work together to figure out who's handling what

and are those things going to work with what they're responsible for?

So that was just like a very, easy example of something that I had to do today is

make sure I had all the pieces from all the different departments to make sure

that everything came together for the insert shoots that we're trying to do.

JiL, I'm going to throw that back to you.

What did your day in the life look like today?

What stuff were you working on?

I mean, if you can talk about it, can't talk about it, but broad, broad, broad.

That looks at what happened today.

So today, thankfully we wrapped, so I just finished a project called Based on

a True Story, Season 2 for NBC Peacock.

My day can consist of, you know, say a new script comes out.

I go through the script, I break it down, I figure out

what sets we need to budget for.

I talk to my decorator, I talk to my lead person, we work together to formulate

a budget that's going to get approved, and then once it's approved, we start

renting things, we start buying things and make that set come together with

the vision of the Production Designer.

That's cool.

That is so cool.

Jamie, when you're pulling together the look, the feel of, of these sets and,

and this world, are you doing a lot of like scrolling through images online?

Are you going to places?

How much are you in the office, out of the office?

So my job with Walt Disney now is I kind of took a different route a couple years

ago and came over to the studio side.

So, less creative, more management and working on the studio side and making the

studio happy is what way I should say it.

So I'm not really the one putting together the look, but I am managing everything

that is getting put into the look.

So yeah, I'm scrolling, I'm getting a lot of documents, I'm getting a lot

of rap books, I'm getting a lot of excel sheets, and so I need to know

where everything is and how to pull it, what boxes it's in, I have to store

it half the time and things like that.

It's a little bit different.

I would call it art

department adjacent I am not technically in the art department.

I am on the studio corporate side of things.

so if I'm a freshman or a prospective student at Grand Valley and I'm

thinking like this is a really fun thing to be doing, What are the skills?

Like when did you know that you were kind of going into this world?

How did you know?

Like what got you to where you are now?

I actually got started working on set as a set PA for production running around

with a walkie getting people coffees, picking up trash yelling rolling and cut.

But the great thing about working with set, that's where

you can meet everybody, right?

You see property department putting things into the hands of talent.

You see sound miking up talent.

You see the set decorator coming in to approve the set.

that's where you get to see everything happen, everything come together.

So that gave me this great opportunity to kind of shop my career being able

to watch how everybody works and like, oh, that's really fascinating

or, I like how they did this.

And then I got to ask questions.

So, PAing turned into like PAing for the art department.

Learning how to art department coordinate, which is a lot

of management side of things.

And then moving over to set decoration department getting

my foot in the door there.

And I've currently been working with the same set decoration

team for about six years now.

It's been really fun, really fun.

But I I definitely started ground level Production Assistant.

You can start as a PA in any department.

It gives you the best viewpoint to learn from.

It's so interesting.

And just a real quick definition.

What is the set decoration department?

The set decoration department is a branch of the art department.

The set decoration department is the one who fills in the sets with your

sofas, textiles, drapery, to make that set feel real, feel lived in.

We call it adding the livable layers, because you got to

make it look real, right?

So that's set decoration.

So I got to watch what set dec was doing , and it wasn't always like

these high end glamorous sets.

Sometimes it was really dingy alleyways but they had the resources to make

it look real and dingy and I feel like there's such a skill in that.

That is absolutely a skill and I appreciate it every time

I see an image is like that.

I was just watching a show two days ago and I was like, that looks like a place

I could walk into and just lose myself.

Jamie and JiL, correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you had

some kind of like clear steps , it was kind of a linear progression.

You honed in on where you are now.

Is that?

Is that kind of what I'm hearing there?

So I originally was interested in assistant directing, working on the

production side, working closely with the director which I had the opportunity

to do, which I loved cause it's a lot of time management, juggling the

business side of things versus the creative side of things, being that

task manager to push the schedule and the crew forward to accomplish what

you're trying to film for the day.

I loved it.

But then I got pulled back into the art department cause I

just needed that creative fix.

And once I got into the art department, I did go back and forth between

assistant directing and art department.

So it wasn't really, I wouldn't say a clear step, but I'm thankful

for the path because that's how I got to where I am today.

I feel like after you clarified that the messiness of that career going

back and forth things like that.

That sounds pretty relatable.

Jamie, do you relate to that?

What was your path?

How did you get to where you are today?

So while I was at school in Grand Valley, I was very interested in the

art department, but didn't really have the classes or anything too

much to like pursue that fully.

So when I moved out to LA I was also just like trying, started from the

bottom, wanted to be a PA on a set, got to work with different departments,

including the art department.

And then my career took a weird turn where I randomly got a gig at Universal Studios

Hollywood, the theme park.

I was working part time there, because LA is expensive, and I was offered a

job with their entertainment production department for just like a short

time gig as Production Coordinator.

And I very quickly learned that my film skills translated over into

themed entertainment and live events.

And so I took the job there, and then I just got sucked into that world.

I ended up loving it.

I worked on an event called Halloween Horror Nights, which is a very big haunted

house event that Universal puts on.

And so I went and started going into production management.

And then after about a year of me doing that, they hired me full time.

I was like, oh wait, I missed the art department.

And I would talk with the Art Directors and stuff on the event and

for that department all the time, and, one day just presented myself

to them and was like, actually, this is what I originally wanted to do.

This is what I have a little bit of background in.

I would like to try and move over to your department.

And the two Art Directors became my mentors and then just took me under

their wing, which is very lucky . My short term gig at Universal Studios

turned into seven years of working there, where I shifted over to the art

department and started off as their Art Coordinator, and by the time I left, I

was an Associate Production Designer.

So I was there until November of 2021, but burnout is real and post pandemic

burnout is super real, so I decided that there was a lot of things that

I wasn't happy with in my career and just wanted a change of pace.

And during the pandemic, I actually was laid off for a bit, and so I went back

into film because there was a lot of film jobs, surprisingly booming in LA and

union jobs were still looking for people.

And so I was working on union shows, even though I was not union and

getting permits and I was working in art department back in film.

And so near the end of 2021, I decided to leave universal

and try and go back into film.

And then I was offered a job at Walt Disney Studios, where I

am now, which is very different job title, very different job.

But it was something that I felt like I needed to do to reset and figure out

where my career path is going from there.

And so now two and a half years later, and I'm still trying to

figure it out, but that's just

life, and and I have a feeling a lot of people listening to this

will understand and relate to that.

Yeah, it's very normal.

It's

also kudos to you to going up to those two Art Directors and

saying, I want to join your teams.

Was that, what did that feel like?

Were you nervous?

How did

yeah,

go?

I was very nervous.

it's funny because now after so many years of being in the

business, I'm very outspoken.

A piece of advice that someone once gave me was, you can't be

quiet about what you want to do.

You can't be quiet about it.

And being from the Midwest, I don't talk about myself.

I was very quiet.

I thought it was rude if I talked about me and my dreams and aspirations.

I was an observer.

I was there to learn.

But if you do that, then no one can read your mind.

No one magically knows what you actually want to do.

So everyone at Universal thought she wants to go into production management.

Which, I love production management.

I'm always constantly similar to how JiL said she's between assistant

directing and art department.

I'm production management and art department.

I just constantly am going back.

I'm very type A, but I'm a creative.

So everyone just assumed like that's the role that she's gonna move up and go down.

No one ever suspected that I had an art department background, and

that's what I actually wanted to do.

So I was very nervous.

And actually one of the Art Directors, she's the one who was like, so what's

like, your goal in this career?

We were just randomly talking one day when we were out on a

construction site, and I said, oh, I, I actually wanna do what you do.

And she was just so taken aback.

She had no idea.

And then she's the one who was like, well, let's go talk.

Let's come on, come to my office tomorrow.

And I'm very grateful that her and the other Art Director were , so open

minded and wanted to hear from me.

So.

I'm very lucky for that, but it taught me that you just gotta be super vocal.

You can't be quiet about it.

Even though it's nerve wracking, you just have to voice what you want

to do to people because otherwise people are never going to know.

So how are they going to give you

the

chance.

JiL, I see you nodding vigorously throughout Jamie's story there.

Have you had moments of where you made those bold moves yourself

or where you found mentors?

Did you see anything of yourself in Jamie's stories there?

I absolutely agree with Jamie.

You gotta speak up and say what you want, because everybody is so busy in

this industry, and if you're in that position, people just think that's your

mission, that's where you want to be.

But you have to say those things out loud to people, which is very nerve wracking.

That's how you get to where you want to be.

And sometimes those places don't work out, but at least you tried.

But be vocal.

Tell people what you're interested in.

And who knows, they might just put you in the right room.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

And I've found too that mentors are just so important in finding people

who can take you under their wing.

Is that something that happens out there in Hollywood?

I mean, I have this picture of it being cutthroat.

Everybody's trying to cut each other off.

But is there that kind of mentorship community out there?

I think it depends on the person and where you're at.

There's a lot of people out there that they don't care.

They have no interest.

But then there's a lot of people I've come across in my life and a lot of people

that I've met at Disney or Universal see themselves in you and they're like, I know

how hard it was and I want to give back and help them get to where they're going.

It really just depends on the person and their personality type in my experience.

That makes a lot of sense.

I think that's true across life in a lot of places.

We've talked a lot about set decoration and you mentioned

props and obviously there's management involved and scheduling.

Can we just talk about the variety of things in art departments?

What are all the different roles of somebody?

Is there a kind of a place for everybody within art departments?

I've worked on projects where We've had a Production Designer, a Supervising

Art Director, an army of Art Directors or Assistant Art Directors, seven Set

Designers, two Set Decorators, two Lead People, five Set Decoration buyers, two

Coordinators, a Researcher, four PAs.

Depending on the show, it could be very small where you just have

Production Designer, your Art Director, maybe an Assistant Art

Director, and then an Art Department Coordinator and an Art Department PA.

Or it can be, ginormous where you've got an army of Art Directors because show is

so big and you need so much management for all the different sets going on.

Jamie, can you walk us through that jungle that JiL just described.

and, if you have that army of people, what does everybody do in there?

What is the goal?

And, What's everybody doing?

It's Just really hard to explain, you kind of just have to experience it and

figure out that's a job I'm good at, and I guess I will continue doing that job.

Because when I first came into art department, I didn't even know

the terms for the jobs either.

I was just like, I like to make sets and make them look pretty, and I'm

good at buying things putting them out.

That's what I knew about art department, it wasn't until I came to LA and

started working on sets where I was like, Oh, I'm mostly a Set Dresser.

I'm really good at placing things and buying things and doing that.

I have a friend who makes all the crazy Marvel gadgets and

weapons and that's not me.

I couldn't tell you how that's made.

But you ask her and she kind of like, I don't know.

I just was like, I like art.

This is fun, and then realized, oh, I'm really good at making these things.

Or people will go like a construction route, or people are

good at drafting really good at architectural skills and numbers.

You really just have to be a Set PA or an Art Department PA and just watch everyone

and figure out where you jive and you probably will do jobs where you're like,

I hate this, I don't want to do this.

And I've definitely learned that.

I learned that I don't want to be a Designer because I didn't like the

constraints I was put under like how much drawing I had to do which sounds really

sad, but I have never been like a pencil to paper person, so when I was sitting

at my desk drawing and drafting for hours, I was like, oh this isn't for me.

I like boots on the ground, moving things and stuff.

So you kind of have to just do things and you might do something

for a while and be like, nevermind, I don't want to do that anymore.

From the outside looking in, it looks like, why'd she walk away from that?

that's just unfortunately how you learned art department.

There isn't really a set thing.

I don't know anyone who graduated college and was like, I'm going to be this very

specific thing in the art department.

They've done it all and they slowly moved around.

I would second that.

Just show up and learn on the job, ask questions, find out what everybody does.

I think that's the best way to go about it.

You could read a bunch of books on art direction or production

design, but the true experience is being there, in the department.

See how that world comes together.

It's really fascinating.

And every show is different.

Every Production Designer works differently.

Really, interesting things to observe.

You just got to show up.

That's very fun.

If you'll indulge me for a second, I have a quick story.

I was an intern a long time ago, this is back when Michigan had film incentives

and I was an intern in the art department.

And, it was one of those things where I was just doing anything, like I

would just say yes to anything, I'm jumping in to the art department.

One of the things they gave this lowly young intern was to find some artwork

that could work in a bar scene.

And I had so much fun and that peice ended up in the background,

it ended up on the walls, and I still have that painting actually.

Do you have any of those moments where you really felt like, I

helped this thing get to the screen.

know, A moment where, something that you'd been working on for a year, two

years at a time ends up in fruition?

What are some of those big success stories you feel like you've helped make happen?

I work with this amazing decorator named Kristen Peterson.

And artwork is very important to her in any project she does.

And the artwork almost has to tell a story or has to have a

connection to the character.

She's very adamant about that.

And she's got such a great eye.

After some time working with her, she allowed me to pick artwork for a set

for a character, which was so nerve wracking because this is Kristen Peterson,

okay, I gotta make sure I, do okay.

Gosh, lots of stress, lots of different options, and then presenting things

to her was very nerve wracking, but, surprisingly, she picked

out a lot of the things that I suggested and it looked really great.

So for me that's kind of one of those moments similar to yours with the artwork.

I'd imagine

too

had some big clearances.

You ever get in that situation where like you don't think it's

going to work out, they're going to have to rework the whole look.

And then, you come in and you say, actually, we locked

it down, we got the deal.

Like anything like that happened with you?

Yes on the first season of Bel Air for Peacock I was able to

negotiate this product placement deal, which product placement is

using things on camera for free,

and

the company can say that they were in the show and then we don't cover their logo.

I was able to place this very expensive stereo system in

one of the sets in Bel Air.

And it was successful for the company that provided it and

it was successful for the show.

And, NBC Universal uses that example in their kickoff meetings

for successful product placement.

Congratulations on that great work.

Jamie, I feel like, even at Grand Valley, you were pulling off crazy

logistics, you were, putting things together, putting people together.

I remember too one of your student films, it was the one where it was the

afterlife and it was an office and art

was such a big part of that.

And it, just looks so different than anything else that students

were making at the time.

But you did that through collaboration and I'd imagine lots

of work and moving people together.

Are there situations like that still today where, through your, managerial

skills and pulling things together, you're making crazy things happen that

don't look like anything else out there?

Halloween Horror Nights was a year round project, which is very funny

to me when I first started working on it because growing up in Michigan

we had Cedar Point and they had a Halloween event, but it was not that

great and it was just on weekends.

When I came out here, I was like, oh, this is a year round production

We work on it year round like soon as Halloween ends they're already

designing the new ones for the next year and they're like actual structures.

They'll survive earthquakes, built into the ground, they're cement.

It's crazy, the production that goes into this.

And so working on Horror Nights, for seven years, I learned a lot about

collaboration because even though you have a whole year, it's a very tight timeline

because there is a theme park happening.

And so you're building haunted houses in a theme park when it's not Halloween.

So you have to be very discreet.

You have to be out of guest view.

And the design timeline was very long and then all of a sudden there was like

two months where everyone was on top of each other trying to put set dressing

in, trying to do scenic and everything.

So that was a big lesson in my first couple years about collaboration, working

with others, time management, figuring out who goes what, talking to each department.

There was a lot of arguments and disagreements on who was more

important at a certain time.

And that was a crash course for me on , dealing with chaos, sometimes

intellectual property, so like a actual movie or something that we were producing

into a haunted house form, sometimes they would drop a month before opening.

And so then you have to scrap that and redo something.

That was such a crash course to me and like how not to panic and

just to roll with the punches.

And then also how to deal with a lot of different personality types.

Especially being a woman in the business.

Sometimes I had very angry men, coming after me for things.

Behind the scenes of Halloween Horror Nights is so fascinating, I always say

that they need to do a documentary on it because people do not understand

how insane that team is, how small that team is, and what they are put

through to put together some of the craziest haunted houses you'll ever see.

After coming out of that, everything I've dealt with after that is like

a breeze to me and I totally can understand people's personalities and I

don't get upset as easily because I feel like I've been through the trenches.

Thank you for sharing that.

Thinking about when I was that intern, finding that art in the art department

and I was so happy to be searching there.

If I had chosen to go into art department, that would have been

the beginning of my skills, right?

Shaping my taste and showing what deals that can be made with

artists and things like that.

It's possible now that that job could be done with artificial intelligence.

Somebody could just generate that image with a couple of prompts put that up.

What are you hearing out in the industry?

How are people dealing with this?

Are their protections?

What's going on with AI out in the world?

AI is a concern.

However, when it comes to generating artwork, AI is

pulling from something, right?

So, studios and production companies, they're so litigious these days.

They want to make sure everything that goes in front of camera is

cleared, meaning we have permission to use it as artwork in the project.

The problem with AI, since AI is pulling from unknown resources, unknown styles

of art, it's so difficult to clear.

So from what I've been experiencing these days recently is AI generated art is

frowned upon because it could be similar to a style of a pre existing artist.

It could have pulled elements from a pre existing piece of art and then the studio

or the project could get a legal claim.

To avoid that, they still want us to go through cleared prop

houses individual artists to get that actual signature signed off.

I know AI is a concern, but I don't think artwork in film gonna be an issue.

Jamie, what's the pulse on your teams?

Are people scared of it, interested in it?

Are people using it or banning it?

What's happening out there?

I mean, from my standpoint and from, most of my colleagues I'm

against AI in creative works.

It's pulling stuff from off the internet.

So in a sense, it's stealing artwork.

I'm a firm believer that as a creative, the best forms of art and

creative ideas come from people, from humans, from experience.

Beyond protecting jobs and everything, I just think it's

lazy and I'm just very against it.

I know that the studio is not for it either.

I hear the conversation on social media all the time being

like, look, we can make films.

It's look how realistic this looks.

And then I look at it and I'm like, this looks like crap.

This doesn't look good.

I think there's so many flaws.

I think maybe to the average viewer, it looks really real, but I think

from an artistic viewpoint, you can call out AI imaging in a hot second.

I've unfortunately been in a position where I've had a student turn in

artwork and I've been like, this is AI generated and let me zoom in and show

you what AI can't do that you as a human can do if you, put your skills to it.

It's a touchy subject for a lot of people, but in my opinion,

it's non negotiable for me.

Don't believe in using AI, especially in the art department.

Think AI in technology maybe can use as a tool to help humanity,

but when it comes to replacing jobs

I don't think you can mimic a human being.

While we're on the topic of labor and jobs, JiL, there's some

recent contract negotiations.

What happened with those?

What's going on?

Recently the IATSE contract was up for negotiation and that contract

was ratified without a strike.

And we got some gains from it.

So this new contract, is called the Basic Agreement for IATSE.

These are all the craftspeople involved with making the projects.

So what we gained in this new round of negotiations in this contract

was a wage minimum increase over the next three years, increased pension

contributions, and then also additional contributions to our health plan.

Juneteenth is now a union recognized holiday for IATSE, and then we also

got some AI language in there too, because we still don't know what it

is and where it's going yet, there was some language added to this agreement.

The agreement says a committee will be formed to develop work training

programs that can provide skills trained in the use of AI systems.

But with that being said, these AI systems, they will not replace a person.

An AI system will be operated by a union craftsperson, but will not replace a union

craftsperson, and then no employee shall be subjected to being scanned by AI for

their visual or vocal likeness for use in a motion picture without their consent.

Which I know SAG AFTRA, which is the Actors Union, that was a big concern.

I'm not quite sure what it says in their agreement, their agreement language

is a little different but I honestly don't think it's a big concern for us.

Huge gains in protections.

That's really good news that you were able to come to that agreement.

Let's get back in time now for a second.

We're at Grand Valley walking by the pond, right?

You see Freshman Jamie, Freshman JiL, and they're thinking about

going into the art department, right?

What advice do you have for that young JiL, young Jamie?

I would say at least knowing my career path now I'm not sure if Grand Valley

offered these classes at the time or still do, or if I would have had to go elsewhere

to learn these skills, but I think there's certain programs that I really would

have told freshman Jamie that she needs to go learn such as SketchUp or AutoCAD

or learning hand drafting, things like that I think are very beneficial programs

that depending on where you go in the art department for some it's a necessity.

I would just really push little Jamie to find those programs.

When I was in school, I knew I had to learn other programs that maybe I

wasn't getting from the film program.

I ended up getting a minor in advertising only because I wanted to take their

classes on how to use Photoshop and stuff.

I already had a little bit of foresight on that and that was really helpful that I

knew Creative Cloud once graduating, but.

I would say take it a step further and go more into like architectural

programs and things like that.

JiL, you and freshman JiL are hanging out.

What are you talking about?

What are you telling her?

She should study classes, clubs.

Um, take a Photoshop class.

That was one of my biggest hangups, and Professor Kim Roberts will laugh

at me when she listens to this.

Starting out in the art department, just tweaking some stuff in Photoshop,

like changing a photo that's gonna be in the background to black and white,

and all I could do was open Photoshop.

That's as far as I got.

I'm kicking myself that I didn't take a Photoshop class.

Not even an introductory one.

I don't know why, but I didn't think I needed it ever.

And then of course wish I would have taken Illustrator.

That would have been helpful.

Would have learned how to read a tape measure.

That would have been helpful.

I don't think it existed then, but Google SketchUp.

It's like Vectorworks or a CAD program, but in Google.

I see a lot of people in my department use a lot.

If we had our time machine, I would go back freshman year,

kick myself to Photoshop class.

The Essential Art Department, Jamie, was that a tool you can talk about?

Yeah.

So The Essential Art Department, otherwise known as TEAD is a business that me and

actually one of the art directors that I talked about earlier on, who took me

under her wing, Brandy Creason, she's my business partner in this endeavor.

And so during the pandemic, I was laid off, she was

furloughed, we were depressed.

Brandy was already teaching at the Art Institute out here.

She was teaching drafting and art direction and everything.

And so she's always wanted to be a teacher on the side

and . she's an amazing teacher.

Like, she taught me how to hand draft.

I didn't know how to hand draft before I started working at Universal.

And she's such a good teacher.

So during the pandemic, she came to me and was like, I've always had this

dream of teaching through my own school.

And I was like, that sounds great for you.

You should do that.

You go ahead and do that.

And she was like, no, I think this is a great time to do it.

People are out of work.

People who are graduating college or in school are struggling

to figure out what they want.

How are they going to keep learning?

And they want to hear from industry professionals.

And everything's online now.

Zoom really popped off during the pandemic.

I don't think I ever used Zoom before then.

And she's like, we can teach online.

And she kept saying, we.

We.

And I was like, I don't know what this we is about.

I'm not a teacher.

And she really convinced me to do this with her.

I had, I still to this day suffer from insane imposter syndrome.

So I was just like, you have 40 years of experience.

I have nothing.

But

I

went into business with her.

We started The Essential Art Department.

It's an online school.

It started off teaching students.

One class.

It was just taught by me and Brandy called Art Department Crash

Course, which basically was just an overview of the art department.

You want to get into our department, you're interested in it, let me give

you a ton of information in six weeks online and see if you still like it.

And then from there, I just slowly grew.

It's been like three years now.

We expanded past the art department and just are entertainment crafts.

We have a bunch of different industry professionals that teach part-time for us.

We seek out friends or colleagues that are passionate about sharing

their knowledge and skills.

All online so that anyone in the world can take it.

We've had students from India, Jamaica London all take our classes

and they're different subjects.

So I have, Justin Martin is one of my teachers.

He's an amazing Art Director in the themed entertainment space.

He's worked for Disney, Universal, Meow Wolf, all of them.

And he teaches a course on what it's like designing for themed

entertainment and theme parks.

I have another instructor, Ted Doherty, who is the guy in the industry

of horror and haunt experiences.

And so he teaches a writing course on how to come up with your own haunted house

concepts and how to pitch those to people.

Cause here in California, I know it sounds weird, but we love

Halloween and there's a haunted house every five minutes from here.

Every company wants to have a haunted house out here.

And then I still have my course.

We have a SketchUp course.

So if you want to learn SketchUp, I have an instructor who he

teaches you SketchUp Online.

So really it's just become this entertainment industry learning platform,

where people of all backgrounds, all skill levels, are welcome to come, take a class.

Maybe it's something that they're really passionate about and they really

want to learn, or they just want to dip their toes into something and

they don't know if they want to take a whole college course on it or anything.

And it's really about community and trying to bring people in the industry

together who want to teach people because I wish I had this when I was younger.

I wish I had something where I could be like, let me go take these

classes on this online school because maybe my film major isn't providing

those classes and that's okay.

But now there's somewhere else I can go and take those classes,

and learn from someone in the industry, and that person in the industry can

tell me what they think I need to learn, because they're currently

working in the industry, and so their opinion is the most important.

What is happening in the industry now that I

should know about.

How can people find you?

Where, is that a website?

Yes, the website, www.

theessentialartdepartment.

com.

We're also on Instagram, LinkedIn.

Facebook, all of them.

So we're constantly coming out with new classes constantly

trying to get new ones online.

I like to listen to my students and ask them what they want to learn,

and then I try and find someone who will be a good teacher for them.

can't wait to dive into some of that.

Now, JiL you've also created a brand new tool that is something

that's not out there anywhere else.

Tell us about Lights Camera Art.

So Lights Camera Art is a print on demand artwork licensing company

for film and television use.

We have a bunch of different artists from different backgrounds, different

ethnicities, different identities who give us permission to use their artwork

for film and television licensing.

You can go on our website and type in something that you're looking for.

And we offer five different sizes for each piece of art.

You order it through us.

We send it to our designated printer in Studio City, California and productions

can just pick up the artwork that's been printed from our printer in Studio City.

That is incredible.

So that's LightsCameraArt.com.

I'm scrolling through the website here.

There is so many colors, so many different styles.

How did this come to be?

Where did you find all these different artists?

What's the story?

So during the Writers Guild and the Actors Strike, a lot of my friends

and colleagues were out of work.

And so to keep in touch, we would have weekly Zooms And two of my co workers and

friends that I work with a lot we came up with this idea Because working in the

set decoration department, we get the opportunity to meet a bunch of artists

and use their artwork and we felt like this contact list of artists, this

massive amount of talent that didn't have the tools to email their stuff to

a Set Decorator or Production Designer.

So we created this hub.

of pre existing artwork that's in a digital format for Set Decorators

and Production Designers to shop from to use in their sets, whether

it's commercial TV or a feature film.

That is so cool.

LightsCameraArt.

com Thank you so much for putting that together.

I hope lots of people use it.

As we, get close to wrapping up here.

JiL, when you're in those, big high power meetings, you're talking

millions of dollars on the line.

Does anything from Grand Valley resonate with, how you think now?

Any lessons you learned?

Maybe it's just a quote from a professor a while ago, what is

something that, bolsters who you are today from Grand Valley?

When I graduated from Grand Valley State University and got my foot in the door

in the industry and this, was happening to a lot of us Grand Valley alum.

We were getting so many compliments on our work ethic.

And I feel like since Grand Valley gave us that hands on training, we weren't afraid.

So I was very thankful for Grand Valley State University to provide all that

hands on training for us, because I don't think I would have gotten those

compliments on set if I hadn't gone there.

One thing that I, always remember from Professor Kim Roberts, I

was having a tough semester,

my classes, they weren't falling into place, I wasn't

on what I considered my track.

Things weren't panning out for me, and I was complaining about all

these other classes I had to take outside of film and video classes.

And she said, use it.

And that stopped me in my tracks.

I'm like, what?

What do you mean use it?

She's like, study your astronomy professor.

Build a character out of him.

Maybe you'll use astronomy in a storyline for a story you create.

So that really changed my perspective on how to view these other classes

that were outside of the classroom.

the major and that was really helpful because I'm able to kind of use

that perception in projects now.

when PAs in our department are getting really frustrated because they're not

moving up the ladder fast enough, or they're not working on the task that they

want to work on, and I just, repeat what Kim Roberts told me, which is use it.

That is so cool.

Because.

That same lesson she taught me as well, like as, I think it was even before I was

a freshman and I think they were pitching Grand Valley and she said something in

the effect of, you want to come to this liberal arts school because you don't

want to just make movies about movies.

And then from that point on, I was like, all right, I'm

going to take all the classes.

I'm into the theme.

I'm into the gen eds.

Let's soak it all in.

So I, I feel that for sure.

Super valuable info.

Jamie, reaching back into that, blue Grand Valley heart you got.

What are the things that gave you the platform to be who you are today?

I would say two things.

One thing that always stuck with me was Professor Frank Boring.

He was a tough one.

He was a tough cookie in his classes.

He terrified me because he used to count how many times you said

like or um when you talked to him.

But he really stuck with me because he made me think, and something that he said

once was that it doesn't matter how great you think your script or story is, if you

let someone else read it and they don't understand it, then it doesn't matter.

But that always stuck to me just in any creative endeavor I do, is I always think

that peer review and criticism are so important as a creative person, especially

when you're in art department, that I take that wisdom and win everything I do.

I think I made something and it looks amazing and it makes total

sense to me and the story is very clear and then I show it to my peers

and they have a bunch of questions and they don't think it's flowing.

I can get offended by that because I can be like, well, you're wrong.

Or I can say, well, you're right because it doesn't matter because

I am making artwork or something for the public, for other people.

So other people's input is actually way more important

than how great I think it is.

So shout out to Frank Boring.

That was always really good advice.

He was using it in the sense of a script, but I use it in like

a bunch of different things.

And I, something I tell my students a lot too.

And then something that I'm very grateful that I did at Grand Valley was join GVTV.

I did it as a freshman because I was just nervous and very shy at the time.

And I was like, that's a fun club, you get to make television shows.

I met some long lasting friends, but it really empowered me to take on

leadership roles, and push limits with things that maybe I didn't have

the opportunity to do in classrooms.

Being a part of a campus funded television station, you do whatever

you want, and you can go to student council and ask for money because you

want to do this fun thing, and they will maybe give you money for it.

And I got to do a lot of things and push a lot of boundaries and discover things

that I could do because of that club that I couldn't do in the classroom.

Me and one of my best friends Bobby Nielsen, he was , my partner in crime.

We were like, we should go live.

Grand Valley television at the time was all prerecorded.

You uploaded it.

And And it sounds so funny now because it's 2024 and like

live is just the standard.

But we were like, we should figure out how to go live on television.

And we asked for money and we did it.

And that was something that I'm very grateful I had the opportunity

to do at Grand Valley Television.

Being able to be the Station Manager and learn how to lead a group of people

and deal with a lot of personalities.

And I look very fondly back on GVTV.

Maybe the content wasn't great, maybe it was very silly, low quality stuff,

but we got to do whatever we wanted.

And we got to play around with things that we didn't get to

do in the classroom as much.

So I always think that looking for those opportunities, whatever is available

at Grand Valley, I know there's even more clubs than there were before.

Those are great ways to meet friends and see what else you guys can do.

And that really shaped who I was in this industry of being like, look at all

these things that I've done in the past.

I can, I can do them now.

So true, so true.

Any last thoughts, advice things on your mind you want to tell

students before we off here?

We talked about it briefly at the beginning when I was talking about my

weird career journey and I mentioned burnout and career changes and stuff.

I think that's something I wish I heard from some people in the industry early

on, is that career changes and shifts in your title or where you're at, and

parts of the industry are very normal.

And way more people go through it than you think.

I talked about, Imposter syndrome is real.

And I think the best advice I can give people is you gotta go with

your gut and what makes you happy.

And not think, well, I should be this title by now, or I should be in a

union by now, or something like that.

I never went the union route, but felt like I should have.

But that's just me.

Like I, that didn't work out for me personally.

That's not where I wanted to go.

That's where other people go and I'm happy for them.

Same with titles.

Like when I decided to take a step down or away from a position, that's very normal.

And I think you just kind of need that reassurance sometimes that it's okay.

Just do what makes you happy.

Cause at the end of the day, that's way more important than any title

or, anything else in this industry, because otherwise you're just going

to wake up one day and hate your job, and you don't want to hate your job.

You want to love your job.

It's okay.

That's a very important message, I think.

Uh, JiL, any last thoughts, things you want to tell the

the young people out there?

I second, Jamie your career's going to shift, the industry's going to

shift, you just got to flow with it.

If you got to work in a different department, you're going to

work in a different department.

But it's, totally fine.

There's no real timeline on anything, either.

I've worked with Assistant Art Directors who got bumped up to

Art Director after two shows.

I've worked with Assistant Art Directors who never bumped up to Art Director.

There's no real timeline for anything.

There's no expectations.

Just show up and do a good job and learn and ask questions.

Well, Jamie Bartkowicz JiL Szewski thank you so much for spending time with us and

congratulations on your great careers.

Can't wait to see everything you do.

Thank you.

Thank you!

That's it for this episode of Alumni Live, The Podcast.

Careers in the Art Department.

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Alumni Live: The Podcast.

Subscribe to our podcast, to hear more from our alumni across the industry.

Check out Alumni Live on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

For more conversations and networking.

Let us know what topics you want to hear our alumni talk about the

Grand Valley State University Film Video Alumni Network is here for

you, and we're glad that you're here.

Thank you for listening.