My Approach to The Animated Feature and Graphic Novel Workshop

Nothing shapes the identity of a teacher more than their approach.

When I was a student (which, I still am, and will continue to be forever) this was what I wanted to know most about my instructors. How will they approach me and my path into this subject? Curriculum is part of that approach, but still just one piece underneath its umbrella.

So as I finally share with the world this Workshop that I’ve been putting so much of my life into, it’s only natural that it’s the first, most important thing I want to talk about; my approach.

I’m coming up on my 18th year of working in this industry, since my first internship at Disney Feature Animation back in 2007. And since then, I’ve been through an array of spaces, sold TV shows and Movie pitches, spearheaded creative projects at big studios, etc. And with it comes all the people, including, yes, executives/corporate administrators of all types, that are purportedly there to help shape creative projects.

Some were wonderful, and I will always be grateful for their championing belief in me.

Others, as anyone could have guessed, not so much. It’s a truism that we’re so familiar with; the clueless and/or over-confident-yet-completely-terrible executive making fear-based decisions. And truisms are made from truth.

I have had my share dealing with them. But even in those not so great experiences, I’ve found that I had been gleaning some invaluable lessons all along:

All the ways in which a project should never be nurtured.

And all ways you should never communicate with a creator developing a project.

I know what I am not, and don’t want to be.

I am not here to tell you how you “should” tell your story as some Story Guru.

I am certainly not your executive or agent or higher-up that only sees your project as viable if it sells and gives me money.

Instead, I found myself asking, how would I define my style of approach for this workshop?

I came up with a few titles;

Story therapist - (I was actually going to go with this, and it still feels fairly accurate, but kind of limiting in scope)

Story Witch - (I considered Story Wizard first, but wasn’t crazy about the “know it all/jack of all trades” vibe, and liked the tinge of treachery in ”Witch”)

Story Energy Healer - (LOL. But also because I do find that story work is about correct energetics more than anything)

And landed simply on Guide.

There’s something about the term Guide that negates the superiority of “Teacher”.

After all, can anyone “teach” someone to become more of their authentic self?

Teaching connotates a certain conditioning. While Guide evokes those who open pathways forward.

I like the feeling of openness, and the possibility of flexibility, of Guide.

A guide is defined by their principles. Or in other words, their beliefs.

Here are mine, that shape my approach:

I believe in creators owning their own projects fully. (I believe that the subjugation of creativity to the hands of corporations is feudalism in its contemporary form: “Dear intellectual Property Landlord, I will sacrifice my life and my most precious god-given gifts to you. Will you please let me till your land?” I believe most have been conditioned to see this as the only way to have a creative life, and in that, the corporations succeeded- for now.)

My goal is to help you own your story more powerfully.

To say what you want to say more unapologetically.

Because in the coming age, I believe it is only the genuine, truthful, and realest of love that a creator has for their own work that will be the vehicle that brings it to reality, not the mental acrobatics of “But can I sell this?”

That deepening of love that you have for your project = my goal.

My goal is not to make your story better from my own personal subjective point of view.

You can dress a story up with all the “best ideas” via what outer voices say, but if those ideas are ones that take it further away from the heart of the creator, it is, in my opinion, a dead piece of work.

I believe that only you have the key to making your own story exactly what it was destined to be.

No one can make this story better than you, and I am just here to help clear your path, and also help you find some extra magic to sprinkle onto it.

Funny enough, the times when I felt most creatively unblocked -and felt the most profound clarity of vision- was never when sharing my project with so-called industry experts or gurus. It was with what our secular world would categorize as spiritual guides.

Setting aside whether you believe these esoteric worldviews are real or not, I think there is one

mechanism found in those intimate (and if lucky, sacred) interfacings that is universally real: the ability for the guide to be containers of emotion without judgement.

In my experience, it is within the protection of these spaces, when one can unravel what is blocking them in their creativity and arrive at a real, joyous epiphany. This is something that I am carrying over from those who I have learned from, and my own practice as well.

If you are an artist, I am sure you’ve had those moments, where you figure it out as you are verbalizing what's inside you for the first time. “I feel like I am blocked.. Because of THIS[Arrives at Epiphany!].” How do I create the space in which that happens? It’s what’s on my mind even as I write this now.

- Minkyu

To learn more about The Animated Feature and Graphic Novel Workshop,

visit: https://outoftowncomics.com/workshop

or: https://www.instagram.com/_minkyulee/