Chloe Turner is one of two salutatorians of the Rio Rancho Cyber Academy Class of 2022.
Chloe Turner
Courtesy photo
Here, she answers Observer questions about her high school experience and plans for the future.
Q: What’s next for you?
A: After high school I’m going to UNM to study film with a focus on animation. While in college, I’m going to continue working at Slice and Dice Pizzeria, and when I graduate, I will make cartoons. I’m hoping that with Netflix studios having a location in Albuquerque, perhaps I could get an internship there while I’m in college at UNM.
Q: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
A: In 10 years, I see myself being the creator of my own adult animated comedy shows. I want to do something comparable to Seth MacFarlane, Olan Rogers, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, Adam Reed or Justin Roiland, just to name a few.
However, I want to be far more involved in the art side of the show than most of these examples are, even as the animation studio grows. I truly believe that this is the perfect career for me. It’s the ideal combination of three things I love: drawing, comedy and storytelling. Plus animation opens a whole world of possibilities for visual storytelling as compared to live-action media, though I feel that the possibilities are currently not fully realized by the adult animated comedy industry.
Even the simplest choices in art can tell the biggest stories. For instance, the film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” was just beautifully made. The use of cell shading, the consistently vibrant color palette, the line-art, the stippling and the lack of motion blur are all amazing choices that give the art a unique and comic book feel.
The artistic stylization itself tells a story, which engrosses the audience in the story on both the dialectical level and the visual level.
So I want my shows to be very detailed and impactful visually, so that my audience gets to have an all-around great experience every time they watch an episode. I’m especially excited to have very detailed background art, seeing as backgrounds are very fun to me, as well as a lot of different lighting changes on the characters to make the characters’ interaction with their environment more realistic and interesting to watch.
Furthermore, I really like using principles of graphic design to make the story give off the right visual message. So I want to pay close attention to tiny details such as slight variations in the overall saturation of a scene or how much space on a frame that a character takes up based on placement of the “camera.” When combining subtle visual elements such as this, the show will elegantly weave into a work of art more than just a TV show.
Q: What has remained the best incentive/program to keep you interested in school and graduating?
A: I’m very passionate about my future, so the main incentive keeping me dedicated to doing well in school is that school is one of the steps necessary in achieving my dreams.
Q: In what class did you learn the most, as you envision your career?
A: In all my years of taking social studies classes, I think those have become my favorite classes. In ninth grade, I took an AP Human Geography class and I got to do a project where I planned out my own city. I love doing research and planning for things, so this project and the class as a whole was super cool for me because it showed me how to utilize my research skills in a way that allows me to learn more comprehensively and create better quality work.
This way of learning has stuck with me and continued to develop throughout all of my Social Studies classes in high school. I think this has shaped who I am and how I learn, which will continue to help me in all aspects of my life.
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, and who gave it to you?
A: My mom always says “If you can’t laugh about it, then you can’t get over it.” I like that advice. Humans are far less productive when their morale is low, so the most efficient way to respond to failures or just sucky things in general is to try to laugh about it. Spending time feeling bad about things isn’t really worth the time, so as hard as it is sometimes, the best way to respond is to try to turn things into a joke.
Q: What’s your best advice for underclassmen?
A: Try to find your passion. When you have passion for your future, then you have something to work for. All the nights spent writing essays and all the mornings spent tiredly getting ready to go to school will be a lot easier if there’s a reason behind it. I think that life is pretty much meaningless without passion for something.
Q: If you could make one change in Rio Rancho Public Schools, what would it be?
A: I really like having used Edgenuity for high school. The hybrid system of my school has allowed me to have a job while going to school, and it has allowed me to be successful throughout middle and high school despite not being a very big fan of socializing. So I think more schools should have options for Edgenuity courses.
I like that with COVID, more opportunities for Edgenuity and hybrid learning have opened up for other schools in the district, so I hope that continues even after COVID is no longer an issue because I think a lot of students would benefit from having options like this for their schooling.
Q: Who or what played the biggest role in your success?
A: My teachers and my parents have been really helpful all throughout my schooling up to this point. Plus a good mentality plays a big role in success. No matter how hard things are, the best thing to do is keep trying to laugh about it so you can keep going. That mentality has gone a long way to keeping me sane and keeping me working hard all throughout high school.
A good joke helps everything. And if for some reason a good joke doesn’t help something, then clearly it wasn’t good enough of a joke, so just try to be funnier.
