Do you have enough motivation?
As everything in this world VFX Industry has many paths through which you can enter it. This is only one of them. My personal story. I hope it will inspire someone. Even one person will do so lets begin :)
I have never really watched movies as a kid. I watched some tv from time to time, never thinking about behind the scenes. I wanted to be an alkoholic in the kindergarden (true story, I didn't know the meaning of this word i suppose), than magician, than fireman. When I was about 15 I wanted to be a lawyer. This has changed a few more times later on, but never to get into the subject of filmmaking.
Until I was 18. That's when you need to make some important decisions. But also that's when you shouldn't do it. Would you agree?
My final year of highschool redefined everything in my life. I met some new people, who were into filmmaking. Who had a camera, who had some ideas. That's when it all started. One day our teacher asked us to make a promo movie for our school. It was suppose to be this boring ad with alot of information about classes and sport activities etc. Well we didn't want to do it this way. We knew that it wouldn't be interesting for younger people for whom it was supposed to be made.
It took us a moment to figure out something else. We came up with this crazy idea of movie about Alien Invasion. It was supposed to be made as Alien POV footage. And we did it just like we planned. This Alien walked around our school and scaned everything. From classes, to teachers. It was analysing and sending info into space. It was simple and entertaining enough to get some attention and it started sort of tradition.
One year later we had to beat it. We had to make something bigger and better. So we did 45 minutes film. The story was even crazier. It was the story about school in apocalyptic world in which the only safe place was our school building which had the only source of pure water. This idea was so big, that we even managed to get one of the most famous polish actors to take part in it. (He played a villain, who wanted to take control of the school, making surviving students and teachers his slaves.)
We made it work and this was the first time I truly felt what I wanted to do.
But knowing what the goal is, is only the easiest part of every plan isn't it?
I live in Poland. There were no vfx schools at that time. When I discovered that filmmaking and vfx are my dream even the internet wasn't as common in Poland as it is now. It was hard to put your hand on any usable info, so I've searched wherever I could. This Apokalipto movie we did needed some VFX work after all. It had green screens, it had CGI building of our school. We wouldn't screw it up.
So I found videocopilot.net and learned what was After Effects. I spent about 2 months watching everything I could to make greenscreen change to CGI bacground. Those were very first steps I made, and I can honestly say, that if not for Andrew Kramer and his VideoCoPilot I wouldn't be where I am now. But this was only the begining. After this highschool movie - which was kind of success. Me and my friends had to go our ways. We had to go to Univercity.
Unfortunatelly my revelation came a little late, so I couldn't go to film school which had some hard stantards. It was to late for that and I couldn't waste a year doing nothing. I went to study polish language and - later - journalism. Through this time I kept learning about VFX, looking for some new software, skilling After Effects and making some clips with the camer I got for Christmas from my parents.
On my second year of journalism I could honestly say, that my skills have improved. I made this:
I still couldn't find my way into the film industry. By this time I knew how to edit movies in Adobe Premier, how to use more complicated cameras, how to edit sound in Adobe Audition and how to make VFX in After Effects. My skillset grew and I felt that I needed to do something, to move another step forward.
This was how everything changed.
Not always have I believed in myself. It came after this big film in highschool. I knew that If I made that film work, I could do whatever I wanted. Well at least I believed I had to try. I didn't want to look for this boring job everyone took as first their first. I didn't want to work at McDonalds or as a waiter. I wanted more and it was a risk. What if I failed? What if I wasnt good enough after all? Any job as a first job is a good start isnt it? But something told me, that this might work and I needed to try.
So there was this one day my friend told me "Im about to move to Warsaw and try to make a living there, why don't you use upcoming 3 months of summer to make your demo reel and try to send it here and there to see what happens." I though about it and decided this is it. I wanted to do it. After 3 months my first demo was ready. It had just some simple vfx shots I made for my short movies or for fun. Feel free to laugh :)
Not long time later I jumped into train and after 7 hours trip I was in Warsaw. My friend picked me up and helped prepare my CV and demo for people to see. This same evening we wrote some emails and sent it to few bigger VFX companies in Warsaw. From this moment I had to wait.
My phone rang the next morning.
I couldn't believe it. One of those companies invited me to talk to them. The next day my friend drove me to them and just like that I got my first job. You can only imagine how happy I was. "They took me after seeing this shit of a showreel I made?". This must be a dream - I thought. I needed a few hours to believe it and to start thinking more clearly. And so...
It was time to feel some fear.
Yea... Fear. I was 22 - 3 years into my Univercity. 7 hours from home. It was friday and I was supposed to start on monday. It ment I had to go home, tell my parents and brother that I'm moving out, pack my bags and go back to Warsaw. I was scared. I was in doubt. And I cried all night.
The next day my parents said they would drive me there. I was lucky enough to have a friend who said it was cool to stay with him for a few months so they were calmer then I was.
My dad saw that I struggled and he just said:
He was right.
It's been almost 6 years since I'm in Warsaw now. Just after 1 year of being there I had a new demo reel to show to my parents. This one helped me get into another vfx firm. Better one. The one in which I feel just like home.
Since over 4 years I've been woking in one place getting to know more and more about VFX, about software. Watching directors, editors, colorists, producers at their work. Learning. I've been working on high end commercials, on game cinematics. I've been making my own viral videos just for fun.
So, how do you get a job in VFX industry?
For me it was just some passion and alot of motivation. I knew that was what I loved and I knew I must do everything I could to make it happen. It was alot of work and some luck aswell. It was this stupid highschool movie with this big Polish actor in it what made an impression on the people who watched my first showreel 6 years ago.
If you want to do it - whatever it is - you need to keep trying. You need to practice, even by making some stupid videos with your friends. You never know what will change your life forever - even if it sound like cliche.
PS: The first picture of this post is from a set of Anti Cancer Campaign on which I was one of on set vfx supervisors. You can watch it here. Enjoy :)