London

Our trip to London was invaluable. In three days, we visited 6 different companies in the Visual Effects industry; The Mill, Cinesite, Double Negative, MPC, Escape Studios and Smoke and Mirrors. We gathered so much valuable information that we couldn't possibly fit it into a 20 minute presentation. It has been great for us to find out first hand what these companies are looking for, and will no doubt help us when we come to apply for jobs. We found that everyone we met was more than happy to spend time with us, and we were with them for up to 2 hours each. We were given tours and all of our questions were answered.

I hope the presentation gets across how enthusiastic we were about this trip and how passionate we are about the industry. We have tailored the brief to fit ourselves so hope it will work ok!

18/02/12

Plan for the presentation.


1. Research overview
                                   Freelance
                                   Company (film/adverts)
                                   Training

2. VFX Industry Introduction
                                   Rapid growth
                                   Tax breaks
                                   Soho location
                                   Technological development
                                   Currency
                                   Reputation
                                   Advanced skills
                                   Budgets
                                   Employment
                                   Links with Education, Government etc

3. Customer Relationship
                                     Bidding
                                     Length
                                     Planning

4. Employment
                                    Contracts/Freelance
                                    Networking
                                    Culture/etiquete
                                    Training
                                    Social aspect
                                    Generaist V Specialist

5. What it means to us
                                    Showreels
                                    Tailoring to fit company
                                    Networking
                                    Running
                                    Internships

6. Training
                                    Education (uni?)
                                    Escape studios
                                    Company initial training
                                    Personal professional development

Others

                   +        Different internal setups (grouped by discipline/show/department)
               
                   +        Global Industry, Future, new tachnologies. basic jobs moving abroad.

                   +        Asking for interview first was a bad idea. Very accomodating. Bigger tours

15/02/2012

On arrival in London we have completed our first interview at The Mill. We spoke with Thomas Knight, a recruiter. He was very insightful and great to talk to. At 3pm we will be meeting with Cinesite for a tour and possibly a meeting.

I have also had confirmation from Ben Owen so we will be visiting MPC on Thursday at 4pm.

10/02/12

Yesterday we sat down as a group to discuss a strategy for the interview at MPC. We grouped a list of questions Joanna and myself came up with into their seperate areas, ie. Clients, personal, VFX industry.

We also delegated roles. I was to work on a consent form for the subject to sign and also email Mike Press about our absences in the coming week.
Charlie will be in charge of the creation of the presentation.
Jo is organising all of the equipment we will need in London (audio recording, any cameras etc)
And Daniel will be taking the lead during the MPC interview.

Here is the consent form:

Let me know if you think i've missed out anything!
The following interview is primary research for the ‘Design in the Market’ module. The information collected will be used to create a presentation as part of the assessment process to be delivered to a small audience. Any future use of the findings will be subject to ...the consent of the participant.
This interview is confidential and for educational use only. Sensitive information divulged will not be shared or published on the web. As it is mandatory that we keep a blog for this module, reference may be made to our meeting, but nothing confidential will be contained within.  Should we record the meeting, that recording will only be used as reference when we compile and create our presentation. This will be deleted once it has served its purpose. Any photographs will only be taken with the consent of the participant, and will only be used for the presentation and/or blogs. We understand the confidential nature of the business and will not do anything to compromise this.

I have read and understood the above information, and I consent to participate in this interview by signing below.

08/02/12

Today we recieved a half hour talk from a graphic designer, talking about general things we should do in life.

I have also recieved confirmation that we will be going to visit MPC on Thursday the 16th of February. The flights are booked!

Also, i made business cards last night. VistaPrint are the biggest sneaky ripoffs ever, i am sad about that. If these cards aren't nice i'm going to cry.

1/02/12

Yesterday we had a lecture from a lady from Craft Scotland. It was interesting, and i'm sure very useful for the other disciplines in the room, but unfortunately not so helpful for animation. The question was asked and they don't work with animators. Since we're not creating a product to sell, they're not for us. She said they might look at using animation for advertisments in the future, but no doubt that would be through a company, not a university student.

The previous lecture from the childrens illustrator/textile designer was much the same, interesting but not useful for myself and my course. Hopefully some of the lectures coming up will be more helpful.

1.

So, we've started a new module entitled Design in the market. My team consists of Jo, Charlie, Daniel and myself and we have chosen to look at a VFX company, which we will then deliver a 20 minute presentation on. To start we compiled a list of appropriate companies and divided them between ourselves, then went on to send initial emails stating our intentions.

Thus far, we have had a few replies.

I heard back from MPC http://www.moving-picture.com/ and Daniel from Framestore http://framestore.com/ and both seem very obliging.

MPC are very interesting for me so i'm glad they replied. Also i haven't heard back from The Mill as of yet which is surprising seeing as they have good connections with DJCAD. I fully understand how busy they are though and not everyone wants to be pestered by students!

Since we must conduct an interview, we are finding out which dates suit the companies best for us to visit their Studios in London. Even if we don't interview them both, it's a great opportunity for us to get out there, meet people and make contacts. We can try to make this module useful for us.


Brand in the hand.
I need business cards.