After our short Summer Break the ACCESS:VFX podcast is back!

In episode 43 we catch up with our Chicago chapter and welcome Sandrine Gaillot (Immigration Attorney) to the pod. Ever thought about working in the USA or Canada and don’t know where to start? This session, recorded with a live, virtual audience will answer your questions on the VISA process and more!!

Sandrine leads her own US/Canada immigration practice, and collaborates with Exeo Attorneys, a Montreal-based boutique immigration firm, where she leads the US immigration practice.

http://uscis.gov/

http://canada.ca/

https://www.exeo.ca/

In advance of our link up with the Film & TV Charity for the Spider-Man: Behind the Web tweet-along and fundraiser on 6th August we gathered industry participants to discuss their involvement with the event.

The charity was founded in 1924 and supports all those who work behind the scenes, from production and post, creators and crew, through distribution, and exhibition, including a 24/7 confidential support line for anyone in the industry.

We all know that the current pandemic has had a devastating impact on the industry – in April the Film & TV Charity gave over £3.1M in support grants that helped nearly 2,000 people working behind the scenes in UK film, TV and cinema in urgent need due to the Covid-19.

The crisis isn’t over and the charity is now fundraising to be able to support those worst hit, and most at risk of leaving the industry, especially the industry’s young and diverse talent.

If you can, please text FILM to 70507 to donate £5 to the Film & TV Charity. You will be charged £5 plus standard rate message and the charity receives 100% of the donation.

Guests:

Julian Foddy - VFX Supervisor, ILM

Alexis Wajsbrot - VFX Supervisor, Framestore

Paul Fulker - Creative Director, Proof Inc.

James Burr - Lead Visualisation Artist at The Third Floor, Inc.

Welcome to Episode 41 of the ACCESS:VFX podcast! A 'new chapter' special. We have historically spoken at great length about a West Coast Chapter or LA chapter of ACCESS:VFX, and often those conversations started off with best intentions and then slowly lost traction.

We are pleased and proud to announce that ACCESS:VFX West Coast launches today with Framestore's Kathleen Ruffalo and The Mills Ann Hoang at the helm! Along with membership from Luma Pictures, Zoic Studios, Fuse FX and Pixomondo, exciting times lie ahead!

Guests on this pod:

Kathleen Ruffalo - Recruitment Manager - USA, Framestore

Ann Hoang - Head of People and Culture - LA, The Mill

Brooke Brigham - Head of Recruitment - LA and NY, Zoic Studios

Katie Godwin - Senior VFX Recruiter, Luma Pictures

With the recent news of significant numbers of industry redundancies as well as the continued furloughing of many members of the visual effects community, we wanted to pull together an episode that focusses on offering support to both those people and offering hope to emerging talent who may have questions about the stability of the VFX industry.

On this episode, we assembled a core team from our A:VFX membership who offer advice and provide some comfort during this difficult time for a lot of people.

On the episode we have:

Will Foulds - People & Talent Advisor, Blue Zoo Animation Studio

Tory Wire - Head of People, Union VFX

Mark Flanagan - Education Partner Manager, Epic Games

Andy Mead - Senior Recruiter, Foundry

Lucy Salter - Artist Manager, DNEG

Saint John Walker - Deputy Dean, Escape Studios

Amy Smith - Head of Talent, Framestore

Saint's book recommendations and other resources:

Deep Work, Cal Newport

How We Learn, Benedict Carey

Atomic Habits, James Clear

Understanding How We Learn, Yana Weinstein & Megan Sumeracki

Steal Like An Artist, Austin Kleon

On episode 39 of the ACCESS:VFX podcast we welcome back our Industry Connect team for the second part to the conversation we kicked off in part-one with black and ethnically diverse members of the visual effects and animation community, responding to recent events and sharing their experiences of racism working in visual effects and animation. We welcome back Nene Parsotam as co-host for this episode, and...

Kenny Addeh (Motion Designer)

Prince Yiadom (Compositor)

Anne Akande (Production)

Hannah Wong (Animator)

Shanae Bedford (Marketing)

Larib Atta (Compositor)

Bimpe Alliu (Concept Artist)

Louise Kalyango (VFX Student)

Mark Pinheiro (Compositor, Director, Supervisor)

Michael Morgan (Animator)

Haydn Corrodus (Social Media Strategist)

If you'd like to put your name forward to join the ACCESS:VFX board, please get in touch directly at [email protected] by midnight on Friday 19th June. We are keen to increase our board membership by 2, and to diversify the board we would strongly encourage applications from BAME candidates

On this episode, we gather Black and ethnically diverse members of the visual effects and animation community to put out a recording as a response to current events - namely the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minnesota police department and the subsequent rallies and protests that have erupted globally against police brutality and racism.

ACCESS:VFX was founded on getting stuff done from day-one across all of our action-oriented initiatives and we will continue to strive for a truly inclusive creative industry where diverse talent can and will thrive!

With everything that’s happening at the moment we felt it is our duty to talk to our friends and host another ‘Industry Connect’. Our Industry Connect events run with We Are Stripes over the last few years highlights how important black and other ethnically diverse role models are, or as we like to call it ‘see it be it’.

On this episode, co hosted by Nene Parsotam ((Executive Creative/Art Director, We Are Stripes Co-Founder & ACCESS:VFX board member):

Kenny Addeh (Motion Designer)

Prince Yiadom (Compositor)

Anne Akande (Production)

Hannah Wong (Animator)

Shanae Bedford (Marketing)

Laraib Attah (Compositor)

Bimpe Alliu (Concept Artist)

Louise Kalyango (VFX Student)

Mark Pinheiro (Compositor, Director, Supervisor)

Michael Morgan (Animator)

Haydn Corrodus (Social Media Strategist)

37: Standing Out While Staying In #3

The third episode in our careers advice series, 'Standing Out While Staying in', with special guest, Royal Television Society!

Hosted by: Simon Devereux, Founder of ACCESS:VFX

With guests:


Jude Winstanley, RTS Futures


Tom Box, Blue Zoo


Alice Tuxford, DNEG


Saint John Walker, Escape Studios


Katie Gascoyne, Blue Zoo


Andrew Mead, Foundry


Bonnie Dorais, Framestore


Amy Blackwell, ILM


Jenny Burbage, Milk Visual Effects


Paul Wilkes, Technicolour

This episode was streamed live on YouTube 26 May 2020. For more live stream episodes like this, subscribe to us on YouTube, ACCESS: VFX!

Matt Sackley - Freelance Character Animator

www.mattsackley.com

Andrew Maggio - Editor

framecycle.com

Katrina Zimmerman - Senior Art Director

kazimmerman.com

Ryan Urban, Visual Effects Supervisor

https://www.ryanurban.info

https://www.turncoatpictures.com

Sara Kopke, 2D animator and Illustrator

http://sarakopke.com/

Applicable links that we mentioned in this episode:

Wonderful job search google-doc that Chris Mayne keeps updated nearly daily with 100's of jobs - its become quite well know among the CG/VFX community. It may be a great resource for those new graduates to check out.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eR2oAXOuflr8CZeGoz3JTrsgNj3KuefbdXJOmNtjEVM/edit#gid=0

Motionographer article on the hold system:

https://motionographer.com/2019/03/11/hold-me-im-scared-your-guide-to-navigating-the-hold-system/

Chicago Motion Artists Group

https://www.facebook.com/ChicagoMotionArtists/

Chicago Women in Motion!

https://www.instagram.com/chicagowmd/

11:45

Blurb can be something along these lines...

11:49

Our ACCESS:VFX Chicago Chapter hosted episode 36 of the pod assembling a group of freelance VFX artists discussing a whole host of tips and supportive advice for anyone working as a freelancer or considering it. Hosted by Kate Soczka, Head of Production at Carbon VFX.

The feel good episode to lighten your spirits! Hardcore members of the Q (Queer) VFX team come together for a casual chat about favourite activities and entertainment in lockdown.

With members of the Q-VFX team:

Sarah de Schot, Co-founder of Q-VFX

Boyan 'Bobby' Georgiev, DNEG

Jeszen Stokes, DNEG

Chloé Deneuve, Blue Zoo

Grace Hebditch, Blue Zoo

Izzy Genova, Jellyfish Pictures

Kat Seale, Jellyfish Pictures

Following up from our episode, 'Standing Out While Staying In', we assemble a group of marketing and PR experts to help you nail self-promotion and how you present yourself online at this pivotal time. With special guest, Motivational Speaker and Owner of Spark Creativity, Reuben Milne.

Hosted by: Simon Devereux, Founder of ACCESS:VFX

With guests:

Lisa Cheung, Director of Marketing and Brand Strategy for Foundry

Jenny Burbage, PR & Marketing at Milk VFX

Grace Hebditch, Marketing Coordinator at Blue Zoo

Tom Box, Co-founder of Blue Zoo

Reuben Milne, Motivational Speaker & Owner of Spark Creativity