10 Steps to Getting Your Dream Job in Film Special Effects
"Dream jobs in film special effects"
How to get your dream job in film special effects? Here are 10 top tips to get started. Make sure you start with proper preparation and you'll find yourself on the job of your dreams soon enough!
1. Gain Film Skills: Â Become proficient with a camera, edit, or 3D software. All these skills will be essential for gaining employment and advancing your career.
2. Engage in Industry Research: Â Research the industry hires for various positions within the area of interest, what companies are likely to be hiring for, how much they pay, etc...
3. Develop Film Industry Relationships: Â It helps to know people who work in the industry. You can learn a lot from working with others, and it will open doors for you.
4. Start Learning Cinematography: Â The cinematographer is the director of photography in film making, responsible for all technical aspects of the image being projected through the lens onto the screen or other medium. Cinematography is a skill that should be developed over time in order to really master the craft, making it a necessary step on your path to becoming a film special effects professional.
5. Get Your Foot in the Door: Â Once you learn a few skills, it's time to put them to use. Find a film production near you and volunteer. You'll be able to connect with those in the industry that you might not have had access to before - possibly even gaining an entry level job with a film production company.
6. Develop Special Effects Skills: Â Develop special effects skills using inexpensive resources like books, films, and tutorials on the internet. Learn how special effects are created by studying visual effects movies. Read up on how others have done it before so that you can understand how their techniques are used on films and how they apply to real life situations.
7. Build A Portfolio: Â When you are working, you will want to bring your work to others for review and critique. This is a great way to demonstrate your abilities and get feedback on what you can do better. With your portfolio, you want to create a virtual exhibition of all of your work, with everything from raw footage up until the final product - something that includes everything from photos to bloopers. You can use DVD's or a hard drive for storing your work on file.
8. Develop A Professional Style: Â It's important that you have an established look so that people know what kind of images to expect from you when they place a job order with you. Develop a consistent style that you can stick to and use in your work so you can be easily identified by your potential clients.
9. Develop Your Own Information Packet: Â Because you will be working as a freelance special effects artist, you will want to create a dossier of information on yourself. It should include information like your resume, samples of your professional reel and portfolio, links to other sites where people can find out more about you, etc... It's important that it is well done so that people are able to make a decision about hiring you without any concerns.
10. Keep Learning: Â Stay current with new advancements in the world of special effects through reading industry magazines and websites. Use the internet to learn about current developments in the industry and keep your skills up to date.
Article: http://www.dancinglights.com/blog/?p=1193
"10 Steps to Getting Your Dream Job in Film Special Effects"
10 steps to getting your dream job in film special effects: http://www.dancinglights.com/blog/?p=1193 (http://www.dancinglights.com/blog/?p=1193)
Posted on: 2013-06-21 10:44:32
Finally, a list of 10 steps to getting your dream job in film special effects all in one place. Hope this helps.
Posted on: 2013-06-21 09:27:22
Glad you liked it! That's a really helpful article. The whole point of this list was to get to the top quickly and be competitive with others who are doing the same thing - to move on to the next step in their career quickly so that they can get promoted into a higher paying job too! That would benefit us all.
Posted on: 2013-06-21 09:23:56
Thank you for your kind words! I really appreciate it. I'm glad you found this post helpful.
Thanks for the interset Posted on: 2013-06-21 09:17:47
Agreed! It's true, there is a tremendous amount of competition out there right now in the special effects business. 3D has become the "in" thing to do. Special effects has become a great job market in the film industry and if you are committed to film special effects and willing to learn more, jump at it! Film special effects companies are hiring large amounts of people these days so it's a good time to get into this line of work. Just remember to research the companies, how much they pay and what skills are required to get a job there. And then go for it! I wish you the best of luck!!!
Posted on: 2013-06-21 09:05:21
I agree. Special effects is a terrific field to be in. When you realize that my expertise in special effects is why I have made so much money, you will see that this is a great field. Love film special effects! I have been doing this for 10 years and have been very successful. I just turned 50 this year and feel good about my career in special effects.
Posted on: 2013-06-21 08:39:10
This is an excellent resource, thanks for posting. I just graduated from film school and am going to apply for a job as a production artist. Did you join the web site with your resume? I don't see it listed on your blog, but it should be there. For me, the challenge is that I don't have much experience to show since I only worked with one small film company in high school. Will that matter at all? On top of that, my portfolio isn't very impressive since we only had one project which was made over two years ago.
Posted on: 2013-06-21 08:38:18
I used to be a film editor for 3 years, now I'm in need of a job as NUX. I'd really like to find some jobs in special effects, but the whole world is full of technical jobs.
Conclusion: This is a powerful list of ten steps for getting your dream job. Hope you liked it.
Posted on: 2013-06-21 08:27:49
I have already started my career in NUX and just recently received a job offer from an excellent company, thanks to this blog and it's post on how to start. I'm still not sure whether or not this career is going to work out for me though, so I'll be posting updates in the future.
Posted on: 2013-06-21 08:25:17
Thanks for sharing this article.