VFX in Los Angeles 100 hour weeks & homeless
polycounter lvl 10
http://www.fxguide.com/quicktakes/vfx-in-los-angeles-100-hour-weeks-homeless/
Meet Victor
Victor is in his twenties, just starting out in the business. His work already has almost 2 billion views on YouTube and it has appeared on major network TV shows. A lot of the work is invisible, done under strict non-disclosure agreements for actors and musicians who dont want you to know that any digital work has been done. He is passionate about the work, has given up a lot to become a part of the visual effects industry, but that passion has had a price.
Replies
When you're desperate you will take shit jobs, the trouble there is that it becomes a vicious cycle that is hard to get out of
VFX isn't THAT fun.
so much for being a c r e a t i v e p r o f e s s i o n a l instead of working for ikea or fulltiming at 7/11 for that matter
maybe im jaded but if I was ever asked to work a 100 hour week and was making less than 150g+ a year I simply would refuse and tell them there was no way in hell im doing that.
the part that made me lose pretty much all interest was actually where he said the 1st hostle sucked. surrounded by a bunch of international travelers having a good time, with artists and musicians being some of the coolest cats around............makes me think this guy has a hard time fitting in personality wise. checking out after one night is pretty brute, if I was living in poverty I sure as fuck would want my nights to be filled with all sorts of zany adventures and debautchery, which a place like that could have been amazing.
don't get me wrong, I find the situation super shitty and horrible, but if you are going to subject yourself to something like that, then I cant have sympathy if you keep putting yourself in shitty situations.
He goes to a for-profit school, he gets shit jobs, expects to make 100k a year for essentially cleaning up rocks in background plates, and gets in a housing scam. Sounds like a dumbass to me.
But I can understand why this guy did what he did. No career support or direction where you live in Nowhereville. No insider network to refer you to studio gigs so you can work remote. So instead of waiting for nothing you take destiny in your hands and go where the actions is.
I mean you can still be a victim of a crime even after you land your dream job like that Pixar artist who got stabbed in a holdup years ago. Or, a studio undos your life thru a sudden layoff.
Do your due deligence, yes. But paying your dues might involve submitting yourself in uncomfortable living situations.
Paying your dues doesn't mean to have to be treated with less respect than a common street whore. Paying your dues means you may have to start off cleaning up textures, Unwrapping, painting out trees, lighting the same boring 2pm daylit scene over and over again. Paying your dues DOES NOT mean you go without food or a place to live.
No one put a gun to this kid's head and make him take that job. No one made him stay in LA rather than moving back home. At some point, I stop feeling sorry for him since he kept doing it to himself.
(No offense to student work but I know back when I was a student I wouldn't have been able to produce the quality of work in the timeframe needed for triple A projects.)
Seriously, what hell, is it Polycount Angst Thread day, and I forgot?
Where do you get that from? It's the 21st century version of the nieve young hopefull moving to Hollywood hoping to become a star only to fall into ruin.
I don't personally know anyone that pulled off the move first and find success route. If you honestly think being local is such a huge advantage, just pretend you're local, flying yourself out for the interview is cheaper in the long run.
It's not that, it's that the vfx industry has a lot of problems right now that aren't being fixed by the artists who have the power to do so.
This guy got skrewd over and there are a lot of parties responsible. To say it's all his fault is going a bit far imo. But obviously he holds some of the blame.
I actually know a lot of friends who moved to CA before finding a job, but they had connections and were able to crash on a friends couch until they made it into the industry. I notice a lot of the people that I know would be willing to let me stay with them at their places if I were to pack up and move out there. It seems to be somewhat of a normal thing. If he went to a for profit school then he's gotta have at least some classmates who are willing to help out.
Maybe this guy had a plan and it all went to shit.. I don't know. But I do know that in this world you gotta have a back up for your back up plan because shit happens.
He must really like retouching video to do all that for it though... and must really want to be paid well for it to go through all that effort for a job.
So surely you can't complain at the risks of chasing the dream, if that is indeed his dream?
If he is working such stupid hours for terrible pay the guy should of looked for a retail/bar/restaurant job etc to support himself in LA then try and get some more VFX work.
Seems like he didn't know how to look after himself in the real world, really sucks that nobody would help him... but then again this world is full of people from less fortunate beginnings than our dear Victor.
I am Victor. I want the world to know I have left the situation but with dwindling options at hand. I have a few days out until I don't know what will happen or where I will go.
Nathan