Job in London?

[break3001]

Hello!
I live in Canada and i am going to London on September 23 with an UK Visa. I'd just like to know if you have any suggestion how to find a VFX job overthere? I have studied to be a Compositor at Institut Grasset, it's an unknown school because it's very small, but it's a good school to be a compositor. I know I'll probably have to begin as a Runner, but I don't care, I'd just like to have a job in the VFX field.

So if you have any suggestion, it would be very appreciate

Thanks
Tom

[Hugh]

Hmm... Without any prior experience, it could be interesting...

Get a big list of VFX places (maybe start with this (http://www.vfxtalk.com/forum/u-n-t-e-d-t4949.html), although it may be a little out of date, and it's not only London) and start emailing/phoning. Do you already have somewhere in London where you'll be living? Because I know it's a lot harder for people who have to promise to move to London after they've got the job... Especially for runners....

When I started in the industry, I had a list of 80 companies that I phoned initially, and 80% of them told me that they weren't looking for anyone, but to send my CV to them anyway, and they'd keep it on file. (6 months later I'd heard back from one of them, but by that point I had a job). 18% said no straight off, and two were interested. I ended up at a place (3 days later!) which just happened to have a runner heading off on holiday the next week... So it was purely luck that I got in.

Do you have a reel from your school? I never tried it myself, but it might be interesting to see what happens if you apply for a runner job and also send a reel, saying "I want to end up comping and this is what I can do already". That way, you'll not be coming across as arrogant and wanting something that you can't do, you'll be showing an active interest in the next stage up, and who knows, somewhere may look at the reel and decide to give you a junior comp job straight off!

[break3001]

Thank you!

I've already begin to write to some company, but thanks for the list, there's some companies I didn't know.

I'll send a reel to the companies as you suggest me.

Thank you for the advise!
Tom


Hmm... Without any prior experience, it could be interesting...

Get a big list of VFX places (maybe start with this (http://www.vfxtalk.com/forum/u-n-t-e-d-t4949.html), although it may be a little out of date, and it's not only London) and start emailing/phoning. Do you already have somewhere in London where you'll be living? Because I know it's a lot harder for people who have to promise to move to London after they've got the job... Especially for runners....

When I started in the industry, I had a list of 80 companies that I phoned initially, and 80% of them told me that they weren't looking for anyone, but to send my CV to them anyway, and they'd keep it on file. (6 months later I'd heard back from one of them, but by that point I had a job). 18% said no straight off, and two were interested. I ended up at a place (3 days later!) which just happened to have a runner heading off on holiday the next week... So it was purely luck that I got in.

Do you have a reel from your school? I never tried it myself, but it might be interesting to see what happens if you apply for a runner job and also send a reel, saying "I want to end up comping and this is what I can do already". That way, you'll not be coming across as arrogant and wanting something that you can't do, you'll be showing an active interest in the next stage up, and who knows, somewhere may look at the reel and decide to give you a junior comp job straight off!