Should Freelance Animators Set Up a Limited Company?

A freelancer at work

Part of our job at Bucks is to teach our students to be working professionals, which includes not only the ability to do excellent work at a high level of professional skill,  but also the ability to run a small business and tackle freelance work. Almost all digital artists take on freelance work of one kind or another, and we help our students out by bringing in small commercial projects at our virtual online studio at nano-films.com, giving our students paid experience on live briefs. Being a freelancer involves learning a lot of new business skills, and one of the most common questions asked by students is: "Do I Need to Set Up a Company before I become a freelancer?" The short answer is "no", but it's not quite as simple as that - it all depends on your personal circumstances.

Render Under Caesar What Is Due To Caesar

Both in the UK and the USA it is very simple to be an independent freelancer. You just start working for clients, send out an invoice, and get paid. At the end of the tax year, you report to the IRS or the Inland Revenue all your income, less your expenses (computers, software, travel expesnes etc) and you pay tax on the difference - which is your profit. It's called being a sole trader, and it is very simple to do. It is the same basic structure for anyone selling a product, whether it is a shop on ebay or a stall at the farmer's market. You don't need to register with the Revenue - you jut start trading.

Setting up a company is different. You have to pay fees to set the company up in the first place, to register it, and also to file annual reports, as well as paying annual corporation tax. It's much more of a hassle than being a sole trader, and there aren't really any tax advantages.

So why set up a company? There are three main reasons:

1. Because your customers and clients make you. Once you reach a certain size, plenty of companies won't like doing business with a sole trader. They are used to dealing with companies, and they will insist on it. 
2. Liability. As a sole trader, you are personally liable for everything the company does, down to your last penny.  Most companies are Limited Liability Companies (hence Ltd) which means that if the company goes bust or gets sued - you won't lose your house.
3. It's the grown-up thing to do. Once you start to grow and employ people, it makes sense to have a formal vehicle for your operations. Sole trader status is convenient, but it only makes sense for small operations of low complexity.

In effect, company status is something that, sooner or later, will likely be forced upon you as you grow. It is one of the perils of success. While you are still small then, you are probably better off being a sole trader, but with size and complexity comes the need for a more formal status.

To see more about the benefits and burdens of setting up a company versus being a sole trader, see this link:  http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2013/sep/12/sole-trader-limited-company-freelances

For more on the experience of studying at Bucks New University, come and visit us at one of our Open Days,  take a virtual tour of one of our animation studios, check out what our students think of our course, and see why we're ranked in the top 12 creative universities in the UK. Find out why we're giving free laptops to all our students, and why we give all our students free access to videos at Lynda.com. Also, see what financial assistance might be available to you. Learn which is better for animation, a PC or a Mac? Get hold of a copy of a map so you can find your way around campus, and learn about motion capture at Bucks.  

Enterprise at Bucks - animated by Anton Alfimenko

Enterprise at Bucks is the department of our University which is dedicated to helping students learn real-life skills. Stuff like how to set up a business, how to invoice a client, and how to survive in the commercial world. Many of our students will launch their own freelance careers (even if they also have a day job) when they leave uni - and a good working knowledge of the realities of the marketplace is a vital tool for survival.

To help get their message across about how they can help our students, Enterprise at Bucks has created a short film to communicate clearly what it is that they do. The animation was done over the summer vacation by our very own Anton Alfimenko - now entering his second year of studies at Bucks. Scroll down to see the finished film.





Partnerships like this between staff and students are one of the many ways that we build on relationships within our university. It also helps to get our students experience on live briefs for clients. Every time you do a freelance job, you get better at it, and you gain a better understanding of what it takes to launch a freelance career.

Enterprise at Bucks

To see more about Enterprise at Bucks, and how they can help you start up your own small business (no business too small!) visit their page here.  You can also email Lydiah Igweh at Lydiah.Igweh@bucks.ac.uk


For more impressive work done by our students and recent graduates here at Bucks, check out the work of Jens Kopke,  Ben Gray's Moonbeam, and the architectural visualisations of Sabah Masood and Anton Alfimenko. Also take a look at the work of Andy Thomas here, see our latest commercial project for Rocketseed, our short film done for a global aid agency, and take a look at the excellent work of designer Monika Dzikowicz, architectural visualisation specialist Krsytof Michalski, Alex Whitfield and the 3D artwork of Mike Swan. And don't forget to see the simulation work of our students done in RealFlow. To see our student demo reel, click here.

Bucks Lecturer Allen Stroud Explains How to Finance Your Project at Kickstarter

Kickstarter

Writer and film-maker Allen Stroud, author of Elite: Lave Revolution, and also head of Film and TV at Bucks explains how to get a Kickstarter project off the ground. The rules of raising finance for film projects is changing fast. If you have a good enough idea, there is no reason why you cannot crowd fund your project and get fans all across the globe to make your dreams come to life. Here is how it is done.

What do you need to succeed at Kickstarter?

You need rewards. This basically means free stuff to give investors. By way of example, you can offer free signed books, free drawings, a screen credit, eBooks - anything that you can give that will get investors excited.

How does it all work?

Remember that a Kickstarter campaign is not a linear curve. Campaigns tend to open well, and then run out of steam. Fortunately,  lots of stuff comes at the last minute. Campaigns often close well - but with a big (terrifying) dip in the middle.

You have to understand the Psychology of Kickstarter. There is a comments page for your project, but no-one can comment, unless they have first backed it - this incentivises investors to pay up if they want to voice their opinion. Also, investors don’t pay anything until the funding is closed. So, it doesn't feel real until the project has reached its goal (which it might not). Yet. Again, this encourages people to pledge - they might not have to pay anything. And, investors can adjust their pledge up or down until the funding is closed. If they start to lose confidence, or they don't like what they are seeing, they can withdraw their pledges. Nothing is fixed until the end, when payments are cleared through amazon and credit cards.


What if you reach your goal? Can you ask for more money?

Once you reach your additional funding target, you can ask for more. You can add “stretch goals’ to add extra stuff that you would like to have. A Kickstarter campaign can takes 30 days, or 60 days - it's up to you. Remember that this may well be “the most tortuous time of your life” - but can be very rewarding. And, if you don’t make it, nothing happens. The project just ends. “That is it”.


What are the secrets of success?

Once you launch your project, you need to the following:

• Talk about the project a lot - don’t be quiet. You must communicate with them. Be engaged with them
• Encourage a sense of community. This is your team, your fanbase
• Until it’s funded, it’s not over. You must keep producing new rewards, keep exciting your fans
• You must make videos. Lots of videos. Keep up the momentum 
• If you have a physical thing you are selling, you must make a prototype of it, so people can see it
• Be generous! You must not appear cheap, or let down your fans. You must avoid bad press at all costs - your pledges will start to disappear. 
• Be realistic, especially with stretch goals. Don’t offer rewards you cannot deliver.
• Get a bidding war going if you can - a first edition of your book, for example, will sell for a lot.
• See what others are doing. Copy stuff that works. 
• Hit the ground running – keep up the momentum! Update every day, update comments.

Other sites worth knowing about

www.kicktraq.com - gives you daily data on your project. It is a statistics site. Gives you a chart which shows your progress.
www.thunderclap.it  another useful site for Kickstarter projects.
Indiegogo.com This site is like Kickstarter, but offers "experienced ambassadors" to support you in your goals.
Patreon – Like Kickstarter, but with more of a focus on the arts.


Here at Bucks we think every good animator has a story to tell. We encourage all our students to come up with ideas, and make their own films. Kickstarter can be a great source of possible funding for your projects.

Who Invests in Independent Animated Feature Films?

Photo: Wikipedia

Who invests in independent feature films? And how does the aspiring film-maker find those investors? At the European film finance conference, Closing the Gap, Perrine Hamon of Media Deals, and Thierry Beaugard of Peaceful Fish explained what kind of investors are out there, and how to find them. Any animator who has a dream to make their own independent animated feature film needs to know just a little bit (and possibly more) about the nuts and bolts of movie finance.

The good news is, there are plenty of places that specialise in film finance. Wealthy individuals, government bodies, equity investors - the industry offers many choices. The bad news is, getting your project to them in the right shape to make it investable is a formidable challenge.

Thierry Beaugard of Peaceful Fish

Perrine Hammon explained what it is that his company, Media Deals, actually does. They are mainly interested in financing media startups, rather than making content for film & TV. Media Deals is "a network of investors in the media sector". They have "around forty Investors, and they are always finding more".


Types of Investors


What kind of investor is right for you? And what kind of deal terms are typical in the business? There are four principal types of investors in movies:

Not that kind of angel.

1. Business Angels

Business angels are individual investors, who invest in films "on a case by case basis". The sums involved range from "around €10k to €1m". It's generally their own cash they are putting in, and they generally like to be personally involved in the project. They often invest at the start of the project, helping with its development. Why do they invest? Because of their own personal interests - and also the film's commercial prospects. Usually, a business angel is a very wealthy individual "who really likes movies".

What kind of deal terms will a business angel want? 

The chances are they will want "at least a 50% uplift" for their investment. After all, film is risky. And if they are investing in the company making the film, they will want to take a percentage of the company.

Where are they to be found?

Business Angels tend to "congregate in networks". These include, for example, the European Business Angel Network , the European Venture Capital Association (EVCA), and other loose networks of like-minded individuals. Film-makers might also "try family and friends" for start-up assistance. Many angels are alumni of business schools, former bankers and businessmen. These are the kind of people who might "invest around €10,000 in a movie". They are not easy to find and you will need a credible business presentation to get in the door.

How do you pitch to business angels?

Once you have found them, you will have to "make presentations to groups of angels". A bit like Dragon's Den, but for movies.  The best advice to start with your home market first, pitching to local entrepreneurs and business networks. Especially good are business angels who have "never invested in films" - they have yet to be disappointed.

One problem that film-makers face is that most business angels tend to prefer investing in companies rather than individual projects. Usually they tend to prefer companies, as these can be sold at a profit. Projects are - generally - less profitable than investing in companies.

How Venture Capital Works. Image: Wikipedia

2. Venture Capital Funds

Venture Capital funds, or "VCs", tend to be applicable to bigger businesses rather than very small start-ups. They tend to have "big funds, with a big portfolio, and rather higher costs" than individual investors. Usually, they are "not interested in small projects". Rather, they tend to seek "high-risk high-reward projects, and tend to invest in companies". They usually invest after the development stage, in the "production stage" of the business plan.

How Do You Pitch to VCs?

For a successful pitch, you must have the following in place:

1. Financing Plan
2. Marketing & Distribution Plan
3. Revenue Projections
4. Corporate track record.

It goes without saying that at this point you need a credible producer on board who can help you prepare this kind of material.

Now close the deal. Photo: Wikipedia

What are the Typical Deal terms for a Venture Capital Fund?

VC investors expect to recoup their investment, plus a significant premium. Many will want an equity stake in the company. They will also likely want a revenue share of the IP [intellectual property] rights of the project.

One way to present your own project is to set up a Limited Liability Company (LLC) which holds the rights for the project you are developing. The VC investor will likely get a stake in this company, which is known as a Single Purpose Vehicle (SPV) because its sole purpose is to hold the rights for your film.

Another approach, suggested by Dutch producer Emjay Rechsteiner, is not to give shares in the SPV, but rather to make your investors a partner to the collection agreement [the agreement that governs the payment of revenues for he film]. Why? Because an SPV can go bust. By contrast, the collection agreement is transparent and clear, and that way "you don't have to keep the SPV for 20-30 years, paying for book-keeping and accounts and so on". This approach "gives investors security". The revenue from the IP rights "streams through the collection agency". What you will have in place is known as "The Collection Agency Management Agreement (CAMA)". The agreement is run by a neutral third party, the collection agency, who collects the revenues for the film. If you don't do this, "problems may arise with IP rights over time", whereas "a CAMA helps to keep the rights simple". Other investors however, said that they "would only lend to an SPV". Their lawyers "would not allow him to follow this collection agency model".

3. Public/Private Funds

The size of the sums invested by public/private funds tend to vary from €10,000 to several million. These investors tend to like "projects that satisfy a mix of public and private interests". Some development money is available (generally, development money is the hardest money to get). Usually, there is a "regional spend requirement". In other words, they want you to spend the money they give you in their own region or area. Quite likely they will want a share in the Intellectual Property (IP) as well.

Mediatech investors like companies that make stuff, not just creative content. Photo: Wikipedia

4. Mediatech financiers.

Mediatech financiers generally invest in companies, mostly hi-tech start-ups. These are usually a "marriage of content & technology". Typical deal terms include an equity stake in the company, board membership, and an exit strategy to sell the equity stake within a given time frame. These investors tend to want technology more than content - but the two can and do often go together.


What do equity investors want? And what are the typical deal terms that investors look for in film?
We'll be taking a close look at the nuts and bolts of film investment, and how to structure your deal, in a separate blog post.

---Alex

Timo Vuorensola, director of Iron Sky, explains how to crowd fund your feature film

Timo Vuorensola, director of Iron Sky, gave a lecture at Closing The Gap, a European conference on film financing, explaining how to crowd fund an independent feature film. Iron Sky was initially funded through online sources, and later on secured more conventional funding on the back of the crowd-sourced contributions. Timo explained how he pulled off such an ambitious and successful project by starting an online fan base to help make his film.

How did Timo Vuorensola develop Iron Sky?

In the late 1990s Timo Vuorensola was a student in Finland, studying film and visual effects, and he began work on StarWreck, a student fan project which was made over seven years for just $15,000. It was a "SciFi Star Trek satire"; the pitch was "Star Trek versus Babylon 5".

Timo Vuorensola. Photo:Wikipedia

The film was crowd sourced by fans and distributed free in 2005 on the web, just before YouTube became huge. Timo describes it as "the first film distributed free on the web". They sold a bunch of DVDs and made "a lot of money".

While they worked on Star Wreck, they began work on their next film, all about Nazis on the Moon, which became "Iron Sky". According to Timo, there is actually an online community that genuinely believes there are Nazis on the Moon. In the end, Timo managed to raise $1 million from the internet. Then, on the strength of this, they were able to raise a further $2m from other investors. Then, having raised this seed capital, they had enough money to get started making the film.

It was the trailer for Iron Sky was the key to their success - it went viral and soon reached 10 million hits on YouTube.




How did Iron Sky get underway?

They began making Iron Sky in 2006. It was filmed in Frankfurt in 2010, some was shot in Gold Coast Studios in Australia. In Australia, they got a very good tax rebate (40%!) and a skilled crew. Also, as Timo put it, it's a "very laid back place - highly recommended".

The film was sold to 70 countries and made "$8m worldwide".

What did the fans contribute?

Timo got the fans to write the lyrics of the Nazi songs, by running an online competition. They used the website www.wreckamovie.com, which helps to raise seed capital for films, and they built their own website at www.ironsky.net

In the end, crowd funding is about "people asking other people for help". But, "you can't ask crowds for big things. You must offer them stuff they can do in 45 minutes to an hour - you have to start easy". Iron Sky got started by creating a global map where fans could "demand to see Iron Sky!" All fans had to do was register and fill out a form.

What was the Risk involved in crowdsourcing?

The risk was quite simple - "failure". Timo was very much afraid of it. But his producer said: "we have no other way" to fund the film. In the end, "the community came together". Timo emphasised that "very few projects work this way though, you have to be very smart". So, how did they do it?

They started out with "a really cool teaser throwing out a hook". (see above at YouTube) The pitch was simple: "In 1945 Nazis went to the moon...in 2018 they are coming back".  Timo owns a small visual effects house, so he was able to get some nice visual effects done for the teaser.

Their website said - Buy War Bonds! You could buy a bond to help finance the film - just like in WW2. What fans got was "a piece of paper which costs €50 and says that you helped to pay for the film". What do the fans do with it? They "frame it and put it on the wall". The website had "lots of information, such as how much they needed to raise from various sources. In the end, €300,000 came from crowd funding.

What were the problems?

Timo explained that crowd investment "is very complicated", with "lots of legal problems". However, as they had no real alternative, their lawyer was "driven to make it work". There are certain restrictions - for example you can "only have ninety nine investors from each country". They needed "cash quickly for the film shoot", so they "got a bank to cash-flow the crowd investment. Norde Bank gave them €1m". The total budget was €7.5m. But, as Timo emphasised, "you need legal advice if you are asking people for money...there are rules & regulations".

Building your online community

To begin with, said Timo, "you must build your community. You must show them first that you know what you are doing. If you just go and ask for money - it simply does not work". But how to start? "You have to start talking with them; there must be participation. How can people help you? You must communicate with them, on Facebook, on Twitter through video blogging - you must contact your fans".

Does the process undermine your creativity?

No. Because film-making is a dictatorship, not a democracy. You have to run it from the top. You can communicate, and share - but they are not there to tell you what to do.

Swastika fortress on the moon

How do you get people excited about the project?

Timo explained that "your elevator pitch is vital" [an elevator pitch is a one line summary of the premise that underpins your film - Ed]. You have to "get people excited, since it is easy to get lost in the web. You have to keep it simple. You need good concept art. The video must be top quality. Your fans may do concept art for you for free". How does that work? "You can create tasks for concept art. People upload their art - other fans can comment on the designs.".

The film has a "long credit roll - the fans get a free screen credit! That alone is worth it for many people. Being in the Thanks section - this has huge value". What about the IP (Intellectual property)? Fans and contributors "have to sign agreement that the IP is owned by the film". The Creators of the movie "have all the rights". There is "an online form for people to fill out. You have to be blunt and honest". It's a case of "You do the work and we make the money", but then, "if you don't like it, then don't do it".

Timo urged that the online community "must be part of your daily routine". You must "Tweet, blog,  do a video...it takes at least 45 minutes a day".

Who runs the website?

Timo suggested that "you may need a community manager on your film". This would be "someone who really understands the web, and can use Wordpress, which utilises a simple code". You must "develop your Facebook, Twitter and blogging presence", since a traditional advertising agency "will be very expensive".

To see more about Iron Sky, visit www.ironsky.net. To buy your own copy of the film (The "Dictator's Cut"), visit this page at amazon. All the images shown here are copyright Iron Sky Productions.

---Alex

For more on the experience of studying at Bucks New University, come and visit us at one of our Open Days,  take a virtual tour of one of our animation studios, check out what our students think of our course, and see why we're ranked in the top 12 creative universities in the UK. Find out why we're giving free laptops to all our students, and why we give all our students free access to videos at Lynda.com. Also, see what financial assistance might be available to you. Learn which is better for animation, a PC or a Mac? Get hold of a copy of a map so you can find your way around campus, and learn about motion capture at Bucks. And find out about how our online video tutorials work.

Freelancing Workshop on Monday with Lydiah Igweh from Enterprise at Bucks

On Monday May 12th we welcome Lydiah Igweh, who runs the Enterprise at Bucks program, to introduce a freelancer's workshop for our Animation and Visual Effects Artists. As the long summer vacation approaches, we strongly encourage our students to take on small freelance jobs, do internships and work placements, and in general take advantage of the many opportunities to develop real-life work skills. Lydiah's workshop has been custom-designed for our digital artists, so this is a great opportunity to start thinking about how you might develop a freelance career.

Lydia will be getting our students thinking about what life is like as a solo freelancer, how to build your own freelance brand, how to find clients (and how to keep them), and how to target the right market for what you do.

This will be a workshop session so all our students will have the chance to design and pitch their own brand during the session.

We are also welcoming students from the 2nd and 3rd years are also welcome. Our final year students will graduate this summer, so the importance of learning freelance skills is more obvious now than ever.

Come along on Monday and take advantage of Lydiah's expertise.

---Alex

(Editor's Note: To see some of the impressive freelance work done by our students and recent graduates here at Bucks, check out the work of Jens Kopke,  Ben Gray's Moonbeam, and the architectural visualisations of Sabah Masood and Anton Alfimenko. Also take a look at the work of Andy Thomas here, see our latest commercial project for Rocketseed, our short film done for a global aid agency, and take a look at the excellent work of designer Monika Dzikowicz, architectural visualisation specialist Krsytof Michalski, Alex Whitfield and the 3D artwork of Mike Swan.)

How do you start a small animation business?

Our new animation collaboration at Bucks

One of the most common questions asked by prospective students at our university open days is "how many of your graduates find work in the industry?". After all, it's all very well to train animators and digital artists to do excellent work, it's quite another to turn that knowledge into a successful career.

In media production of any kind, jobs for life are nowadays almost non-existent. Even highly successful artists tend to be freelancers of one kind or another. But there is another way of dealing with the perpetual uncertainty of finding paid work in the arts - and that is to start your own business. So how, exactly, might you go about doing that?

Like any endeavor, you will probably want to start small and gradually get bigger, slowly making a name for yourself and taking on new clients as you go along, building a brand and a reputation. Remember that starting a business is very different from being an employee. Come 6pm on friday night most employees tend to down tools and stop working, seldom thinking about work until monday morning. Small business owners aren't like that - the shop is always open. After all, it's your business, and you will likely want it to succeed very badly indeed. Below are five steps to think through if you want to set up your own business, to help make sure you make a success of it.

Begin by having something to sell

1.  Start by identifying the kind of work you want to do

Ask yourself what kind of service you want to offer. If you are in the business of making short films, make sure you understand the full pipeline of animation production, from development through to pre-production, production and post. You might think that this only really applies to big projects, but even small films need to go through the right processes, else they tend to get stuck. Watch this film on how animated films get made and, best of all, make your own short film - this is the very best way to learn how it really gets done in practice.


2. Build your team

You may well not have all the skills needed to make short films. As an animator, you may want to team up with a designer (unless you are good at this yourself) and, if you are making 3D films, you will need expertise in modeling, rigging, texturing and lighting. By now you will be beginning to realise that to make short 3D films requires general expertise - this is where 3D generalists come into their own.

Again, if you are making films, you will also need to appoint an editor, a director, a designer - and a producer to manage the process. The smaller the project, and the smaller the budget, the more likely it is you will need to wear some of all of these hats yourself. If you have enough general skills, you go can go into business alone. But remember the old proverb: "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together".

What's in a name? Even Pixar started small...

3. Create a working name

Of course, your working name can simply be your name on the door. But a good business name helps people remember you and suggest that you might be more than just a one man band. If your company name is a good one, you may will find that it helps you define what exactly it is that your business is setting out to do.

As your plan grows, and things begin to take shape, the perfect name may come to you, but don't let that hinder you from getting started. You can always change it later. Create a name that you can use while you plan things out, and don't mind too much if you change it later on.

Watch out for conflict

4. Choose your team wisely

Be careful who you go into business with. Even your best friend may not be a great business partner. 
Ask yourself if the other person complements your strengths and/or your weaknesses? Do both of you bring the same set of the same skills to the table? Ideally you want to be in business with someone with complementary skills to yourself. Overall, do you and your team see eye to eye on the big picture? Of course, there will always be arguments, but make sure you agree on the big picture, on the real purpose of your business.


5. Create a business plan

A business plan will helps to define what you think you need to launch your business. Inside the business plan you (which could be a single page of A4) will summarise what it is that you are trying to do in a single document.  In brief, your business plan should consist of the following elements:

1. The Business concept. This describes the business, what the product is and who or what the market is for its products. What will be sold, who will buy it, and why is what you are offering better than the existing competition? If you are competing on price, how will you be cheaper than others?
2. Financial overview. Here you include the financial points of the business. What are your likely sales over the first year? What is the cost of doing business? Estimate the likely income and the likely expenses. Is it profit left over enough to make it all worthwhile?
3. Finance - requirements. This sets out what capital is needed to start the business, and to expand. If the business is just you and a laptop, you may not need any starting capital. If you need premises, you may need money to rent an office. This section should set out in detail how the capital will be used, and how much is required. Is the money being put in equity (ie a stake of the business, or is it a loan? If the latter, when will it be repaid, and on what terms
4. Define the company's legal status. This sets out all the relevant information about the company, its legal form of operation, when it was formed, and who are the the principal owners and key personnel. Perhaps your business is just an informal grouping of friends? Or perhaps you actually want to set up a company or a partnership? Remember that someone will have to invoice clients, so a company bank account might be a good idea.
5. Goals and milestones. This sets out any developments within the company that are essential to the success of the business. Have you done any marketing, or tried to find out who exactly might want to buy your product? Are you looking to develop any new technology? Do you intend to open a physical presence in an office building? Are there any contracts that need to be in place?

Enterprise at Bucks - helping students launch small businesses

Don't feel like your business plan has to be perfect. You can always do a rough draft, and then work at it with some external help. Don't forget that advice on careers and entrepreneurship is available at Bucks. Contact Enterprise at Bucks for assistance and support. There is also an excellent Wikipedia page about business plans here, and this page at smallbusiness.co.uk has some great resources on starting up a small business.

---Alex

(Editor's Note: For more practical advice on freelance careers, check out this post on your first client project, read out our post on Portfolio Careers, and read this piece on Survival as a Freelancer. Learn the nuts and bolts of freelance life by reading our guide to invoicing clients, and our guide to freelancers and taxes.  For more on careers in general, check out our guide to animation careers here, and also take a look at this map of digital studios - a great place to start your search for work in the business. Finally see our article on the jobs page at awn.com )

Are Universities Failing the UK's Visual Effects Industry?

Pat Joseph, co-founder and chief creative officer of The Mill, certainly thinks so. In this post at the Televisual blog,  Joseph argues that higher education in the UK is not responding to the needs of the visual effects industry, and is not training students of the digital arts to a sufficiently high calibre. What can universities do to try harder?

Joseph argues that schools and universities are simply not doing enough. He says that "there is still a general lack of awareness about the VFX industry from a careers perspective. The explosion of content requiring sophisticated VFX needs has to be equally matched with suitably talented artists and it continues to be a challenge finding new talent to this high level."

Joseph then goes on to say: "My concern is that the British education system still isn't really laying out visual effects as a career option and so in turn, students aren't graduating with the right skills. Demand continues to grow, but universities that do train to industry standard, such as Bournemouth University, are struggling to meet it."

Pat Joseph isn't just complaining though; he also recognises the need for industry to do its part. As he puts it: "We need to continue to work closely with schools and universities in order to attract the best candidates and engage with them from a young age. So here at The Mill we really believe in backing and nurturing our talent as we want them to do the best work of their careers with us."

One of our animation classrooms at Bucks

Part of the problem, of course, is that visual effects is still a young industry, and most of the people who are very good at it tend to be out there doing it, rather than teaching it at university. In addition, the industry is something of a moving target; the technology changes all the time, and keeping up with the latest commercial trends isn't always easy, especially when university courses have to be both internally and externally validated in lengthy and rather bureaucratic processes.

That said, universities can and should try harder. Three years is long enough for an undergraduate to acquire the right skills, if only we focus on the skills that industry needs. Here at Bucks we have world class facilities - the Gateway building houses a vast array of media production disciplines.

Gateway - our new media hub

Our Animation and visual effects course launched in September 2013, building on a long tradition of animation at Bucks. We want to create the best visual effects course in the country, pushing our students to acquire exactly the sort of skills that are needed by studios like The Mill.

---Alex 

2 Days left to back Allen Stroud's ELITE project at Kickstarter!

There are just two days left to back Bucks New University tutor Allen Stroud's ELITE project at Kickstarter.

Allen has found a highly entrepreneurial approach to teaching at Bucks, raising money through Kickstarter to get his ELITE novel off the ground, and helping to create opportunities for students at the same time. Alan runs the excellent Film and TV department at Bucks and also teaches creative writing.

Old Fogeys like myself get misty-eyed at the mere mention of Elite - one of the first video games available for the 32k BBC Computer back in the early 1980s, and one of the chief ways in which I wasted much of my pre-teen years.

Allen's goals at Kickstarter are multi-layered - if he gets the full £15,000 he will have enough to make a short film project.

So, Bucks animators - start polishing your spaceship animation skills. Allen may be calling on your talents.

---Alex

Free Laptops!

We're giving away free laptops! Well...sort of. As part of the total annual Animation & VFX course fee of £8,000, we're hoping to build in a free laptop so that every student beginning our course gets their own personal workstation to do their animation, so they can work both at home and on campus.

Why are we doing this? Because we want you to be part of the digital revolution. Computers are no longer a luxury accessory, they are a relatively inexpensive and almost indispensible part of a career in media. Nowadays your laptop can be your home studio, the sole piece of kit required to make your own films and take on Hollywood at its own game.

We're training animators not just to get jobs but to create jobs, to be independent entrepreneurs who can build their own studios out of their bedrooms, take on freelance work and create a virtual career.

When you have your own workstation you can set it up the way you want it; you become your own IT department and your own problem-solver, not purely dependent on the university for access to the computer rooms.

We want to empower our students to become a new generation of independent digital artists, starting up their own companies and shaking up the industry.

----Alex

The Animation Internet Revolution

The Animation Internet Revolution: There is a revolution taking place in media and content creation. Any animator with talent, a laptop and a story to tell can now take on ...