Freelance Work Opportunities

To try and pull in some storyboarding experience, I set myself up on freelancer.com, where people can give their details for creative work.

I used my usual tag "TheBritsonian" as my freelance name, with a rate of $30 an hour, which would roughly be about £22, so a minimum freelance wage for a storyboard artist in the North of England. I applied for a couple of positions on this website, and I was offered the role for one of these.

This was the email I was sent, to work on the pilot episode of "Aychu" a kid's YouTube animated show showing kids the importance of the environment. However, the timeline and payment for this role, were not what I was looking for, and would conflict too much with my Uni work. The payment was $100 as  a set wage, with 5 days to complete a 10 minute storyboard, which I felt was far too unrealistic for the time I was given, as this included deadlines for thumbnails to final pass, which was far too steep. Therefore, unfortunately I had to decline the offer as although it would have been great for my portfolio, it would not be a good opportunity to take at the time.

Point of Contact 2 - Ex Tutor

I have tried to create a lot of connections during this year, but I had missed an important contact I should have looked into before all of this, in my ex tutor Martin, who happens to live in the same city as me. I thought this would be a good contact as he has his own animation studio, so I thought I could gain some work experience through this.

Luckily he gave me a very nice response, and said that I may be able to help out in his studio at some point in May, which would be good as it is when the final hand in is, and would be a great thing to put on my CV as work experience.

It would also be good for after Uni as I know I would have to move home to York for a while before I am able to move out, so staying around York and gaining experience would be a win win for me.

Interview Experience - Build a Rocket By Games

After applying on glassdoor.co.uk, I was contacted by "Build a Rocket Boy Games" for the role of cinematic storyboard artist. This was to be a Skype interview, where we would discuss my portfolio and my application. Here is the email that was sent to me, for obvious reasons I could not include email addresses and such forth as that is personal information.

During this interview we discussed my general process, and how I approached storyboards. I got the feeling however during this interview that I was not being taken seriously, and it was unclear to me whether they knew I was a student, even after putting it on my application. However the interview was professional and I was sure I was unsuccessful in securing the role.

Although I was unsuccessful, I am putting this one down to interview experience, and I now know what to expect in future when I undertake interviews for similar positions. I need to improve my interview skills, as I got a bit flustered when I was asked about my process, and when asking questions, I could have been clearer in terms of what I was asking. I should have been more assertive and handled myself as a professional as opposed to a student, which is probably a confidence issue.