Having unrealistic expectations of yourself -- that everything is going to be flawless and you’re just going to win -- is the easiest way to derail yourself and see yourself as being a failure. It’s these micro wins that we should be celebrating. But how many of us give up on something because we didn’t get traction right off the bat? With that mindset, we’re more likely to set ourselves up to fail.

It’s all about perseverance. The people that have success are the ones that didn’t give up. They kept at it and looked at failure as part of the process. The more we see wins and losses as just data, the more we can analyze them to get better results. We need to cut our losses and double down on what works. Experience is just learning from our mistakes. This is why experience is everything.

If you want to be good -- you’ve got to be prepared to fail! In this Podcast, Allan talks about using failure as data to get better -- and the importance of perseverance!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/231.

A lot of us tend to struggle in the beginning of our career. And the thing is a lot of us are clueless as to why that’s happening. You have to start thinking differently. Sending out your reel is just not enough.

When it comes to the beginning of our career, it’s about figuring out what else we can do. How can we get that first win? How do we get our foot in the door, no matter what it takes? It’s not about cutting a reel, sending it out and keeping this linear path. It’s about doing whatever it takes, hustling and entering through the side door; rather than expecting to be hired just because you showed up.

In this Podcast, Allan talks about breaking into the industry, seizing opportunities that have long-term benefits to your career, leveraging your skills -- and figuring out ways to stand out.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/230.

Before joining Mr. X, Trey Harrell was a 15-year ad industry veteran. Trey’s forte for balancing the technical with the artistic has garnered numerous ADDY (American Advertising Federation) and New York Art Director’s Club Awards for his work as both an Art Director and Creative Director for broadcast, web and print ads.

Trey joined Mr. X in 2010 to work exclusively as the Lead Lighting TD on Tron: Legacy. Supervising the lighting department for many years, he’s been instrumental in re-engineering Mr. X’s lighting and rendering pipeline. Since joining the team at Mr. X, Trey has won two Canadian Screen Awards for Achievement in Visual Effects, including a 2013 CSA award for Resident Evil: Retribution, and a 2014 CSA Award for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. For his work as a CG Supervisor on Guillermo’s Del Toro’s television series, The Strain, Trey received a Visual Effects Society nomination in 2016. He also acted as the Digital Effects Supervisor on Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. He continued to exceed the client’s expectations with his work on Guillermo del Toro’s feature The Shape of Water. 

Mr. X’s VFX Supervisor Trey Harrell talks about the skills that a filmmaker must acquire, how having a versatile background guarantees longevity in the business -- and why you mustn’t build your entire career on a single piece of software!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/229/.

Superheroes, fantastic beasts, dinosaurs of the 21st century, and galaxies undiscovered. Cinesite is an award-winning digital entertainment studio with over 25 years of experience and work on hundreds of film, TV and streaming productions. Its visual effects and animation artists breathing life into filmmakers’ visions. Cinesite’s skilled artists and engineers work closely with filmmakers and studios to achieve the impossible, whether through complex visual effects or conceiving and realizing entire animated films.

They tinker, mold, and craft to blow things out of the water -- sometimes literally. Cinesite makes this magic happen from its studios in London, Montreal and Vancouver; and since 2015 they have also welcomed the VFX masters at Image Engine Design (Vancouver) and Trixter (Munich & Berlin) to the Cinesite family.
 
Recent credits include No Time to Die (of the James Bond franchise, to be released in April 2020), Avenue 5, The Northwater, Fate: The Winx Saga. Other credits include: Rocketman, Avengers: Infinity War, Murder Mystery, Adrift, Ant-Man & the Wasp and Mary Poppins.  

Cinesite is a supporter of Access VFX, a non-profit organization comprised of 40 leading companies which helps people get into the industry and focuses on actively pursuing and encouraging inclusion, diversity, awareness.

Allan McKay interviews Cinesite’s Head of Assets Tim Potter and VFX Supervisor Salvador Zalvidea about the direction of the industry, how to break into VFX and get great insights into compositing and the end of the pipeline.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/228/.