I enrolled at University of Westminster in my 2nd year from Graphic Design in University of Greenwich. As I was getting comfortable with the university and course, I found out from a student that I needed a work experience alongside my degree. Hearing that, I was not too comfortable to do work experience at the time as I was trying to maintain a secure understanding in my coursework and did not want to jeopardise that term.
After Winter ended, I was looking for work experience offers in sites such as indeed.com and had no luck. Within couple months, the Covid-19 pandemic started and that was a huge barrier for me as many places were having difficulties arranging voluntary work especially. Plus, I have had personal problems too. Now in my 3rd year, we were announced about getting an opportunity to work with RCA (Royal College of Art) students as a work experience especially for those who had no luck in finding one. I thought this was a good opportunity to get a productive work experience and develop my skills and knowledge further in various animation styles and techniques.
Before discussing further, I wanted to state that in my first semester at this university I did not have the privilege of making my own concept of a stop-motion film as students were meant to plan it during the summer break I believe. This meant that I had to find a team that will accept someone they did not know and fortunately I had generous classmates who did not mind working with a newcomer. The film we made was decent however I always wondered what I could have made with my own vision. The RCA student pitch that interested me was a stop-motion project about the frustrating nature of London in a traffic jam. I liked the concept idea as it was very relatable and humorous.
Samuel, Bruno and I were interested in this project. The RCA student’s name was Felix Weyss, we emailed him early to let him know that we were interested in collaborating. Unfortunately, we did not get any response for couple of days, this was frustrating as we were busy with our final projects and did not know whether to wait further or look for another project. Fortunately, Felix responded and asked about our strengths in stop-motion. I sent him my 2nd year project film which was stop motion and explained to him about my strengths and weaknesses. He was impressed by my puppet’s design and was happy to proceed. We emailed asking for an arrangement of a zoom meeting so that we can discuss what roles we can take on during the day. Unfortunately, Felix was quite busy to reply for another week or so, we waited patiently. He responded with a date and the four of us discussed where our strengths met and where our weakness needed support.
We agreed on a date for working and the location was his apartment. However, he said he will email us the address and to be honest, we did not get any email for over two weeks. In this time, I was busy with my final project and was hoping he would respond but then I was very unsure whether to proceed on this project as he has been delaying a lot often, we started to get a bad impression that he was going to delay everything passed our university deadline. We then emailed to ask if he still wanted to proceed and he eventually responded with the address at midnight before the day he wanted us there at his apartment. It was quite insulting as it seems he does not think our time is as valued as his.
Felix’s response time was atrocious and that had led to a shorter work experience time of one day as we still had our final projects to resume. I was not very skilled in stop-motion compared to the others but I did manage to help out a lot on the day. More importantly, I gained more knowledge on the types of materials that are good for stop motion such as balsa wood sheets which is pretty thin and light for a good quality wood. We weren’t given the correct tools to cut wood so it took much longer to achieve good outcomes. We were given blueprints to work from, at first I thought it was confusing but I understood the layout better as I worked further.
During our time there, I learnt that better outcomes can be made through good hardworking team that understands you and motivates you. I was tired from cutting up several wood pieces that day, however Samuel and Bruno motivated me to go further. In addition, we were discussing career ideas and opportunities with Felix and he advised us on the best he knew from his experience. At the end we exchanged numbers before we left for further opportunities. Throughout this experience, I developed my communication skills, teamwork skills and time management skills where I had to do work experience alongside university coursework. Plus, it was an experience to understand that some employers may not be as enthusiastic as you are, so you must make sure to contact them to check up on updates if it is too late.
The overall experience was productive, I would definitely agree that I have learnt more in Stop-motion animation and next time I would take on a similar project if I am offered any. I am grateful for this experience as it has encouraged and motivated me to extend my learning process and explore various styles and techniques in the animation industry.
haranworks 