Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/19885
materials and doing lighting, I am actu- ally creating the process, which flows through the pipeline.” Yacalis, like many other recent hires, was already very knowledgeable of the software used at major studios. “The only thing I had to learn in-house was the pipeline, the in-house tools, such as whatever various scripts or processes they were using.” What tips w ould he off er other s? “Love what you do and work hard. It’s really an industry where the harder you work, the more you’ll get out of it.You need to be social.You need to be able to network and talk to people.You can’t be a loner.You need to be able to coor- dinate with your peers and be wiling to learn and take criticism.” He says some people who can’t take criticism aren’t as willing to learn once they leave school. “They say, ‘I’m done with school. I don’t need to learn any- thing; everything needs to be given to me because I’ve gone through school. That’s my dues.’ But school is not the dues you pay to work in the industry,” says a wise Yacalis. “School is prepping you to be able to handle the dues.” THE MILL’S ROBERT HOLMES Robert Holmes, 3D artist at Lon- don’s The Mill (www.the-mill.com), is no stranger to dealing with clients and de- livering projects… he was a graphic de- signer running his own small company for eight years. Clients were asking for more and more projects incorporating 3D motion graphics, and he “fell in love” with the process. When he did off icially mak e the jump, he found himself at Escape Stu- dios, preparing to work as a 3D artist. One of the first things they taught him was that he didn’t need to know every aspect of every tool. “You open up a package of Maya or Shake and you think you have to know every single button, and you think y ou are going to walk into a company and start modeling and doing big things straight away, but they said,‘No, no, no.You learn this part of this package; it’s the most impor tant bit you need to kno w,’ and that really helped take the pressure off.” Another thing Escape taught Holmes was “the theory of everything and then the practical application of that theor y, and then the application of the practical within a work environment.They told us, ‘You can do all the squash and stretch cartoon characters and all the cerns of most college students are their own grades, awards, image and class standing. In the majority of compa- nies,one must be more concerned with how their perfor- mance is benefiting (or hindering) everyone else. As a production intern here, I did a variety of things, from going shopping for last-minute props during a shoot to actually wearing a greenscreen suit and becoming invisi- ble in front of the camera. My advice to a student looking to transition into the Joanna Haecker Post Production Coor Click 3X www.click3x.com New Y ork I graduated from Baylor University in Waco,TX, in the spring of 2010 with a major in Film and Digital Media and a minor in Studio Art. Prior to this, I was a production in- tern at Click 3X for four months in the fall of 2009.This past July, just two short months after graduation, I re- turned to New York, and to Click 3X, as their new post production coordinator. Baylor is a great school, and I feel that I got a great lib- eral arts education there, but nothing can replace getting hands-on experience. In school, I learned many things; here, I get to apply those things.The work that I do has real value, and directly affects my colleagues.My work does not merely go to a teacher to be graded — I can see the direct benefits and feel more of a purpose for every- thing that I am told to do.There is a shift in thinking that must take place in the transition from college to a first job:one must become a team player.The primary con- dinator “real world” is to make as many contacts in the profes- sional world as possible. Be personable — it is never a mistake to make friends, to merely be nice to people and learn about what they do.An internship is a great way to make connections.Also, one of the most important things about pursuing an internship in your field of study is that you get to see whether you even want to go into that field. I have had friends whose internships were incredibly helpful to them, simply because they were able to find out that they were not meant for that career — which is im- portant to know! As for myself, I had a great time and learned a lot as a Click 3X intern, and was eager to return to New York City and to this company as full-time staff. Haecker recently worked on this New York City shoot. www.postmagazine.com November 2010 • Post 35