Part I: And So it begins

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! It's about to happen! I just accepted an offer at Pixar animation studio! The dream is about to come into my grasp! My fingers and tingling and my arms are shaking! I finally get to be in the seat where I'm telling the stories I've always wanted to hear! And now, I will get to pass down my stories to the next person in hopes to inspire them. So here it is!

Part I: And So it begins

I was sitting on the bleachers of our school's soccer field, just having some alone time, when I felt my phone buzz. I picked it up and saw and email from an @pixar.com email adress entitled, "Animation Internship". My heart skipped a beat as I tapped on the annotation in anticipation. I read the first line and my life changed immediately.

"Hi Ere-
We'd like to offer you a position as an animation intern this summer!..."

I. Was. Floored.

I couldn't control my limbs or vocal chords as I proceeded to scream at the top of my lungs for a solid 73 minutes. I completely didn't care what anyone thought of me. People were staring and laughing but I- did- not- care. I had my phone call today to go over the offer details and such and such. But that was when they officially offered me the position!

This is just the beginning, so stay tuned! I'm so excited to embark on this journey and actually get there!


PS - Here is the reel I applied with:

Ere Santos Demo Reel Spring 2017 from Ere Santos on Vimeo.

Oh! By the way...

Oh! By the way, it came! My rejection letter finally came on the 17th of May. This means that it was  2 months and 2 weeks (77 days to be exact) from when I applied to when I got my rejection letter. Granted... It was a long time coming, but they did also have 2,500 applicants to sift through. NOW! Without further adieu, a comprehensively exhausted list of what I learned applying to Pixar (an other) internships!

1. Know who you are applying to
• This is key when you are applying to bigger studios. These folk love attention to detail and the more you pay attention to the requirements and format of their application process, the happy they will be, the happier you will be and the happier the general populous will be! Some studios want very polished work, some studios want cartoony/realistic/creature/cycles WHATEVER! Know what they want and give it to them. Unless your name is Glen Keane, one size does not necessarily fit all. Be mindful of your audience and be mindful of what their desires are.
  
  eg. Pixar may wants to see very clear unique acting choices in whatever stage/medium of animation you choose whereas EA may want to see very polished creature work with an outstanding understanding of body mechanics etc. Do your research and it will pay off on the long run, TRUST me!
2. Don't be afraid to have multiple reels
• Here's where things may get a bit tricksy, but still useful and I definitely recommend that you do this: have multiple password protected reels. Here is the method to my madness. So... Ideally, you want to track who is watching what reel from what studio yes? So why not just take the extra hour out of your life and upload specific reels that you will send to specific studios?
  
  Here's what I mean: so just upload a Pixar reel to vimeo or wherever and set the password to, "PIXAR" or whatever and send it to Pixar, so anytime they view your reel (or don't view your reel), you'll know! Same thing with other studios! Upload a reel with password "DISNEY" and send it to Disney, "LAIKA" for Laika and so on and so forth. It makes view tracking a lot simpler!
  
  The reality of the situation is that when you send your reel off to studios, your reel is going to get a lot of views, unless you have Vimeo Pro, it's hard to track who watches it where, but better still. You have 100% chance of knowing who wathed what where, because only certain people will have access to it!
3. No news is good news, unless it's bad news
• This is a waiting game... so wait! Something we all fall into is failing to trust the process and think our application is lost in the see of bits and bytes, but as long as you recieved an email saying, "Thank you for your application" Your application has gone through. No news is good news! If you haven't gotten a rejection letter, you still have a chance! The first round of rejection letters start going out as soon as a month and a half after the applications close.
  
  Now, I don't mean to be a downer, but the reality of the situation is that no news can also be bad news. Just because you haven't heard back doesn't mean that you are still being considered... yah, I'm sorry. Sometimes they just haven't gotten back to you. BUUUT  if you are confident in your work, keep up the faith!
4. Keep busy in the downtime
• Sweet! You've sent in your reel, now back to work. Just because you are waiting for your chance at the big show doesn't mean that your artistic progress also has to take a hault. When all the applications close is the perfect time to get that nose of yours to the grind and continue working to polish and refine your current stuff, and get a head start on next year's reel! Get that stuff up to snuff. If studios like your work, they will flag you. They want to see improvement, and if you have no new stuff to show, after a year, how will they have confidence hiring you not only into their internship but eventually into their studio? Oh, don't forget that that is why you're applying! To hopefully get hired. I'm sorry to sound harsh, but get your but back to work!
5. Don't let rejection discourage you

1. Dear Paul, 
   
   Thank you very much for your interest in the Animation Internship - Summer 2016
   position at Pixar. 
   
   We are fortunate to have many qualified candidates apply to each of our positions,
   and after careful consideration, we have decided to move forward with other
   candidates who more closely meet the needs of the position. 
   
   We wish you success in your career endeavors and sincerely appreciate your interest
   in Pixar!
    
   Best wishes, 
   Pixar Recruiting
   
   

• That was my letter from Pixar. I saw the pop up in the corner of my monitor whilst I was animating. And you know what? Nothing has ever put wind in my sails to finish that shot I was animating like this letter! I'll tell yah, getting approval is awesome and is necessary for an artistic process, but getting rejection is a major part of it too! If we as ANIMATION artists can't accept rejection on a mass scale, we should never embark on this journey.
  
  This summer 2016 I wanted to push myself to become as callous to rejection as I possibly could, so I took up a door to door sales job, and boy, did that teach me a thing or two about rejection, but the #1 thing it taught me was that if you let rejection negatively affect you every time, you will not be able to get back on your hustle, you will not be able finish your job for the day, but most importantly, you will won't experience the joy and elation that comes from gaining those approvals.
  
  So you got rejected? Congratulations! I've so proud of you to have finally joined the club of the elites! The rejectees! But don't stay here, keep working, keep pushing past all these rejections and keep pushing to receive that one yes! Because that one yes can change your day, your year, and even your life! The only way to get that yes is through time and hard work! So keep at it (insert your name here)! You're almost there!

The Plot Intensifies!

It's been 55 days and  counting, still no sign of reaching the beautiful and sentient beings at Emeryville, or anywhere for that matter. Amidst exams at Trinity and everything I have been doing a lot of research and lot of asking around and HEEEEEERE is what I've learned!!

So now is around the time people are hearing  back from Pixar with rejection/acceptance letters. I still haven't heard anything back JUUUUST yet, but I'm getting views on my demo reel every  other day so that's moderately exciting! It could be them, it could be any random Joe off the street. But here's the real dealio, they are very hesitant in hiring freshman. They look to hire people who are going into their senior year (4th year) of university OOOOR people who have graduated in the past 2 years. That's totally fine, because one thing to note is that they do flag demo reels that they find potential in, and on top of that, they ADOOOORE re-applicants because it shows drive, progress, and pro-activity. So make sure to keep on replying. At this point, I'm more or less just saying, "LET ME KNOW!! Am I in or am I out? I have to solidify something for this summer, yo! I gos'ta make moneys and if I ain't making dough there, I gos'ta make dough somewhere else!" but whatever, it's aaaaall gucci!

What I will say though is that my one nugget of wisdom is to get yourself signed up with a forum of sort with which you can revel in the woes of waiting for internships with other anxious students! Here is an example of one ( https://pixarplanet.com/forums/ ). 

Keep strong and keep animating you young/old animator you! Don't worry! Keep going, you're almost there! Don't let that one piece of blocking frustrate you too much! Just LET IT GOOO! and continue working hard! And depending on what point in history you're at, either keep reading forward or keep coming back to check up on the progress! See y'all in the tomorrow!

Step One

So... I've been looking around for anyone who has a very detailed blog as to how they made it to the big leagues, and well, for me as a student, it's hard to know what right steps to take in order to increase my chances substantially to get to where I'm wanting to get to. Let me lay it down for you, I am not saying by any means the methods I am about to take are the same steps that anyone else should take, I mean, you do you buddy, but I just want to take you all through as much as my employers will allow in order for you to experience my ups and downs, acceptances and rejections, headway and disappointments, you know the whole deal. This is so you too see that achieving your dream is not a straight and easy path! I have gotten to a place where I can actually start living the dream I sought out as a child. It is exciting, nerve racking, joy inducing and down right scary, but I am going to accomplish my goals! It's just a matter of time. So with that being said, here we goooo!

Step one, internships. I'm arriving at the end of my first year at Trinity Western University studying Computer Science and theatre. It's been an awesome journey and lots of fun with lots of things learned. That being said, this summer I have taken a leap and I am applying to animation studios EVERYWHERE! Yes that means Disney, Blue Sky, and Pixar too. 

This is the reel I sent to these studios:

Ere Santos Spring 2016 Demo Reel from Ere Santos on Vimeo.

In addition to just applying to these studios, I have been STUUUUUUDYING! Getting edumacated on what a good reel is! Looking at past internship reels as well as looking at the reels they presumably applied with... Meaning that if they interned summer 2012, then I'd watch spring 2012 to see what their reel looked like... And for those who were so inclined to post often about their lives, I would study what they were doing in their with their lives before they got those internships. The reason I do this is to learn more about the people behind the amazing art. I would also reach out to those whose art genuinely inspired me and some of them even replied!

My advice for those reading in the present and future is (and I CAAAANNOT stress this enough) edumacate yourself on deadlines, program requirements, and anything else that would hinder you from getting ANY interview you're looking for. Know your employer and know what type of employees they are looking for. Next one is to realize that the devil is in the details. The more care to take with an application, the more the employer with see that you care about the job you are applying for. Don't ever think that, "oh they won't notice if I forget to put my address on my demo reel/resume" it may be obvious, but you'd be surprised. My next piece of advice is the most important. THIS REQUIRES A LOT OF HARD WORK PATIENCE AND DEDICATION. I'm not talking about a couple weeks of hard work or a couple months of dedication, it requires years and years of all this stuff to start getting anywhere. Don't you worry too much about making it to the big leagues so quickly darling that will all come with time! Concern yourself with this first stages, then the next, then the next, and so on so forth! Everything else will come with time. And most importantly, don't give up on your dream dear sister/brother, stay passionate! See y'all in the tomorrow!

Mr. Hardy, and Mr. Bardem

HAAAAAAAAAAAAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Y'all best be gittin' ready for a great year! Awesome things are happening!

I wanted to start off this year just pointing out some actors that really truly make you not want to blink while they are on screen! Javier Bardem and Tom Hardy, two method actors that really show what it means to create a convincing character. In every single role they portray is new and exciting. Why? Because they are just comfortable in the roles they are given, there is nothing forced and nothing feigned:

 

Here, one of my favourite pieces of cinema, Bardem is the Bond villain in Skyfall and what a performance. He enters the room and by the pacing of his walk and way he talks you have no question as to the fact that this man has no shadow of a doubt that he is confident in his abilities do accomplish his goals. You might also notice that a lot of the scene he stands with his fingers interlocked, which is often associated with putting up a guard or being nervous, but this time, he is just furthering his level of calculation that is he is apparently going through.

I also recently watch Legend... My gosh, what a movie. Hardy plays the legendary gangster Kray twins in this movie, but these twins have few to no similarities besides appearance. The way he differentiates the characters is by very slight differences but he sells them effectively. Yes, one of the twins wears glasses, but Hardy also chooses to jut his chin out and have a chronic case of RMF (Resting Mean Face) when playing that character. In every scene I was never confused as to which Hardy was which Kray and they helped me to stay within the story, one thing was consistent, they were gangsters through and through.

***MIND THE LANGUAGE***

All this being said, these characters are well thought out and very strongly portrayed. They showed character with indicating, by which I mean overplaying the character.

So...

1. Clarity:
• When animating, make sure to have traits that sell your idea for your character and who they are, no matter how short the shot, make sure that it sells your idea clearly.
2. Consistency:
• Ensure that the viewer is never confused as to who the character is at any given point in you shot/sequence/story.
3. Comfort:
• It's never interesting to watch an actor acting on stage/set, it's only interesting to watch character in their world. Let your character be in their worlds.

You might learn that I LoOoOve me some alliteration! I love to use it in obviously opportune occurrences! These are just a few things to remember when planning/animating your characters.

Who is HE to you?

So I was listening to a message, and I was kinda of half listening to it and there came a point where the speaker said these words, "Hear me please... There's somebody watching me right now and you're being asked to lay down something you could not imagine that to lay it down would not somehow deprive you of fulfilment in your future, and I want to tell you, you know that it's the Lord's doing... God will never violate what He started in you, by something that he brings to you now that looks to you like the end..." Why was this so poignant out of the 2 and a half hours of message material? Well, I just feel as though this is what the Lord has been asking me to do with animation but I haven't been listening. Interesting, Animation is my BABY the thing that I have been working towards for my whole life, and now more than ever! But you need to remember Abraham, and what God asked him to do with HIS baby!

There is so much happening for me, Animation Mentor is starting pretty soon, internships are around the corner, and I've never been more passionate about my craft, and He wants me to just hand it over to Him? But of course! Now more than ever! Because big things are happening for me! He's not asking me to give up animation. No, not at all, that is the calling over my life. He's just asking me to be in a place where it is not at the head of my life, put it in a place where He is choosing what I do with animation, not me. Only then am I truly following my deepest inspirations.

It doesn't matter what we're interested in, let God, draw, pilot, conduct, design, drive, edit, arrange, write, manage, lead, uncover, build, and animate your life.

So what is He to you?

Different Places

Here is a piece from Holes I finished about 2 weeks ago. My intention for this piece other than practice was to sort of time myself to see how fast I can animate to the best of my abilities. So um, basically it took me about 40 hrs to animate about 15 seconds of work.
Different Places Polish pass from Ere Santos on Vimeo.
There were a few specific things I was working on other than speed:

1. I really tried to push my polish.
2. This also pushed my eye and my understanding of subtle acting and secondary action.
3. I played a lot with staging and solid posing.
4. I made sure to animate the entire body, not just for the camera.

after I worked on these things, I truly felt that it plused a whole lot more in this piece.

Malcolm character courtesy of AnimSchool.com”