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!