Working For Free - $150k to $450k in a single year (Allan McKay Business of design)

[@durgeshpanigrahi8083]

Thanks for always motivating us...thank you

[@AllanMcKay]

No problem buddy, it's a quick video but I'm hoping it will open up a lot of people's minds a little to how you can negotiate everything, and how understanding what the other party wants really means you can get whatever you want. I interviewed one of the top negotiators in the world on the Podcast a while back which is also a good reference (his father was the head negotiator for the FBI for 20 years) there's so many great insights shared there also.

[@edstudiowarsaw]

Very cool and useful video. Keep up the good work

[@AllanMcKay]

Thank you Tim!

[@shalabology]

as usual , those videos are treasures ..experience on silver plate ..thank you Alan so much

[@AllanMcKay]

You are very welcome thank you Ahmed

[@whitescape]

Some very good real world observations in this video. Thanks!

[@iamski]

I had an 8 paragraph essay typed up for you and was about to hit send, but then I decided to delete it since it's a conversation we're not ready to have yet :P

[@AllanMcKay]

email me still love to hear from you!

[@iamski]

@@AllanMcKay Actually, no you wouldn't, trust me brother.

[@martinizaguirre]

Thanks a lot for this advise, Allan brother!

[@AllanMcKay]

Anytime Marty! Thank you!

[@ahmdhamdi7794]

Thanks man.

[@AllanMcKay]

I hope you find it valuable

[@ahmdhamdi7794]

@@AllanMcKay i did

[@mandeepthakur2630]

Wow great video, Even though we study at the Animation and VFX Institute, we definitely watch your awesome VFX tutorial video. A little bit love from India 🇮🇳😍

[@AllanMcKay]

That's so awesome Mandeep! Yeah this channel is designed for creatives, not specifically just visual effects. So I'm confident it will all apply to you guys in animation as well Thanks again Mandeep!

[@TheSANTOFILMS]

Thanks...

[@AllanMcKay]

you're welcome brother

[@arunckraj]

Amazing information Allan! You are showing the right path that works. 👍

[@MGrillo3D]

Hello, great post but with regards to what you stated in your video I have done everything you say since graduating art school in 2010 since I never hear from those contacts or networks in which age has also been a hindering factor. Those you thought were your friends tuned their backs. So what does one do in situations like this? Free not sure I have to eat and pay bills?

[@RedValknut]

Great advice! Just wondering what advice you’d give for a new graduate that has no job and is trying to make it in this industry!

[@griffithsafari]

Appreciate the great advice! What recommendations do you have for a film student pursuing to be a DP for advertisement (mostly table top/ high-speed/ MOCO)?

[@AllanMcKay]

That's great man! Honestly the DP route is really about A) relationships - getting in front of the right people and getting the attention of the right people and B) just being busy, putting out new stuff trying new things and trying to come up with interesting and unique ideas. It's a lot harder, just like photography is because anyone with a camera can call themselves a photographer. But whether it's short films, or making a good DP reel of beautiful stuff to showcase your work - it's about getting out there and getting noticed, and by the right people. I would say do some mock advertisements to make a reel, find an agency that wants to get behind you and start trying to get as much experience in commercial work as possible. I definitely think finding your niche, whether it's car commercials, product shots, food photography, whatever it is that you can double down on is critical. I have numerous friends who went from being commercial DP's to directing feature films, and if you look at David Finger and Michael Bay, everyone cuts their teeth in commercials first typically (or music videos) on their path to bigger things. But in the beginning it's about standing out, and that's both with the right people as well as with the right type of work to attract the clients you want to work with

[@griffithsafari]

@@AllanMcKay That's awesome! Thank you so much dude! I'll for sure use your advise when thinking about taking the next steps. Can't thank you enough! Seriously dude you are awesome!

[@JulianAbreu]

Great video, it’s true, maybe I have lost some potencial connections in my past trying to get some money in, it happens, but I’m understanding your approach and I’m about to apply for my first jobs in a few months in, thank you for your teachings! Hope you can make a video soon about pricing compositing and 3D as freelancers ! Would be awesome! Greetings from Santiago de Chile!

[@rahulramdin4705]

Hi Allan quick question when you say go in and network do you mean like go to a vfx studio and try to talk to them?

[@samstuff5826]

Hey Allan, do you use online render farms ?

[@AllanMcKay]

Hey Sam, it really depends on the project and my needs. FX is still one area that is hard to do in the cloud because of the size of the assets. But a lot of projects we've done in the past like Transformers and Star Trek we'd do a majority of it in the cloud and then have 10-12 nodes for local rendering and simulations for FX where needed

[@samstuff5826]

Allan McKay I'm gonna do some research on cloud rendering and nodes, I'm just getting my journey started in this field, thanks for your time Allan!

[@tronotrond]

Thanks Allan! It's a very good point, working for free isn't just about hard cash. I can understand some people are in a hard position, just trying to make the minimum they need to survive and pay their bills, but having the big picture in mind is important. I was recently contacted by a producer for a Kickerstarter backed short film. They needed som VFX help, potentially a small pay in the future, they needed the shot within a week and so on. Immediately that didn't sound very good. But I took a look, these are guys with some good and recognizable IMDB credits already, I thought "OK, interesting", and the shots themselves were cool. Something I would like to do, but nothing that would take a massive amount of hours. The production definitively seemed serious. So I said "Ok, I cannot do this in a week due to other paid projects, but I can work on this in-between and have it to you in a month or so and I want to be properly credited". They agreed, and as a bonus they liked the shot so much they're considering using it for the movie poster. All in all, I got some cool new experience, made some new contacts, IMDB credits and new professional shots to add to my reel.

[@nano3ddreams444]

New things to learn ,just investing now and earn later.

[@AllanMcKay]

great man

[@jahirhussain2484]

Great advice sir!Just started watching your Ultimate demo reel masterclass video. Hoping to get my first job in 2020.You gotta be in it to win it!!😅❤️🔥

[@AllanMcKay]

That's so great man! Keep me in the loop with how it all goes. I am going to be posting a lot of demo reel related content on here pretty soon. I want us to go big in 2020!

[@jahirhussain2484]

@@AllanMcKay Yes sir ,sure! Looking forward for more great content. Thank you sir!❤️

[@designworks7347]

how i can works from mu home in north afrika

[@AllanMcKay]

I have a few videos on my KZbin channel on working from home - and definitely more coming. I'd say look there first, and then come back and ask me what questions you have specifically around the videos you watched - I'll try to fill in the gaps with more answers

[@samstuff5826]

How can someone with big ideas create with a limited hardware? I already invested in a station, but I still feel limited. Render farms are expensive too. Any advice would be appreciated.

[@AllanMcKay]

You can either render in the cloud, or learn to optimize. Honestly I think the biggest gift someone can have is slower hardware. It forces you to be really creative in figuring out ways to do something. If you think of games and what they're able to pull off in realtime - you should definitely think outside the box and figure out creative ways to come up with solutions that might not be as hardware intensive as the traditional ways we do a lot of things

[@samstuff5826]

Allan McKay maybe it's time to see that as a blessing and be more creative then, thank you so much for everything you're doing. greetings.

[@Chris-jo1zr]

@@samstuff5826 I agree, a powerful rendering option might only be needed if you need to show these incredible high detail renders or animations, for almost anything else you can do really well with less power. I got through my uni course with a dual core 8 gig laptop, it wasn't great but I could do everything well with it.

[@samstuff5826]

Chris Gough i total agree with that, it makes sense, but the thing is that I'm aiming for some high quality content, I want to "conquer " the people I look up to since I'm feeling confident. I have the ideas and concepts, now I learned 3DS Max (and still) I just gotta find a way for execution. Reading Allan's response made me understand that the only obstacle between me and the final results that I only have in my mind is finding a way to optimize and overcome this problem.

[@AllanMcKay]

@@Chris-jo1zr absolutely I Feel a lot of us get spoiled with big computers, and it actually plays against you. If I had my way I would get FX artists to not be able to simulate anything in the beginning and keyframe everything. Just like I would like people to learn to render heavy scenes by breaking it up and putting it back together in comp. The problems we run into are where we find the solutions

[@visvesh6627]

Love from india sir ♥️...i soo curious whether your mentorship program will be continued for the upcoming years...im a student by now...if the program would be available... wish i could join that program in 2021 as i have other stuff to look after this year...

[@AllanMcKay]

That's great Vichu, yeah I'm not going anywhere :) Good luck with your current studies!

[@visvesh6627]

@@AllanMcKay im feeling pleasure to hear this sir,...i will join ur program for sure♥️🔥

[@StayOkToday]

Sometimes working for free is just not an option. That’s a privillege when you are struggling to get through next month.

[@AllanMcKay]

Hi Domantas obviously if you're concerned about paying the bills next week your number one focus should be on doing whatever it takes to make money to get by. Long term strategy is obviously a strategy for a reason, the immediate things we need to do to take care of ourselves are short term and urgent. If you're ever in this situation, I would suggest going and mowing lawns or getting a job at Starbucks or whatever 'immediately' resolves the issues in front of you - and you can work on your career later once you have yourself in a position to do so. I say this because it's not uncommon, there are people I've met who moved to Los Angeles and started sending their reel around, trying to get a job while they weren't able to afford rent. When in reality they need to get themselves situated first, long before they worry about long-term-career-strategy. Just like anything there is your hierarchy of needs, that come first. Only after you have them situated and you're in a good place with what's right in front of you, can you worry about "what's next" and what your long-term career trajectory is But, the video itself is not 100% focused on working for free, only the title of the video is. The video spends maybe 60 seconds talking about how "I" worked for free, the video itself is actually focused on long term strategies, and negotiating. So check it out, it might give you some ideas for your future

[@StayOkToday]

Allan McKay, sorry if I came off too cynical and thanks for all the tips and taking time to respond! The video certainly made me look at myself from a different perspective. As I just got layed off myself, maybe its not the smartest thing for me to start working for free right away, but I will certainly try it whenever I can while targeting specific creative agencies that I want to get employed by. Loosing a job is certainly difficult and pressuring situation making me second guess everything and do some reality checks on what I can and can not do. I do find a lot of inspiration and ideas on planning and prioritising my next steps from your channel, so thank you for that too!

[@Chris-jo1zr]

If you have a moment, I work for an arch viz studio as a modeller, all of the management and many seniors can not model,texture,material at all, they rely on me to model for them. I have brought Unreal Engine to the company and done much more development towards it over the last 2 years, however because they constantly need me to be a modeller I loose out on the chance to work on UE4 projects, often they are given away to someone else I helped train. Should I call it quits for this company? I've brought this up at least twice and no real changes have been made. I see good long term benefits of staying but there's still a good chance I will be stuck in this same spot. I have a potential chance at a new product design company, using C4D, not 3Ds Max (sadly), would you think it's time to take the chance? to dare and potentially win?

[@lhmsc]

Your videos are awesome, but 3 min of introduction + ads is way too much. Most people keep it at 30 sec to 1 min tops. Just a suggestion.

[@AllanMcKay]

Hi Luis, I get that kind of feedback even with a 30 second introduction. Context is everything so what might be seen as an introduction is really part of the talk. But I don't focus on shiny shortcuts most of the information I share is strategic top level strategy so if 30 seconds loses a certain audience, they're typically the people who would never implement this information anyway. But thank you for sharing I definitely am very conscious of making the introduction short but also discussing the problem and giving context to how this applies. But I appreciate the feedback brother thanks Luis! 👊

[@lhmsc]

@@AllanMcKay I'm pretty sure you know what you're doing, and I really appreciate the knowledge you pack in those videos :) Cheers!

[@MelbourneArchviz]

I understand you I think. I do provide one or two free views for my regular clients especially when they choose cameras I don't like and they always appreciate the free views and say they are better than the ones they originally wanted, but beware some "clients" are not worth the piece of crap the cocroach rolls in front of it's nose just steer clear of these people. I have been doing this for 20 years and I have seen enough. I have stories that would make you say "what????" You do need some lip balm they work really well.

[@FabrizioBogado]

Thanks a lot Allan. My work its better after listen to you :D At the FILM in LOS ANGELES, try to do a super robot made of the building and after he is on his position, it start to shoot the people and furnitures that are inside (like bullets) to other building robot. In other way, your dellicated camera focus drives me crazy jajajjaa. You move and you are out of focus and my eyes try to catch you all the time.

[@prashantverma9628]

Hi Allan, thank you for your amazing free videos. Please reply to my message, it will make my whole damn week. thank you !

[@AllanMcKay]

Thanks Prashant, where is your message? Is it on KZbin or where can I see it?

[@superideas2138]

please make your advertisment short sharp its pretty boring , and i think you have to upload videos like zack king that will sure generate million views and subscribers

[@MovingDungeons]

It's illegal to work for free, just do a low paid intern or do some running.

[@AllanMcKay]

Yep, watch the video. I realize there's going to be some people who just jump down to the comments and start saying NO DONT DO IT without realizing what this video is even about. YES do not go work at a studio for free in hopes you'll get hired but DO listen to the video, watch it a few times. Because if your gut reaction is that this is about going and rolling the dice at a company, you might need to listen a few times. This video is about negotiating and thinking bigger I did a job a few years back, for free, knowing that if we get the job, I'm going to make about $200k for 8 weeks of work. Or, I could go in as an employee and get paid to pitch the job, and maybe if I'm lucky make 25k But again watch the video, pay attention and I think you'll realize in the first 3 minutes when I say "do not go work for studios for free and be taken advantage of" that clearly I'm talking about much bigger concepts

[@TheWeftmen]

@@AllanMcKay wow 250K dollar, you are honest man,