*nods* Thank you sir.

Thanks, but perhaps you missed the whole been graduated 2 months already, and I'm so desperate I'm posting here... thing.

As much as I like our little corner of the internet, it's not going to get you eyeballs or work.

The good news is, there's a metric fuckton of work in Vancouver, and seemingly more every day, but it's not going to come and find you. You've got a reel, a brand new education in the relevant field, and the freedom to work a dirt cheap rate in exchange for being able to tell the next place you have industry experience and a new reel to show for it -- get that out there.

I'd start with the 2-Pop jobs forum. Submit to every listing that isn't looking for a "Senior" whatever and that you feel confident with the software involved. White lies about your competence are okay; tall tales are not. If you start to see a lot of listings for a program you don't know, learn that shit.

If you do Twitter, there are a couple of accounts you can follow that aggregate VFX job postings from around the world, including Vancouver with some frequency:

@VFXJobHunt
@vfxjoblist
@VFXrecruit

When you send submission emails, keep it short and sweet. They don't need your life story or a blowjob about how highly you regard their company, just the information relevant to the position you're applying for and a few selling points. Acknowledge your lack of experience but don't apologize for it -- you're eager and ready to learn and you would love the opportunity etc. And, just in case it needs to be said, don't go defensive and tell them you're not apologizing for it; just, you know, be cool.

Good luck.

/possibly helpful

I'd go with Lightwave or Cinema 4D - you'll find six houses that use either of those before you'll find one that uses Blender.

Blender is powerful, but it's still only catching on in bits and pieces in the industry. Lightwave is big in the TV biz.

Companies...frown? Huh? They won't know. (I'm also not aware of a situation wherein someone at any company was surprised anybody else at a company had pirated software, much less cared.)

All that matters is when they say "your reel is great, but we're really more of a Lightwave studio" (or whatever it is) that you can say "I've played with that a bit, yeah."

I understand ethically, sure. I use purchased software for almost everything, but sometimes you gotta stretch here or there to brush up on what you may eventually need.

...what's the...risk? There's a little risk, I guess, in the torrent phase, but what exactly are you worried about?

Be cool. The part that seems like a leap is the "company finds out, kills me in my sleep" bit. I'm not aware of that having been a problem for anyone I know, or anyone who knows anyone I know. Or anyone I know of.

That's all I'm saying. It's good to be worried about that kind of thing, but you're much more likely to starve. I'm just keeping an eye out for that one.

Let me stop you right there. Film school?

Film school.

Show of hands, guys, of who thinks film school actually helps anyone make money.

Lightwave is seriously fun. I haven't used it for a few years (since v. 6.5 or 7), but you should learn to play with it.

Get the software by any means necessary, and buy a license when you begin to make money from it. Ethically it's a little grey but you're effectively still a student with no money. Your reel is your meal ticket.

Unlike Autodesk or the Foundry, Newtek don't have a programme for students to use a learning edition or obtain significant discount (afaik). If we were talking about learning Nuke or any of the Autodesk range, I wouldn't suggest piracy - it's just not required.

Noted.

Without school I would not have gotten my internship, without my internship my career would not have happened.