Industrial Light and Magic Production Assistant and Award of Achievement in Production for Animation and VFX graduate, Vitória Cruz M Fatheazam shares her experience of the program.
I found out about the micro-credential while searching online for a program that would help me step into Production for VFX. It really caught my eye because the classes were scheduled in a way that wouldn't clash with my work schedule. Also appealing was the flexibility of attending classes online without compromising interactions with colleagues and instructors.
The duration of the program (as little as four months) was also really important to me, as a program lasting 1 or 2 years would demand more resources and frequent physical presence, which would be much less convenient for me.
I found it very fortunate how the course content created an environment that was useful for both experienced professionals and newcomers to the industry (like myself!). Being around individuals with such diverse backgrounds and levels of experience was great, as we had multiple discussions that helped me gain a better understanding of the contrast between working in production in VFX and the work done by the production team in animation. These exchanges really helped clarify how work is typically distributed within studios: how teams are organized, how the timeline of a project impacts each stage of the pipeline, what terminologies are commonly used, and, of course, hearing everyone's career path that led to working in production.
Now, I am currently a Production Assistant at Industrial Light and Magic in Vancouver. Participating in the program was really significant to me, as I was able to learn the fundamentals of how the production team can help a project flow smoothly through a studio's pipeline, what skills would help me organize and execute my tasks as a PA, and also which tools I would potentially be using with my team. Finally, the micro-credential helped me become more confident and understand concepts and terminologies that I would encounter when attending events and communicating with people in the industry.
