As part of our course, we had a lovely opportunity to attend a talk with Virpi Kettu - a stop motion animator who is currently operating out of Skipton from her own studios and hear her incredible journey that has taken her through the likes of Aardman studios and BBC. It was definitely a major inspiration to see how places her career has taken her to, from Sweden to Canada and now the UK, which reaffirms my own belief in an international career waiting ahead for me, as well as learning about the challenges that she had to dealt with in each place. In particular, it was an incredibly eye-opening to hear about her work ethics , as well as some of the harsh realities that he had to face in industry, such as having her work changed and altered by the higher-ups, such as the cases when she was working for the Canadian Film Board. Another interesting point was her transition to a freelance and independent type of career from working in major studios, which coincides with moving to a smaller place like Skipton. Her advice on benefits of this decision, such as the higher demand for a lone animator in a small town, as well as more control of her works were incredibly helpful, and serves to shape my future career decision, as I've also now switch to more freelance, Patreon-based profession, after having heard news of major studios that I idolized such as Riots, Blizzard and Bethedsa facing a rough performance or controversies and thereby having to lay off their employees in mass, which was very sad to see. I also asked her some specifics about the business aspect of working independently such as how many project does she takes a year to balance the check. To her credit, although she did try to answer, she ended up just telling all us straight that it was very uncertain, and that it was the reality of our profession, which I actually really appreciate, as I feel answers like those are the ones that truly prepare us for what's ahead. Overall it was very lovely !
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