Visiting Professional: Chris Luk

Chris Luk was a very enlightening individual. I feel I found the talk most rewarding because Chris is an ex student of Leeds College of Art and the animation course. Even though I know the course is very good and the university is one of the best for art in the country. It was nice to see a success story like Luk in person. So how did he get to work for the likes of Walt Disney in London and Cartoon Network? Well he said he was very lucky. Furthermore, his approach when looking for work was slightly different to how I would originally go about it. He said that usually when he would say in an email 'I'm looking for work...' he would usually not hear a response. However, if he found a studio he liked and liked the work they were producing, he would email them with his own work and ask for feedback. Generally it seems people who work in studios are pretty friendly and helpful to aspiring professionals so would reply. Then this feedback would lead to Chris getting to know the person on the other end, leading to opportunities.

Essentially he told us that he gained work experience at Disney by finding an obscure email address on their website, emailing to ask for feedback, and then asking if he could come down, of which they replied 'yes'.

He gave us advice on writing our CVs. Don't make them too long; most people do not want to look through four pages of writing, and do not over complicate it. He also actually showed us his personal CV and it represented everything he was talking about that I can now apply to my own CV. It was only a page long and was pretty simple in design, not basic, but not too flashy either.

I think the best advice I took away from Chris' talk is what he said about networking. And this is something I had thought before but it was almost like I was getting confirmation. Networking shouldn't solely be about you trying to get a job. It should be about making friends. The industry may seem like this big daunting thing, like we're fish in a tank thinking about the ocean, but in fact it is not as big as we think. A lot of people know each other and are friends, once again working in the industry comes down to two things, what work do you produce and what are you like to work with.