After finishing his secondary education, Filip did some research as to which tertiary provider would give him the best opportunities to excel in his chosen field. He says that after visiting Media Design School and “seeing some cool work being made there" he felt excited about the prospect of living in New Zealand and enrolling with the school.
However, there was a catch: “When I came back to Europe, I got asked if I wanted to work on a project in Zürich for three months." Filip had five days to make the decision as to whether he'd settle in Switzerland or New Zealand. He chose Auckland over Zurich and the rest, as they say, was history.
Despite loving the course, one of Filip's main challenges was getting used to the fact that he was so far from home. “As exciting as it is to live in another country and all the new experiences you have because of that, it's hard not to miss the people closest to you,"
The homesickness didn't last forever though. Eventually, Filip came to love many things about his experience at Media Design School, including the “…caring, personal, outstanding tutoring, the location, the atmosphere around the school and the talent of your fellow students."
“I found better opportunities in New Zealand then in my home city. It is very possible that my career would look very different if I'd stayed home."
One of the things that Filip came to learn very quickly throughout his studies that “the CGI industry is a technical jungle."
“Media Design School helped me to understand all the complex things you need to know to work in this industry but the most important thing was that they never forgot to educate us to become artists; how to make your work look appealing."
After graduating from Media Design School, Filip returned to Europe and finally made the move to Zurich, where he runs a postproduction company called Fluxif.
“When I started we mainly worked with print visuals, specialising in high resolution image. Over time, more and more of our work has started to become moving images."
“Basically, we come up with the best solution for our clients combining our skills in CGI, compositing, retouching and photography."
According to Filip, working on print visuals and small motion pictures is really rewarding because there aren't too many people standing between the artist and the client. “Most of the time, the creative process is very inspiring since you can connect with the advertising agency and your client and get to a result that reflects you and your client as an artist and a company."
In order to be successful in the postproduction industry, Filip recommends that people disregard anyone who tells them to "fear the job market in our industry," as it discourages creatively and entrepreneurship.
“I don't believe you can find success with that attitude. Fear is a terrible motivator anyway. I think experienced people should spend more time showing young talent how to get prepared for the industry then to tell them how hard its going to be."
The type of mentorship that Filip mentions is exactly what Filip found at Media Design School: “I was given all the tools to go out and make a career for myself. If anyone that is interested to get a job in visual effects or visualisations I would gladly recommend Media Design School."
