Episode 77 - Interview with Action VFX NOTES   For complete show notes visit http://www.allanmckay.com/77/   ActionVFX (www.actionvfx.com) is a website that provides stock footage for visual effects, from smoke plumes to fire, from sparks to explosions. Before the company was launched in 2016, its CEO Rodolphe Pierre-Louis, along with Joe Camarata (Marketing Manager) and Luke Thompson (Operations Manager) conducted an extensive survey among visual effects artists, which determined the type of files the site would contain, and its content.   After only a year, ActionVFX’s footage has been used in television shows like Flash, Fear of the Walking Dead, Legends of Tomorrow, How to Get Away with Murder, Narcos, Series of Unfortunate Events; as well as in video games, music videos and the live Lady Gaga performance at this year’s Grammys.   In this Episode, Allan McKay interviews Rodolphe, Joe and Luke about the beginnings of ActionVFX, the challenges of starting a company, the strategies of fundraising and branding; as well as the experience of shooting actual pyrotechnics for their website. Hi, everyone!   This is Allan McKay. Welcome to Episode 77. I’m speaking with the guys from ActionVFX (https://www.actionvfx.com). Talking about shooting live action, pyrotechnics, lots of cool stuff.   So, let’s dive in! [-57:00] Hey! This is Allan. Just a quick thing to check out: www.vfxrates.com. This is a website that I created to solve a massive problem that we all have: What should we be charging? This is the giant mystery that we all have and most people feel very uncomfortable talking about is what we should charge as a freelance rate. And the worst part is when we go apply for a job, if we ask for too much, we risk alienating the employer and never getting that call back. Whereas we play it safe and ask too little, we not only get taken advantage of, but on top of that, we leave a lot of money on the table, which potentially over a span of a year, can add up to 10’s of thousands of dollars.   [-56:23] So this is chance for you to go to the website www.vfxrates.com. Put in bits of information, like your city, your experience, your discipline, software, little things that are important to figuring out what you should be charging as your base rate when you’re talking to an employer. This is based on a lot of research, but more importantly, it’s based on the braintrust of the industry experts from different fields that we’ve pulled together to collect a very accurate way to generate what you should be charging.   [-55:51] The best part is not just what you should be charging -- but what you could be charging by tweaking a few things: how you present yourself building a brand learning to negotiate better.   Also, there are factors like: building an irresistible reel learning to approach employers the correct way learning how to network.   I want to share all of this information for free! Go to www.vfxrates.com -- and find out what you should be charging for your hourly VFX rate. [-55:22] This is going to be a really fun Episode. I’m speaking with guys from ActionVFX.  They have the coolest job in the world: shooting a lot of pyrotechnics and stock footage for use in visual effects. There is a huge difference between simulating stuff and actually doing it in real life! They actually do that for a living.   [-54:46] So I’m speaking with Rodolphe Pierre-Louis (Founder and CEO), as well as Joe Camarata (Marketing Manager) and Luke Thompson (Operations Manager). This is a fun Episode, talking about how you wake up one morning and decide to go shoot explosions all day long. At the same time, we speak about a lot of cool behind-the-scenes stuff.   [-54:11] Some other stuff. Yesterday was my birthday. Next week, we’re going to be opening the doors to the FXTD Mentorship. This is the first time I’m mentioning it. It’s been a year and half since the last registration. I’m revamping a lot of the stuff, technology, software. (We have some co