Interview of Geoffroy COLLIN, RUBIKA Animation Alumni in 2019.

Geoffroy COLLIN, who graduated from Rubika Animation in 2019, is now a Lighting / Compositing artist in Montreal.
Expatriate for a year, he tells us about his young career in La Belle Province. 

Hello Geoffroy, can you introduce yourself in a few words ?
So my name is Geoffroy, I am now 25 years old and I am currently a Lighting / Compositing artist in Montreal, Canada.
I finished my studies at Rubika Animation in the summer of 2019 by directing the short film o28 with a great team: Otalia, Fabien, Louise, Antoine and Robin !

You graduated from Rubika Animation in 2019. What is your background since leaving school ?
Very quickly after my jury, I worked at Cube Creative in Paris as a Lighting / Compositing artist on the Mush-Mush series and the Mushables. I stayed there for 6 months, it was a great experience with a wonderful team. I learned a lot and the atmosphere was great.
Then, at the end of December 2019, I went to Montreal to work on the Sponge Bob movie at Mikros Animation. I was a Lighting artist and it helped me to deepen my knowledge and learn new software such as Katana, a lighting and rendering software. I also learned a lot about producing a film which is very different from a series. We have more time to refine our shots and the teams are also much bigger. We were 5 at in Cube Creative but more than 50 in Mikros. It was an incredible experience, lots of meetings and lots of laughs.
Then, the covid arrived and we all worked in remote. The adaptation was quite fast but despite everything the atmosphere is different. Finally, since May 2020, I have been working in lighting and compositing on the next Atelier Animation feature film, Fireheart. I have been back to the studio physically since July but 2/3 of the team is still remote so the Zoom meetings continue despite everything ! 

You chose to go and work in Montreal. How was your job search from France ?
Indeed, I found my job from France. I used the school network to get the contacts of several studios in Montreal, which I contacted by email and quite quickly I got a positive response from Mikros Animation. It all happened very quickly and a month later, I was in Montreal. Having a Working Holiday Program (WHP) has helped me a lot because the procedures for employers are simplified and free. 

How would you describe the culture of the country and the culture of the company compared to that of France ?
Even if we work more in Canada (40 hours / week and a lot more during crunches) I have the impression that the human being is put forward much more.
Many advantages are offered for the well-being of the employee such as "5 à 7" (equivalent to the "Happy Hour" in France), massages, Yoga classes, live models, breakfasts offered to the whole team, organized evenings, team building etc.
At the slightest fatigue, you can take a day off to rest. The maximum is done so that the artist is at his best to work on the project.

The film o28, which you made with other students from the school, has achieved an incredible journey and won numerous festival prizes (50 prizes and 236 selections to date). What memories do you keep of the production of this short film ?
It has really been a year of intense production but the team was on top! We worked a lot, despite the difficulties, we also laughed a lot because I was lucky to have a very close team and in which everyone got along well ! The whole teaching team helped us a lot throughout the film creation process, from script to color grading, animation, rig or editing, we always had lots of advice and advice.
The whole team is very happy with the film's journey around the world and I thank them again, them but also the composers David Gana, Cyrille Marchesseau and our great sound designer Alexandre Jaclain but also all the musicians; without them, the film would have been very different ...