We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jake Akuna. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jake below.
Jake, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
Growing up, I was fortunate to have been surrounded by some incredibly positive and influential mentors, who always encouraged me and gave me the confidence that I could do anything I put my mind toward. I was surrounded by so much positivity, the thought of failure never actually crossed my mind, so I suppose my optimism may have also been fueled by a truly astounding level of youthful naivety.
This continued into my professional life, when I moved to Los Angeles and somehow found myself in what just may be the most positive and supportive group of people in all of Hollywood. Very much a “high tides raise all boats” type of group. We all would just share our creative ideas and passionately discuss how we were going to help one another create things together and we continue to do this today.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My wife and I own and operate a visual effects company (VFX2GO) in Los Angeles, California, where we produce and create visual effects for the film and television industry, and what I find most exciting is that we’ve had some incredible opportunities to work on projects of all sizes. We’ve worked on everything from passion-project, indie films to large-scale studio productions and it’s always exciting when a new, ambitious project comes our way that falls outside our normal scope of work and allows us to try out and experiment with new effects and tool sets.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Problem-solving, patience and open-mindedness are definitely the qualities/skills I would tell anyone beginning their journey into the world of visual effects.
Whether I’m designing how an effect will be executed or fixing an on-set error in post-production, most of my day revolves around problem-solving. That’s what the work is. “How do we make the actor look like he’s flying?” “How do we shoot that surreal dream sequence?” “Hey, someone left a coffee cup in the frame. How do we erase that?” Even down to “how do we create this set of visual effects within the client’s budget?” Problem-solving is even baked into our company’s motto: Reframe what’s possible. This means we look at the client’s “wants” versus what their budget will facilitate and oftentimes, when the budget doesn’t rise to what’s required to bring their exact vision to life, we offer alternatives that stay true to their storytelling goals, while fitting within their means.
Patience is definitely something that I’ve had to learn over the years and only after hitting my head enough times to finally get it. Sure, when you’re in VFX, there’s a lot of waiting around for files to render, so it definitely helps to be patient in that sense, but so often, many of us want to compare ourselves to others in similar fields and wonder why we aren’t seeing success as quickly as them. Or maybe we’re not advancing at a certain skill set as quickly as someone else. Whatever the case, I’ve learned that everyone is on their own path and that no two paths are the same.
The important thing is to keep going, keep doing the work and keep your eyes on your own paper, as it were. Eventually, the work will speak for itself and you’ll find success. And it may not even be the kind of success you had originally thought you were after.
Finally, I’d always recommend anyone, no matter their field, to keep an open mind. Whether that means considering feedback from someone you might not always agree with, or learning to be more empathetic toward someone and considering that you may not have the whole picture of what’s going on in their lives.
In the field of film and entertainment production, open-mindedness can also mean being on the same page as the director, or whomever may be hiring you as an artist. By looking at things from their perspective and considering what their storytelling goals are, you can also make better informed recommendations from your perspective as the artist and ultimately bring them a product that they will be happier with.
How would you describe your ideal client?
My ideal client is a well-informed client; someone who will seek advice and consultation from a VFX professional, who can inform them about how to go about shooting their VFX and what challenges they may face that could end up costing them more money in post-production.
A large portion of my clientele is made up of independent filmmakers and first-time directors and even with the seasoned filmmakers, not many of them necessarily have first-hand experience in visual effects. This isn’t an indictment of their talents or abilities as a filmmaker; I don’t expect many to have that experience or knowledge of this field. But I do find that when a client takes the time, early in the filmmaking process, to understand what goes into the work and what is required from the material they shoot, they can avoid costly fix-it-in-post scenarios, which they may not have the budgets to support.
Recently, in an effort to help and better inform the more budget-minded, independent filmmakers out there, I’ve been releasing weekly informational content on my company’s YouTube channel, website and social media platforms. This content addresses many of the most common challenges independent filmmakers may face, with regards to visual effects. Additionally, we also provide resources, tools and tutorials, all designed to aid as many independent filmmakers throughout the visual effects pipeline.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.vfx2go.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vfx2go/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VFX2GO/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@vfx2go
Image Credits
Cherie Pavico-Tsukayama, Christian Yi
