Starting at Double Negative was a surreal experience. This being my first time working within a visual effects studio, I didn’t really know what to expect.
Initially, we (the graduates and interns), were given a series of small briefs that were designed to help teach us about Double Negative’s unique pipeline. These tasks are customised to your specialised skill set as an artist.
For example, my area of expertise is focused on lighting and look dev work. I was given a model and expected to develop it through each stage of the Dneg pipeline, just like you would when working on a show. As a lighting artist, I was given intensive on-set training, capturing my own HDRI photos to light my scenes and being taught to operate expensive equipment such as 3D LIDAR scanners to produce geometry.
The company regularly organises events for artists across disciplines to come together and have catch ups
As a lighting artist, I was given intensive on-set training, capturing my own HDRI photos to light my scenes and being taught to operate expensive equipment such as 3D LIDAR scanners to produce geometry.
This training was not something I really expected going into the internship, but it provided me with valuable knowledge about the principles of lighting that I wouldn’t have learnt otherwise.
The training continued for six weeks in total, and we were given different briefs throughout. At the end of the six weeks, all the graduates were brought together to work on a group project.
Everyone, including the senior artists I needed to talk to regularly, made me feel extremely comfortable and encouraged me to ask questions as often as I needed to. As silly as it sounds, I discovered that the extremely talented artists at Double Negative are just regular people.
Overall one of the most noticeable things I’ve experienced from my time so far at Double Negative is its extremely positive and friendly working environment. The company regularly organises events for artists across disciplines to come together and have catch ups. HR and Production also do an amazing job of making everything run as smoothly as possible.
Harriet Edge-Partington, the contact for Greenlight in Recruitment, stays in constant contact to see how we are doing on shows and to check to see we have the support we need.
It’s been an amazing experience so far, and I would strongly recommend that everybody looks into Greenlight opportunities with Double Negative.
The Graduate and Internship opportunities are run once a year, just before students finish for summer. The program offers up to 15 places across film and TV and Dneg, and is looking to expand this to include Feature Animation opportunities also. These 15 places are split between the Summer Internship and Graduate Scheme so the competition is tough!
If you want to apply for the Greenlight Programme, follow Dneg’s official LinkedIn page, and keep an eye on the Dneg website.