Produced By - Insight #1 - Jakub Holub: Adopt This Mindset to Deal With Any Setbacks

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

Jakub Holub is a freelance motion designer and animator with a background in filmmaking, directing campaigns, adverts, promo videos and more. Coming from central Europe, he studied film at university in London after which he successfully landed a job in a production company until he found out that freelancing is what he enjoys the most. After transitioning to freelancing, he’s been working in animation and motion graphics primarily using After Effects, and plans to establish himself in this area. Listen to this episode to find out how the remaining members of the famous music band Queen watched his work, how he moved up from editing to directing within a year and how he got where he is without even needing a CV. Connect with Jakub: ⁠https://www.jakubholub.com/⁠ ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jakubholub/⁠ ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubholub/⁠ Episode quotes: “I think it would have clouded my worldview, in terms of how I would continue to be raised in this bubble where everything is sorted for you.” “Going to the university, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a great or a bad university, gives you a great understanding of how the film industry actually works.” “You just need to find the teachers that are really good, have some experience and absorb it from them as much as you can. Ask them questions and just spend time with them.” “But on set you've got so many people around you and you work with them every day. Everyone needs to be easy to work with and you'd want to hire, you'd want someone you know and trust, rather than just a random person.” “If you think about it, anything that you want in life can be figured out. You can figure out how to get it.” Connect with the podcaster: ⁠https://tomasloucky.com/⁠ ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/⁠ ⁠https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/⁠ Follow the podcast: 🌐 Website: ⁠⁠⁠https://produced-by-podcast.com⁠⁠⁠ 🔗 Links: ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/produced_by⁠⁠⁠   💬 Contact: ⁠⁠⁠https://produced-by-podcast.com/contact 📷 Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://instagram.com/produced_by_podcast⁠⁠⁠  🎥 YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT5LHnM6YCaeVzIr0WatOsw⁠⁠⁠  ✉️ Email: ⁠⁠⁠[e-mail]⁠⁠⁠   Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/produced-by/id1684669642 🎙️ About Produced By Podcast: Produced By brings you exciting stories of brave people who set out to build careers in competitive fields despite often challenging circumstances. Whether you are interested in creative industries, personal development or want to have some fun, enter the spotlight along with our guests and get inspired. Listen to people coming from all parts of the world, diverse fields of expertise and different levels of careers. So join us to follow their journeys, learn from life experience and embark on a great adventure. 🤩 If you enjoy listening to the podcast, please, leave a review on your podcast app, subscribe or share it with your friends. You can also send us a message and share any feedback, advice and tips for guests. 📭 Subscribe at https://produced-by-podcast.com/subscribe so that you don't miss out! #producedbypodcast #producedby #enterthespotlight Enjoy! Connect with Tomas:X: https://x.com/TomasLoucky⁠⁠⁠Stan: https://stan.store/TommenLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/⁠⁠Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/⁠⁠Unproduced:Newsletter: https://unproduced.substack.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@unproducednotesSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033Ddo8ibDlLYoaP7FFLIWMore:Links: https://linktr.ee/produced_by⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://producednewsletter.substack.com/⁠The Podcast Club: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/25420030/Tools & gear that support the show:Metricool: https://f.mtr.cool/HRJBZKRiverside: https://riverside.sjv.io/vDnDodFavikon: https://www.favikon.com?fpr=tommenRa Optics: https://ra-optics.myshopify.com/discount/TOMMEN?rfsn=8803777.591d19JamX: https://jamx.ai/podcasters-offer?ref_id=e02d48af-ef66-4e76-b804-c2e8d282a8bfSome links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you find them useful, using these links helps keep the podcast running. Thank you!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Can you try to highlight a few points that were positive about university and few points that were negative? Something that you enjoyed and something that could have been done better. In general, when it comes to university, not necessarily specific to the one you went to. I think positive points would be some of the teachers, some of the good teachers, who actually had some Euro-World experience from the film industry. And also, yeah, you just need to make the most out of it. You just need to kind of find these teachers that are really good and what they do and actually have some experience and just absorb it from them as much as you can and ask them questions and just spend time with them. What's negative about film university?

I think most film universities can't give you the connections that you need to really get into the industry, mostly just because they don't have them. And also because the industry doesn't really want students. Like it's, I mean, you know it as well. the industry is so much about connections and who you know. If you've got a friend who's a camera assistant or whatever or a spark, then he can get you on a set on a job quite easily. You know, he's just going to go to his crew or whoever hires him and then go to be like, hey, I know this person, he's really reliable.

Can he come on this job? You know, that's kind of like how it works much more than you apply with a CV or something. Maybe you don't even need university if you've got a friend or someone from your family on a set and then they just know you and kind of will get through the job. Yeah, yeah for sure. I think a lot of people were angry at, a lot of our classmates were angry at this, the way how the industry works and the fact that it works like this because it makes it really hard for you to get the jobs unless you know someone. But on the other hand, if you look at it from perspective of other people who work in the industry,

if you're on the film set, there's not much tolerance for for errors and you need people who are reliable and you constantly work with people unless you're like an editor or grade. Even then you work with people. But on set, it's really, you've got so many people around you and you work with them every day. They need to be easy to work with. And you'd want to hire someone you know and you trust as well rather than just a random person. If you have the opportunity to hire someone you know and you trust. We know how competitive the industry is.

So you really want to do the best job you can because quite easy to replace you since there are so many people waiting behind you for the same job as you have. Yeah. How was your transition from education to work? When did you start applying for work? Or how did you look for work? Was it through corrections or applications or send it CVs? So it was definitely a bit slap in the face.

I think it makes you realize a lot of things. But how I went about it, I wasn't too sure what I wanted to do after you. Like what specific role in film? I kind of just knew I could edit. I did enjoy like directing a lot, but you don't really finish uni and go start directing films. The one's going to hire you as a director straight out of uni because you just like experience, real world experience on set

and you don't have the connections you need. People need to trust you a lot to hire you. So that's the reason for that. I thought I would start just freelancing as like a videographer after uni. I kind of, I don't know, it kind of came on its own. because I thought I would just have like a normal holiday after uni, like during the summer. I would do much and then I would start applying in like September or August September. I would like start applying for jobs for studios and things like that as like assistant editor.

However, I managed to get some through some connections at uni and through one of our teachers as well. I managed to like get some jobs over the summer and made a couple of connections. And then one of those connections, a friend of mine recommended me at a company, where he worked. So they hired me for some freelance editing at first. I started doing some editing. And that was like a big opportunity for me at that time. Because like all of a sudden some real company wanted to pay me and work with me. Well that was great. I learned so many things as well. I realized how professional the working world actually is. Again, you can't really make mistakes and everything needs to be like really good and you know like I would edit and I would have

mistakes in my like exports and you know I would overlook things and things like that and you just can't send an edit to a client with so many mistakes and tell them oh we're going to fix it in the next you know you just need to like watch your own like these these little things were a bit like realization for me I think I proved myself to them with sort of just my my approach to work and they ended up getting really busy over like September October November so then they offered me a full-time job as a filmmaker.