Gamers! Gamers! Calling All Gamers! Read All About It!
- Jay Koster
- Feb 16, 2018
- 4 min read
For those of you who missed Wednesday morning’s session with Keith Guerrette, the following is a recap of how he went from a visual effects artist to visual effects artist and business owner. Allow me to begin by stating that Keith Guerrette is one of the most conscientious individuals I have had the pleasure to hear him present about the world of the media industry! That being said, Guerrette’s now million dollar company, Beyond – FX, was launched in January of 2017 is strongly grounded on Guerrette’s deep-seated values and beliefs of how business owners should be fueled by taking care of the employees, the employees’ families, and, of course, the clients. This morning’s presentation turned informal as Guerrette closed his iPad with his presentation notes and shared his desire to “Have an honest conversation,” similar to a heart-to-heart conversation with the Full Sail students present in the room.
Guerrette spent 6-7 years with Naughty Dog (creators of Uncharted, The Last of Us, Jak and Daxter etc.) Naughty Dog is also the recipient of several prestigious awards such as Game of the Year and Best Use of Animation towards Cinematics.
In 2014, Guerrette started doing press conferences for Naughty dog and for himself. He traveled and taught, trying to learn more about the industry. In the same year, Guerrette was chosen as one of the “30 Under 30” on the Annual Forbes List, which honors some of the most talented young professionals in the industry today. Through this, Guerrette shares that he met different people which caused his perspective to change toward the industry. It also made him realize how much of the industry he was not aware of. This in turn made him step away from Naughty Dog to explore the rest of the industry.
"While Guerrette was taking a break and reflecting on his career options, he rediscovered the joy that came with creating art or creating friendly music videos, teaching, and his spirit for freelancing."
It was during this time that Digital Domain, an American visual effects and digital production company based in California contacted Guerrette. Digital Domain offered a flattering and obscene 30-million-dollar budget for Guerrette to build a real time trailer for a game engine in 3 months in which Guerrette would hire his own team. Zero to hero in 3 months. Guerrette uncertain about many things including where to get the team and if 3 months would be enough time to build the trailer, declined the offer. However, the idea of having his own team was planted, took root, and flourished to the company it is today.
Although Guerrette is a 2005 Full Sail graduate in Entertainment Business as well as a 2004 Computer Animation graduate, Guerrette shares that he never thought that becoming a business owner was even a viable option. His mentors asked him the question that fueled a company to sprout: “Is this something you’d like to do?” What Guerrette wants to reiterate to Full Sail students is that these types of opportunities was available to him because of his experience and his resume opened a lot of doors which new grads don’t have yet. An example is that there were film companies trying to figure out games and real time tools. Guerrette was a freelancer so he was a possible solution for them.
He started off by branding his freelance work under a business name. Guerrette states that conversations flipped just because he called himself a “business”. Taxes, insurance, rates, employees, and the world started responding to him differently. So, he circled around the idea of actually having a team but that would require money he didn’t have and clients wouldn’t give him money if he didn’t have a team. Luckily, a friend of his and Art Director, Greg Ryan, assisted him in his dilemma without acquiring a business loan. Ryan said that we’ll have a contract in place that if you hire a team we’ll hire all of them with a contract to scale. This meant one person team equals this rate, two person team equals this rate, and so on. This was great! However, Guerrette realized later that he needed that business loan anyway to address other issues like lease on a studio, business insurance, and other concerns related to running a business. It took Guerrette 2 painful months of learning the business language and how to run it.
On January of 2017, Guerrette launched his company called Beyond – FX. His initial intentions for starting his company was to support and grow the visual effects growth across the industry. He started his company by releasing a 10-part web series called the Game Makers Inside Story where he interviewed prolific game makers that he idolized. One of the questions he asked was what and how they used the mediums in video games to tell a story. He then put Game Makers Inside Story online where it sold to the academy of arts and sciences. Soon after, Guerrette started receiving calls for freelancer opportunities. He helped NPC (Non-player characters) build their PR department. He did consulting work with game publishers in Los Angeles. He received a plethora of opportunities with a different type of service in the industry.
Last year Beyond-Fx shipped 9 projects. The biggest release blockbuster was “What Remains of Edith Finch.” It has won best narrative awards and Game of the year awards. Beyond-FX has a close partner with Ride Games. The company is about to hire their 8th employee. Last year’s gross was 1.3 million which Guerrette did not expect was possible.
Guerrette says the future is bright for the game industry. His company was profitable since day 1. He claims he is turning down clients left and right and that there is not enough visual effects artist in the industry. Inspire and build confidence is his motto. He looks forward to building a mentorship program in the future!
Kommentare