Some notes for VFX artists considering relocating for a gig.

In 2020, when I was first considering returning to Australia from Canada, a recruiter said to me that she had two big difficulties when it came to recruiting candidates. Firstly, most applicants hadn’t done their research on the city they would be moving to — and hence didn’t know what to ask for in regards to renumeration. Secondly was the difficulty she faced in convincing the applicant’s partner to uproot and move across the world to a new city or town.

I’ve travelled to, lived in and worked in many of the worlds VFX-hub cities. This set of notes hopefully helps to serve to spark thought to those who might be considering a relocation.

Values

Your values should play a big part in choosing a gig. Do you value a particular lifestyle? A work-life balance? Do you just want to make cool shots? Are you starting off in your career and looking to make a name for yourself? Do you have a family? Do you live for 911 projects and buckets of overtime, leading to either an early grave or to pay for an?early retirement?

For those with family, I can imagine it’s a tough decision. Taking the kids out of school; away from their friends. Packing up the household furniture, the dog, the cat, the turtle, selling the house, packing up lives. If your partner remains on the fence, could you negotiate a trial with the studio before committing to the long term. Maybe negotiate a 1-show trial with flights back home every X-weeks or months whilst the family stays back home. Could you make that arrangement work??

For someone like myself, art is my mistress; it’s an easy choice for me to uproot for an exciting film project and the opportunity to engage with a new team of internationals and learn new tech. Living out of a suitcase and spending 60-80 hour weeks working on a Marvel project is thrilling!

Over the course of time your values will change. But know your values.

#Lyfestyle

“Hey, come to company-X in city-Y and work on some amazing projects. Study-Z voted us the worlds most liveable/creative/walkable/cultured city.” -- every 2nd recruiter’s linked-in post

VFX studios for the most part are located in a few select cities around the world. And for the most part they also seem to be the most expensive cites -- however they also are cities that have a lot to offer in terms of culture and lifestyle.

Lifestyle choice will come back to your values. If you are an avid skier; living in Vancouver is a no-brainer. A surfer? Then Sydney or Byron Bay could be the best choice. Do you like museums, live music and food? Then pick a big city, any big city!

Can you afford the lifestyle that is on offer? It’s no good if the only property you can afford to live in is a 2 hour commute from the studio. I’m looking at you Sydney and London! Does the studio offer the option to work from home; at least part-time? Then the commute becomes less of an issue.

Life, Death and Taxes

There are many online resources that can be used to compare the cost of living in one city to another. When calculating the cost of living, it’s also import to take into consideration the provincial labour and tax laws.?

Overtime is a given in the VFX industry; despite what the recruiter is selling you. For some companies it could be a couple of Saturdays and late nights here and there; for other companies it might be months on end of 90 hour weeks. Some cities will pay out at 1X overtime, some at 1.5X, some 2X, some may pay no overtime at all.

Do the research -- not factoring in labour and tax laws could mean the difference of tens of thousands of dollars each year.?

Some examples:

Quebec’s highest income tax bracket will take 53% of your income (and the tax brackets in Quebec kick in at lower thresholds than other places) -- Compare that to Australia's highest marginal income tax rate of 45%. Quebec might be great for families if you're able to take advantage of government programmes. Free child care and schooling could make a huge difference for a young family — for a single person, not so much.

Vancouver requires artists are payed 1.5X after 8 hours, 2X after 12 hours. Montreal has no 2X requirement. Montreal artists are required to take 1 day off every 14 days if working through straight. Vancouver you can work till you drop! In Australia overtime will kick in after 45-50 hrs per week depending on a company's overtime policy and is usually paid out at 1X on weekdays with some companies paying up to 1.5X on weekends.

In Australia, employers are required to pay 4 weeks vacation, 2 weeks sick leave and to pay 10% on top of your base salary into a pension fund. This is whether you are a contractor or a full time employee. Basic healthcare is free and universal; private health benefits for you and your family cost extra and are paid for by you.

In Canada, contractors are often not paid sick leave or vacation pay. Your pension is your responsibility; and there are tax refund incentives for you to put up to 18% of your money away each year. Basic healthcare is free and universal; private health benefits cost extra, are a benefit to full time staff and their families but not necessarily to contractors, and are paid for by the employer.

"Relo" budget and housing

Some companies will offer a relocation budget and ask you to sort out your own flights and accommodation with reimbursement at a later date - i.e, the "relo" budget. It's not always done this way -- The best relocation experiences I’ve had are those with which the studio organises flights and accommodation and pay out any additional expenses that were incurred as part of the move, regardless of cost.

Negotiate at least 1 months accomodation. Often you’re coming in on a project hitting the ground running and you may not have a great deal of spare time to be searching for a place to live.

Finding an apartment should be pretty simple in any big city.?A quick search of craigslist, gumtree or domain will turn up lots of places to stay. ‘Thanks’ to Covid and the need to work from home, houses seem to be more difficult to come by.

Take into consideration the length of your work contract. In Australia, landlords will typically want you to sign on for a?12 month lease. If your work contract is less than 6 months, this can make timing difficult. In these cases, consider asking for the studio to arrange accomodation as salary sacrifice so that you're not paying for expensive digs on your post-tax salary. The request probably won’t fly if you’re in the early stages of your VFX career. But for super senior artists and supervisors it shouldn’t be an issue.

If you’re taking a gig to support a family in another city, then having your accommodation paid for or subsidised should be given; regardless of seniority. Ask for a per diem whilst you’re at it - living in a hotel room without a kitchen is expensive!

I’ve been lucky enough to live and work in London, Sydney, Adelaide, Vancouver, Montreal and Byron Bay in the course of my VFX career — and I hope to get to visit and live in many more! Right now Byron Bay is working out for me — I’ve days filled with sun, surf and nature. Weekends with farmer's markets, great food and live music. Despite the occasional week of overtime, I still maintain a reasonable work life balance. And on the odd occasion I might spot Matt Damon or a Hemsworth brother!

No city or town is going to be perfect. I can only hope for you that the plusses outweigh the minuses.

Good luck in treading your VFX path! #vfx

Resources

Cost of living comparisons:

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/calculator.jsp

https://livingcost.org/cost

Canadian tax calculator:

https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/tool/tax-calculator/

Australian tax calculator:

https://paycalculator.com.au

Find a rental in Australia:

https://www.domain.com.au/?mode=rent