
The Allan McKay Podcast
Allan McKay is an award winning Visual Effects Supervisor and Technical Director in Hollywood - join Allan as he interviews many of the leading experts in Hollywood about their careers, pitfalls and what they took to succeed, while also gaining a lot of core knowledge to help build your career, money and success and skills to make the biggest impact in your career AND in your life!
Latest episodes

Feb 16, 2021 • 21min
286 -- 90% of Artists Fail
If you aren’t willing to do the work -- and be anything else than an artist -- then you are going to fail. And that’s the brutal truth! That is because you aren’t just an artist. Being an artist is just your skill or your trade. You still need to do the other stuff. The reason so many people give up on their career is because they give up the minute it gets tough. You need to learn to manage yourself to be able to step up and look at what is working and what isn’t. Make no mistake: You are a business, you have a reputation. You are a brand. In this Podcast, Allan McKay confronts the excuses with which artists sabotage their careers and gives advice on how to make a choice to confront those excuses -- and to actually succeed! For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/286/.

Feb 9, 2021 • 1h 10min
285 -- Beeple -- Mike Winkelmann
Beeple is Mike Winkelmann, a graphic designer from Charleston, SC, USA who does a variety of digital artwork including short films, Creative Commons VJ loops, everydays and VR / AR work. After he began releasing a set of widely used Creative Commons VJ loops he has worked on concert visuals for Justin Bieber, One Direction, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Eminem, Zedd, deadmau5 and many more. One of the originators of the current "everyday" movement in 3D graphics, he has been creating a picture everyday from start to finish and posting it online for over ten years without missing a single day. Mike has also created several short films which have screened at a variety of festivals. Allan McKay interviews Beeple about finding inspiration for his daily art, the importance of discipline, building an audience and the myth of perfection. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/285/.

Feb 2, 2021 • 22min
284 -- Stand Out!
There is an example in marketing: If you have a migraine and you head to a pharmacy, you’ll see one medicine that says, “Cures All Aches and Pains” and another that says, “Cures All Migraines”. They both do the same thing and they’re made by the same company. But their marketers know that the medicine that’s the most specific -- is the one that will stand out. Meanwhile, a lot of artists have this gut reaction that specializing is bad and that it’s better to generalize as much as you can. The truth is that you can specialize in multiple things but what you’re really trying to do is to stand out. By specializing, you aren’t eliminating opportunity -- you’re eliminating competition. Sometimes to be exceptional, you need to get specific. And there are different ways to stand out in your industry or how people remember you. It’s about getting your client confident that you’ll get the job done on time. Your messaging can change with every single client. When it comes to having a conversation, you can find out what their specific problem is -- and plant that seed that you’re the person to solve that problem. In this Podcast, Allan talks about the importance of specializing, how to have different niches, how to adjust those niches for different clients -- and how to become memorable as the go-to person for a specific job. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/284/.

Jan 26, 2021 • 1h 1min
283 -- Hugo Guerra
Hugo Guerra is a Portuguese born award-winning Director and VFX Supervisor. After finishing his Fine Arts degree, he worked in Portugal and Sweden before moving to the UK where he was a freelancer for several years. He joined The Mill in 2010 as a VFX Supervisor and as Head of the Nuke Department. Over that time, Hugo was a Lead Artist and Onset Supervisor for several productions, including Codemaster's Bodycount, Ubisoft's Rainbow Six, the VES awarded Audi “Hummingbird”, Activision's Call of Duty, and BBC Music God Only Knows among others. In 2014, Hugo joined Fire Without Smoke as a Director and Visual Effects Supervisor, working on trailers for CCP, Ubisoft, Deep Silver, Square Enix, Sony, Warhammer and many others. Most recently Hugo worked as a VFX Supervisor for Sony Playstation San Diego and is currently working as a Film Director for Rebellion Games. He is also a Visual Effects Society Jury member and created Hugo's Desk, the largest YouTube channel about Nuke compositing. In this Podcast, Allan McKay and Hugo Guerra tackle the subjects of having a business mentality as an artist, learning to negotiate and the importance of knowing your worth. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/283/.

Jan 19, 2021 • 33min
282 -- Building Bigger Goals
Most of us initially set small goals that we find socially acceptable. We’re too afraid to set bigger goals, or we don’t have them anymore because we find them to be impossible. The goals that we do say outloud are the ones that we find socially acceptable, without being laughed at. And that sucks! We’re afraid to dream big or to dream what we aspire to be. And it’s not because we decided that we weren’t good enough. It’s because others decided that we weren’t good enough. What if we stopped others from pushing their fears and insecurities, their limited mindsets onto our hopes and dreams? And what if we decided that dreams are also as good as the strategy we put in place and its execution? In this Podcast, Allan McKay shares his expertise about how to set your Someday Goals and how to stay focused and actually achieve them. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/282/.

Jan 12, 2021 • 1h 29min
281 -- David Tanaka
A native Californian, David Tanaka attended the University of California at Berkeley where in 1989 he earned his bachelor's degree in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Film Theory. Upon graduating, he worked for post-production facilities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, quickly gaining experience through corporate advertising and industrial documentary assignments. In 1990, he joined Industrial Light & Magic, Lucas Digital Ltd., and served as a Senior Visual Effects Editor for fifteen years. His credits include Jurassic Park, Forrest Gump and Star Wars. In 2005, he accepted a Staff Post-Production Editor position for Pixar Animation Studios, handling trailer, international and marketing post-production pipeline matters on Cars, Ratatouille, WALL•E, Up, Toy Story 3, Cars 2 and Brave. In 2007, David was elected to the board of the Visual Effects Society's Northern California Section. In 2011 he was elected as Sectional Chairman and sincerely looks forward to the social and professional opportunities the Visual Effects Society provides for his fellow colleagues in the entertainment industry. Father of two (Mitchell, age 13, and Benjamin, age 10), he loves sharing the craft of film production, editing and visual effects with his family in the form of personal video projects and online challenges. Over the past few years, they have won international acclaim for internet competitions sponsored by Dreamworks Entertainment, Paramount Pictures and the Pepsi Corporation. All in the name of fun, David enjoys exposing his sons to not only the rewards, but also the hard work associated with his craft, while they together explore the ever-evolving frontier of multimedia. In addition to the Visual Effects Society, David is also an honorary member of Swords to Plowshares: A Veterans' Rights Organization for his psa producing contributions. In this Podcast, Allan interviews David about his career, his experience working for both ILM and Pixar; as well as the importance of building a personal brand and relationships as a VFX artist and / or freelancer. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/281/.

Jan 5, 2021 • 1h 6min
280 -- Evercast
Evercast combines video conferencing and HD live streaming in one web-based platform allowing for a secure, real-time collaboration — whether your team is across town or around the world. In this Podcast, Allan McKay talks to Brad Thomas and Roger Barton, two of the Founders of Evercast, about the inception of the company, its journey through challenges -- to becoming today’s groundbreaking technology for creatives working remotely. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/280/.

Dec 29, 2020 • 36min
279 -- Your Next Pay Rise
A lot of us have this myth in our head that if we work hard and stay out of trouble, good things will come our way. That is a mistake. The truth is that it doesn’t work that way. Nobody is paying attention. The other part of it is that we typically wait for our annual review. Most people if they don’t get what they want, they build a strategy: To get their reel around and get a better offer, then go back to their current boss with that offer. The reason this doesn’t work is because if the employer gives you that money, they’re rewarding you for blackmailing them. In this Podcast, Allan McKay shares some strategies that guarantee a pay rise without any risk, including how to make yourself irreplaceable and when the right time is to ask for a promotion. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/279/.

Dec 22, 2020 • 32min
278 -- F*** 2020!
2020 will go down in history as a big “What the Fuck?” Year! We’ve all experienced different things, but I don’t think many of us have had positive experiences. But to put things in perspective, we’re given an opportunity for a do-over. We’re all in this situation. When I realize that, it’s a bit more reassuring. How can we leverage things out? How can we turn this around? Maybe we haven’t done as much, but there is always time to hit the reset button. This is so critical right now! There isn’t a better time to do something we’ve wanted to do -- than right now! If we haven’t utilized 2020 yet, we can still start tomorrow. In times of turmoil, some people or businesses shut down while others blossom. For those of us who’ve had some success in 2020, set your goals even higher. For those of us who’ve had a shitty year, use this opportunity -- to hit the reset button! In this Podcast, Allan McKay reflects on the year 2020 -- it’s unprecedented challenges and impressive victories -- and gives advice on how to move forward in a positive, hopeful, productive way! For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/278/.

Dec 15, 2020 • 1h 11min
277 -- JEFFREY -- The Creative Team
Connie Siu is the Writer and Director of short film Jeffrey. She holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, graduated cum laude from SFSU with a BA in Fine Art, and attended UCLA’s Producers Workshop Program. Connie is the former Chairman and co-founder of the San Francisco Chapter of Siggraph, the former Vice-Chair of the U.S. Sports Film Festival, and served as Executive Director of the Pre-Visualization Society. Jeffrey is a short film that was shot as a virtual production in 2020. It’s a love story whose main character Jeffrey repairs the Dead so they can move on to the Beyond. Due to a series of magical events, he meets a woman and for the first time experiences the innocence of first love. In this Podcast, Connie Siu is joined by the creative team behind Jeffrey: Virtual Lighting Supervisor Paul Debevec VFX Supervisor Joel Hynek Line Producer Allison Vanore Associate Producer Gena Kay And Phil Galler and Poom Wattanapan of Lux Machina In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews Writer and Director Connie Siu and the creative team behind Jeffrey about the film’s innovations and challenges. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/277/.