We were lucky to catch up with Mark Mou recently and have shared our conversation below.
Mark, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
I wished I had started my creative career in animation much earlier. I would say my undergrad experience with film production as well as Pandemic really change my views on the film and animation as mediums
Mark, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Mark (Guoxu).Mou, I usually go by Mark. I I am a cel animator who aims to work in the motion graphic industry. I create 2d effect motion graphics and sometimes character animations for various clients. My traditional painting background and film production experience give me an edge over others. I have a strong foundation in acrylic and oil painting, which helps me analyze shots from a painter’s perspective. My film production experience also enables me to plan a shot according to the art director’s vision. I studied Film and TV production at NYU Tisch for my undergrad. However, I realized that film making was not as artistic and experimental as I expected. That’s why I started freelancing as an animator in my later years of college. I am currently pursuing a master’s degree in animation at USC.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Growing up I was always that “art kid” in the class. I had art education starts at a very young age and I have being doing arcylic and oil painting for years before going to college. So naturally I wanted to do creatives in my career. Because at the time my brother was into film production, and we both love films, going to a film school doing production art seems like a good choice for me to expand my art journey as well as stay connected with my family. However through my years at the the film school doing art production, I realized the art department in Film and TV production has very different roles and are not very artistic driven. First of all, in Film and TV production, your creation is largely limited to the budget of the production, then, there are just so many uncontrollable factor in the Film and TV industry:weather, labor, shipments. In many ways, art directors barely design sets. Unless at a huge film production or some experimental production like music videos, etc. Most of my work task is managing,constructing the set and design/placing props. In one way, I do enjoy many aspect of film making, like seeing things in the eyes of cinematographer or do color picking for props, it taught me a lot of things in managing a production. and certainly the film medium itself. On the other hand, I barely need to put my art knowledge into use. Although I had complaint at the time. But it wasn’t strong enough to change my career choice.
Then one day, the Covid hits. For a lot of business it was devastating, for film production even so. I had 3 projects I worked for cancelled after months being put in to the per-production. Because I was out of work during the time. I took an animation class provided in the major. It was an eye opening experience for me because not only I get to draw again. I found that most limitations I had with the Film and TV production are gone. Since the digitally creating assets is cheaper and has more control on the final look to the things. It is a lot more closer to the art creation itself. I think at the time so many clients I knew were also looking at animation as a way to get away with the live-action production halt. It makes me realized how stable the production is for animation. That’s why I made the pivot to the animation.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I think all artists enjoy to create stuff. However art creation follows steps. revert back the steps can be expensive for the artists, in terms of time, energy and expense. For example, in a live-action setting clients are willing to work with the footage they get from day. but when it comes to animation, they tends to make last minute big changes that would make artists revert back all the work they just did. Some changes are small and can be easily fixed, others are extremely expensive. For example, there is the story about this vfx production nightmare with a really big budget feature film I won’t say what the name is. So it was at the very end of the production, the director asks the vfx team to “change the water flow from left to right to right to left” to make it “look better”. The team had to re-simulate the water and render out 45 minutes of new footage. The film got Academy Awards for it. and the vfx company went bankrupt right after the production. It would be a lot better if the client and artists communicate thoroughly through 1 small shots before going for the full production. Also, having things rough out is so important in this industry.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://markmou.portfolio.site/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mark.mou/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mou-739751231/