Being a freelancer in Hong Kong

We had a lecture on being s freelancer. Basically being a freenlancer mean we have to contact and make all the financial contract with the clients by ourselves and to nogatiate all the costs and project aim etc. The powerpoint shows a few important points when recived the job.

1. agreement on the 'trade'
2. Talk about the the costs clearly
3. Identify the content of the job
4. State clear all the fees and costs
5. When is the deadline

The list above is basically the invoice. The invoice is a contract to clearify the trade between freelancer and the client that is way better than verbal contract because it can protect both of the trader with legal power. Everything can be referred back to the invoice therefore it is very important to a freelancer.


I wonder if Hong Kong has the same system for freelancer because there are possiblity that I will be a freelancer for a short period of time if I was not emplyed any animation studio at the first attempt.



There are a lot of guidelines for freelancers in Hong Kong. It is believed that it is better to register yourself as a company because there is a chance of tax inspection. It is illegal and will be fined if freelancer do not pay the tax therefore it is best to do this first. For short term, money loose from paying 17% of the paid but in long term this act keep you away from fining and I can work much more comfortable without concerning everytime.

Other than that, the advises from Hong Kong website is very much similar to the powerpoint we got. Local Hong Kong designers suggest to articulate the type of job, the deadline. Before accepting the job, we ought to set a cost of the product based on the estimated time that will spent on the job. Also always have the lowest cost in mind and dont be afraid to say no to jobs if clients are unwilling to pay your lowest cost.

Normal freelancer job in Hong Kong, clients will pay a deposite to the freelancer which is less than 50% of the job and pay the rest when the job is completed.

Invoice is also a best way to secure the job.

Some people advise 'After services'. For example reflect with the client see if they have any feedback to the work or dicuss the concepts of project if there is a chance to together again. Apparently it could show positive work attitude and responsibility, generating opportunity for the 'repeat purchases'.

I think the advices are very useful bcause I have never thought about that freelancers need to pay tax as well and the method of winning the customers' heart sounds very effective. Actually, for the Caritas funding job, my mum also advised me to registered myself as a brand so that it is easier for Caritas to send me an invoice therefore I think this is something I will surely do once back in Hong Kong. It does not just look more professional but speed up the trading process.

My website!Wing Chiu Animation

Wing Chiu Animation

Please check to access!

I am very happy to present my website to you! It has a simple style and clean layout which I like (it is the default background tho) and consist of shapes and colours and I hope it tells more about me. I was struggling what to put since they are all just student work and not much long animation at all therefore it might be a good idea to add in illustrations as well.

I am very happy with these circles and you can click into them which will link to the video page also if you drag the mouse on top of the circle, the titles will show up.

The illustration and character design are placed below the circles and will expand when clicked. I am 75% happy with this design. It is not the best design and I would like to show more details on the small icons but it will be time consuming. I will revisit them after Easter when I got more Extended done. It could be changed by the size of the columns and the choice of the pictures.

I will update the showreel by adding more work from Extended in it.

A short description about myself, copy straight from Linkedin. not sure about the gif here. 

I have all my contacts in here including email, facebook, youtube, linkedin and my blog.

I think wix is a very easy to use web creating device, there are clear instruction and lots of choices of backgrounds or layout. I love to use it again to produce website for different use. One disadvantage is the wix logo on top.. you can only get rid of it by paying the Premium membership... I might upgrade it later when I get paid because I think showing the information is the most important aim now. I posted it on facebook as well so more people can reach out to my site.

Invoice

We had a PPP lesson saying the use of invoice. On internet, it says the invoice is a written verification of the agreement between the buyer and seller of the goods or services but basically it is just a way getting paid. I made my own invoice with my logo and try to package everything. I use clear font with pale yellow colour to make the words stand out but it might be better if I do not use black. 

This is better! Now I am prepared to be paid!

Interim Evaluation 28/4/2017

Things to hand in: CV when we come back from Easter
A presentation on the 18th of May before the deadline

But other than that, I still have a lot to catch up during Easter. I need to update all my online portfolio, some work in progress on facebook and update my website. I would also want to revisit my showreel because it feels immature after the showreel induction with Annabeth, it could be neater and be improved by putting more recent work in. A finished CV before Easter finishes, I think this is the most important work because it stops me from reaching out to studios in Hong Kong. The experience last time when I asked for an internship in C-major studio was no good at all. They asked for a proper CV and showreel but I wasnt prepared at all last year and it turned out I did not have anything professional to show them. Therefore this time I want to get everything well prepared before reaching out with better qualities of work also with better layout. I also want to create a vimeo account also an invoice. Also more studio research and what is the animation industry like in Hong Kong, is being an animator the only way to survive in the industry? or is there more alternative path to reach to where I want to be?

There are a lot to catch up and revisit and blog about them... I will spend time in Easter attempting to finish at least half of the list above. In time wise, it is achievable if I do it in spare time and it should not take long to just updating stuffs. I hope everything will come together more after the holiday so I could have a clearer aim of what I want to do after graduated. 

Caritas HSBC funding Project: Teddy Beibei project

The Hong Kong Bank Foundation supports a broad o project focused on education, environment and the health/wellness in HongKong. The foundation prefers to fund specific projects rather than general funds and locally-registered organisation under Section 88 of Hong Kong's Inland Revenue Department.They consider about the objectives and proven need for the project, the outcomes, the feasibility and planning and project management also budgets and cost efficiency as well.

Caritas Lok Miu Early Education & Training Centre is a branch of Caritas Hong Kong. It successfully apply the HSBC funding and set a project of creating a series of product of a character, hoping to encourage parents to appreciate and care about the children more often. The project outline includes introducing the story of the character Beibei and produce a variety of products like stamp books and stickers and a story book that could be told to the students in every training centre.

The reason why I could got involved is because my mother is the creator of the story. She gave me an opportunity to become the illustrator of this project which I am so honoured. Before starting the character design or the plots of the story, we came up with the story together as the starting point of the project. Since the aim of this project is to raise the awareness of generating confidence in Children through supports from parents and teachers, it is also important to teach the children that they should appreciate themselves as well.

Storyline:
Beibei was an unhappy teddy because he was shy and quite. He though he did not look pretty enough and not talented enough to have any friends. However the teacher of the class noticed his strengths and good qualities and compliment about them and soon beibei's parents appreciate that too. Beibei gradually gains confidence and start helping others more and eventually became a happy teddy.

A very simple story showing the plots clearly and directly to the children and the parents. Since the clients are not just normal children but also children with special needs like the one who suffered from autism syndrome, the characters also better to be neat and expressive. I did some tests and produced the first product which is a stamp book.



I found it interesting how the staffs in the training centre did not give much feedbacks on the characters design which is so different compare to other creative work company. I guess having different kinds of clients really change my style of work also this time, unlike Bear Music Company, I am more limited by the look of the characters. I do not dislike it but it definitely had set a challenge. What is more, Lots of the characters I found it looks cute or reach the aim turned out not very popular among the staffs. The age group of the clients and the tendency of them alter the end product but at the same time since they are the professionals so I changed the designs as they told.



Try to use illustrator but I struggled...ending up using photoshop for the whole project.

There is also a lady who is in charge of contacting the printing companies and editing so I have been contacting her a lot. It is very happy to see all my illustration made into physical products. I like the idea of including animation as teaching material for education, it is likely that I would get similar job next time but animating the characters instead.


At last, it took me 2 months to finish the storybook. We had so many ideas and concept art before hand and also many corrections before reaching the final final book. I appreciate the fact that I could use my favourite painting method in photoshop and use a wide range of colours in the book. This is going to be the first book have my name on it! So thrilling just to think about it!


I want to do this job is totally due to an urge of experiencing different types of job. I also know that if this project succeed, more people in the education industry may know my name due to this book. There are continuous opportunities in this area of the industry which I would love to keep exploring especially they are educational and meaningful.

Theatre Background Design[3]

Reflection of this work experience:

This is the 'studio' the volunteers were given to work on props and any physical materials. I worked in here a lot either making props or just chilled. I became fond of the idea of having a studio to work in and talked to a few friends if they were interested sharing studio. Some of them have them own already but since most of them were still students, really could not afford the rent yet. Therefore it might be a good idea to get some start up money before thinking getting a studio.

Here are the photos taken by the Bear Music Company during the play.

It had been a productive holiday and I have learnt so much. First of all, I appreciated so much for this opportunity to test the water. From the initial meeting with Frankie to preproduction and eventually produced those scenes for the play was an unforgettable experience. I also found out that I enjoyed having the total control of the work. It is always said that creative workers in Hong Kong could not put their own thoughts into work, they could only create as they were told. Luckily this experience allows a large degree of freedom to the creators and I hope this is also what my future job could offer me. What is more, I worked in team for the whole Summer both in the animation part and the props part and teamwork is the key to every success. Some days there were only two people in the studio and hence it was not so productive but some days there were more than seven people and there were so much fun and we got so much done on that day. Although this is a children's musical but the teams behind it did not look down to it, everyone gave their 100% to their post and I enjoy this working atmosphere a lot.
This experience not only gave me so much precious experience but also let me know what kind of working environment I like. Although it is unlikely that every company is like the Bear Music Company, I hope to work with other talents and be given more job opportunities.  

Theatre Background design [2]

Compare to school work, I found working on this is quite similar. It may due to a good partner I encountered but also I quite like the flow of the work. Me and Frankie updated each other when we came up with any new ideas or showed each other the finished work. What is more we also have a cloud that could exchange material. I am very glad that we were allowed to create freely which was not usually the case in Hong Kong. I made so many different versions of the scenes to let them comment on them.

I especially like the 'master scene' of the musical which is also the scene of the main theme. It is a magical space and there are shifting staircases like the ones in Harry Potter. The use of vivid colour also bring out the fact that it is a imaginative space full of creation and wonder. I also use silhouette on the top layer to make a contrast with the background. After all I received many positive feedbacks during production and I think the clients were quite impressed with the work! I felt so satisfied and proud which pushed me to hard even harder in Summer.

Theatre Background Design

Bear Music Limited is a Children's Choir company which I joined years ago as a kid. They have their own musical very year to let the members have a chance to do some drama, practising both acting and singing. After I left the choir, I still go back now and then as a volunteer to make props and settings for the musical in Summer. Last Summer I thought it would be better if I could work on the animated background which they usually have at the back of the sets. Luckily they allow me to have a go therefore I had a precious chance to learn from the professionals and could actually collaborate with him! 

Frankie is the freelancer who has been working with Bear for a long time. He received jobs from Bear all the day and he is capable of a lot of thing from poster design to zine making for the show. It might be essential to know more skills then just animation if I want to survive in Hong Kong and it is almost like a must for the creative people to know all those stuffs he told me.

He also said that he uses flash quite a lot and has a very simplistic style that is very easy to copy in order to match all the scenes that we decided to do separately.  We had meetings in McDonald's' and sort out the schedules and who is in charge of which scenes. In total, there are 8 scenes and both of us are doing four. I am surprised how he trusted me so much on this but I have no experience on this before. Thrilling but also so excited to know that I could be in charge of so many scenes!

Before we start sketching out ideas, we know that the background should be simple, not over shone the actors, the style is like the ancient fables that kind of fairy tales, to match the sets. Since I was still making the props at that time so I had a better understanding of what style is the best and so engage to the show through the whole Summer. 

The scenes I in charged were: A sun shinning, A moon shinning, A castle scene and A Master scene for the whole musical. It is important to do lots of research and so we did!

I preferred using photoshop instead of flash because I felt more comfortable and confident using them. Frankie agreed and as long as producing mov. there should be no problem how I got through that. 

Initial Ideas

But I allow tested it out on illustrator which I rarely touch. I believed that it produce better quality of shapes and pictures than photoshop and many professionals use it. I slowly approached to the final product, testing and experimenting at the same time. It is always hard to learn a new programme but I think I was doing well. I like how thing turned out and I gave the moon an eye using photoshop so that it could blink.

[4]Lifting tower

So here are the finals! We made all the clips into one long animation with different transitions but we still handed in all the clips separately to let Lumen choose which versions they like. Personally I like them to be linked together because it could allow our group to stand out more especially when we have something in common through out all the clips and hope audience would notice!

At that day I went visit the Lifting Tower. Sadly there was not much people there on that day but the animation looked amazing on the tower and I am so satisfied and proud! This project so far has been beneficial, I learnt to use new tools in AfterEffects when making the flipping cards; I learnt to fit in quickly in a group of new people; also completed a genre of work that I have never done before. Nevertheless, I will definitely try new ideas and style if there was a chance again as well as working in group. Light projecting could be used in many ways. During Summer, the theatre background design I did was also light projecting therefore it has so much potential to be used in different places or interact with different media like in Music video or street art.

our work on big 'screen'! #christmas #lightproject #leeds

A video posted by Wing (@wing0wing) on Dec 1, 2016 at 11:39am PST

[3]Lifting Tower

Ian from illustration also tried producing some animation and they look awesome! What I like about our group is that the illustrator not only producing the pictures but he also did some animation as well. Unlike other groups, the illustrators often only illustrates for the animators to animate. In our group, we exchange experience in AfterEffects and Illustrator and keep everything feasible.

So two weeks before the deadline we already have more than 1 mins of clips in total so we are very ahead. Ian wanted to experiment more in AfterEffects so he made more versions of his original clips which inspired me to do the same as well. We are also encouraged by Mike to create more similar animations during the crit which could save some time just using the materials we already created and also have more to show.

I am very happy with the result!!

I think they will look good when projected onto the building and the guy from Lumen did not say much about the clips so I supposed he let us to create freely. At some point I think this is quite good to let us create without a lot of limitation but at some point I think having some feedback from the clients is also essential to the more refine product. However we never have chance to talk to the Lumen guy after the last meeting with him four weeks ago.

[2]Lifting Tower

We set up a facebook page for our Lifting Tower group! Keep in touch and share everything online!

We are giving a template of the area of the tower where our clips are projecting onto. What is annoying is the little window. On one hand we need to think of some ideas that could interact with the window but on one hand it is slightly off centre and many OCD artists are so annoyed by this.

Anyway, I started producing gif to let my teammate know my ideas in rough. We decided to create 20s each so they can all make up to 1 min. I quite like how the jiggly outcome but they will be definitely smoothen out in the finals. 

The teammates like these ideas but the guy from the projection project advised me to use more simple colours because it might not be able to show that much colours during the projection. So use higher contrast colours like bright red, bright blue and avoid colours that are too similar like what I did in the street posts gif.

We also have our own drive files to keep everything on track and update the group mates.