Miles Skarin Self-Starts His Freelance Career

Animation image by Miles Skarin

Miles Skarin is a first year animation and VFX student at Bucks, but he is already tackling professional freelance work, creating websites and animation for musicians, bands, and record labels. 

Miles already has an impressive client list - including major artists such as Jethro Tull. We asked him to talk about how he broke into the industry, founded a successful freelance career - while still in his first year at university.

Artwork by Miles Skarin

Bucks: You have just started at Bucks but you are already doing freelance work – what kind of stuff do you do?

Miles: Primarily, I work with musicians and bands. This work can be promotional videos, backstage footage and tour visuals. I have been lucky to work with some household names and most of my customers have come through recommendation. I have managed to establish relationships with record labels and film production companies and work has come through these channels.





Bucks: How did you get started?

Miles: My brother runs a web design and social marketing business for musicians. During college and in my gap year I worked with him, initially on web design but then was able to expand the business's activities into video production and photography using the contacts that the business had.

Bucks: What are the challenges of doing freelance work? 

Miles: One of my concerns was how I would be able to do my degree and continue freelance work. I knew I wanted to get a degree but also wanted to build on the solid experience I already had. Essentially, anyone considering combining a degree with freelance work should be prepared for a lot of hard work!

Bucks: What advice would you offer to any student looking to start out as a freelancer?

Miles: Sometimes the demands of freelance work does not fit in well with university commitments and you have to balance the two. I am convinced that the experience I am getting has huge value but getting a degree is also important for the future flexibility in my career.

Jethro Tull. Photo: Wikipedia

Bucks: How has your experience at Bucks been so far?

Miles: Some aspects of the course have been relatively straight forward due to my previous experience, but other aspects are more challenging. Bucks has been great, my fellow students are great to collaborate and work with and the lecturers have been flexible and helpful when I have had freelance work to do.

Crystal Spotlight

You can see more of Miles' work at www.crystalspotlight.com.

For more on the experience of studying at Bucks New University, come and visit us at one of our Open Days,  take a virtual tour of one of our animation studios, check out what our students think of our course, and see why we're ranked in the top 12 creative universities in the UK. Find out why we're giving free laptops to all our students, and why we give all our students free access to videos at Lynda.com. Also, see what financial assistance might be available to you. Learn which is better for animation, a PC or a Mac? Get hold of a copy of a map so you can find your way around campus, and learn about motion capture at Bucks