One role that interests me as a VFX student is the role of Runner. Having heard about it vaguely and in passing for a long time left me with a very confused understanding as to what a Runner is. When I asked people, some would jokingly say ‘They get coffee’ and leave it at that leaving me confused. Others would say that they have their hands in doing a little bit of everything inside of a studio and this would leave me no less confused as to ‘what’ a Runner’s role is and more importantly how this role functions as an entry role into the VFX industry.
From looking at Screen Skills website to gain an initial understanding of the role it seems much of what I heard before is accurate to what a Runner does. Their main role is to essentially be a jack of all trades within the studio or department that they are employed under so what a runner does exactly is dependent on that studio or department. The role either lines you up to work in production management or in a VFX artists role. The major commonality from studio to studio with the Runner, as supported by another VFX job resource website ‘My First Job in Film’, is functioning as the in-between. You are responsible for looking after the office, keeping it organized and tidy as well as ‘running’ different materials and messages between departments. The latter role being your biggest function within the studio hence the title of ‘Runner’. Of course, this does also mean you grab plenty of coffee, tea and other things for the studio as your co-workers are occupied with other work.
A blog post from Simon Deverux from Access VFX titled ‘Getting into VFX: Runners’ also outlines, in their own eyes, what a Runner and how it contributes to the a growing VFX’s artist’s career. It outlines that part of the Runner’s job is also to, through training shots and aiding other artists, learn the myriads of tools being used in the VFX trade. What those tools are is entirely dependent on the studio. A runner for a game studio may end up learning how to use Unity or an in-house engine. They will pick up further modelling and texture skills. A runner for a studio that focuses on body tracking software for character animation would likely pick up skills in using the technology, both in setting up and recording it then later in using that data and cleaning it up.
Something that I hadn’t considered about the role that is vital to learn, especially early on in your career, that the Runner is a great role for developing is organization, team-working and communication skill. With some much to do a Runner must learn to organize their time. By interacting with so many different people in the studio they will quickly learn how to communicate with different people. You must as a Runner work with many other people and in an industry reliant on team work developing that skill, which one will inevitably do, as a Runner is vital to future success in the VFX industry no matter which direction it leads you in, be it games, mixed media, television, film or commercials.
The role of a Runner is a lot clearer to me now thanks to the various resources I found online and while the jokes and jests about the role do reflect, to an extent, the reality of the role of a Runner this information has made the role much clearer to me. Not only the literal function of the role but how this role will contribute to my personal development as VFX artist and to my career in the industry.