Today we’d like to introduce you to Izzy Traub.
Hi Izzy, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Born and raised in Canada, I began making short films at 8 years old and quickly became fascinated with learning about Visual Effects. I became so inspired to pursue filmmaking, that I eventually moved out to Los Angeles when I was 18 years old to attend the UCLA Extension Director’s Program. Upon graduation, I hit the ground running and started my first LA business with my friend/roommate, called “Venture Ad Agency”. As with most first businesses, it didn’t go so well and did not last long. I was forced to move back home to Canada to re-group and develop a new strategy.
After that minor setback, I got the opportunity to write and direct my first feature film, “Natural Vice” in 2015. I decided to showcase my VFX experience in the film and took on the role of “VFX Supervisor” and supervised over 200 VFX shots. I hired and managed 30 artists to help my vision come true and the experience gave me a solid understanding of VFX pipelines. After the completion of the film, reality hit once again and the directing jobs weren’t as frequent as I imagined they would be. I took it as a sign to go full force with visual effects and created my first VFX Company, “VanityFX ” in 2016.
After 2 years of ups and downs with the company, I ultimately had to shut it down and move back to Canada once again to save money and strategize another plan. After selling hotdogs in front of a Canadian Tire for a while, one of my old clients from Vanity FX hit me up for a job and after some time, I was finally able to save enough money and move back to LA. I took another chance and rebranded my entire company and created VFX Los Angeles in 2018. I was able to hire a team of artists and build up a strong clientele and eventually brought on my partner, Charles Joslain, as Head of Creative and we’ve been very fortunate to have been going strong ever since.
Never giving up and having the persistence to push through, despite the hardships was and continues to be my driving force in this industry. It took me almost 8 years of the biggest ups and downs to get me to where I am today. 2022 was our biggest year yet, we got to work on 300 VFX shots for FX’s “The Bear”, which became an Emmy award winning show! We also have become an industry leader in incorporating and developing advanced Deepfake methods and technologies. Because of that, we had the massive honor of working with Ben Affleck, Jenniffer Lopez and for the movie “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”, starring Daniel Radcliff.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has not been a smooth road at all. I have started many different businesses throughout my life and most of them did not last. At one point, I lived in my friend’s closet for 6 months in order to save money and fortunately, the capital I saved in that time was what helped me start VFX Los Angeles.
As VFXLA grew, we began to encounter many scaling issues, which I wasn’t prepared for and it quickly became a VERY painful process. For example, we were working with some of our biggest clients at the time and there was a 3 week period where things kept going horribly wrong and I would only sleep anywhere from 20 – 30 minutes per night just to keep the company going and not let my clients down. By the end of it, I had experienced hallucination due to sleep deprivation and lost 10 solid pounds. I continued to push through and somehow managed to survive all of that and got the work done with happy clients. This was just one of many events that occurred while scaling our business. It has not been an easy journey.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
VFX Los Angeles is a full-service Visual Effects and CG animation company. We’ve worked with clients such as FX, Pearl Street Films, Hulu, Disney, Funny Or Die, Lionsgate, Warner Records, Toyota, Lexus, HBO, New Regency and many more.
We’ve been in business for almost five years, and we have grown to a team of 30 people.
VFX Los Angeles (or VFX LA for short) provides Visual Effects, Motion Graphics, Architectural Rendering and Product Rendering services and is also a leader in Deepfake technology, having developed proprietary tools and algorithms for producing Deepfakes.
You can take a look at our work here: https://vfxlosangeles.com/
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
You have to recognize and acknowledge that the journey of an entrepreneur is an incredibly long, stressful and challenging road. It hits you hard both emotionally and financially, but the success that comes with it overpowers it all. I’ve realized that not losing sight of the end goal is key to overcoming the hardships. Knowing that you will fail is also something you have to get comfortable with and having the will to push through it will get you far. When one door closes another one opens. Setting goals for yourself and building the strategies to accomplish them will get you far and are crucial for success.
I also highly encourage those who are just starting out, to not let highly stressful situations scare you and stray you away from starting your business ventures. Fully engaging and learning to control your emotions and find peace during the chaos will get you very far in life. You will never learn the skills needed for stress tolerance without living through it and building it up over time. It is crucial if you want to be a successful entrepreneur.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vfxlosangeles.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vfx_la/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/izzytraub/
Image Credits
Gabriela Williams
