Sara Bennett | International Women’s Day Series: Women Founders
What was the catalyst in starting your own company? I was working at Mill TV, which was part of The Mill at that time. The group I set up Milk VFX with were people I had known and worked well with at Mill TV at the time. We knew The Mill wanted to move away from TV and Film and the founding members of Milk saw a hidden opportunity in this, despite the industry challenges of the writers strike during that year.
We had joked in the past about starting our own facility, so when we heard redundancy was likely coming we thought well it’s now or never, so we finished up the redundancy and launched Milk the following day (obviously it was a bit more complicated than that).
Who or what helped you the most in getting started? So, The Mill really helped us get started. We took over the lease of their floor in a studio space on Clipstone Street and fortunately they were also happy to negotiate with us buying all the pre-existing equipment we were currently working with at the time, which made a huge difference. Having to find somewhere new to lease and kit out would have been very painful and not sure we would have been able to launch Milk so quickly, if at all, without the help from The Mill and their support from the get-go. The co-founders all put money into the initial set up costs and we were lucky enough to have had a contract in place for working on the 50th special of Dr Who and the following series, which won us our first BAFTA craft award as Milk VFX.
Was there anything hindering you in the early set up days and how did you overcome that? I think the biggest challenge was building a reputation as a new business. We worked hard to have a business plan that supported us past the first year of trading and we made sure we delivered great work which resulted in happy clients that not only returned, but recommended us.
What has starting your own company meant for your own self development? Patience has been a big one. It can be very stressful running a business but ultimately it’s really taught me a lot both professionally and personally and in the face of adversity being resilient and holding your nerve can pay off.
What life benefits has it given you eg corporate freedom, more flexibility, more growth? Now that Milk VFX has been established for 11 years, we’re expanding Milk VFX into other regions such as Dublin, Bordeaux and Barcelona which offer new cultural ideas and inspiration that helps us have more creative freedom in London by tapping into the incredible talent across Europe.
PROJECTS INCLUDE:
If you could have done anything different in the early days of setting up your company, what would it be? I think looking back we were a bit naive regarding how difficult it can be to stay cash positive without having other investment in the business besides what we had added. There are no guarantees in this business when it comes to confirming work and not having the padding in the business for the quieter periods gave us all many sleepless nights. It’s super important to be both proactive and reactive in getting new projects in.
What has been the biggest positive change so far? Either to you or those around you? I love being part of a business I started and helped grow, I feel immensely proud it’s still going and seeing all the different people that have come in and out of the business going onto their own successes.
Going for gold...
Mark Ardington, Sara Bennett, Andrew Whitehurst and Paul Norris at the 88th Oscars in 2016, accepting their award for best visual effects for their work on ‘Ex Machina.’
Milk VFX provided over 100 shots for the critically acclaimed movie, starring Alicia Vikander.
Sara became the second women in visual effects to win an Oscar. Suzanne M Benson won the first in 1987 for her work on Aliens.
What advice would you have for anyone with a new idea like starting up a new company? Have a good business plan and listen to advice from other people that have the experience of running a successful business. Think about why you want to set up your own business and where you would like it to be within 5 years, having a long term goal is important.
What’s next for Milk VFX? It’s an exciting time for Milk VFX as we are in a period of growth and transformation. Since Covid, we’ve grown from a headcount of 28 in Spring 2021, to a facility with multiple offices across Europe which include Bordeaux, Barcelona and Dublin. Milk will continue to evolve its innovative approach to visual effects, creative collaboration and virtual production techniques, remote workflows, and digital communication platforms. We’ll soon be able to share one of our biggest projects to date with NBC Universal and Loud Minds’ Surviving Earth as well as other projects we have been busy with. It’s been an incredibly tough year with the strikes and is still slow to come back to anywhere close to where we were. Our industry is resilient and has incredible talent and I look forward to seeing us getting back to helping bring stories to life.