[FRAMED] Sarah Johnson, Lighting Lead, Vancouver
If you could travel back in time, which film, TV series, advert, or immersive project would you love to have worked on?
I would have loved to work on any of the How To Train Your Dragon animated movies. They have been my favourites since the first movie was released. The lighting was really great.
Which Framestore character do you feel you’re most like?
Do you know the mouse from A Boy Called Christmas? Miika? I would probably be more relatable to him. He’s sarcastic, loves sweets, but is also helpful in any situation.
What fictional world or place would you like to visit?
This is a tough question, there are too many. Maybe the Pokemon world.
A world where a creature can become devoted and fights for you, and you travel around with it sounds kind of fun. My cat barely acknowledges my existence when I’m home.
Your career highlight to date:
My career has been pretty steady. Which I would take as a highlight in and of itself since this is such an inconsistent industry. Maybe when I worked on the pitch for Detective Pikachu. You wouldn’t believe the difference in the pitch version of Pikachu vs what he actually ended up being. Thankfully there was a lot of discussion work going into his design that ultimately landed him looking like the animated version.
Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in VFX?
I’ll be honest, I actually studied animation because I loved 3d animated films. I wanted to work on movies like How to Train Your Dragon. One thing led to another and here I am.
The DREAM project would entail:
Epic lighting, the best production team and client, a team excited to make it beautiful and a reasonable timeline.
How do you explain what you do to someone who doesn’t work in VFX?
My words are usually: “You know that tiger next to that kid? They can’t have a real tiger because that would be a safety issue. So my job is to get the fake tiger to look like it belongs next to the kid.”
Describe your career journey (into the exciting world of VFX).
Following my dream to work on 3D animated films, I took full animation courses including 2D and rigging. As a buffer for my animation courses, I added technical direction as a minor where I took VFX classes to learn lighting and rendering, which paid off. When I graduated, there were no jobs at all in animation. So I spent a year after graduating, revamping my reel geared towards VFX work and got into MPC academy. And I fell in love with the chaos the VFX industry offers
What does the day in the life of a (lighting lead) look like?
Wake up, stress about renders, daily said renders, make more renders, log out and stress about renders before sleep.
JK. Starting my day, I check all of the team’s dailies before the targets meeting with production. I discuss dailies, problems, and targets with my artists during rounds and what should be reviewed for dailies with our supervisors. If an artist has any problems, I help troubleshoot those so they can continue doing their jobs without worry and support them. Most of this tends to go until after lunch, by then I work on some shots while helping my team where I’m needed and prep for afternoon dailies with the supervisors. By the end of afternoon dailies, I have a bit more time to work on shots and send renders for the night.
Framestore is, to you, in three words:
Follow the rules.
Best thing about your work environment?
The best thing is definitely the people. The lighting/lookdev team is small, but most of us come into the office and we have a great time being able to talk with each other. We adopted London’s cocktail Thursdays and it’s been really fun drinking and laughing with everyone and basically stop talking about work for a bit. And the studio/managers have put together activities that have been amazing to attend, such as a Diwali celebration, theatre viewing of the latest work, and bake sales.
Framestore is great at:
Like my three words, Framestore in the pipeline context, is great at following the rules. They have a way of working that follows criteria to streamline production. In terms of a company as a whole, they are great at creating involvement in both pipeline and policy discussions which makes people feel included in making decisions even if they end up being a bust.
Favourite artform?
Painting, but not abstract. I don’t understand it.
Favourite image?
A mossy forest and a hidden cottage with plants like Secret Garden everywhere, god rays scattering down in between the tree canopy.
What’s your favourite movie/ series/ advert/ immersive experience and why?
I already mentioned How to Train Your Dragon, but my favourite live-action film would be Hidalgo. It was cinematically beautiful, engaging and the soundtrack was beautiful. Highly underrated.
What is the last piece of art (e.g. music, film, TV, writing etc.) that inspired you?
I’ve been into Eivor lately, which is a Faroese songwriter and it’s constantly on repeat. But I’m sure that will change in a week, I’m pretty fickle with music.
How do you unlock your creativity?
I think I have to sit and actually do art to be creative. If I look at pinterest for inspiration, I end up spending hours looking at other’s art, wasting the time I could actually be doing said art.
From where do you seek inspiration?
Pinterest. The age of computers doesn’t have me looking outside for it. (dark truth)
Who in the industry do you admire most and why?
There was an HOD from when I first started at MPC, David Hirst, who has since moved back to London. He was the supervisor on a few films I was on before he turned Global HOD. I admired his ability to lead the team firmly, effectively, technically, and artistically. He was always calm and friendly but also demanded your best without being harsh. He understood every issue, how to approach it and knew exactly what he wanted, relaying that to the artists clearly. He never made the team panic and handled both artists and production equally. I felt he was someone I should aspire to be like.
Share the best piece of advice you’ve ever received:
Stay humble. It’s okay to make mistakes, just own up to them and things will be a lot easier moving forward.
What tech/innovation could you not live without?
Toilet. Imagine if we didn’t have toilets, the streets would be awash in poo.
What tech/innovation deserves the hype?
Toilet. Just imagine! It doesn’t get enough hype.
What tech do you need that hasn’t been invented yet?
A thing that hasn’t been invented “yet” would mean that maybe it is possible. But I’m thinking something that isn’t possible. I want a personal dimension portal, from something small that you can carry so you can go anywhere. With it, I can create a little place for myself. The space doesn’t have to be big, but just enough that I can put whatever I want in it. Then I wouldn’t need to pay rent or buy land with a home and be stuck in one location. “What, you are on a mountain but you want to sleep in a nice bed? *goes into little portal world*”
Sarah Johnson, you’ve been [FRAMED].
