Women in Special Effects: Kerry Shea of the Jim Henson Creature Shop
I’m a geek for Muppets and just about anything that comes out of the Jim Henson Creature Shop. As a kid, I knew that when the Creature Shop was involved in a movie or tv show, I would see things I had never seen before, and I would always be amazed. That feeling has never really changed for me. Even now, I check every couple of weeks for news on The Power of the Dark Crystal.
So, when I had the opportunity to talk to Kerry Shea, the Head of Digital Production at the Creature Shop, I jumped at it. Here, Shea talks to Pink Raygun about the Creature Shop’s latest puppeteering technology, her career in visual effects and how you can break in to the field.
PRG: What are some of the things you do as the Head of Digital Production at the Jim Henson Creature Shop?
KS: The Jim Henson Creature Shop has been primarily animatronics, soft puppets and walk-arounds. It’s been all about puppeteering and that type of technology. We still do all of that, but now we’re also taking it to a digital level. So, as Head of Digital Production, what we have is a technology called the PCS rig, or Performance Control System rig. It’s a rig that allows a puppeteer to place his hands inside of this rig, and as he’s puppeteering, it’s translating to a CGI character. It’s essentially digital puppeteering. It’s really cool.
We’re using our technology to go into episodic television, and the first show that we’re getting ready to do is for PBS. We’re going to start production on that in the Fall.
PRG: Can you tell me a little about that show?
KS: I don’t know if I can. I do know it’s about ready to be announced, and all I can say is that it’s a children’s show with all CGI characters in full CGI environments. Our puppeteers will be doing all of the digital puppeteering in real time on a sound stage. It’s very cool!
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PRG: You’ve been working in the film industry for 16 years. How did you get into visual effects work?
KS: (laughs) I was working in live action film, and as a freelance, live action production person, you work on a film for three months and then you’re always looking for your next job. I was lucky enough to get hired as a visual effects coordinator at 20th Century Fox on the film Alien: Resurrection and I got to be on that film for 14 months. Suddenly I realized that I could still work in the film industry, work on films for an extended period of time and could potentially turn this into a career.
I fell in love with the effects portion. I loved working around people who were dealing with large scale animatronics. I loved working with people who were doing digital and visual and optical effects. So, I took my one set experience and started working for visual effects houses. The more I did it, the more I fell in love with it. I wound up doing more visual effects, and later I worked in motion capture on Final Fantasy – I did post-production for that. Then traditional animation with Dreamworks, and also with Sony on Stuart Little 2. Now, it’s the best of all worlds for me because I can do digital in a live action format by being on a sound stage and working with talent, and also working with digital artists. It’s the ideal dream job for me.
PRG: Was production where you were headed from the beginning?
KS: Absolutely. Originally, when I was 19 years old in Utah, I wound up working in live action production, where I started out as a production coordinator on low budget films that were shooting in Utah. I saw myself eventually wanting to become a unit production manager. There was the deviation with that one visual effects show, and now I’m in production, but just took a different route to get there. And I think this area is much more fun. I love artists. Artists are great.
PRG: You have some different types of credits under your belt, such as visual effects coordinator, visual effects production coordinator, digital production manager. What are the differences between those jobs?
KS: As visual effects coordinator, I was part of the shooting crew. I would go on a film and we would do plate supervision – or green screen supervision – and then we would also do the tracking for the work that was sent out to the different special effects houses. Basically, we were the liaison between the different vendors and editorial. When I was a visual effects coordinator, I was primarily working with the production.
A digital production manager has a lot to do with scheduling and resources. You’re helping the producer work on the shot schedule and determining how you’re going to get things through the pipeline. But, it’s also a lot of learning about which hardware and software packages you’re going to need for a project and making sure you have enough processors to to be able to get the project through. It was fascinating because I’m not technical, but working as a digital production manager, like I did at Sony, I wound up learning a lot about how to get shots through the pipeline and I’m so grateful for that experience.
It really helps when you get to the producing level, because when you’re sitting with artists and they’re estimating how long a shot is going to take, if you know how a shot goes through the pipeline, how it gets rendered and what software it takes, 9 times out of 10 you can tell if the artists are accurate with their estimates or if you need to help them pad it a little bit. It helps you manage the time.
PRG: What do yo feel has been your biggest challenge?
KS: That everything constantly changes. In this area specifically, I feel like we’re always inventing. For example, when I went to Hawaii for Final Fantasy, at the time everyone was wanting to do photoreal animation, so they we’re pushing the envelope with that and everyone was going 500 miles an hour to get that project out the door. Yet, when I went to Sony and worked on Stuart Little 2, the big challenge was trying to make the falcon and his feathers photoreal. Here, its real time and I think that’s the big thing for the industry right now. There’s a lot of merging of visual effects disciplines from digital animation and gaming. We’re using a lot of the same technologies. The ability to do animation in real time is the Holy Grail right now, and that’s what we’re going after here.
PRG: What in your career are you the most proud of?
KS: I’m proud of everything that I’ve worked on, but there are different things that have been different milestones for me. Alien: Resurrection was a huge milestone because that was my first entry into visual effects. Final Fantasy was such an amazing experience
because I got to work with some of the best talent I’ve ever worked with in my life. The team that was put together in Hawaii still communicates with each other, although we’ve all scattered to some of the best effects houses in the world. Many are at Weta, Pixar and Sony, but we all still keep in touch.
Madagascar was a great experience. It was two years in the Bay area and the team that I was working with, specifically the group of people at PDI, were so organized and so professional. It was an absolute delight to see that level of professionalism. Right now, I’m having the time of my life. I love what I’m doing at the Jim Henson Creature Shop.
PRG: What kind of background, skill sets or education does a person need to get into your field?
KS: There’s a producer at PDI that was asked this question and she started coming up with a curriculum. I’ll see if I can remember some of the things she was saying. If you were going to college and you wanted to work in production, specifically in visual and digital effects, you should take these classes. Psychology, so you can work with people. Accounting, so you can figure out mathematically how you get a project through. If you can, take an entry level animation class so you can get a feel for what the animators and artists have to go through. A class in LINUX so you can jump on the computer and quickly find out by searching the file system if someone is actually working on their shot and where it is. And as many film classes as you can imagine, because that’s what its all about and you have to have a love for film.
As far as getting your first job, I’d recommend going to VFX Pro and getting a listing of all the visual effects houses, then apply for work as a production assistant. If you go in as a production assistant and you work the incredibly insane hours and still have the bug and still have the enthusiasm, then that’s going to be your foot in the door. They’ll never let you go because it’s hard to find good production people.
For more on the Creature Shop and current and past productions from The Jim Henson Company, including The Skrumps, Puppet Up! – Uncensored, please visit the company’s website. �
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This is an interesting posting. I have to admit I’ve been chauvinistic in my approach to effects. In the old days, if you mentioned effects and makeup I would have responded without thinking by saying: Westmore, Smith, Botin, Dykstra, Trumbull, etc…or these days I’d mention ILM or the Animal Factory. I guess it never occurred to me to think of this as something in terms of gender.
I’m not sure if a woman will give the world of effects and makeup any touch that is different from a man…but it makes one stop and think.
I’ve learned that it depends on the perspective of the individuals involved. Some of the women I’ve spoken to say it doesn’t matter, but others think women are naturally better at some things.
In a lot of ways, special effects is still considered a boys’ club (at least that’s what I’ve been told). I like to highlight women who are being successful in that area.
Interesting how she mentioned psychology as one of the recommended classes to take. I suppose this advice would work for other career endeavors as well.