A panel made up of working professionals in the VFX and animation industry joined the recent 2022 BFX festival,聽creating a space for conversation and dialogue.聽聽聽
On the panel were Dara McGarry and Boyan Georgiev from DNEG, Sid Harrington-Odedra, Misc Studios, Engy Jarrouj, Framestore, and Amy Backwell of ILM. They described their own journeys to attendees.聽聽聽聽聽
Dara McGarry started her career at Disney in 1997. She reflects, 鈥渋t was about having a title. The culture was making employees become what they thought corporations wanted. People were changing to fit the mould.聽聽聽
There鈥檚 been a shift, studios are asking for unique voices. With everyone being their individual selves, present culture is about uniqueness.鈥澛犅�
Engy Jarrouj elaborated with her experience at Framestore, 鈥渨e were unsure as to why we might be losing applicants during the recruitment process. We surveyed candidates looking at unconscious bias. We鈥檝e learned and begun to implement safe spaces to review our bias and work to decrease unconscious bias.聽聽聽
Now, we list jobs on more diverse platforms, and work with specific organisations to get our career opportunities in front of all people.鈥澛犅�
The audience prompted discussion about finding yourself in a company culture that you feel doesn鈥檛 reflect who you are, experiencing a disconnection and a lack of belonging. Boyan Georgiev highlighted his experience, 鈥淚f you feel like you don鈥檛 belong in a company鈥檚 culture my advice is, change it.聽聽
When I started at DNEG there wasn鈥檛 anything established, so we started our LGBT+ group to raise awareness and money for charities through events. It led to creating a space for the community to talk. Create the culture you are striving to see. Be bold. Work for the change you want to see.鈥澛犅�
Amy Backwell uses her role at ILM to 鈥渆nsure everyone knows they have a place in the industry. It鈥檚 about raising awareness. Starting the diversity and disability group has been a huge blessing to bring people at ILM together.聽聽聽
Especially from a neuro-diverse perspective, for me, I was diagnosed with ADHD later in life, and deadlines and work pressures were overwhelming. Having a diagnosis gave me the confidence to verbalise my needs. Being in a company culture that鈥檚 adaptable helps people to thrive; change might be uncomfortable, but it must be sat with for change to happen.鈥澛犅�
Sid Harrington-Odedra commented, 鈥渋n my experience management teams at large VFX corporations are evolving. It tended to be white men, finally, I feel like they have started to listen, and we are being surrounded by people who want to make inclusive changes.鈥澛犅�
Georgiev expands, 鈥渨e also need more equality in the narratives we create as people in the storytelling business. I鈥檓 tired of seeing stories about people in my community being shown as dying or having an existential crisis. It鈥檚 time to create LBGTQIA+ characters without trauma or being included to make a profit from pride merch. It鈥檚 about getting investors onboard.鈥澛犅�
The final advice from the panel to attendees was 鈥渦se the platforms available to you and ignite themes of change in people鈥檚 minds. Find your allies, bringing support if you feel marginalised. You can鈥檛 fight a battle by yourself, as a collective group you can do a lot of change.鈥澛�
