“I’m Isabel, although everyone calls me Isa, and I come from a beautiful place in the north of Spain, Asturias! I’m 25 and I’m currently working as a VFX Line Producer at Framestore. I love cooking, playing videogames and going to the cinema”, tell us Isabel Arboleya, who studied our B.F.A. in Animation.
As a VFX Line Producer she is in charge of creating and running the show schedule and the targets, making sure everything is running smoothly. She also oversees the coordinators and production assistants on the show, and she keeps an eye so dailies, meetings and deliveries are happening as expected. She also communicates with the clients and other vendors as needed and helps the producer with the crew resourcing.“I started working at DNEG as a PA, and my first show was Justice League. I was new to VFX and had no idea about what was about to come! Then I became a coordinator and I worked on shows like Black Panther, Avengers Endgame, Fantastic Beasts The Crimes of Grindelwald and a few more. I loved being a coordinator because you’re communicating with artists all the time and I learnt a lot working on a few different projects”, say.
A couple of years ago she did her first show as Line Producer, which was Fast & Furious 9. It was a huge show with a lot of shots so she had to get up to speed quickly in my new role. She then worked in Industrial Light & Magic a few months before joining Framestore.
“One of my favourite shows is Avengers Endgame, not only because I’m a Marvel fan, but also because the team I was working with was amazing”, explain. She was so impressed with the work in every dailies session and she had a lot of fun working on it. Also when she watched it in the cinemas, she remember everyone stood up and started clapping at the end of the film. “It’s a really nice feeling watching people being so happy when you’ve been part of the project”.
“For now I wanna keep learning from every show I work on, and keep training to become an Associate Producer one day. I love my job so I hope to stay in the VFX industry for a long time, maybe returning back to Spain in the future”, add.
She couldn’t give only a few names cause she’ve worked with a lot of people who have become mentors to her. Not only production people but also supervisors and artists. She is always learning new things from my colleagues. “The best way to progress in the VFX industry, and especially in Production, is to learn from all the people around you, so that you can develop your own way of working, taking the best from everyone you’re learning from”.
She would tell people that it might seem impossible to get to work in big VFX and Animation companies, but it’s not that difficult if you work hard and you’re open to travelling to other countries. “It can be a tough industry, and you have a lot of pressure sometimes, but then the environment and the people are great, and you’ll have a lot of fun. I would also advise people to specialize in a department in particular, rather than trying to learn a bit of everything. There are a lot of people wanting to join this industry, so in my opinion, the more specialized you are, the better”, add.
