Spotlight: Jade Duncan-Knight

What's your name and what area of VFX or animation do you work in?:

I'm Jade Duncan-Knight, Pitch & Development Manager at Blinkink. We do a little bit of everything! From Stop-motion and Puppetry to 2D & 3D animation.

What was your journey into the VFX or animation industry? What got you into VFX or animation?:

I grew up watching cartoons and playing a lot video games with my uncle & sister growing up, so once I got old enough to understand there were viable jobs in the sector I tried to figure out what I could do to get there. Unfortunately, the first covid lockdown came into place when I was a few months away from graduating on the BA Illustration & Animation course at Kingston University.

There weren’t a lot of entry level remote roles at the time, but I did land a job at Creative Access as a Programmes Assistant. It was really useful, since I got to build up my organizational skills and still make contacts with the animation studios CA was collaborating with. After a year, I got my first studio role as an Animation Production Assistant at Partizan Studios and worked my way up from there. I always tell new entrants to the industry to give anything a go if the opportunity presents itself, you never know what you’ll learn from it.

What does a typical day look like in your role?:

It varies a lot! The main component of the role is working with and building what we call the Pitch Team - this tends to be comprised of treatment designers, visual researchers, concept artists, art directors, character artists, environment artists, etc. Anyone usually involved in pre-production.

I collaborate quite closely with our Directors to do this - supervising the visual development and the treatment as we work on it. Sometimes this involves getting in the weeds - script editing, writing and advising on strategy and approach to the project from a creative and production standpoint. Outside of working on the pitches themselves, I go on the lookout for new talent by attending portfolio reviews and screenings.

What skills do you think are most important for your role?:

Communication is definitely a key one. Pitches, especially for commercials, tend to move really quickly. When you only have 5 days to get one together, you need to make sure everyone’s on board with what we’re presenting and how we’re going to get there. This requires checking in with each member of your team everyday, making sure no-one’s confused about the brief and that we’re all working to the same vision. Even though it’s considered a production role as well, a creative eye is really important for understanding the kind of talent you need to find for each pitch.

What tools or software do you use daily? Is this what you started working in or have you pivoted to this one?:

Mostly the classic GSuite. We use visual research tools to help us as well, like Shotdeck, Flim, Frameset and Pinterest. From a talent management perspective I tend to browse anywhere where people are posting their work, like Artstation, Behance and Instagram.

What's your favourite part of your job/career so far?:

There’s something quite satisfying about winning a job, and a few months later you get shown a WIP before release and you think “wow! I helped make that?”. Working in pre-production and letting a project go so soon can be strange, but I take a lot of pride in being there for a such a critical stage when we don’t know if we can make it a reality or not. At that point, there’s (almost) infinite potential and being involved in shaping it is really rewarding.

What's a common misconception about your job?:

That it’s 'just' a production role (and even then, Production folk can be under-appreciated). If need be, I need to put myself in the mindset of a researcher or script writer. Creative/Development Producers sit in the space between creative and production, which is what makes the job require a very specific set of skills. You need to be able to do both.

What challenges have you met as a woman in the industry?:

I've sadly had some uncomfortable interactions in the past, thankfully not by my coworkers but people I've generally met in the industry at events. One male producer told me because I didn't recognise a film that he was discussing that he didn't even know why I was here and walked away. That definitely shocked me at the time.

I think there's still a lot of work to be done in the industry regarding under-represented talent across each and every role. There tends to be a lot of women in production, but a lot less in creative HOD roles. We need to ask ourselves why that's happening, and how to resolve it.

What's one piece of advice you wish you'd received earlier?:

Advocate for yourself. It’s okay to take credit where it’s due, and to believe that you deserve to be where you are. Imposter syndrome can be difficult to navigate, especially early in your career, but the more confident you feel the easier it’ll be to progress and take on decision making tasks.

How do you balance work with your personal life?:

A bit production-ey - but I purposefully carve out time in my calendar for the things I love (the same way I do for meetings)! If I want to spend an evening drawing or writing, then that’s a plan. If I want to spend it with friends, then that’s a plan too. I think it’s important to make sure you’re getting enough rest, and that your day job isn’t the only way that you experience creativity.

What's one stereotype you'd love to break about your field?:

That production people aren’t creatives too! Many come from that kind of background, including myself. I’ve been in studios where there’s been a divide between creatives and production, but ultimately we’re all working together to make work that we want to be proud of. The more we can empathize with each other and be compassionate of how difficult some days can be, the more sustainable the industry will become over time.