ACTION MOVIE EFFECTS STAR WARS SOFTWARE

The high proportion of female executives at Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic can be partly attributed to Mr.

She sees her work as a continuation of George Lucas’s legacy. In fact, in the 89-year history of the Academy Awards, only three women have ever been nominated for an Oscar in visual effects. “Star Wars” has never had a female director, and this year, at the Academy Awards, where “Rogue One” is up for sound mixing and visual effects Oscars, the faces of the franchise will be mostly male. To broaden its reach, Industrial Light & Magic is hiring employees from a variety of different backgrounds, while eliminating experience and education requirements for entry-level positions.Īs supportive as the studio is of its female staff, there has been outside criticism. According to data collected by the National Science Foundation, 18 percent of computer science bachelor’s degrees were awarded to women in 2014, down from a peak of 37 percent in 1984. The industry relies heavily on computer science graduates, yet fewer women are majoring in the subject. Brennan is concerned about the pipeline of women entering the visual effects field. To address what she called “false assumptions” that hinder female employees - for instance managers might believe motherhood makes a candidate less able to handle increased responsibility - the studio offers on-site child care and schedule flexibility.Īdditionally, Ms. To accomplish this she and her team have carefully assessed how promotions are handled, asking why male candidates may be advanced over their female colleagues. Brennan is on a self-described “crusade” to remedy the entrenched gender inequality of her industry. She is part of a quiet revolution now taking place at the company, where women account for 60 percent of studio leadership, and have created memorable effects for many blockbuster franchises, including “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones,” “The Avengers,” “Star Trek” and “Jurassic Park.” Women also account for half of the company’s entry-level ranks. Rose was recently promoted to supervisor of research and development. After her development of virtual production and camerawork for the 2016 Jyn Erso adventure “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” Ms. So she was stunned when she began work at the studio and found herself surrounded by women, particularly in leadership, “It made me feel less out of place,” she said.

ACTION MOVIE EFFECTS STAR WARS SOFTWARE

Rose soon caught up with them, and by the time she graduated with her doctorate in computer science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, she had become accustomed not only to software design and computer graphics, but also to being the only woman in the room. She was surprised to find that in her introductory computer science courses, her classmates were all men and had been coding for years.

As a freshman at Grinnell College in Iowa, Ms.

Take Rachel Rose, who has spent the last decade as an engineer at the studio. It’s a statistic that would have been unthinkable 40 years ago, when Princess Leia reigned alone in a galaxy of men and her dialogue was less than half that of the golden droid C-3PO in “A New Hope.” But even with the advent of back-to-back female protagonists, the women onscreen are only now catching up with those working behind the scenes at Industrial Light & Magic, the special-effects studio founded by George Lucas. She is, however, the second female character with a lead role in a “Star Wars” movie in the last two years.

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