Sessions focused on the people of visual effects, their experience and how they continue to promote and support a happy, healthy and thriving industry.
The last two years have seen rising demands for content and accelerated a large amount of growth in the VFX industry. Creatives across the globe have been thrust into new environments to accommodate the demand for deliveries. New Leaders have stepped up to the occasion, juggling increasingly challenging projects, the influx of junior talent and learning to manage remotely. This has impacted our industry from many levels, and to compound the impact, our working environments are more segregated than ever and exposure to hands-on training is at an all time low. Many people are finding themselves logging off and questioning, “am I a fraud?”, or “do I have what it takes to do this role?”
Imposter Syndrome is common amongst high achieving individuals and defined by an internal experience of believing that you are not as competent as others perceive you to be. Working from home certainly exacerbates this feeling.
But are these feelings unique to the pandemic? In this panel, we’ll take a tongue-in-cheek perspective to reveal the imposters, pairing new leaders with industry veterans to take a peek behind the curtain of Imposter Syndrome. We’ll examine who is more likely to suffer from this feeling in our industry and how we can collectively shape our working cultures to shift feelings of fraud and self-doubt towards humility and psychological safety.
SPEAKERS
Abishek Nair
Associate VFX Supervisor // Industrial Light & Magic
Coming from TV Advertising background, Abishek Nair joined ILM in 2009 at the inception of the Singapore Studio as a Compositor, with IronMan as his first feature project. After spending close to 7 years at the studio in Singapore and moving up the ranks within the compositing department, Abishek joined ILM Vancouver in 2017 as a Compositing Supervisor with the opportunity to supervise projects such as Thor: Ragnarok, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Jungle Cruise and most recently Space Jam: A New Legacy.
In 2021, Abishek moved into a VFX supervision role working with Amblin Entertainment and NASA to tell the story of the Spirit and Opportunity Mars Missions on the yet-to-be-released Amazon Prime special Goodnight Oppy and followed that up with a yet-to-be-announced Netflix Project.
When Abishek isn't spending time with the creative team at ILM, you will find him at an airfield training for aerobatic competitions as a licensed pilot.
Jessica Teach
VP Operations // Industrial Light & Magic
Jessica Teach is VP, Operations, reporting to General Manager of ILM, Janet Lewin. Teach is a member of ILM’s Executive Team and spearheads the operational, diversity and inclusion, and talent strategies across ILM’s five studios globally. Working with Lewin and the other members of the Executive Team, she also helps guide the company as a whole.
Teach joined Industrial Light & Magic in 2001 as a Production Assistant and has held a number of positions with increasing responsibility throughout the years.
As a member of ILM’s executive team, Teach works closely with her team of talent managers and operational experts, producers and VFX and Animation supervisors to staff diverse artist resources across the company’s studios and global portfolio of shows.
In addition to her management responsibilities, she founded ILM’s Diversity & Inclusion Steering Committee (ILM DISCo) to provide leadership for the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts, and shaping strategy that spans internal and external communication, training, recruitment practices and casting and crewing decisions to forward the company’s commitment in this very important area.
Jessica has also served as a member of the Technical Advisory Group at ILM. In this capacity she was an advisor on ILM facility-wide technical issues in the R&D, I.T., and I.S. departments and liaised with representatives from other Lucas divisions to facilitate a cohesive and strategic approach to technical development and implementation across Lucasfilm.
Prior to joining ILM, Jessica was a producer at Mondo Media, in San Francisco, California, leading a team responsible for creating flash animated internet content. Jessica is originally from New London, New Hampshire. She is a graduate of Colby-Sawyer College with a bachelor’s degree in writing. She and her husband currently reside in San Francisco, California.
Lauren Ellis
Senior VFX Producer // Industrial Light & Magic
Lauren F. Ellis joined Industrial Light & Magic in 2021 as Senior Visual Effects Producer, bringing with her a diverse background of entertainment production from commercials and series to virtual reality and film.
Throughout her experience, Ellis has served as Executive Producer over series and features for Zoic Studios and as the VFX Executive Producer for The Molecule where she also managed operations and new business acquisitions for the Los Angeles studio.
Over the years, she has built an extensive portfolio with a variety of television and film projects, having most recently produced for top series like Marvel’s WandaVision, and HBO’s Ozark. Ellis has also contributed to several film projects like Let Him Go, Horrible Bosses 2, and Fruitvale Station – an award-winning film produced, written and directed by Black Panther director, Ryan Coogler – which had a major impact on her personal and professional growth.
Ellis earned her Master of Fine Arts in Animation and Visual Effects from the Academy of Art University and her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Hampton University.
Originally from Alexandria, Virginia – the hometown of Remember the Titans – Ellis strives to educate and inspire those seeking to pursue a career in the industry, especially young women.
Lies Veldeman
Compositing Supervisor // Industrial Light & Magic
Lies Veldeman started her career in London as a generalist before deciding compositing was her passion. Her road to compositing first began in her home country, Belgium where she studied Interactive Multimedia Design. She moved to the United Kingdom in 2008 to study 3D Computer Animation at Bournemouth University.
She has worked at several VFX houses in the United Kingdom, starting at Cinesite, Framestore and DNEG where she was the alignment supervisor on DNEG’s Exodus: Gods and Kings.
In 2015, she continued to build her career in compositing at DNEG Vancouver. After a stint at Weta in New Zealand, she joined MPC as a key artist on Aquaman. In 2019, she joined ILM and has since worked on projects such as The Irishman, Terminator: Dark Fate, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Jungle Cruise, and Space Jam: A New Legacy.
Lies recently wrapped work on the Amazon documentary Goodnight Oppy.
Solene Chan Lam
Senior Texture // Industrial Light & Magic
With over 15 years of experience in the CG industry, Solene Chan-Lam joined the Industrial Light & Magic Vancouver studio as Senior Texture artist in 2021 and has recently been promoted to Texture Lead. Prior to ILM, Solene was a Lead Texture artist at Weta Digital and MPC London, working on shows such as Lion King, Alien Covenant, Jumanji Next Level and Suicide Squad 2.
From 3D Modeling to DMP and Lookdev, Texturing has remained her focus since the beginning with contributions on feature films, commercials, video games, cinematics and VR projects (Cinesite, Ubisoft, Passion Pictures). Solene specializes in creature/character realism, and also has experience in animation stylised projects such as Riot games Arcane series at Fortiche Prod in Paris amongst others. She also enjoys traditional and digital illustration too.
MODERATOR
Kate Kazokas
Studio Production Manager // Industrial Light & Magic
(Super Pets, Mulan, John Wick 3, Overlord)
Kate Kazokas is the Studio Production Manager for the Industrial Light & Magic Vancouver studio where she focuses on talent management of the Production team and partnering with studio leadership to help provide capacity assessments for new and existing work.
Relocating to Vancouver in 2018, Kate’s passion and experience reflect the cross-sections of business and art, where she leans on her education and project management skills to influence the culture and dynamics of the creative teams she works with. Creative minds excite her. Kate specializes in the organizational psychology of creative environments and is pursuing a career in making sense of art.
During her career in visual effects, Kate’s experience has spanned across Animated Feature Film and Visual Effects studios in both production and talent management positions. She holds a Masters of Screen Business and Leadership degree from the Australian Film Television and Radio School and is very slowly completing her postgraduate bachelor of Psychology.
Sessions focused on the people of visual effects, their experience and how they continue to promote and support a happy, healthy and thriving industry.
The last two years have seen rising demands for content and accelerated a large amount of growth in the VFX industry. Creatives across the globe have been thrust into new environments to accommodate the demand for deliveries. New Leaders have stepped up to the occasion, juggling increasingly challenging projects, the influx of junior talent and learning to manage remotely. This has impacted our industry from many levels, and to compound the impact, our working environments are more segregated than ever and exposure to hands-on training is at an all time low. Many people are finding themselves logging off and questioning, “am I a fraud?”, or “do I have what it takes to do this role?”
Imposter Syndrome is common amongst high achieving individuals and defined by an internal experience of believing that you are not as competent as others perceive you to be. Working from home certainly exacerbates this feeling.
But are these feelings unique to the pandemic? In this panel, we’ll take a tongue-in-cheek perspective to reveal the imposters, pairing new leaders with industry veterans to take a peek behind the curtain of Imposter Syndrome. We’ll examine who is more likely to suffer from this feeling in our industry and how we can collectively shape our working cultures to shift feelings of fraud and self-doubt towards humility and psychological safety.
SPEAKERS
Abishek Nair
Associate VFX Supervisor // Industrial Light & Magic
Coming from TV Advertising background, Abishek Nair joined ILM in 2009 at the inception of the Singapore Studio as a Compositor, with IronMan as his first feature project. After spending close to 7 years at the studio in Singapore and moving up the ranks within the compositing department, Abishek joined ILM Vancouver in 2017 as a Compositing Supervisor with the opportunity to supervise projects such as Thor: Ragnarok, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Jungle Cruise and most recently Space Jam: A New Legacy.
In 2021, Abishek moved into a VFX supervision role working with Amblin Entertainment and NASA to tell the story of the Spirit and Opportunity Mars Missions on the yet-to-be-released Amazon Prime special Goodnight Oppy and followed that up with a yet-to-be-announced Netflix Project.
When Abishek isn't spending time with the creative team at ILM, you will find him at an airfield training for aerobatic competitions as a licensed pilot.
Jessica Teach
VP Operations // Industrial Light & Magic
Jessica Teach is VP, Operations, reporting to General Manager of ILM, Janet Lewin. Teach is a member of ILM’s Executive Team and spearheads the operational, diversity and inclusion, and talent strategies across ILM’s five studios globally. Working with Lewin and the other members of the Executive Team, she also helps guide the company as a whole.
Teach joined Industrial Light & Magic in 2001 as a Production Assistant and has held a number of positions with increasing responsibility throughout the years.
As a member of ILM’s executive team, Teach works closely with her team of talent managers and operational experts, producers and VFX and Animation supervisors to staff diverse artist resources across the company’s studios and global portfolio of shows.
In addition to her management responsibilities, she founded ILM’s Diversity & Inclusion Steering Committee (ILM DISCo) to provide leadership for the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts, and shaping strategy that spans internal and external communication, training, recruitment practices and casting and crewing decisions to forward the company’s commitment in this very important area.
Jessica has also served as a member of the Technical Advisory Group at ILM. In this capacity she was an advisor on ILM facility-wide technical issues in the R&D, I.T., and I.S. departments and liaised with representatives from other Lucas divisions to facilitate a cohesive and strategic approach to technical development and implementation across Lucasfilm.
Prior to joining ILM, Jessica was a producer at Mondo Media, in San Francisco, California, leading a team responsible for creating flash animated internet content. Jessica is originally from New London, New Hampshire. She is a graduate of Colby-Sawyer College with a bachelor’s degree in writing. She and her husband currently reside in San Francisco, California.
Lauren Ellis
Senior VFX Producer // Industrial Light & Magic
Lauren F. Ellis joined Industrial Light & Magic in 2021 as Senior Visual Effects Producer, bringing with her a diverse background of entertainment production from commercials and series to virtual reality and film.
Throughout her experience, Ellis has served as Executive Producer over series and features for Zoic Studios and as the VFX Executive Producer for The Molecule where she also managed operations and new business acquisitions for the Los Angeles studio.
Over the years, she has built an extensive portfolio with a variety of television and film projects, having most recently produced for top series like Marvel’s WandaVision, and HBO’s Ozark. Ellis has also contributed to several film projects like Let Him Go, Horrible Bosses 2, and Fruitvale Station – an award-winning film produced, written and directed by Black Panther director, Ryan Coogler – which had a major impact on her personal and professional growth.
Ellis earned her Master of Fine Arts in Animation and Visual Effects from the Academy of Art University and her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Hampton University.
Originally from Alexandria, Virginia – the hometown of Remember the Titans – Ellis strives to educate and inspire those seeking to pursue a career in the industry, especially young women.
Lies Veldeman
Compositing Supervisor // Industrial Light & Magic
Lies Veldeman started her career in London as a generalist before deciding compositing was her passion. Her road to compositing first began in her home country, Belgium where she studied Interactive Multimedia Design. She moved to the United Kingdom in 2008 to study 3D Computer Animation at Bournemouth University.
She has worked at several VFX houses in the United Kingdom, starting at Cinesite, Framestore and DNEG where she was the alignment supervisor on DNEG’s Exodus: Gods and Kings.
In 2015, she continued to build her career in compositing at DNEG Vancouver. After a stint at Weta in New Zealand, she joined MPC as a key artist on Aquaman. In 2019, she joined ILM and has since worked on projects such as The Irishman, Terminator: Dark Fate, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Jungle Cruise, and Space Jam: A New Legacy.
Lies recently wrapped work on the Amazon documentary Goodnight Oppy.
Solene Chan Lam
Senior Texture // Industrial Light & Magic
With over 15 years of experience in the CG industry, Solene Chan-Lam joined the Industrial Light & Magic Vancouver studio as Senior Texture artist in 2021 and has recently been promoted to Texture Lead. Prior to ILM, Solene was a Lead Texture artist at Weta Digital and MPC London, working on shows such as Lion King, Alien Covenant, Jumanji Next Level and Suicide Squad 2.
From 3D Modeling to DMP and Lookdev, Texturing has remained her focus since the beginning with contributions on feature films, commercials, video games, cinematics and VR projects (Cinesite, Ubisoft, Passion Pictures). Solene specializes in creature/character realism, and also has experience in animation stylised projects such as Riot games Arcane series at Fortiche Prod in Paris amongst others. She also enjoys traditional and digital illustration too.
MODERATOR
Kate Kazokas
Studio Production Manager // Industrial Light & Magic
(Super Pets, Mulan, John Wick 3, Overlord)
Kate Kazokas is the Studio Production Manager for the Industrial Light & Magic Vancouver studio where she focuses on talent management of the Production team and partnering with studio leadership to help provide capacity assessments for new and existing work.
Relocating to Vancouver in 2018, Kate’s passion and experience reflect the cross-sections of business and art, where she leans on her education and project management skills to influence the culture and dynamics of the creative teams she works with. Creative minds excite her. Kate specializes in the organizational psychology of creative environments and is pursuing a career in making sense of art.
During her career in visual effects, Kate’s experience has spanned across Animated Feature Film and Visual Effects studios in both production and talent management positions. She holds a Masters of Screen Business and Leadership degree from the Australian Film Television and Radio School and is very slowly completing her postgraduate bachelor of Psychology.
