Interview With Jenny Fulle

We do this on the visual effects films too and with the performance capture — developing the characters, how they look, how they move, what their personality is, the environment and the overall style of the movie.

Angelina Jolie performing motion capture work for
Sony Imageworks' Beowulf

My job is overseeing the producers and overseeing the production at the facility, and really making sure that we give creative people as much space and as much room as we can while maintaining our fiscal and schedule responsibilities.

AE: What's a day in the life of Jenny Fulle? What does that look like, for example, when you are working on Spider-Man 3?
JF: My job is putting out a lot of fires. I can have nothing on my schedule all day — maybe a couple of meetings — and it can be a really quiet day for me. Or, all pandemonium can break loose and it can be crazy. My senior producers have all been here between eight and 10 years as well. We have really good shorthand. They are so good at what they do, and so they run the day-to-day on the shows, and when there are problems, then I jump in.

Kirsten Dunst and Tobey Maguire in a scene from
Sony Imageworks' Spider-Man 3

If there are studio politics that get involved, and if we have shows that are clashing or fighting for resources, then I'll jump in. But for the most part, the shows are pretty self-sufficient and can run themselves.

I have no problem when I have nothing to do all day, because everything is running really smoothly. That means I've done my job really well.

I also work with the studios and the filmmakers that come in and want to talk to us about new projects. Once we've secured a project, I am responsible for putting the teams together that will work with the filmmakers on the shows.

AE: Putting out a fire might be what? Politics? People aren't getting along?
JF: Something changes on a show, and the filmmakers don't agree. That is when I step in and try to smooth it over and make everything OK.

Anything kind of above and beyond the normal day-to-day on the show, when things are rough or problems come up that get kicked up a notch to the studio executive level or the producer level of the show.

AE: What are your hours like? Is it crazy hours?
JF: At this point, I've done the million-hour days, a million days in a row, but now I have a son, and it's important for me to have balance in my life. I don't work really hard for a year and then get to take two or three months off like a project-based artist does.

Mine is more of a slow and steady tromp, day to day. I keep pretty normal hours, eight-hour days, five days a week. I have my electronic leash, and I can be reached, and often am, but I keep pretty reasonable hours. I have to, or else I would completely burn out.