Guest Post: How I Found Balance and Flexibility as a Working Mom in Film and Animation

By Sherene Strausberg

My first movie, “Cool For You,” has been accepted into 39 movie festivals and acquired a number of awards, together with a Silver Anthem Award final month. As an unbiased filmmaker with no monetary backing or inventive assist workforce, I produced, directed, animated, scored, and sound blended/edited the an animated micro-short myself. I am happy with this accomplishment as a result of the one manner that this might have occurred for me is due to the distinctive circumstances when a lengthy, winding inventive profession as a girl in Hollywood, adopted by a profession change, met its abrupt pinnacle from an surprising world pandemic. Let’s return 30 years when I determined I needed to be a movie composer.

Without having a single position mannequin in movie scoring and having by no means seen a girl win Best Score on the Oscars, I determined in 1993 that I needed to pursue a profession as a movie composer. (It wasn’t till 1997 that Rachel Portman made historical past as the primary girl to win the Oscar for Best Score!) So, with no connections to Hollywood, I took the tutorial route, and studied classical music composition at Indiana University, adopted by a grasp’s diploma in movie scoring at North Carolina School of the Arts. Not solely was I the one girl in my class of movie composition college students, however I was additionally the one one not married. I was extra envious of my classmates’ marital standing than their gender. I needed to get married however wasn’t certain how I would handle to seek out a partner whereas pursuing such a aggressive, gender-biased profession. A strong marriage is extra than simply a partnership — it’s a assist system. I want I had had that assist system in the course of the earliest struggles of my schooling and profession, like my graduate faculty classmates, as so usually I felt disheartened or disillusioned whereas attempting to interrupt into Hollywood.

I was nonetheless craving for a life-long partnership, whereas I spent virtually 10 years writing music for movies, from shorts to options, narratives to documentaries. It was difficult as a result of I didn’t pursue a position as a ghost author or an orchestrator, however as an unbiased composer, with no agent or illustration. It was my dream come true, however I had no work/life stability and was fearful I would by no means discover a partner, not to mention be capable to have youngsters. So, six years into my profession as a movie composer, I met a great man, Todd, whom I may think about spending the remainder of my life with. It was Todd that noticed my frustrations and instructed another profession. I determined to return to high school and attend lessons in graphic design at evening at UCLA Extension. The program gave me flexibility to study design at my very own tempo, and the choice to decide on lessons that the majority me, such as Flash animation. Todd noticed the mixture of technical and inventive abilities that I had by movie scoring and sound engineering, and predicted precisely that I may deliver these abilities to graphic design as nicely, and excel.

My profession change coincided with our marriage ceremony, adopted by a transfer from Los Angeles to New York City, and then the beginning of our two youngsters. Finally I had work/life stability, as a working mother, with a graphic design job that was 9 to five. However, I rapidly realized that being a mother or father doesn’t occur simply from 5pm to 9am. It may be unrelenting 24/7. So, I determined to exit alone, and begin my very own firm, 87th Street Creative. I named it with the generic “Creative” as a result of whereas my work was all graphic design, I knew there was a probability that it’d morph into one thing else. I was thrilled that having my very own firm, with work/life stability and flexibility, we have been capable of have a third youngster. Even with three youngsters, I was decided to maintain pursuing my profession and my want to be inventive.

While selling my graphic design enterprise, I started to study movement design and animation: 2D, 3D, and character rigging. Over a few years, my enterprise went from a graphic design startup to a longtime movement design studio. And then all of it got here to an abrupt halt in March of 2020, with the pandemic. Projects have been canceled, purchasers stopped calling, and there was no work. I was devastated, as the severity of the pandemic rapidly turned obvious.

During the pandemic, I wasn’t a composer, a designer, or an animator; I abruptly discovered myself the trainer, the lunch woman, the varsity nurse, the health club trainer, and extra, all rolled into one. We have been fortunate that my husband’s job continued uninterrupted, however it meant that I had to surrender my inventive pursuits to take care of our youngsters whereas faculties and daycares have been closed. After so a few years of crafting a delicate stability of working and parenting, all of it fell to items and there was no stability. The lengthy days of these first few months of the pandemic have been such a wrestle. I quickly realized I wasn’t the one one, as the most important exit of girls from the office befell in the 12 months following the pandemic.

Then, one thing magical occurred. A pal shared a guide with me that he thought I would really like. It was known as “Cool For You” and defined world warming to youngsters. I learn it to my very own youngsters, who have been two, 5, and eight years previous on the time. They all liked it. The guide does a great job of simplifying world warming for very younger learners with out scaring them, but in addition giving tangible, concrete methods to assist save the planet. Additionally, the illustrations have been so wealthy and attractive, I needed to see them come to life, with glowing fireflies, swaying bushes, and extra!

We have been caught in lockdown with few locations to go, however the illustrations in this guide have been shifting — in my creativeness! I determined I needed to show the guide into a film. I contacted the writer and illustrator who gave me the rights. After 12-hour days with the children on Google School and a home-grown Lego Camp, I started to spend three to 5 hours each evening turning the guide into an animated movie after they went to mattress. The outcomes surpassed my wildest goals: a easy concept turned a movie proven to 1000’s of kids everywhere in the world at movie festivals and receiving a Motion Award nomination, the very best recognition in the movement design business.

A profession in Hollywood was exhausting. A profession in Hollywood as a girl was even tougher. I gave up earlier than even attempting to be a working mother in Hollywood. Now I’ve returned to the movie business, however it’s now alone phrases, with stability and flexibility, and three youngsters in tow.

Emmy-nominated artwork director and founding father of 87th Street Creative, Sherene Strausberg combines music, sound results, and customized illustrations to create participating animated movies for firms and nonprofits. Her brief movie “Cool For You” will display screen on the Garden State Film Festival on March twenty sixth at 3pm. It may also present in April at The Environmental Film Festival at Yale, The International Wildlife Film Festival in Montana, and the Edinburgh Conservation Film Festival in Scotland. Read extra about Strausberg and her movie right here.