Wind Sun Sky Spotlight

Hi I’m Sandi Gisbert, Director of Production

Being Director of Production means I get to work across all projects happening. I joined in 2020 when we were all working from home. I logged off from one job on Friday and logged in at WSS on Monday! Which means my four-year anniversary is this month! 

What’s Unique About a WSS Project?

The cool thing about WSS is that all the projects are different. We aren’t locked into one style and we’re always looking for new ways to be creative and innovative. Future Chicken involves 2D animation, Motion Capture Animation, a Podcast, Roblox game and more. 

My Singing Monsters was a fun challenge because it was Motion Capture Animation broadcast live to YouTube from the stage (I say fun challenge now, but broadcasting live mocap is also crazy-making!)

Invincible was a massive hand-drawn animation series for Amazon and JunkBots was a CG animation series for YouTube. Every show is unique and that’s how I like it!

Do you have any industry tips or tools?

My team would say that my style of communication is “spreadsheet”.

I’m a big fan of process and I do make a lot of spreadsheet schedules and trackers. When I was in film school, one of my teachers used to say: “Plan the shoot, shoot the plan” and that’s always stuck with me. But I’m not about rules. For me it’s all about paradigms and working with the best idea…until someone comes up with a better one!

Having a solid process frees you up to try new things because you know you have a plan to fall back on.

What do you do outside of work?

Well, outside of WSS work, I teach Production Management for Animation and VFX at Vancouver Community College and I’m studying for the Provincial Instructor Training Diploma, which I realize is technically also work, but I love it and it’s a lot of fun!

I love being outside so am always walking or hiking, and in the summer, I love to go swimming in the outdoor pools in town and in the ocean—even when it’s raining (sometimes it’s better when it’s raining!)  

What’s A standout Workplace memory

I love that our Culture team are always coming up with fun activities to do. Last Christmas we went to an indoor mini-golf place that had a pub/club vibe…with putters! It’s always fun to hang out with the team outside of the office because you get to know some of the people you might not work with day-to-day.   

What advice would you give to someone looking to get into your field? 

Get out there and meet people! Build your network because relationships are important both to finding a job and enjoying a job once you’re there. Join an animation industry group, either in person or online, take a class to up your skills, reach out to people you admire on LinkedIn—some might not respond, but some will. And once you get that first job, move laterally as much as you can and work with as many different departments as you can, it will help you tremendously once you’re ready to move up.