Vicky Jenson
| Vicky Jenson | |
|---|---|
| Born | Victoria Jenson |
| Occupation | Director, production designer |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Notable work | Shrek, Shark Tale |
Victoria "Vicky" Jenson (born 1960)[1] is a film director of both live-action and animated films,[2] and has been said to be "one of Hollywood's most inspiring female Directors".[3] She has directed projects for DreamWorks Animation, and is most notable for having directed Shrek, the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature,[4][5][6] giving rise to one of Hollywood's largest film franchises.[7]
Contents
Early animation career
Jenson began painting animation cels at the age of 13.[8] She "started as a background artist at Hanna-Barbera in 1977, became a storyboard artist for Warner Bros., Marvel and Disney Television, and variously worked as a production designer, art director and co-producer".[4] She got one of her earliest starts working for Filmation doing the storyboard backgrounds on the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon series in the early 1980s. She was also a design and color stylist on Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, the influential Ralph Bakshi reboot of Mighty Mouse, in the 1980s. She held the same position with the seminal The Ren & Stimpy Show in the early 1990s, for creator John Kricfalusi.[4] For both Mighty Mouse and Ren & Stimpy, Jenson was among those "responsible for the development of the visual style" of the series.[4] In 1992, Jenson was the art director for FernGully: The Last Rainforest,[4][9] and the production designer for Computer Warriors: The Adventure Begins and Playroom. In 2000, Jenson began working for DreamWorks as a production designer and story artist for The Road to El Dorado.[4][8]
Directing career
Having worked on The Road to El Dorado for DreamWorks, the studio initially hired Jenson to work on Shrek as a story artist, with the directors to be Andrew Adamson (also a first-time director) and Kelly Asbury, who had joined in 1997 to co-direct the film. However, Asbury left a year later for work on the 2002 film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and Jenson was selected by producer Jeffrey Katzenberg to be a director of the film.[7][8] Jenson recalled her experience being brought into Shrek, and eventually tapped to direct, as follows:
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For a long time, the movie didn’t know what it wanted to be. One problem was unavoidable: Chris Farley had died, and the story had been geared around him, so when he went, the story kind of went with him. It went through an upheaval while they tried to find the right tone for it. I think they were really close to shelving the project when a few of us came into story to try and find a tone that we could work with. When Kelly Asbury moved on to Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron I became head of story, along with Randy Cartwright. Along with Andrew Adamson, who stayed on as director, we started pulling little pieces together out of what remained, and part of the way through, Jeffrey decided that I should be directing. A few months later, we started production.[7]
Jenson described the directing process as one in which "we didn't try to figure out how to make adolescents laugh. You have to use yourself as the best judge and use your own instincts. We figured if we laughed at it, chances are good someone else would too".[8] According to Adamson, both Adamson and Jenson decided to work on the film in half, so the crew could at least know who to go to with specific detail questions about the film's sequences; "We both ended up doing a lot of everything", Adamson said. "We're both kinda control freaks, and we both wanted to do everything."[10][4] Following the success of Shrek, Jenson directed Shark Tale (with Bibo Bergeron and Rob Letterman),[11] In 2003, while working on Shark Tale, Jenson received the first annual Kiera Chaplin Limelight award given at the Women's Image Network Awards.[12]
She directed a live-action short, Family Tree, which "premiered at Sundance, screened at countless festivals, including Sundance, SXSW, Aspen and Malibu and went on to win multiple festival awards".[6] In 2009, she finished her first live-action feature directorial work for the Alexis Bledel-starring comedy, Post Grad.[2] The film received mixed reviews, but Roger Ebert awarded it three out of four stars, stating, "[i]f you're cynical or jaded, it might not get past you. But here is the first movie in a long time that had me actually admitting I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel".[13] Also in 2009, Jenson directed all of the spots for the year-long "Modelquins" ad campaign for Old Navy, represented by the Anonymous Content agency,[14] including the "Supermodelquins Christmas" ads.[15]
In 2015, Jenson directed a stage production of the play, Time Stands Still, by Donald Margulies.[3] The Los Angeles Times wrote of Jenson's directorial role in the production that "the staging by Vicky Jenson successfully captures the script's broad contours",[16] and Broadway World praised the production, stating that "Vicky Jenson smoothly directs her uniformly skilled four-member cast".[17]
Filmography
| Year | Title | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1985 | The Secret of the Sword | storyboard artist |
| 1987 | Rock Odyssey | background artist |
| Slam Dance | storyboard artist | |
| Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night | storyboard artist | |
| 1988 | She's Having a Baby | storyboard artist |
| Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw | designer | |
| 1990 | Playroom | production designer |
| 1992 | FernGully: The Last Rainforest | storyboard artist/art director/layout artist/layout designer |
| 2000 | The Road to El Dorado | storyboard artist/additional production designer/production designer |
| Chicken Run | additional story | |
| 2001 | Shrek | director |
| 2003 | Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas | additional story artist |
| 2004 | Shark Tale | director |
| 2005 | Cerebral Print: The Secret Files | actress |
| 2008 | Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa | development |
| 2009 | Post Grad | director |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Academy Awards | Best Animated Feature | Shrek | Won |
| BAFTA Awards 2001 | Children's Award, Best Feature Film | Shrek | Won | |
| Annie Awards | Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production | Shrek | Won | |
| Cannes Film Festival | Palm d'Or | Shrek | Nominated | |
| L.A. Film Critics Association | Best Animation | Shrek | Won | |
| National Board of Review | Best Animated Feature | Shrek | Won | |
| Karlovy Vary International Film Festival | Audience Award | Shrek | Won | |
| 2002 | BAFTA Awards 2002 | Best Adapted Screenplay | Shrek | Won |
| Critics' Choice Awards 2002 | Best Animated Film | Shrek | Won | |
| People's Choice Awards | Favorite Motion Picture. | Shrek | Won | |
| 2003 | Aspen Shorts Fest 2003 | Audience Award, Glenwood Springs Section | Family Tree | Won |
| SXSW 2003 | Special Jury Award, Narrative Short | Family Tree | Won | |
| Dragon*Con Independent Film Festival | Best Short | Family Tree | Won | |
| Dragon*Con Independent Film Festival | Best Magical Realism | Family Tree | Won | |
| Empire Film Festival 2003 | Audience Award, Best Short | Family Tree | Won | |
| Malibu Film Festival 2003 | Best of the Fest | Family Tree | Won | |
| Malibu Film Festival 2003 | Best Live Action Short | Family Tree | Won | |
| DeadCENTER Film Festival | Grand Jury Award | Family Tree | Won | |
| Wine Country Film Festival 2003 | Best Short Film (Novela Form Film) | Family Tree | Won | |
| 2004 | Big Bear Lake Int'l Film Festival 2004 | Jury Award, Best Short Film | Family Tree | Won |
| 2005 | Academy Awards | Best Animated Feature | Shark Tale | Nominated |
| BAFTA Awards 2005 | Children's Award, Best Feature Film. | Shark Tale | Nominated | |
| ASCAP Awards 2005 | Top Box Office Film | Shark Tale | Won |
Personal life
Jenson is the sister of classical violinist Dylana Jenson.[2]
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Biography for Vicky Jenson at the Internet Movie Database. Retrieved April 9, 2014.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Vicky Jenson to Direct TIME STANDS STILL at Secret Rose Theatre", Broadway World (December 17, 2014).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Yoram Allon, Del Cullen, Hannah Patterson, Contemporary North American film directors: a Wallflower critical guide (2002), p. 2.
- ↑ Andrew Osmond, 100 Animated Feature Films (2010), p. 185.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 ACME filmworks page on Vicky Jenson.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Michael Mallory, "Firsts Among Equals", Animation Magazine (March 6th, 2014).
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Hillary Atkin, "Vicky Jenson: Filmmaker", Variety (November 14, 2001).
- ↑ Andrew Osmond, 100 Animated Feature Films (2010), p. 71.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Tom Sito, Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson (2006), p. 27.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Ebert, Roger."Post Grad" (review), Chicago Sun-Times, August 19, 2009
- ↑ "Anonymous Content Launches Web and TV Campaign For Old Navy".
- ↑ "Old Navy Supermodelquins Christmas", Inspiration Room (December 5, 2009).
- ↑ Philip Brandes, "Unrealized potential in 'Time Stands Still'", Los Angeles Times (January 23, 2015).
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
 |
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Vicky Jenson |
- Vicky Jenson at the Internet Movie Database
- Chris Koseluk, "On Co-Directing Shrek: Victoria Jenson", AnimationWorld Network (May 10, 2001)
- Profile in "Women Directors Hollywood Should Be Hiring from Vulture.com
- Profile in "Hollywood's Most Inspiring Female Directors"
- Profile in "Best Women Film Directors and Movies" from Metacritic.com
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