Rising Stars: Meet Heidi Jo Gilbert of Glendale

Today we’d like to introduce you to Heidi Jo Gilbert.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up all my life wanting to be a hand-drawn animator that worked for Disney. I remember being so enamored with 101 Dalmatians; not many people can relate to the obsessiveness I watched that movie with as a child. But I remember one day my mom told me that there were people that drew those movies- I feel like my whole world changed. I knew that’s what I had to do.

I had a lot of naivety as a 7-year old, but I really believed that if I started right there and then that I could do it. Ever since I spent all of my time committed to getting better at drawing. I wrote Disney for advice and when it was time to go to college I went to the film/art school that Walt Disney himself created to train his animators: CalArts. After doing a brief internship at Pixar, I finally graduated, and I got the job I had worked my whole life for at Disney.

So I totally wasn’t prepared when I was let go and it was taken away from me?

How do you move on when the one thing your life was built around is taken from you? When I lost it, I felt like a part of my life was over. I lost my dream and I lost my direction in my life. I went through a really dark time where I couldn’t even pick up a pencil because all it did was bring back memories of failure and thoughts that I just wasn’t good enough. I had wrapped up so much of my identity and my worth into working for Disney. I had lost sight that I really just wanted to be an artist and a storyteller. After a lot of counseling from my closest friends, and some timely inspiration from learning Tom Brady’s story and his rise to greatness- I picked myself up and decided I was going to compete for what I wanted.

My fight took the form of a story reel. I had to work on something I was passionate about, and at that time all I wanted to see was an animated version of the musical Wicked. I storyboarded a song from it like it was mine to direct. It was not easy for me. Not even because the drawings were hard but because I had to conquer myself to get them out. I poured my heart into that thing and put it out into the world hoping someone would see it and be convinced of my potential.

Months went by with silence. Then one day I started getting all these texts and messages. My little reel had gone viral! With that as a portfolio piece I was able to land my first job at Dreamworks.

Since then I’ve been so lucky to work on so many different projects. But I feel like I got my big break when I was offered the Head of Story job for the movie Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, by Joel Crawford, Januel Mercado, and Mark Swift. It was an experience and an opportunity I will never forget, and I will always be so proud to be a part of that film.

That lead me to getting my second opportunity as Head of Story, but this time working with a childhood hero of mine, Chris Sanders, on The Wild Robot. What an absolute dream come true-truly an unforgettable experience filled with so much love for that story and that crew. It is the project that is closest to my heart, as it came at a time after I had just lost my own mother. It gave me an outlet to grieve and put all of the unexpressed love that I had for her into this beautiful story about a robot becoming a mother. I hope it always lives on as a love letter to her, and to all moms.

Today I am still at Dreamworks working in a new role, on an unannounced project in development. It’s very exciting!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No! I went into detail on the previous question about my biggest challenge overcome. But I had many other small ones, including an overuse injury to my drawing arm. And when I tried to transition to story from animation, many people thought I couldn’t do it because they thought I drew too much like an animator instead of a story artist

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I was most recently the Head of Story on The Wild Robot, and Puss in Boots: the Last Wish. What is a head of story you say? Well you’re not the only one! Not many people know what that role is because it is a title that is unique to animation and doesn’t exist in live action. In short we lead the story team. I like to think of the story team as a writers room that draws. In live action usually everything is based on a script. The writer writes the script and then rewrites the script and then rewrites the script like 100 times, and then they shoot the script. In animation that process looks different. We start with a script but it’s usually like a first or second draft. So a lot of that re-writing and iterating on the story happens through the Head of Story and the story team (in collaboration with the director and writer). We come up with ideas, we visualize scenes, we rework the story structure- all through the story boarding process. We are the team that makes a rough draft of the movie in drawings and dialogue- usually like 4-10 times before they spend the big bucks to send it through the rest of the pipeline to actually create and animate the movie.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
One of my favorites is memorialized in a family photo from my childhood. I loved this 101 Dalmatians t-shirt so much, that I refused to dress up for my family’s photo. Haha! Everyone looks so nice, and there I am wearing my spotted t-shirt with a Dalmatian puppy on the front. A committed and stubborn fan!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heidijogilbert?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidi-jo-gilbert-35958015/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/heidijogilbert?s=21&t=02aakMvVfAMR0eV4RJyveQ