Department Manager

For over two decades,
**Ghost VFX** has collaborated with the very best to create award-winning, innovative visual effects. With contributions to over 100 feature films, episodic and interactive, we are a full-service, global visual effects house. Our talented and dedicated teams around the world make the impossible, possible, fulfilling the dreams of clients and artists alike. With roughly 150 artists and production professionals, we try every day to produce imagery that quietly speaks for itself.

We are looking for a talented

**Department Manager**
Ghost VFX

Reporting to the Artist Manager works with Show Production, the Department Manager provides support to shows within specific departments. They assist production and department supervisors / leads with assignments, tracking tasks and targets that go in and out of the department both locally, cross site and outsourced. They work closely with artists to facilitate the hand-off of material between departments in the workflow/pipeline, coordinate daily reviews as needed, chase daily targets and their missing elements and report to the respective Show Team and Department Manager with updates. They are responsible to for flag anything that could potentially be problematic to Production, Artist Manager and Dept. Supervisor/Lead. This is a cross-site position that will require management of task assignments and pipeline issues across multiple Studios in liaison with other Production. The Manager should be a problem solver providing support for the team as well as providing oversight on schedules across multiple projects.
- Responsible for prepping dailies sessions for departments as needed, prep and take notes & looping the right people in accordingly
- Follows up with artists to have work ready for any applicable reviews; sets sort order in playlist
- Works alongside the Leads and HODs to brief internal artists on new work.
- Ensures Leads and HODs review versions in the queue (internal, cross-site and outsourced).
- Communicates the feedback and approvals to the appropriate parties.
- Keeps the Shotgrid projects up to date and free of clutter (Maintain assignments, end dates and statuses of tasks, versions and playlists)
- Update task start/end dates according to changes in the targets throughout the day (always inform Production of pushes)
- Based on the schedule created by Production, track progress of tasks for assigned departments in the production system; flags any issues that might affect schedule and targets.
- Chase ETAs on upstream or downstream departments and communicate statuses to Supervisor and Production.
- Publish notes in relation to this. Chasing down missing artist material/dependencies upstream downstream/upstream (Really take ownership)
- Tracks any open help tickets that hinder progress for an artist, flagging to Production when escalation is required.
- Communicates with artists on a daily basis regarding any issues, or flags from them which might affect delivery.
- Ensure task deliveries remain on schedule, communicating any scheduling changes
- Ensuring all artists are supported, healthy and happy (Rounds/Active listening)
- Communicates to the Artist Manager of idle or stressed artists, or surprise issues in order to make necessary changes to the schedule or resource plan
- Communication with Productions on a daily basis regarding any issues, or flags from them which might affect delivery
- Responsible for ensuring downstream departments and Production are informed of the handoff of completed work.
- Flagging ALL issues, crewing adjustments, needs of outsourced resources, roadblocks, or schedule changes with Artist Manager and Production
- Attends, and takes notes at all requested meetings, reviews, and briefing sessions (as needed)
- Organize briefs for leads and artists with Production / Supervisors
- Working with the Artist Manager/leads/supes to assign tasks corresponding to artists strengths/weaknesses
- Work alongside the Artist Manager to ensure the department is appropriately crewed
- _Submits department OT requests to Producer (local and cross site)_

Ghost VFX Burbank Ltd. is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.