We were lucky to catch up with Ashley Long recently and have shared our conversation below.
Ashley, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
When someone asks me what it takes to be a Supervising Director for animation, I usually get to enjoy watching their eyes bug out more and more as the list goes much longer than expected. As one of my long time directors puts it, animation is the single medium where all other art forms come together. The role of the Supervising Director is to be at an expert level in those many different types of art; drafting designs for backgrounds and props, designing characters, acting, staging a scene clearly and knowing where to put our imaginary camera, color theory, and technical specs for broadcast. I oversee all the departments that are generating visuals for the animated show and will review and approve thousands of drawings that go into making any given episode. Save for the show runner (and perhaps Art Director, if there is one), I am the final quality check “Yes” to every piece of art that will eventually hit the screen. Toggling these art related responsibilities with the executive ones –interfacing with line producers about resources and being a liaison to the writers’ room– makes for a real chimera of hats to wear. Oh, and by the way –be funny!
One of the most important skills, however, for a successful Supervising Director is not one you’ll see in any job description, and this one happens to be my favorite part of my job: Building the crew and maintaining a supportive work environment that people would return to in the future.
That’s no small feat, as it turns out! Making cartoons requires finely tuned skillsets, intense work, and many hundreds of hours before something reaches your screen. It isn’t the playtime people in other fields might imagine it to be, no matter how the DVD extras you’ve seen make it appear. Burnout seems more and more common in the American workforce and animation folks are no exception. To be an artist working in animation is to contribute your intellectual, emotional, and physical labor, usually in service of another person or company’s property, and to probably revisit that work a number of times before it is deemed finished. It can be taxing for the mind, body, and soul. The notion of “this job must be easy and fun for you, since you like to draw!” is a glimmer that often fades with time and experience. Finding ways to authentically connect with your crew and keep re-energizing them to give their best is imperative. On paper, my role is responsible for managing the team to create the best deliverable possible for my studio. Many would say the job ends there, and shouldn’t that be enough?? The fine print that I’ve given myself is to always accomplish this while actively fostering an environment of respect, honesty, communication, and admiration for each other. That’s what I discovered this job is REALLY about, and it’s what makes every project I lead meaningful for me.
If this ethos makes me sound like a natural people person or a ray of sunshine, don’t be fooled! I would never call myself an extrovert and could absolutely be charged and found guilty of resting bitch face. I do not leap to meet strangers; I observe and evaluate first. I was a kid who had a horrible time in middle school, ridiculed by peers for whatever might be deemed “weird” on any particular day, and ended up embracing that outcast image in high school to beat them to the punch. Having that experience as young person made it hard to trust people or feel kinship in group settings well into adult life. To this day, one might classify my wardrobe as Poison Dart Frog Chic –very eye catching but approach with caution. Overcoming my long-held belief that people won’t have your back was a journey made over many years, in small strides. Loving the “people” part of my career and finding such reward in it is NOT something my younger self would ever have predicted!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Currently I’m a Supervising Director for an upcoming CBS/Paramount series and have served as a Consulting Producer on several past projects. I’ve been working in the television animation industry for just under 18 years and started as a “scanner”, back when we had to scan storyboards into the computers to be used in animatics. I’ve spent most of my career in adult comedy projects, primarily within the storyboarding craft at studios like Fox Animation, Warner Bros., Bento Box, Powerhaus/Nickelodeon, and Titmouse. I got my first opportunity as a Supervising Director in 2017 for the Netflix show “Paradise P.D.”. I had a great relationship with my show runners, having worked for them previously on their first show “Brickleberry” as an episodic Director and Retakes Director, and was really grateful for their trust in my decisions to streamline our studio process. At that time, I was the only woman Supervising adult animated content and was really proud to have a near 50% female crew and mostly female dept. supervisors in that typically male dominated pocket of animation. I’m currently an Executive Board member for the Animation Guild, which means I participate in decision making that aims to improve working conditions for animation craftspeople not just in Los Angeles, but now TAG signatory studios nationwide.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
We’re seeing a lot of labor strike news recently: hospital workers, United Auto Workers, the Writer’s Guild, the Screen Actor’s Guild. In entertainment, there may be more to come with IATSE contract negotiations fast approaching and many below-the-line stage craft workers exasperated with low wages and abusive work practices. Cartoon land is no exception. Feeling overworked and underpaid is everywhere.
So what can the entertainment industry do to support artists? Network and studio executives who deal with allocating funds can choose to place more priority on below-the-line workers. In animation, this includes directors, storyboard artists, designers, background painters, modelers, texture artists, editors, timers, prop designers, and so many more crafts that get jammed into the tiny print credits at the end of a show. Recognize that art IS labor and all that entails (work related injury medical bills? Yep-artists get more physical wear and tear on the job than you think!) Ensure that your company is paying competitive wages for a given craft. Remember that the contract minimums for Union employees is simply that: the minimum. I field a lot of confusion about this topic as a TAG representative and find that many producers innocently misinterpret that the declared rate is the set number that they are allowed to pay. Studios are absolutely allowed to pay MORE than the minimum, and the Guild will gladly sing your praises if you do! If you want your production to attract heavyweight talent, pay like you mean it. You would pay top dollar for a desired live action actor or director, so why should this be treated differently? Truly great creatives are hard to find. We aren’t interchangeable or expendable just because you can outsource. Supporting wage raises that better reflect the labor performed and the current cost of living is a battle the WGA made huge strides in, and hopefully SAG, IATSE, and TAG receive the same consideration. Valuing a finely honed craft applies everywhere.
At a more project-based level, animation studios and their producers can be asking those in leadership to better understand the processes happening below-the-line. Ultimately, this can translate into being more mindful and respectful of the workers doing that labor. Encouraging animation literacy among non-artists is one of my favorite things to offer because it undeniably improves the health of any project. I’ve often been approached by writers and producers for one on one tutorials about pre production methods; not teaching them HOW to do it, but how to better VIEW it. People reviewing creative content don’t need to master the long list of skills I mentioned for my own position, but gaining a basic understanding of the process can increase their comfort level with the material. They can learn what is temporary vs. what is final; what could cause problems vs. what you don’t need to worry about. Removing the mystery can de-stress the process significantly and be the path to mutual trust between artists and note giving parties. Every person I’ve tutored has walked away glad they got informed instead of noting in a haze of assumptions. Be curious! Find out how the sausage is made!
At the artist to artist level we have our most localized source of crew morale. Even as artists themselves, Supervising Directors and other art leads can be as guilty of poor management as anyone else if they are not listening to their crew’s struggles and making it a priority to balance the workload with the human element. No matter your title, if you’re managing other people the question shouldn’t be, “How can I make them to do better/faster work?” The question needs to be, “What can I be doing differently, so they WANT to give me their best work?” THAT’S how you get a creative ecosystem to thrive!
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
You may have noticed that none of the artwork in this feature has to do with animation or drawing. In my personal creative life, I prefer doing mixed media, three dimensional works. I do a lot of plush pieces but also really enjoy sculpting, mostly with epoxy air clay lately. Making art that is entirely different from my professional skill set is an oasis. These creatures I make can not be given “notes”. They’re done when I say they’re done, and they are exactly as they should be. I do vintage toy restoration as well, taking the damaged and the faded and making them something new and beautiful. Custom built solutions are a big part of toy restoration because every vintage piece has suffered a little differently. Using a variety of materials presents interesting challenges because every material behaves differently and you have to know how to handle them to get the desired result. Even among fabrics you’ve got different material behaviors between fleece, felt, cotton, spandex, and chiffon. Weighing the goal end product against the material behaviors for each project is a huge part of ensuring a successful match. I realized recently that this way of thinking has so much to do with how I choose my crew, design my pipeline, and support the workers along the way. No two artists are the same, even within the same discipline or if they’ve come from the same studio. What is their past? What is their expertise? How do they respond to stress? Where do they shine? How much reinforcement do they need? Is this project the right fit for the answers above? Just as I need to decide whether two materials in a costume design are compatible to yield results, so, too, must I weigh the qualities of a person and a situation to determine the likely outcome. What can I offer from my end to ensure a favorable result? If this artist has been damaged by previous negative work environments, what can I do to help restore them?
If you’ve ever used Barge Glue, a popular adhesive for foam, you’ve probably stuck two pieces of something together quickly and been disappointed when it popped apart. This stuff is supposed to be strong! So what went wrong here? If you take the time to get to know the materials, you find out that Barge works best if you give it a little dry time and an application of heat from a hairdryer BEFORE sticking the pieces together. Treating the materials the way they need to be treated gives you the desired result –a firm bond. So, let’s apply that to people. I have an artist and a situation. The stress was too much and the situation fell apart. What do I know about this person? I know they do best if given some time to vent and recover, and I know if I offer the warmth of support, resources, and genuine understanding of the problem, the next time they will succeed. The project goal is met, and we have a firm bond. Not every person is going to make for such a one to one craft supply metaphor, but you see where I’m going! Learn about and understand what your people need from YOU in order to do their best. Treat your crew like they work WITH you, not FOR you. The mutual respect and camaraderie I’ve developed with my crews this way has been the key to feeling the happiest I’ve been in my professional and personal life. Being successful in maintaining a healthy and energized crew is what keeps me going through the rough parts of the job and those thousands of drawings that need the “Yes” or “No” stamp. I want my animation legacy to be how I made people feel when they worked with me, and that I mentored the next generation in how to run a show right –by treating people right.
It’s nice to be the boss, but my reward for investing in my people is to be called “friend” first, and “boss” second. Middle school Ashley would never have guessed that my art job would lead to having an army of friends/colleagues/misfit toys who I can count on for anything, but she’s really really happy they’re here.
