Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1276583
D E PA R T M E N T 13 KEYFRAME FALL 2020 13 T H E C L I M B While working on the first season of Final Space, Raveneau was given more responsibility so when work started on season two, they offered her a role as an assistant director to the supervising director—"like a director with training wheels," she laughs. "I was working with the board artists and launching them on shots, but if I had questions, there was a point person. I feel like the jump from boarding to directing is not a native one, [going from] a solo artist to this multitasking juggler, responsible for three episodes at the same time at varying stages." The experience provided her a framework to grow and learn and by the end of the season she was able to own her ideas and opinions. She was then offered a job directing at Octopie on a new show. It wasn't smooth sailing, but she feels the experience helped her develop further in the new leadership role. "I learned a lot about how to direct under very fluid conditions—scripts changing, deadlines changing, stories changing. If this was a video game, I leveled up three levels." It wasn't until The Proud Family reached out to her that she was overwhelmed with a feeling of finding the perfect career fit. "I think this is all I've ever wanted to do," she says. As a child, she and her friends played games based on cartoons, and inevitably the characters were chosen around racial lines. She still gets emotional when she remembers being told to play the "archetypical" black girl, whose personality didn't necessarily reflect her own. Even though the original The Proud Family was featuring characters not defined by their skin tone, it wasn't a show that her friends were watching. That has changed today. "We're breaking archetypes so now I'm like, let's break everything. I just want to see everyone's lived experience," she says. When asked if her race has impacted her career, she says "on a psychological level, a hundred percent." It wasn't until working on The Proud Family that she met another female black director, Tara Nicole Whitaker. "It sounds silly as I'm saying it, but I think I weirdly believed I couldn't do it because I'd never seen it done. And then I was like, screw it, I'm just going to do it," says Raveneau. "I feel like I out-energized any racism. I told a friend, this is not a way to live by, but it's the way I think I've gotten through a lot of the harder parts of life. I blame weaponized optimism." In turn, while she's directing, she strives to create an open space where everybody feels like they can talk honestly, and she credits show creator Bruce W. Smith with establishing a welcoming and safe environment for all voices. "It comes from the top down and I want to reinforce that. I think everybody has blind sides even if you're a part of a POC community. And so I've been extremely vocal [that] if there's something in a script or something in a board or something I'm asking for that is rubbing you the wrong way—even if you don't know why—let's talk about it because that's coming from somewhere." Raveneau also strives to find ways to make the experience more inclusive, not just superficially. "That's one shining beacon from the dumpster fire that has been 2020, we're all talking about it and nothing is off the table right now." She also sees another kind of opportunity: "When the world got extremely real, after George Floyd, I felt very helpless. And I was like, what can I do? There's nothing I can do. I call my mom and she's like, 'Well, you can reach the next generation.' It is a singularly huge, superpower that animators seem to have. We can literally shape the way a whole generation of people sees reality. You can give them a world that is different from the world that they're landing in. Now, you can build a world that is better." — Alexandra Drosu