by SUSAN LINDT
Cristiane Maia ’13 was only 9 when her family relocated from Brazil to Long Island.
“All I knew about the U.S. was Disney,” she says.
So she’s more surprised than anyone to work at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the international visual effects company founded by George Lucas. In recent years she’s worked on Ready Player One, Deepwater Horizon and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Based in San Francisco, Maia uses expertise gained through her film/media studies and computer science majors to digitally prepare ILM materials before they’re sent to vendors for augmentation.
She and colleagues created Women in Visual Effects, a portrait and video series featuring top women in a field where 83 percent of the workers are men.
“Our focus is to educate and inspire those who are unaware of our industry,” she says.
Maia’s advice is to be persistent.
“The first time I interviewed at ILM, I was rejected,” Maia says. “But the next job I saw, I thought if I wanted it, I had to keep trying. If you know you’re meant to do it, you just have to keep trying.”
by SUSAN LINDT
Cristiane Maia ’13 was only 9 when her family relocated from Brazil to Long Island.
“All I knew about the U.S. was Disney,” she says.
So she’s more surprised than anyone to work at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the international visual effects company founded by George Lucas. In recent years she’s worked on Ready Player One, Deepwater Horizon and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Based in San Francisco, Maia uses expertise gained through her film/media studies and computer science majors to digitally prepare ILM materials before they’re sent to vendors for augmentation.
She and colleagues created Women in Visual Effects, a portrait and video series featuring top women in a field where 83 percent of the workers are men.
“Our focus is to educate and inspire those who are unaware of our industry,” she says.
Maia’s advice is to be persistent.
“The first time I interviewed at ILM, I was rejected,” Maia says. “But the next job I saw, I thought if I wanted it, I had to keep trying. If you know you’re meant to do it, you just have to keep trying.”