A little Disney magic kick starts graduate’s career

Posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2016

For one recent TV Broadcasting graduate, dreams do come true.

After graduating in 2014, Rachel Erdos moved to Vancouver looking for her first industry job. That very same winter, Rachel interviewed for a position with Moving Picture Company — while she didn’t get the position she originally applied to, Rachel found another job with the same company the very next week, and she started with MPC in March of 2015.

Rachel’s first position was as a runner, “which is kind of like being an assistant to everybody”, and it was during a side project she got her opportunity to shine and make a name for herself. “I was working on showreels with the marketing team. They mentioned my name to the head of editorial,” said Rachel.

It was not long after that Rachel made Junior Editor, and she was assigned to work on a monster truck movie that is expected to be released next year. Her contract as an Editor has since been extended.

MPC primarily works on movie visual effects (VFX) — while it was not exactly what she had trained for in school, Rachel says the fundamentals are the same as the live studio atmosphere she experienced at Algonquin College. Rachel quickly got up to speed on MPC’s way of doing things, and began leading their review sessions.

After spending a few months working with monster trucks, Rachel was lucky enough to get moved over to another big project MPC was working on last year. Ever since she was quite young, Rachel dreamed of working on a Disney film — and as it turns out her company was working on a Disney film, The Finest Hours, which premiered recently. They called Rachel in to help with the last three months of work. “The end of the project is always the busiest period so, although I only worked on the movie for 3 months, I got a lot of experience in a short amount of time.”

Still, Rachel says she wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. After all, MPC was working on the ‘star of the show’ for The Finest Hours — the Storm Effects. The movie is based on the true story of the 1952 United States Coast Guard rescue of the 32 member crew of the SS Pendleton in the midst of a terrible storm. As far as the movie version is concerned, “Anything with water, rain and snow, we had a hand in,” said Rachel.

Though it was a lot of work, Rachel says seeing the posters, the trailers, and the excitement everyone had for the movie made it all worthwhile. Though she knows most of the viewers (friends and family aside) will not be aware of how much work went into making that storm as fearsome and breathtaking as it was, Rachel says the theatrical release really brings gravity to the work they were doing in the studio. The company organized a private screening for everyone who had worked on the film – some 300 people – and the Senior Vice President of Visual Effects from Disney came down to Vancouver to thank the team for their efforts.

As if seeing her hard work on the big screen wasn’t enough to celebrate, Rachel is celebrating another career milestone – she was recently selected as Moving Picture Company’s “Employee of the Month”, recognizing the incredibly positive attitude she brings to the demanding and complex production of visual effects.

“I never expected this to happen so quickly,” said Rachel, of her recent success. “To those who think it won’t happen or it can’t – it definitely can. Dreams DO come true – the Disney motto works!”

Congratulations Rachel! We’ll be watching for your name during the credits for The Finest Hours!

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