This Post originally appeared on the blog ScreenCraft. ScreenCraft is dedicated to helping screenwriters and filmmakers succeed through educational events, screenwriting competitions and the annual ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship program, connecting screenwriters with agents, managers and Hollywood producers. Follow ScreenCraft on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
Kristina Reed has been a producer for more than 20 years in animation and visual effects for feature films, shorts, commercials, and theme park attractions. For the past 7 years, she has served on the Studio Leadership Team of Disney Animation Studios, the squad of executives and producers that engineered the division's complete creative, cultural, and financial reinvention.
Her short films, Paperman and Feast won Oscars in 2013 and 2015, and she co-produced the Oscar-winning Big Hero 6. Kristina is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the International Animated Film Society, and the Burning Man community. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from Brown University and lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two teenagers.
We spoke with Kristina about her journey to Disney, the Academy Award experience, animation, and the anatomy of a short film.
ScreenCraft: Where did your own storytelling roots begin?
Kristina Reed: I was a voracious reader as a kid and I played around at writing all the time, experimenting with different voices and ways of telling stories. It all felt a little self-conscious the way young girls can be but my passion really took shape mid-way through college when I had the epiphany that I wanted to major in creative writing. Since I had spent the previous two years thinking I was majoring in this hot new field called computer graphics, I suddenly had to cram a whole lot of requirements for my new degree. I became deeply immersed in learning structure, voice, and dialogue, reading and writing under pressure for multiple classes. It was actually really rewarding in that my work got significantly better, although if you look at my college transcript, it looks completely schizophrenic.
