Spotlight Series: Georgia Hope - R&D and Technology Project Manager

This week, we're shining the spotlight on R&D and Technology Project Manager, Georgia Hope.

From juggling schedules and budgets, to greenlighting innovative projects, read on to learn more about Georgia's role and how she's helping shape research and development at Aardman.

Tell us about your role at Aardman – describe a typical day:

Working across various research & development (R&D) and technology projects, no day is ever the same! My day usually involves juggling multiple schedules, budgets, getting the right team together on projects, presenting and attending lots of meetings.
 
Being a member of our R&D taskforce means I could also be reviewing and greenlighting any new project submissions for an R&D area we want to focus on as a company.

How did you get into the industry?

I took a slightly untraditional route into the industry... I almost become a lawyer at one point!
 
I didn’t go to university straight away, I instead went straight into work which I think really helped me to work across lots of industries, learn lots of cross-functional skills and realise I wanted to work in the creative sector. During Covid I decided to finally go to university to do a ‘Film and Screen Studies’ degree at UAL, while working at various animation studios and that’s where I found my passion for working as a Producer/Project Manager in the industry.

What’s your all-time favourite project that you’ve been involved with and why?

I am working across lots of different projects however, the Virtual Production (VP) at Model Scale R&D project has been the biggest form R&D initiative we have produced so far, and there is an incredible team behind this!
 
They have been creating various tools under the umbrella of VP to create multiple interfaces from the physical world into the digital world. We have been working in augmented and virtual reality environments and developing workflows for creatives to quickly mock up physical scenes at scale and view them in this virtual context to help make decisions earlier in the pipeline.
 
We have such a great team, and they are constantly going above and beyond to make sure the tools are iterated upon after each round of demo sessions.

To date, what has been your biggest professional achievement?

Working with MyWorld on the VP at Model Scale project over the past year or so doing various experiments, but the biggest one was a 3-day shoot testing their VP stage as part of the research. At the end of the shoot, we had a company and industry wide demo session of the work we had done, and it was all pulled off so smoothly. It was great to have the whole team together (with a celebratory drink!) having accomplished so much across the project.

What are your tips for maintaining a healthy work-life balance?

It’s hard to find a balance when your passion and your job are so interlinked as you care so much. However, I make sure to read a book or listen to music while taking the long way home. I’m reading a lot of Miranda July at the moment, and she takes you into a world that is so strange you can’t possibly think of anything else, so that helps!

Name three people who inspire you and why:

1. My mum is the most ambitious and inspiring person I know. She’s inspired me and my sister to go for our dreams and always push for what you want in life.
   
   
2. Agnes Varda is an incredible filmmaker who I always look up to for inspiration.
   
   
3. It’s technically six but the wonderful group of girls at Aardman who welcomed me with open arms when I first moved here from London without knowing anyone in Bristol – all of them are so strong, talented and inspiring.

Who is your favourite Aardman character and why?

It has to be Wallace - I often have the same reaction to a cheese platter as him!