Sasha Vinogradova's concepts and artworks are everywhere: from billboard campaigns for GAME OF THRONES and NARCOS, to opening titles for the 3rd season of TRUE DETECTIVE. The short film “SOMETHING LIKE LONELINESS”, which she produced and art-directed, recently premiered at SXSW and is hot on the festival trail.
But her origin story is even more spectacular: Born in Russia, Sasha was working as a web-designer in Moscow when a fan-art personal project of hers went viral and reached the team behind the actual Game of Thrones marketing campaign.
She was literally put on a plane and flown to LA, where she’s been working on print campaigns for the biggest films and shows at the “And Company” creative agency.
A few years later she now works for The Mill, one of the most well known post-production facilities, where she is art-directing motion ads as a senior designer and part of the "Mill Plus" team, working on the company's most creatively ambitious and experimental projects.
Her talent and craftsmanship are acknowledged and celebrated by the creative design world in various ways: her work has been featured on various trade magazines and as an Adobe Max featured artist she was invited to a series of live-streams of key-art sessions.
“You know, I noticed - you need to like make a wish in your head: 'I wanna do this, or that, or bla bla bla...' and as soon as you stop caring about it it kinda comes your way! Sometimes it's just hard to stop caring about it..."
In this episode we talked about:
- The role of an art director at The Mill.
- What exactly is "The Mill Plus". - Why she's such a fan of working at the mill LA. - Her "Cinderella"-esque origins story, and how we both got introduced to the world of CGI through illegitimate copies of 3D software in the early days. - About always learning new skills and software, and staying motivated and inspired by others.
Relevant links:
Sony Bravia commercial:
Lexus commercial:
True Detective opening titles:
Marseille date announcement trailer (which Sasha and I both worked on):
Show notes:
Opening and closing song: "14 Days" by Akın Sevgör.
Stay tuned for episode 17, where filmmaker Casey Cooper Johnson hosts Einat Tubi and David Gidali (This podcast's regular host) to talk about their experience directing FACE SWAP together. Hope to see you next time!