Céline Durieux, studio manager at Fost

A 2014 graduate of the Licence Gestion de la Production Audiovisuelle , Céline Durieux began her career as a production assistant on advertising projects before becoming production manager for the Folivari studio. Today, as studio manager at Fost, she oversees all recruitment for the animation teams at the studio's Paris branch.

I started my career at Method Animation as aproduction assistant on a 3D animation series.

I was then hired by Cube Creative as a production manager on a short film for an amusement park. It was my first independent project, and I learned all about project management, recruitment, supervising an animation team, crisis management and so on.

Following this experience I continued to work on advertising projects for two years in different companies. In 2017, I applied to Folivari as a production manager. At the time it was still a very young studio, they hadn't broadcast anything yet.

"Pachamama"de Juan Antin 

I was hired to work on " Pachamama", an animated feature on which I quickly progressed to a production management position, which marked the start of the second part of my career. It was there that I discovered the world of delegated production as taught at GOBELINS. It wasfascinating to work alongside producers and directors like Didier Brunner, Benjamin Renner, Patrick Imbert, Julien Cheng...

I was then production manager on a feature film at Blue Spirit before returning to Folivari after my pregnancy to work on season 2 of "Ernest et Célestine " and season 3 of "Samsam", still as production manager.

In January 2022, I began a third chapter in my career as Studio Manager for Fost. I'm specifically in charge of the Paris studio, and our second studio in Angoulême is managed by another studio manager, Sabine Hitier.

"Ernest et Célestine", The Collection Season 2, Aurélie Raphaël

Studios often adapt these positions to suit the profile. In my case, it was a tailor-made job creation.

The studio was growing and the directors (Damien Brunner and Thibaut Ruby, who also graduated from the LGPA program in 2004) wanted to take our collaboration further. I was also keen to represent the studio, whose values I hold dear. We came up with this position together to see how my skills could meet the company's needs.

Most of my work involveslaunching projects. I take care of recruitment and make sure the team has everything it needs. I then leave the project in the hands of the production manager. I may intervene from time to time if there are problems with the teams. I also monitor employees and their experience with us.

"Le Voyage du prince" by Jean-François Laguionie

I'm also involved in internal and external communications, in conjunction with our marketing and communications manager. I organize in-house events that can be festive, such as end-of-production parties, or instructive, such as conferences linked to our CSR policy. This year, for example, I worked hard on the inclusion of disabled people in the studio.

As far as external communication is concerned, I represent the studio at external events such as school juries, the Annecy Festival, RECA events, etc.

I also act as liaison between my teams and the IT teams, and play a key role in the company's IT-related strategic choices.

I also monitor the TD team and the development of in-house tools.

"Pachamama by Juan Antin

Anything to do with human interaction. The link with artists interests me a lot. They're passionate and, in fact, fascinating. They're very sensitive. They often lack self-confidence too, even though they do incredible things.

As a very Cartesian, very rigorous person myself, the artists' personalities are very complementary to mine. I even married a 3D artist!

"Prends garde à toi" by Sébastien Laudenbach (in production)

We've been working for over a year now on theadaptation of the video game "Splinter Cell" into a 2D animated series for Ubisoft and Netflix.

This is our biggest experience at Fost. 85 people were recruited in Paris and 50 in Angoulême. It was the first time I'd worked on a recruitment project of this scale. We received a huge number of applications.

Fost and Folivari are run by the same people and work closely together, so I may also be recruiting for their projects.

For example, I'm currently working on pre-production for Sébastien Laudenbach 's " Prends garde à toi ", Folivari's next film.

Splinter Cell, series co-directed by Guillaume Dousse and Félicien Colmet-Daage

Yes, they're everywhere! A lot of people in animation production come from LGPA. My boss is an alumnus (Thibaut Ruby, class of 2004), as is Judith Enault, Splinter Cell's production director.

The series is co-directed by Guillaume Dousse, another GOBELINS graduate (Concepteur et Réalisateur de Films d'Animation, class of 2013) and Félicien Colmet Dâage.

I also took on three work-study students from the bachelor's program, whom we subsequently hired.

What's more, we're a 2D animation studio, so many of our artists come from GOBELINS courses.

"Samsam", series by Tanguy de Kermel

The trip to Berlin for the Berlinale. It's the moment LGPAs look forward to every year. There' s a before and an after to Berlin. This event is a real bond-builder.

It was in Berlin that I formed my group of girlfriends, who 7 years later became my bridesmaids. It's a very powerful event from the point of view of class cohesion, which generates lots of great memories and future projects.

To be a good production assistant, you need to be technically and artistically inclined , and at least familiar with the tools the teams work with. Sometimes, production assistants are given small tasks to perform in the software, such as exporting. This type of skill is often lacking on CVs.

You also need to be able to speak English well. Since covid, a large part of the sector works with platforms like Netflix, and everything is done in English. Being able to follow a video with English speakers is therefore essential.

Interview by Sophie Jean