In a League of Her Own: Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Storyboard Artist and Animated Film Director

 By Kafaya Shitta-bey

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

Jennifer Yuh-Nelson, is a storyboard artist and award wining film director. She is known for directing the highest-grossing animated film of 2011 and the sixth overall highest-grossing film of that year, DreamWorks: Kung Fu Panda 2. Until Disney’s Frozen of 2013, which was directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck, Nelson was the highest-grossing female director of all time for a Hollywood studio film. Kung Fu Panda 2 had grossed over 650 million worldwide.

Kung Fu Panda 2

A graduate of California State University with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Illustration, Nelson states that prior to her professional career she used drawing as a way to express the thoughts and ideas and that she had always loved movies but did not think that she could have a career in films because she did not know how to work cameras. “I have been drawing since age three and making movies in my head for almost that long”, she said. “When I was in college...a veteran storyboard artist…showed us how he drew movies for a living. My mind exploded and that led to a career in animation.”

What makes Nelson stand out in the animation world is that she is the first and only woman to solely direct a Hollywood animated film. Other women such as Jennifer Lee, for Frozen and Debra Chapman, for DreamWorks: Prince of Egypt, have co-directed their films with men.

In 2011, Nelson received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film for Kung Fu Panda 2 and in 2012 she won the Feature Director award at the Annie’s. Prior to Kung Fu Panda 2, Nelson was the head of story for Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas and for Kung Fu Panda in which she won an Annie for in 2008 for Best Storyboarding in Animated Film. Nelson was the story artist for Madagascar and Sprit: Stallion of the Cimarron and she was also the story artist and character designer for HBO’s Spawn.

Nelson at the Annie Awards in 2012

A self proclaimed anime and video game geek, Nelson states that her creativity as an artist comes from the genres of martial arts films, science fiction and live action movies. She credits the sharp and stylized flow of Kung Fu Panda to her love of anime. As the head of story on Kung Fu Panda for four and a half years, Nelson accepted the role as director for the sequel because she fell in love with the characters. As director, she wanted to keep the characters familiar while changing the story so that it would not repeat itself to viewers. “We are very protective of the characters”, said Nelson. “There’s a very stylized world that we’ve created but you have to expand it in large amounts so that even though you are familiar with the elements [of the film], you feel like you’ve gone to a different place.” 

Visually, Nelson was able to be more hands on with Kung Fu Panda 2. She says that creating a set that had more detail than the first film made room for bigger stunts in the sequel. “That widened the scale of the world for us and also freed us up to do things choreographically that we could not do in the first film”, said Nelson. “We saw a chance to increase the scale of this movie emotionally and to push the technology so that we could tell a bigger story.”Although Nelson is the director for Kung Fu Panda 3, set to release in 2015, she is not quick to call herself a director. “I still always consider myself an artist first because that’s what I like to do, even while I’m directing, I’m drawing a lot to get ideas across.”

Interview of Jennifer Yuh Nelson speaking in depth about her career 

and Kung Fu Panda

Working in a male dominated field, Nelson does not feel that her gender has hindered her career in anyway. She does not believe that she is at a disadvantage because she is a woman. “No one noticed, or pointed out or seemed to care if the director was male or female, and I think that’s the way it should be. You’re a director; you’re not a woman or a man director. You’re just a director, making a film that you want to make without gender being involved at all”, she said. However, Nelson has acknowledged that there are not many female animators or female directors in animation and she is aware that she may be influential to young girls who want to pursue a career in that field. “When I speak at schools, I’ve had female students say to me afterward, ‘I never envisioned myself being a director, since I’ve never seen women do it.’ But after seeing me, they can picture themselves directing, so maybe we’ll see more female directors. Half of these kids in art and animation schools are girls”, said Nelson.

                        

                               Jennifer Yuh Nelson 2011 KoreAm Unforgettable Achievement Award

Works Cited:

A History of Women in Animation Part Two: Working Mothers of a Medium

retrieved from:http://www.themarysue.com/history-of-women-in-animation-part-two/

DP/30: Director of Kung Fu Panda 2, Jennifer Yuh Nelson

retrieved from:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4vuA4nwID0

Feature Interview: Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Director of Kung Fu Panda 2

retrieved from:http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/new/new-nonfiction/feature-interview-jennifer-yuh-nelson-director-of-kung-fu-panda-2/

Fewer Female Directors Worked on Top Films in 2011
retrieved from:http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/women-directors-film-study-

Kung Fu Panda's Jennifer Yuh Nelson:2011 KoreAm Unforgettable Achievement Award

retrieved from:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELxl-VxB5k4

THR's Women in Entertainment 2011: Power 100
retrieved from:http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/jennifer-yuh-nelson-268636

Women Worth Watching and the Organizations that EmployThem 

retrieved from:http://www.womenworthwatching.com/jennifer-yuh-nelson/