Chief HR Officer at Cinesite Sashka Jankvska and Director of IT for Europe Christian Perschky spoke recently to Chris McGowan at VFX Voice about the importance of offering hybrid working, and the set up required to facilitate it. Read the article excerpt below:

“Cinesite has fully embraced a flexible way of working, adapting to the new realities for workers around the world. “Our goal is simple: work with the best talent to make the best VFX and animation. The hybrid model of at-home and studio work is here to stay,” comments Sashka Jankovska, Chief HR Officer at Cinesite. “No matter which option our employees choose, they’ll always be connected to the team through all-hands meetings, seasonal events and other activities.” Chris Perschky, Director of IT Europe for Cinesite, adds, “Cinesite’s remote collaboration model is a sophisticated blend of on-premise and private cloud infrastructure, secure remote access and cloud-based tools. While we maintain physical studios for in-person work, our pipeline is designed to enable artists to work from anywhere in the world.”

Jankovska continues, “One of the benefits of a remote model is access to a global talent pool. Cinesite is no longer limited by geography; we can hire the best artists and specialists from any country where and when possible, leading to more diverse and innovative teams. This also gives artists the flexibility to work from their preferred environment, eliminating the daily commute and often leading to a better work-life balance. Furthermore, remote setups can facilitate a global 24/7 workflow, with teams in different time zones in our Montreal and Vancouver facilities as well as at our partner studios, seamlessly handing off projects to maintain a continuous production cycle.”

Going remote requires greater security. Perschky comments, “In order to offer successful remote working, we have to meet stringent client requirements to safeguard sensitive assets, and a remote workforce complicates this, demanding robust security protocols like VPNs and multi-factor authentication.” Perschky adds, “We currently work closely with both AWS and GCP to ensure we have the very best tools available to help us deliver our projects.” Cinesite’s remote working approach is based on artists using tools like HP Anyware to access powerful workstations located in the data center. The studio uses specialized tools like CineSync, SyncSketch and Academy Software Foundation tools such as OpenRV or xSTUDIO for remote dailies and review sessions. Cinesite utilizes Ftrack to coordinate hundreds of artists across multiple studios and locations. And, for day-to-day communication and project planning, Cinesite relies on Google Workspace [including Gmail, Calendar, Chat and Meet]. This suite of applications provides the basic foundation for communication, meeting planning and file sharing for a globally distributed team.” Perschky adds, “Our remote collaboration is a comprehensive system that involves secure remote access to powerful hardware, specialized software for real-time creative feedback, a robust production management system to keep track of a complex pipeline and effective communication tools to keep everyone aligned.”

You can read the full article in VFX Voice here.