Paul Rudish
Producer and Director
What I do
I’m the Executive Producer and Director of Mickey Mouse shorts and I oversee the creative parts of making cartoons! From coming up with ideas for stories and designing characters, to plotting out the stories and overseeing the music and the sound.
How I got my job
I always enjoyed drawing and just liked making things. I loved cartoons, comic books, illustrations… My father was a trader for Hallmark cards, so that was very inspirational and very helpful to have a ‘live-in’ art teacher. He was very encouraging.
What I love about my job
Well, now that I have to be in the captain’s chair, it’s fun that I get to be involved in all of the processes of cartoon making. Over the years, I’ve held different jobs and experienced different facets of making cartoons, from being a character designer to a storyboard artist to a writer to a director. All of those things were really cool, in that I got to sit at my desk and really focus on my particular piece of the puzzle.
But now, as a supervisor, I have to look at the whole thing. So I think my favourite part is working with a lot of talented people, being involved in a creative process and seeing how I can get all of these nice puzzle pieces together.
What’s difficult about my job
Kind of the same thing! Keeping the juggle going! Trying to keep a broad view of everything that’s happening, as we have different stories at different points in production all at the same time. Television production gets kind of hectic, so I have to keep everything on track. I’m not just sitting at my desk and producing a bunch of nice drawings. I have to go round to all of the different tables and make sure everyone’s producing nice drawings.
Where should young people start if they want to do the job too?
Practise. Draw! Be observant. Use your experiences in life and the things you see around you to inform your drawings and your storytelling. It’s always going to be a truer story and come from a more honest place if there’s something of yourself, something of your own observance in it. So, practise drawing and keep your eyes open and look at the world and reinterpret what you see in the way that feels right to you.
