Cinematic Project Director - Temp (SFD / Cinematics) (Finance)

Team Name:
Cinematics

Job Title:
Cinematic Project Director - Temp (SFD / Cinematics)

Requisition ID:
R025693

Job Description:

The Cinematic Project Director collaborates with game teams on a number of IP's to define the vision, story, and purpose of a cinematic, then leads artistic teams to execute that vision within budget and schedule constraints. This role manages expectations from game teams and leadership while delivering creative, industry-leading, epic game cinematics. Below is an outline of responsibilities across a project's lifecycle.

This role is anticipated to be a hybrid work position, with some work on-site and some work-from-home. The home studio for this role is Irvine, CA.

This is a 5-month temporary position.

What You Bring to the Table

Priorities can often change in a fast-paced environment like ours, so this role includes, but is not limited to, the following responsibilities:

• Partner with game teams to understand their goals, expanding creatively to elevate the project
• Reconcile multiple creative goals between Story & Franchise Development (SFD), game teams, or leadership, finding compromises that serve the project's needs and escalating concerns to SFD Leadership when necessary
• Develop and pitch concepts with writers, story artists, CDev producers, and project producers, iterating based on feedback from SFD Leadership and game teams
• Balance production constraints (budget, schedule, bandwidth) while guiding the team toward feasible solutions
• Blend game team objectives with a personal creative touch, adapting pitches as directed by SFD Leadership or game teams
• Build game team confidence for animatic approval using tools like visual references, beat boards, or pitch documents
• Optionally form an animatic "Strike Team," working with producers to assign roles and meet deadlines
• Understand the production's scope and constraints
• Present progress to SFD Leadership and game teams regularly, ensuring creative alignment before advancing
• Help select outsourcing partners and serve as their primary creative contact
• Provide clear direction in dailies, maintaining production awareness
• Approve all assets and shots before review by SFD Leadership or game teams
• Collaborate with composers and sound designers to replace temp sound with original elements, preserving the piece's emotional and storytelling intent
• Remain flexible to new music and sound ideas that enhance the work
• Guide casting for voice-over with SFD Leadership, game teams, and the Voice Over Director
• Direct voice recording sessions with the Voice Over Director, then present final voice-over, music WIPs, and mixes to SFD Leadership and game teams, incorporating feedback

Minimum Requirements

Experience

• A minimum of 13+ years of professional experience as a director, creative director, associate creative director or creative manager at a game company, advertising agency, or branded content production company
• Experience managing a range of creative positions in a content creation pipeline, such as writers, directors, camera operators, lighting/gaffers, editors, producers, motion graphics artists, production designers, art directors and copywriters

Knowledge & Skills

• Masterful proficiency with computers and creative desktop publishing tools such as Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office

Key Attributes

• Impressive portfolio featuring a wealth of high-quality, high-impact strategically informed video content for a variety of well-known brands and disparate demographic audiences

Extra Points

• Gaming industry experience
• Editorial and/or directorial experience
• A passion for Blizzard games and franchises
• A passion for video games, animation, movies, graphic novels, comics, or books.
• Professional experience as a filmmaker, designer, illustrator, animator, or motion graphics artist
• Knowledge of the business side of the content-creation industry

Your Platform

Best known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, and StarCraft®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. ( www.blizzard.com ), a division of Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment experiences. Blizzard Entertainment has created some of the industry's most critically acclaimed and genre-defining games over the last 30 years, with a track record that includes multiple Game of the Year awards. Blizzard Entertainment engages tens of millions of players around the world with titles available on PC via Battle.net®, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.

Our World

Activision Blizzard, Inc., is one of the world's largest and most successful interactive entertainment companies and is at the intersection of media, technology and entertainment. We are home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty ®, World of Warcraft® , Overwatch ®, Diablo ®, Candy Crush ™ and Bubble Witch ™. Our combined entertainment network delights hundreds of millions of monthly active users in 196 countries, making us the largest gaming network on the planet!

Our ability to build immersive and innovate worlds is only enhanced by diverse teams working in an inclusive environment. We aspire to have a culture where everyone can thrive in order to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment. We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for 'Every World' - we've got our employees covered!

The videogame industry and therefore our business is fast-paced and will continue to evolve. As such, the duties and responsibilities of this role may be changed as directed by the Company at any time to promote and support our business and relationships with industry partners.

We love hearing from anyone who is enthusiastic about changing the games industry. Not sure you meet all qualifications? Let us decide! Research shows that women and members of other under-represented groups tend to not apply to jobs when they think they may not meet every qualification, when, in fact, they often do! We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and strongly encourage you to apply.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable assistance to individuals with physical and mental disabilities. If you are a disabled individual requiring an accommodation to apply for an open position, please email your request to accommodationrequests@activisionblizzard.com. General employment questions cannot be accepted or processed here. Thank you for your interest.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, among other characteristics.

Rewards

We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for 'Every World' - we've got our employees covered! Subject to eligibility requirements, the Company offers comprehensive benefits including:

• Medical, dental, vision, health savings account or health reimbursement account, healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance;
• 401(k) with Company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching;
• Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave;
• Mental health & wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games, and a variety of other voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, rental insurance, and others;
• If the Company requires that you move geographic locations for the job, then you may also be eligible for relocation assistance.

Eligibility to participate in these benefits may vary for part time and temporary full-time employees and interns with the Company. You can learn more by visiting https://www.benefitsforeveryworld.com/ .

In the U.S., the standard base pay range for this role is $134,320.00 - $248,404.00 Annual. These values reflect the expected base pay range of new hires across all U.S. locations. Ultimately, your specific range and offer will be based on several factors, including relevant experience, performance, and work location. Your Talent Professional can share this role's range details for your local geography during the hiring process. In addition to a competitive base pay, employees in this role may be eligible for incentive compensation. Incentive compensation is not guaranteed. While we strive to provide competitive offers to successful candidates, new hire compensation is negotiable.