Niki Cruz
Whether you’re speaking with talent or artisans — like editors, visual effects, production designers, etc — everyone points out that it takes a village of people to make a movie. Barbie, one of 2023’s biggest blockbusters and now a significant player in the awards race, is a mammoth film with thousands of people coming together across departments to make it the success it is today. The visual effects department alone has 200 talented folks working on different pieces of the film.
VFX Supervisor Josephine Noh is one of those people. Noh, who’s worked on TV shows like 9-1-1, The Terminal List, and The Time Traveler’s Wife, worked with a team on Barbie to seamlessly create sequences at Mattel. One of the biggest projects Noh and the FuseFX team worked on was the technical aspects of the chase scene between Barbie and the executives, notably the cubicle set extensions and CG reflections that made Mattel the cold, dull, and inescapable office of everyone’s nightmares.
While her work was mostly technical and based on integrating CG into existing footage, there was a bit of room for creativity.
“We have to really keep in mind those parameters for us when we’re placing in our visual effects. At the same time, for example, we had to animate the door closing when Margot Robbie was being chased by Will Ferrell because the door didn’t close the way they wanted it to. So, then, we would just do our own creative interpretation of how the door would close. So those are the little opportunities we have.”
Awards Radar got to sit down to hear what went into Noh’s work with FuseFX and her relationship with all things Barbie.
Niki Cruz: How did you get into Visual / Digital FX?
Josephine Noh: I was originally first a CG Lighting Artist, and then I was doing more feature and commercial work, but then I got into compositing. Then, I really understood what visual effects were about, and I took it from there. I really appreciate learning during work.
NC: As a movie, Barbie really took on a life of its own within the cultural zeitgeist. It became this larger-than-life movie. It was a sea of pink with everyone dressing up, the fanfare, and so on. How does it feel to be a part of something like that?
JN: I knew it would do well, but not this well. It was sick, for sure. I read the script, and it was just so funny. I knew it would be a hit, but this is crazy. The response and the anticipation of it all – so much pink!
NC: It’s become a movement from brands jumping on organically in marketing it to all generations going in waves — people taking grandmothers and, mothers, and partners. What kind of feedback do you personally hear from people?
JN: There’s such a nostalgia of it as well. It draws a wider audience [because of that.] It’s been great. People are really impressed with the visual effects, and our work was more on the subtle side, so it’s seamless, and it doesn’t stand out; we did a good job.
NC: Regarding VFX, what’s the timeline for signing on to this project?
JN: We have a great business development team in the LA office, and they gave us an opportunity to bid on the script. So our New York upper management executives bid on it, and then it got awarded. So then, that’s when I was assigned to work on it as a supervisor.
NC: Greta Gerwig has such a clear vision as a director. Did you get to have discussions with her about the digital effects at the Mattel headquarters?
JN: Glen Pratt was the visual effects supervisor of the whole feature, and he was the one who would work more directly with Greta. I would work with Glen, who was amazing. So, I just heard a bit more indirectly from Greta, but I did go on set for a few days when they were shooting in LA, so I got to see Greta at work.
NC: How was that experience of being on a set like that?
JN: It was so fun. The crew were all great. It was mostly for the car chase scene with America (Ferrera). She was saving Barbie from the Mattel executives. I was mostly with the stunt drivers, so there was a stunt driver dressed like America, and she was skidding the car and all of that stuff, so that was cool to see.
NC: I was thinking about that cold corporate office — that office looks like everyone’s worst nightmare, with the hallways just going and going, where there was no escape.
JN: It was the field that Greta wanted, so we did a style frame of it, and Greta approved it. So that’s what we worked on. We created over 150 CG cubicles based on their scan of the practical cubicle on set. There were around 16 practical cubicles on set when they shot those scenes, and then we would just extend it with 150 CG cubicles, extending the walls and the ceiling. Then we faded it all to black to make it more dreary.
NC: When developing the technical aspects, did you have inspirations aside from the footage?
JN: We just did our own artistic interpretation of it. It was one of those instances where, “Oh, that worked out well.” We didn’t have to do too many rounds, but what evened that out was the glass reflections for the Mattel boardroom [it was] months and months — for something so subtle. Reflections can look very different depending on the glass or perspective. So in the end, it was a bit of a combination of creativity and technicality. We wanted to make it look believable but did some creative tweaks to make it more aesthetically pleasing.
NC: That sounds like a challenge.
JN: Yeah. Not only were there reflections for the windows themselves, but the whole board room is very shiny, so then the reflections of the windows were on the floor, the table, so we had to do secondary and tertiary reflections of the room itself, so there was the office, and we had to rebuild it all in CG. Then we would just try to match as close as we could, and then we would do it in layers. We had one layer for the windows, one for the floor, and one again for the table.
NC: Aside from the film, what was your relationship with Barbie? Everyone has a different experience and point of view.
JN: I did have a Weird Barbie. I think every girl or child growing up with Barbie had a Weird Barbie because you’re just curious and playing around with it. I won a raffle one time and got the pool house, and I just had a blast with that one, just running to the bathroom, getting the water, and pouring it in there! I remember the smells — that was intoxicating. There’s a certain perfume or scent that’s so pleasing.
NC: What did you take away from your experience working on this film?
JN: I really appreciated the opportunity to work on this. When I first heard about it, I thought, “Will it be like the CG Barbie children’s movies of the past?” Then I heard it was live-action with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling; I was like, “Oh, this is gonna be very different.” So I’m very honored to be a part of a very new take on Barbie that is such a modern-day take on the doll.
We worked a little bit on the bus stop scene featuring costume designer Ann Roth. The scene when Barbie tells her she’s beautiful — I was just really happy we got to work on that scene because again, it just means a lot.
You can now stream Barbie on Max.
[This interview was edited for length and clarity.]
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