Here’s a job where you get paid to watch the clock

Brenda Piluso

Timing director

Current job: The Disney Channel’s animated preschool series “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse”

Previous credits: Fox’s “The Simpsons” and Disney Channel’s “Recess,” “Lilo & Stitch,” “The Replacements”

Job description: “I have to account for every frame of film in the show. There are 24 frames for every second of film, so for a half-hour [show] that’s 31,680 frames we have to be accounting for.

“Animation is basically drawings, and I have to figure out the number of drawings it will take for an action to happen. I have to translate that into frames of film. We look at storyboards -- it’s basically the visual script.

“We kind of know how many frames it takes to take a step or put a hand up or run across the room. We have animation that has already been figured out -- how many frames a task will be from past experience -- and sometimes we establish that at the beginning of the show. Like there are eight frames for running and 10 frames for walking.

“We also figure the acting. The acting basically comes out of the voice actors’ recordings. We listen to their track. The dialogue will be laid out over whatever scene it is supposed to be under and whatever is the emotion of the line.

“We have to account for camera moves. We have to move the camera and follow it. We have to time those out.

“There are actually two steps to the process. We create an overall rough timing for the whole show. And then whatever notes we have taken we give to an editor and he takes the storyboard panels and our timing notes and he makes what is known as a Leica reel.

“Once he creates it, he can put it up on the computer screen in QuickTime movie. At that point, the producers and directors look at it and see whether they like its playing out and if they like the timing.

“Once they have given us their OK, we go into the second stage of the timing direction, and that is where we are going to write out everything that is going to happen -- like Mickey is going to take two steps across the room, so that’s eight frames.

“The other thing is if there is talking, we have to synchronize the mouths so that the characters look like they are saying what the voice actors are saying in the track.”

All in the timing: “It usually takes a week for us to figure the timing and a Leica reel to be established. And then it takes two weeks to write out all the information. A lot of times we divide it up among other timing directors, so I might get half a show for two weeks to write the whole thing. It is very detailed.”

Blue Print: “TV animation is mostly done overseas. For ‘Mickey Mouse Clubhouse,’ it is in India.

“The animators look at [the detailed timing report] and use it as a guide to do the animation. Sometimes they have to change the animation. We don’t have the layouts or the background here, so it is kind of an estimate or an abstract estimate and a lot of times they’ll find they need more time or less time.”

Problem solving: “It is an art process that has a time schedule. So sometimes we get [the storyboards] late and sometimes we get them when it’s in the process of being changed and we have learned how to adapt to that. I do what I can.”

Background: “I went to UCLA in fine arts. I met my husband, Mario Piluso, there, and after we graduated, we created our own animation production company. We did commercials and medical films and industrial films. He actually worked inside the studio system and did this on the side. He is now an animation director.

“We worked out of our home, and I was able to have a family. Eventually, I took a job on ‘The Simpsons.’ Then I had a wonderful opportunity to go to Disney and work on ‘Recess.’ And I basically have worked on and off for Disney on various projects throughout the years.”

Boys’ club no more: “I know a lot of women timing directors. Over the years, there have been more and more. I think the various schools like CalArts and UCLA have departments that have prepared people for this type of job. You see a lot more women. It has much improved.”

Resides: Chatsworth

Age: 57

Union or guild: The Animation Guild

-- SUSAN KING