Making a mark on the animation industry: An Edmonton filmmaker's journey

A filmmaker from Edmonton, has made a significant impact in the animation industry, inspired by animated films that helped her during her childhood. Filmmaker Ejun Hong joined CTV Morning Live’s Kent Morrison on her journey that began here in our city.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Kent Morrison: A filmmaker from our city is making her mark on the animation industry, taking a passion that began here all the way to a prestigious American school, and this summer, an internship at Sony.

So far, we're going to get into everything that you've accomplished, but can you talk to us a little bit about your own origin story? 

How did you get into animation as such a young kid here in Edmonton?

Ejun Hong: Yeah, of course. So when I was a kid, about 10 years old, I suffered from an eye disorder, and I remember watching a lot of animated films with my parents and my friends, and they really taught me a lot in terms of gaining knowledge, gaining new values, and also just learning how to love myself.

And that was the moment I realized how powerful animated films could be, and I decided that I love to make animations that could inspire others and help others, just like it did for me. 

So ever since then, I've been creating animated films, sharing personal stories and also tackling societal issues.

Kent: Yes, and we're going to get to some of your films in just a moment.

But first, how did you go from watching them to making them?

What were the tools? Where did you go to learn all of this?

Ejun: I can talk about my first animated film. It was when I went to Slovakia for high school, and I started just watching YouTube tutorials.

I was self taught. In the beginning, I just watched a lot of music tutorials about Adobe Animate CC, which is an animation software.

Then I started experimenting with a few techniques, and then I dived into making animated films.

Then when I came to Penn (University of Pennsylvania), I took a few animated classes with my professor, and that helped me a lot in terms of developing my skills as an animator.

Kent: Absolutely you have because, when you were still a teenager, you created your film Mother, which ended up winning several awards. Can you tell us about that story?

Ejun: Yes, of course. Mother is a film about my grandfather's life.

So he lost his mother when he was only three years old, but he built a beautiful family, and back then, he was suffering from Alzheimer's, so I just wanted to give him a gift from a granddaughter, and also to commemorate his life and his beautiful journey in this world.

So that is kind of like a gift for my grandpa.

Then I made this 2D computer animated film and this background is actually from my animated film Mother.

This was one of my first animated films that taught me how powerful our personal stories are, and how the most personal story could often be the most universal ones.

Kent: Yeah, it's fantastic. It looks fantastic as well. So you have this success, and then you spend the summer interning with Sony. What was your role there?

Ejun: I was a social and digital design intern for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. I was more into the game shows, but I created design animation and video assets.

It's been really amazing. It was a great summer, and I met with a lot of Sony Pictures Animation professionals too.

I met with a lot of Spider-verse directors and visual development artists and story artists, which was amazing.

Kent: Very cool. Now what's next? What's in the future?

Ejun: I am currently working on an animated film about lymphoma blood cancer patients in Korea to tell their stories and their struggles as a cancer patient.

At the moment, I'm considering applying for grad schools for animation, documentary filmmaking, but in the way future, I would love to become an animation director who continues to make animations.

Kent: Ejun, congratulations on your success so far. It has been a pleasure talking to you, inspiring other people here in Edmonton to follow a similar path. You can watch her work on Vimeo by going to vimeo.com/ejunhong.