Kenny Ortega is a multi-award winning director, choreographer, and producer known for works like High School Musical, Hocus Pocus, and Descendants. He began his career in acting and choreography before transitioning to directing. Ortega has a long relationship with Disney, directing films and TV specials for them since 1988. His work ethic and creativity across many aspects of filmmaking inspires the author to also work in the media industry.

1. My Inspirations
Georgia Dodsworth

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One person who works in the media that inspires me is Kenny Ortega. Kenny is a director, touring manager, choreographer, producer, actor and American
filmmaker. He is most well-known for films and shows such as Hocus Pocus, High School Musical, Dirty Dancing, Descendants and Julie and the Phantoms.
He has also directed concert tours for Cher, Miley Cyrus and Michael Jackson, for his work he was honoured with both a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame and a Disney Legend Award in 2019. The director also won a Grammy 2021 He grew up and was born in Palo Alto California his parents and his sister
where he was a cheerleader and in a drama club at school. He began his career by acting in ‘Oliver’ and ‘Hair’ before he started to experiment and venture
into choreography and directing, he also turned down a leading role in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ but turned it down to pursue his career in choreography for
a band ‘The Tubes’. In 2015 he directed another Disney channel movie called ‘Descendants’ which then had another 2 films follow that and as of recently
he announced that Descendants 4 will be soon in production.
In the media industry Kenny Ortega is a multi-award-winning director, choreographer and producer and he is well known for ‘High school musical’ which in
turn earned him a Primetime Emmy and Directors Guild of America Award. He spent 10 years focusing on a series for television which allowed him to
easily transition between dramas, dramedies and sitcoms. In the years of 1992-1993 he had directed two movies for Disney called ‘Newsies’ and ‘Hocus
Pocus’ which he wasn’t fully satisfied with. However, Hocus Pocus made 45.5 million dollars and has recently in 2022 came out with a sequel which Kenny
Ortega was not involved with. When filming Descendants he formed a close bond with Cameron Boyce who sadly passed away July 2019, from this he
formed a close bond with his parents and helped them raise millions of dollars for ‘The Cameron Boyce Foundation’ which honours the legacy of Cameron
Boyce by aiming to find a cure for Epilepsy through funding research, education and awareness campaigns while supporting other charities and causes
that were important to him.
Kenny Ortega has strong relationships with Disney as he has been working with them since 1988 and is still creating content for them now. His first every
creation for Disney was two TV specials called ‘Disney’s Totally Minnie’ and ‘Mickeys 60th Birthday’.
From a young age Kenny was brought up around dancing as his parents were always dancing around the house which created so much joy around the
house. He started his choreographing career by creating music videos for Olivia Newton-John who is well known for playing Sandy in Grease. In 1980 he
choreographed his first ever movie sequence for a movie called Xanadu which legendary director/dancer Gene Kelly directed. When first meeting Kenny
had little knowledge of how to choreograph a sequence for a movie, this is when Gene Kelly taught Kenny many different technical and creative skills
which Kenny has said in an interview at the D23 that he ‘is forever indebted to him’. After his choreography career he adventured into directing to add to
his resume, he started with directing music videos for stars such as Cher, Olivia Newton John and Madonna. He then moved onto TV where he directed
three episodes of Disney’s Touchstone Television-produced ‘Hull High in 1990. In 1992 he made his motion picture debut by directing the film ‘Newsies’.
Although Newsies had a $15 million budget it only made $2 million which made less than a fifth of that at box office. After Newsies he directed Hocus
Pocus in 1993 which was a huge box office success which made $45.5 million which I said previously. He then had another massive success with the High
School Musical trilogy which made $279 million this does not include a side series called Sharpays Fabulous Adventure. He has also had additional credits
in other films/series such as The Cheetah Girls 2 and The Making Of Frozen in 2014. He has been credited for his camera work, Andrew Laszlo once said in
an interview “even the camera moves were choreographed; it was wonderful to work with a director who could do this”. This shows everyone that he
choreographs everything in the movies that he’s making to allow it all to be perfect.
One reason why I want to go into the same employment area as Kenny Ortega is that allows me to be more creative within my job. He has also tried many
difference sectors within the industry from acting, directing, choreographer and producer so he has a better understanding across the industry.
Kenny
Ortega

3. Kenny Ortegas Work
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Another person who works in the industry that inspires me is Jon Watts. Jon is a director, producer and screenwriter who started his
career in 2000. His directing credits include the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his films include Spiderman: Homecoming, Spiderman: Far
from Home and Spiderman: No Way Home. He was originally signed to direct the upcoming Fantastic- Four Marvel Studios movie, he
later exited the project in April 2022. He has also created music videos and has collaborated with electronic music artists such as
Swedish House Mafias and Fatboy Slim. Watts began his directing career by directing commercials for production company Park
Pictures. Park pictures have been involved/ shot commercials and videos such as Kendrick Lamar- We Cry Together, Beats By Dre- King
Of The Court and Brothers for Toyota. After working with Park Pictures, he began his film career with a short film animation called ‘Clay
Pride’ Over the next decade Jon continues to make short films and continues to work on music videos for various artists. In 2014 he
directed a horror film called ‘Clown’ which made 2.3 million USD in box office. His next big film was when he directed the next
Spiderman films: Spiderman: Homecoming, Spiderman: Far From Home and Spiderman: No Way Home. Watts was determined to get
the directing job for Spiderman that he sent Marvel a fake trailer that he had made, he didn’t find out about his role till the last minute.
In 2019 when he directed the sequel he became devoted to the film franchise and started collecting his own collection of rare spiders.
He was then asked to direct the third and final film of this specific trilogy, Spiderman: No Way Home was released in December 2021
and in the first 24 hours of it release it gained 355.5 million views which beat the record of the Avengers Endgame trailer which
accumulated over 289 million views in 2018. As said previously Jon is a director, screenwriter and producer, when he first came into
the business after graduating from New York University he worked with Park Pictures where he then created music videos and short
films. When creating the newest Spiderman trilogy Watts worked with Sony Pictures which was widely praised by all critics and viewers
which then got him called to direct the sequel. Jon Watts creative abilities gained him a scholarship into New York University where he
excelled in his creative talents. One reason why I want to go into the same employment area as Jon Watts is that he has created a
variety of products from adverts, films and music videos which would allow me to see how different products in the media industry are
created.
Jon
Watts

5. Jon Watts Work
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6. 6
Tim
Burton
Another person in the media industry who inspires me is Tim Burton, Tim is a well known American film director, producer, screenwriter and
animator. He is well known for this gothic horror and fantasy such as Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Beetlejuice and most recently
the Netflix series: Wednesday. Tim has repeatedly worked with actors such as Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Helena Bonham Carter- who was
his former wife and composer Danny Elfman, who has composed material for all but 3 of Tim Burtons movies which were Ed Wood, Sweeny
Todd: The Demo barber of Fleet Street and Miss Pergegrines Home for Peculiar Children. Alongside making films Tim Burton has also wrote
and illustrated a poetry book called ‘The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories’ which was publish by the British Publishing house
in 1997. Another book was then released called the ‘Art of Tim Burton in 2009 which showcased all of his sketches, drawings and other art
work that he had created over the years. A book to follow up the novel of ‘the Art of Tim Burton was then released in 2015 called ‘The Napkin
Art of Tim Burton’ which he had made in several different restaurants and bars on napkins. He has been nominated for 2 Academy Awards, 3
BAFTA awards and has successfully won an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award. As said previously Tim Burton is a film director, producer,
screenwriter and animator, in the early stages of his career a animation that Tim had made called the ‘Stalk of the Celery Monster’ had
grabbed the attention of Walt Disney Productions, he was then offered an apprenticeship in their animation department. At Walt Disney he
worked as a graphic designer, art director, storyboard artist and a concept artist, his work was shown on such films as Fox and the Hound and
The Black Cauldron. In 1982 he would then go on and create his first short film which consisted of a six minute black and white film called
‘Vincent’. The short film was shown at Chicago Film Festival and in a cinema in Los Angeles. His next piece of work to be recognised was a live
action adaptation of Hansel and Gretel which was aired on Halloween in 1983, it was then played in the Museum of Modern Art in 2009 and
in 2011 as part of the Tim Burton art exhibit. In 1998 Burton released Beetlejuice which grossed $80 million in box office and won an Academy
Award for best makeup, and would be then turned into a cartoon of the same name with Burton as the executive producer. Other noticeable
Tim Burton films would be Corpse Bride, Frankenweenie, Wednesday, Alice In Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Edward
Scissor Hands. Tim Burton has worked with Walt Disney throughout his career bt he has also worked with Skellington Productions, Skellington
Productions wan an American animation studio and production company that was a joint between Walt Disney Feature Animation and
directors Henry Selick and Tim Burton where the company were specialised in stop- motion animation which became their key form of art in
their films. With Burton being involved in Skellington Productions he was also involved in Tim Burton Productions which he founded in the late
1980s, Denises Di Novi once headed the banner from 1980- 1996. Although the company is linked directly to Tim the company was never
credited on films that were directed or produced by Tim Burton. At University Burton studied character animation at the California Institute of
the Arts, this is where he created his first animation ‘Stalk of the Celery Monster’ which then landed him the apprenticeship at Disney. One
reason why I would like to go into the same area as Tim Burton is that I am fascinated on how animation works in particular stop- motion
animation. I also like the dark style of movies that he produces as they are different from most directors within the industry.

7. Tim Burtons Work
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