Roger Lee's work includes famous Disney movies Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia and the latest Moana
Photos and text by Pamela Chow
Roger Lee graduated with a diploma from Ngee Ann Polytechnic and climbed his way up to Disney.
If your office had a ping-pong table, a giant Tsum Tsum game screen and a Disney store, you'd probably be squealing when you clock in every day.
But Singaporean Roger Lee doesn't gush about working at the Walt Disney Animation Studios. The lighting artist has been stationed at Disney's Burbank headquarters in California, USA, for four years. Soft-spoken and composed, Lee gives the impression that perhaps the excitement of working at the world's biggest creative studio has worn off.
Yet, when he speaks about his job - whether describing the technical rendering process or shopping at the "ultimate Disney store" in his office - his eyes twinkle and a smile peeks out.
Curious about how he made the climb from Ngee Ann Polytechnic to Disney, we pull Lee aside for a chat while he's in town to promote his latest film, Moana.
Photo: ©2014 Disney. All Rights Reserved.
For us viewers, how can we spot your work in a movie?
[For Moana] I did some shots in the cave. For lighting – it’s a group of 50 to 60 – one of our main roles is to make sure that it looks like it’s lit by one person. So if you can tell it’s done by me, it’d be a really bad job! We have to compare to make sure it looks seamless.
Which Disney movie do you feel the most connected to?
I have to say Mulan. It’s the closest to my culture and it’s a story that I’ve heard since young.
Does working at Disney make you a ‘cool dad’ to your kids?
I’m not sure if they find me cool. [Laughs] I hope so! I have triplets and I brought them over [to the US] when they were one year old. I always bring them to company screenings, and my kids literally grew up in the studio, running around in there all the time.
So, well, I think I’m pretty cool. [Laughs] I hope my kids are proud of what I do.
Moana opens in theatres on 24 Nov. Roger Lee, Auli’i Cravalho and the rest of the talents from Moana will make an appearance at a festive light-up event today (9 Nov), 8.15pm, at the ArtScience Museum.
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