Creative Director Stefan Draht Answers Five Questions with SCREEN

What do The X-Files, Hellboy, and the best restaurant in Amsterdam have in common? They’re all right here as Sarofsky Creative Director Stefan Draht stops by for a thoroughly entertaining round of Five Questions with SCREEN. It’s our first round of 2023… Let’s get to it!

SCREEN: If you could play any superhero in a major motion picture, who would it be?

STEFAN: I suppose I kind of look like Abe Sapien… if I was blue… and part fish. I guess my personality and perhaps even mannerisms could fit the role as well.

Let’s enjoy some of those charming mannerisms in this scene between Abe and Hellboy…

SCREEN: Your most prized possession?

STEFAN: Well, one thing that brings me a good deal of inspiration and enjoyment is my modular synthesizer. It’s the kind of creative tool that I’ll never stop learning and will always provide something new to explore.

SCREEN: Your favorite commercial spot ever?

STEFAN: Early on in my career the Coke: Happiness Factory, by Psyop, appeared. I found the world building and visual storytelling to be quite inspirational at the time for what was ostensibly just a Coke commercial.

Let’s take a leap back to that world and enjoy Stefan’s fave spot…

SCREEN: One meal, one restaurant, and we’re buying. What will it be?

STEFAN: A very memorable meal that I wouldn’t mind repeating would be at a small cafe in Amsterdam called Café Restaurant De Reiger. It wasn’t a particularly fancy or expensive meal but it’s a cozy spot in an enchanting neighborhood of the city with great food and drink. Would love to share a meal there with you.

SCREEN: Best advice you’ve ever been given in your own career?

STEFAN: Starting out as a CG technical director I could get pretty hung up on technique and doing things “the right way.” The best advice I got was from our Lead TD who said “if it looks good, it is good.” All that really matters is what it looks like for the audience. It’s a simple and pithy bit of advice and it helps get past hang-ups, whether technical or creative, and reframe to the viewer’s perspective.

BONUS QUESTIONS!

SCREEN: Your greatest athletic achievement?

STEFAN: When I was a kid I was a pretty talented competitive gymnast, and while I have a shoebox of ribbons, medals, and trophies somewhere the real achievement, in hindsight, was sticking to training five days a week for several hours a day. Definitely lots of lessons learned about finishing what you start.

SCREEN: Worst job ever?

STEFAN: Working on the ‘inventory product team’ at a large bookstore was rough. There’s no real sense of making any progress or accomplishing anything because there is perpetually another cart of books that needs to be shelved and it’s virtually impossible to clear your cart during your shift. Feels like digging a hole and filling it back in. But I did get to read a lot of books.

SCREEN: If you could bring back any canceled TV show in history, what would it be?

STEFAN: I guess they kind of already brought back the X-Files once, so maybe I’d make a second reprise? It was a show that definitely left a pretty indelible imprint on my adolescence.

Let’s wrap up this round of Five Qs with a look at the Top 10 Episodes All-Time of The X-Files, courtesy of WatchMojo…

Thanks for playing, Stefan! For more from Stefan and the creative team at Sarofsky, click right here.

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