A Woman from Málaga in the Kingdom of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg

At 14, she was gifted a tablet and swapped pencils for a stylus. She had always enjoyed painting since she was young, but that gift changed her life. And there she continues, 'drawing' on the screen. Her latest creations have been dinosaurs. But not just any dinosaurs. These are the ones appearing this Wednesday on the big screen in 'Jurassic World: Dominion', the latest installment of the franchise started by Steven Spielberg in 1993. At that time, Alba Sánchez-Serrano (Mijas, 1995), a specialist in digital effects, hadn't even been born. In this seventh installment of the saga, she has been in charge of one of the final sequences of the new release from the engine room of the legendary Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), founded by George Lucas in 1975 for 'Star Wars'.

"Now the company belongs to Disney, but don't think I work in a theme park or something similar, these are offices," says the digital visual effects composer (CGI), who we asked to explain her profession. "In the digital set, one animator models a dinosaur, another textures it... and so on through successive layers until it reaches the final department and my job is to integrate all the images generated by my colleagues with the real characters from the scenes shot on set," summarizes Sánchez-Serrano, who is responsible for making sure there is no noticeable difference between the frames filmed by the actors and everything created by computer.

The woman from Málaga can say she has been working with Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali, the stars of this new 'Jurassic World', although she has never met them in person. Alba Sánchez-Serrano works from the ILM headquarters in London and begins her work once the filming has concluded. Her role, and that of dozens of digital creators and composers involved in a blockbuster like this, is to give the movie the final finish that viewers will see. A process in which she not only had the supervision of the director of the new installment, Gareth Edwards ('Rogue One'), but also from the executive producer Steven Spielberg himself. "He reviewed scenes from his yacht and sent us notes," confesses the woman from Mijas.

"Steven Spielberg reviewed scenes from his yacht and sent us notes," says the special effects composer from Málaga

Speaking of the legendary director of 'E.T.' and creator of this saga, Sánchez-Serrano assures that this new installment is worth it as it represents a reboot that recaptures the original flavor of the project: "This trilogy is a return to the classic, to scenes with more tension and to Spielberg's spirit rather than more dinosaurs on screen." She speaks from experience after the movie passed through her digital lab, thus confirming what was hinted at with the return of the original 'Jurassic Park' screenwriter, David Koepp, to the script of this 'revival'. Thus, 'Dominion' tells the story of an expedition returning to the island of dinosaurs to collect samples that will help manufacture a necessary medicine for the human race, although this reserve also holds a secret.

Four months among dinosaurs

Although Alba Sánchez-Serrano has already created effects for the 'Mission: Impossible' saga and the Netflix series 'Black Mirror', she confesses that participating in such an iconic project as 'Jurassic World' not only excites her but also poses a challenge. Even more so when it is Spielberg himself sending you corrections and notes. Her work is so meticulous and exact that, for four months, they have been dedicated to perfecting and concluding one of the final sequences of the movie, as well as collaborating occasionally on some other shots of the movie.

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"It was a short period of time, so we were a large group, and with a very demanding level to meet the delivery deadline, although I must say that everything that comes out of ILM is of a very high level," says the expert who adds that, nowadays, she no longer sees differences in the final finish between a big screen film and a television fiction to watch at home. "There used to be, but the series we are making now have the same quality as a movie," states the digital composer, who has also participated in the two seasons of 'Andor' (Star Wars Universe), the impactful 'Chernobyl' and the superhero movie 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania'.

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Now that she is at one of the most influential VFX companies in the film industry, she states that, if she could choose, she would like one of the next canonical installments of 'The Avengers' (Marvel) to pass through her desk in the future, although she would not reject returning to Spain if she had a good offer. "I have been living in London for 7 years and I would love to return," admits this woman from Málaga who knows her own market well and highlights the good work in our country of El Ranchito ('Game of Thrones'), Orca Studios, and the new Netflix studios in Madrid.

The national scene is very different from when she started. At that time, VFX were not so developed and the only option was animation productions, a field in which Alba Sánchez-Serrano started after graduating from the U-tad University Center (Madrid). "But what I liked were the visual effects in live-action movies, so when the opportunity in London came up, I didn't think twice and moved," says the woman from Málaga who started at powerful companies like Dneg and climbed up to become a visual effects composer at ILM. "If they offer me something convincing, I'll return tomorrow, but of course, I'm at the best company and it's hard to leave," she concludes.