Meet Mason Jarratt, Shotgun Stream Team member and former VFX producer.
How’d you get started at Shotgun?
I've been with Shotgun for just over five years. (Likely feels much longer for some of my colleagues...)
I work as part of the Street Team, which is the client-facing team responsible for supporting Shotgun. We're a mixed bag of ex-industry folk who were formerly Producers, Coordinators, Artists, and Pipeline TDs who now work with the best clients in the world, helping solve gnarly production challenges.
Where were you working prior?
I discovered Shotgun while working as a VFX producer in London, and through my interactions with them as a client, was super impressed with their customer-centric approach. When I heard they were looking for people in the UK, I jumped at the opportunity.
I had a couple of remote interviews with the then-current Street Team, took Don out for a below average lunch when he was in town (sorry, Don!), and here I am.
How has your background helped you with your day-to-day?
Like everyone on the Street Team, I come from the industry (in my case, VFX) so have a solid understanding of the challenges that our users face on a daily basis. This insight helps in all facets of my job, be it onsite with a seasoned client building out new workflows, or figuring out the right site schema with a brand new user.
What are you currently working on?
Outside of my core role, I'm doing a deep dive on the support ticket data that we're generating with an eye to provide insights both internally, and externally.
What’s a typical day like for you?
The Street Team is distributed across six different time zones so first thing in the morning, (armed with a cup of Earl Grey tea) I catch up on what I've missed overnight. Once I'm up to speed, I check into our support software to answer any new tickets, and then move into Street Dailies, which is a daily meeting we hold to discuss outstanding issues and bounce ideas around as a team.
I save my afternoons for focus work, as the team in the Northern Hemisphere have moved offline, so it's a great opportunity to work uninterrupted.
Like most of the Shotgun team, I work from home and have a flexible schedule. We take work/life balance seriously, so I take an hour or two in the late afternoon to help with dinner prep, and spend some time with my two young daughters, and then make up the time in the evening, when they’re tucked up in bed. You have to work hard at collaboration when your team is distributed, so at the end of my day, I'm thinking about the information that I need on-hand the following day from colleagues in London, Montreal, China and planning accordingly.
What’s your favorite Shotgun feature?
The Client Review Site. It's so quick and easy to post new versions for your client to review, then get clear and concise client notes back into Shotgun. This results in less time spent managing the process, more iterations, and ultimately a better end-product.
What’s a low-key feature in Shotgun most people may not know about?
It's a little-known feature, but you can create personal filters for every entity in Shotgun. These filters are visible only to the creator, but can easily be shared with others. This is a great way for artists to show the info they care about, without having to manage their own separate pages.
Give us a personal Shotgun tip?
To apply more than one filter condition in a filter widget without recalculating results, hold down command (Mac) or Control (Windows). Wish I'd known that when I was working in production!
Ever hear of an interesting or unique way Shotgun is being used?
My Mum and I used Shotgun to manage the writing and illustration of a children's book. We were in opposite time zones, so she'd work on the copy through her day, and I'd illustrate while she was sleeping. We used playlists to organize the media, and the review tools to communicate remotely.
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