Bermudian Ri-Ann Pully has created special effects for hit television shows like Stranger Things, and TheUmbrella Academy, but the gig that really impressed her was the latest SpongeBob SquarePants movie.

Employed by Spin VFX special effects studio in Toronto, Canada, Ms Pully worked on the animated and live-action feature Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie, which aired on Netflix on August 2.

“As a kid, SpongeBob was the only cartoon I would watch,” Ms Pully said. “I knew all the songs, and all the characters. I would watch episodes over and over again.”

She was particularly excited that the movie included one of her favourite actresses, comedian Wanda Sykes.

Special effects artists typically spend weeks, or even months, working on a single shot from a film or cartoon.

“I had to put the character Patrick Star (a pink starfish) in a roller coaster, and have him eating confetti,” she said. “The roller coaster is animated, but it is pictured in a lab that is real.”

Because there were other artists working on similar shots, before and after hers, she had to get the colour of Patrick, and his confetti, exactly right.

“Patrick is a very specific shade of pink,” Ms Pully explained.

However, Ms Pully confessed that she has not yet seen the full film, or a single episode of Stranger Things or The Umbrella Academy.

She started making movies as a child, using her father’s old video camera.

“I always wanted to create things,” she said. “I would make movies with my Barbies. When there were hurricanes I would go outside and pretend to be a meteorologist, and film myself in the wind.”

At 15, she gained community attention when she made a film about youth violence, as part of a project at Somersfield Academy.

“I interviewed parents of the victims of youth violence, which was really, really powerful,” she said. “I tried to come up with solutions. After that, I started to think maybe I could have a career making movies.”

However, some people urged her to pick a career more realistic for a Bermudian.

As a result, she studied communications in university rather than film.

“That was when I discovered there were so many other things I could do,” she said.

After graduation, she worked for a real estate agency in Canada making and editing property videos, and handling their social media.

“From there, I found a programme focused on special effects work,” she said. “I did that programme while I was still working at the real estate firm. It was a collaboration in Toronto between Humber College, Centre for Young Black Professionals, and Spin VFX.”

After finishing her studies, she was allowed two years of practical training in Canada.

“The programme promised you placement actually working on footage,” she said.

When her Canadian visa ran out, she was working for Spin VFX.

“I thought I could apply for a work permit on my own,” she said. “I was denied. An immigration lawyer advised me that in order to apply for a work permit, I would have to leave Canada entirely and reapply.”

She had to give up her apartment, say goodbye to her friends and move in with her parents, who were living in the United States, where she has dual citizenship.

“I was living with my parents again for the first time since I was 18,” she said. “And it was during Covid. I could not leave the house. It was pretty rough.”

It took nine months for her papers to come through.

“When that happened, I went back to Toronto and freelanced as a film editor for a little bit,” Ms Pully said. “Then I reached out to my old studio and they asked if I could start the next week? I was lucky because a lot of people find themselves back at zero in that situation.”

Ms Pully said the Writers Guild of America strike that erupted in Los Angeles, California, in 2023, is still impacting Canada – where many American film and television shows are made.

“During the strike, most of the artists, including myself, were temporarily laid off,” Ms Pully said. “Surprisingly, we stayed employed. VFX artists are at the end of the film production pipeline, and the labour action caused a bottleneck in the process.”

Almost a year after the strike ended there are still many projects that have been delayed because of the industrial action.

Ms Pully has now been making a living in film for 15 years.

“It has been great,” she said.

She urged young Bermudians to believe in their own abilities.

“Nothing is impossible,” she said. “As Bermudians, we are often asked how are you going to do this? Why are you going to do this? We hear: shouldn’t you pick something more lucrative?

“Even though you are from a small island, just go for it. Do not let being from Bermuda get in the way of going for a position, or living a life in an artist community.”

A few years ago, she formed Liveations, an artist hub for Black, Indigenous, people of colour and queer artists.

“When I was in university I loved taking part in Chewstick events, when I came home on break,” she said. “I decided to create something like that in Toronto.”

Liveations gives artists a space to look at and buy art, get a tattoo and listen to live music.