The number one thing is creating this world ["Trolls" ] - what the world is going to look like, feel like and what technology will we need to use to get there.

We'd all [with Mike Mitchell] been together at Dreamworks for over ten years, so we all had the same goals.

I was trying to foster a great working relationship between those two departments [design and the writing teams], because classically in animation the two don't get along.

Mike [Mitchell] brought me on as co-director, and eventually we ended up sharing a brain. It was overwhelming initially when I was working with departments I hadn't had contact with before.

I had to sit in front of all these people, and act like I knew what I was doing. I faked my way through it pretty well.

If you hug someone for seven seconds, it gives you a chemical drop in your brain.

The Head of Story is defined differently for each film. But I found that the role for me was to support the director's vision, and to be a conduit to the story team - and managing that team to realize the vision.