“Film producer” seems like a job title with any number of possible definitions. How would you describe what you do?

It really is all over the place, and I think that’s the thing that appeals to me about it. Somebody comes to me with a project, and I start figuring out the how, why, what, where . . . and each one of those things brings up other questions that need to be answered. It’s a Rubik’s cube and you never run out of things to figure out. Ultimately what you’re trying to do is clear the runway for the director, so they’re not taken off their creative course by thinking something is too hard or expensive, and making the plane land softly.

How did you end up becoming a producer?

I was at SVA during the early years of Photoshop, and it sucked me in right away. The fact that you could do all these things with it kind of blew my mind. After graduating I was freelancing and doing this and that, but I also started teaching at SVA, because I’d been sort of ahead of the game with Photoshop.

While I was teaching I decided to take a Continuing Education animation class, and I needed a project for the class. Darren Aronofsky, who I’d gone to undergrad with, was making Pi, his first feature, and he’d brought me on board to do some graphics. And I said, “Maybe I could do the title sequence.” And I animated it in the SVA building on 23rd Street, using the Oxberry, and shot it frame by frame on 16mm film.

From there I jumped into the film thing. Other people started getting me to do titles, and then Darren was making Requiem for a Dream [2000] and asked me to help with some visual effects. Next thing you know, I was working in visual effects, mostly for special sequences, like for Julie Taymor on Frida [2002]. Next I did second-unit directing on [Aronofsky’s] The Fountain [2006], and then I started working with Wes on The Life Aquatic. He had these stop-motion sequences for the film, and even though I didn’t know anything about stop-motion, I was helping him figure it out.

When we finished, Wes said, “Now that you know about stop-motion, we’re doing this movie next that’s going to be all stop-motion, Fantastic Mr. Fox [2009], and we’re working on post-production for The Darjeeling Limited [2007], and maybe you can help with that.” And all of a sudden I was a producer, with no idea of how to be a producer.