This is a transcript of SYS Podcast Episode 543 – Writing Animation for Disney with Brandon Violette .
Welcome to episode 543 of the Selling Your Screenplay podcast. I’m AshleyScott Myers, screenwriter and blogger over at sellingyourscreenplay.com. Today I’m interviewing Brandon Violette, who is a screenwriter who’s worked on a number of animated kid shows, including Cocomelon lane. He’s very open about everything and gives us a ton of insight into children’s TV writing. So, stay tuned for that interview.
SYS’s Six Figure Screenplay Contest is open for submissions. Just go to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/contest. If your script is ready, definitely submit now to save some money. Our regular deadline is May 31st. We’re looking for low budget shorts and features. I’m defining low budget as less than six figures. In other words, could this film be made for less than one million US dollars. We’ve got lots of industry judges reading scripts in the later rounds. We’re giving away thousands of dollars in cash and prizes. We have a short script category as well, 30 pages or less. So, if you have a low budget short script, by all means submit that. Some of the industry judge producers are looking for short scripts. So hopefully we can find a home for some of those. If you want to submit to the contest, just go to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/contest. If you find this episode valuable, please help me out by giving me a review in iTunes or leaving a comment on YouTube or retweeting the podcast on Twitter or liking or sharing it on Facebook. These social media shares really do help spread word about the podcast, so they’re very much appreciated. Any websites or links that I mentioned in the podcast can be found on my blog in the show notes. I also publish a transcript with every episode in case you’d rather read the show or look at something later on. You can find all the podcast show notes at www.sellingyourscreenplay.com slash podcast and then just look for episode 543. If you want my free guide, how to sell screen play in five weeks, you can pick that up by going to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide. It’s completely free. You just put in your email address and I’ll send you a new lesson once per week for five weeks along with a bunch of bonus lessons. I’ll teach you the whole process of how to sell your screenplay in that guide. I’ll teach you how to write a professional logline and query letter, how to find agents, managers, and producers who are looking for material. Really is everything you need to know to sell your screenplay. Just go to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide.
So just a quick few words about the rom-com that I’ve been working on, which is in post-production. We do have a cut, a first cut finished now, so we’ve seen an assembly cut and the editors are now working diligently to fill in some of the holes from that original cut. We’re choosing music, we’re placing the credits in the title sequence. There’s a bunch of small special effects type of stuff that we’re doing. The protagonist, several times in the film, he is recording live streams. He’ll sometimes look at the camera, talk to the camera. So there’s some special effects there. We have to put that little, just it’s like a little template that goes over the image and it shows like the live, the number of live people. There’s little comments that float by. All those little things, someone has to actually do that work and actually figure out how that’s all going to work and actually look. So, we’re working on that stuff for this next cut. Hopefully we’ll have a lot more of those elements in place and it will really be a first cut and something that’s an actual movie that you can watch with music and all that sort of stuff.
So. while the editors are busy doing that, I am preparing for the Kickstarter campaign. I’m hoping to run it in May, so keep an eye out for that. Basically, my plan is pretty simple. I’ve created about 20 short form videos and I can whip these out now pretty quickly. But I’ve probably created about two hours of content. So, as I said, 20 videos, anywhere from maybe five minutes to 10 minutes long. I basically go through every aspect of producing this micro budget film and explained exactly how I did it. From writing the script to getting crew, cast, locations, the food, all the different jobs that were done. I just sort of run through quickly in an individual video, trying to just share some of this knowledge while it’s still fresh in my mind. I’m going to start releasing these videos on TikTok and Instagram, YouTube Shorts, all of those types of platforms, probably three weeks before the Kickstarter. And so hopefully I can build some following with that, which will help the Kickstarter and then ultimately help the release of the film. We need a bunch of passionate fans who will buy the film and review it on the various platforms when we finally do release it. So hopefully these TikTok videos and then the Kickstarter, hopefully the TikTok videos will lead to the Kickstarter and then hopefully the people that contribute in the Kickstarter, they will be our followers that go along and help us bring awareness. And as I said, review the film as it does start to get released. So anyways, that’s the plan. We’ll obviously see how it works out. I’ll give an update here on the May podcast when that comes out. But anyways, I should start releasing these videos, as I said, in a couple of weeks. I’ll send in an email to everyone who’s on the SYS list if you care to check out these videos. And if you want to join the SYS email list, just go to selling your screenplay.com/guide. That’s the main SYS email list. Obviously these TikTok videos will be free. So, if you’re looking to produce a micro budget film, definitely keep an eye out for these videos because I think it will be quite helpful just to kind of see how I put this film together. Hopefully it will be helpful for others as well. Anyways, that’s what I’ve been working on. Lots of things coming out here in the next couple of months. But now let’s get into the main segment for this podcast. Today I’m interviewing writer, Brandon Violette. Here is the interview.
Ashley
Welcome, Brandon, to the Selling Your Screenplay podcast. I really appreciate you coming on the show with me today.
Brandon Violette
Thank you, Ashley. I’m excited to be here.
Ashley
So, to start out, maybe you can tell us a little bit about your background. Where did you grow up and how did you get interested in the entertainment industry?
Yeah, so I grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles and in Santa Clarita area, the show that changed everything for me was Rocco’s Modern Life. So I grew up a 90s Nickelodeon kid, specifically they would show the making of the show during the commercial breaks and I got to see the creator of the show and surrounded by cartoon chaos and storyboards and it just connected with me in a way that kind of changed everything and so that was the initial hook into whether it was drawing or writing comic books, it was like that moment changed everything for me.
Ashley
And were you so you just mentioned that Nickelodeon this animation, where you did you do, a lot like were you that kid that was always drawing stuff, creating your own comic books and that sort of stuff? Like you were drawn to drawing an animation just naturally?
Brandon Violette
A 100%. After that, it was – margin of every notebook I had in school was covered with drawings. And it was comic books. And, and as I got older, around high school, I realized that I was a mediocre artist at best. But what I was really doing was drawing stories. And so eventually, in community college, I found filmmaking and fell in love with screenwriting. And I thought, okay, this is kind of like drawing, but you’re just writing stories instead of drawing them. So, it was always that I just kind of had to find it a little bit.
Ashley
So then, so let’s talk about some of your first steps. So then, okay, so you got, did you get a degree in film or something? And then what was that college degree in? And then ultimately what were those first steps to breaking into the industry?
Brandon Violette
Sure. So first out of high school was community college, and then found filmmaking transfer to a university, Cal State Northridge, which is local to Los Angeles, and studying screenwriting. So, it’s a film production with a focus in screenwriting.
Ashley
I went to CSUN too actually, I got a master’s degree in communications with the screen emphasis. It’s two behind baseball, but I’d be curious to hear maybe off camera. I’ll be curious to hear if any of the professors are still there that were there. What’s the guy? (NAME – 08:05)
Brandon Violette
(INAUDIBLE)
Ashley
So anyways, okay. So you went to CSUN and then you get out. What were some of those steps to break in history? And I’ll say this, as someone who went to CSUN, I was not overly impressed with their, let’s just say postgraduate efforts. Like, there was no follow-up or effort for them to help me break into the industry or anything like that. I didn’t feel like there was a lot of support getting out of CSUN.
Brandon Violette
That’s fascinating, because I know what you’re talking about. And so, I was close to graduating, I thought I was going to get a master’s in humanities, because I thought I wanted to be a better writer. But I was still living at home, I had some insecurity about just what I felt like a lack of living, you know, like really living life. And I thought that’s what would make me a better writer. And I thought maybe humanities would kind of put something in me that wasn’t there, some worldliness, you know, if you will. And I still wanted to pursue screenwriting, but pursue it that way. And then a random email one afternoon said China Scholarship Opportunity, it was from a Chinese film professor, emailed the class, I read it and the short version is – It’s the scholarship through CSUN, where they pair students with a corresponding university in China. So, if you’re studying filmmaking, it was the Beijing Film Academy, which is where I ended up going for two years. And so, I saw this email, I thought this is the humanities, but in real life. So, I left home first time leaving home for two years. So, in terms of graduating, that’s what happened. I graduated in June, went to China in September, about two years came back and then was ready to kind of pound the pavement and try to get that first opportunity.
Ashley
Gotcha. So then you’re back in the US, what is pounding the pavement and trying to get that first opportunity? What were those first jobs in the business?
Brandon Violette
Yeah, so came back from China, six months of applying to different entertainment companies, didn’t get any bites. Not far from where I was living at the time, I signed up for a temp agency. And I said, I’m looking for entertainment companies. And they said, we don’t really have that. But sometimes we do. And I said – Well, that’s better than like six months of nothing. So, I said, Yeah, yeah, I signed up with them. And the next day, they said, we have Hasbro studios. And Hasbro, for those who don’t know, of course, you know, GI Joe transformers, big-big toy company, they make TV shows, animation, animated shows and movies. And I thought – Oh, my gosh, yeah, I’ve heard of Hasbro. I go in the following week for an interview. On the way home, I get offered the job. And they called the temp agency, temp agency calls me, they want you to start tomorrow. And so, I was hired as a temp. So, it was like, you’re everybody’s assistant, you know, you’re all over the studio, help it delivering mail, whatever. But in that experience, people were like, what are you here to do? What did you study? What do you want? And I always said writing. And eventually, there was my first show that I got to be a part of called Stretch Armstrong and the flex fighters. It was a Hasbro and Netflix show animated series. And they said, “This is your chance. Go interview with the head writers. We’ll recommend you.” And so enough people there knew me to kind of push me in that direction. And I got hired as a basically a PA on the show. And I got to spend the time with the head writers. And halfway through that first season, I got my first official writing credit and paid as a writer, I wrote one of the episodes on the show.
Ashley
Okay. And just half a season in?
Brandon Violette
Yeah, yeah. I think it was greenlit for like 26 episodes and I wrote episode 22. So, it was like the second half of the schedule and, and they had read, you know, that was my first script ever. So, it was a way to absorb the show, learn what the scripts felt like, learn the language of the show. And so, by the time they kind of, you know, said – Hey, this is your shot. I was, hopefully I was ready. Yeah.
Ashley
Yeah. So, okay. So then once you had this first credit on a show, on a Netflix show, did you then start to pursue agents and managers and sort of the more traditional outlets or did you continue to get little projects like this and continue along that way?
Brandon Violette
I didn’t pursue agents or managers yet. So, that wouldn’t be for another, maybe two years. And so, one stretch Armstrong was coming to an end. It didn’t seem like we’re going to get picked up for another season. One of the executive producers on the show was going to Disney, Disney junior and said – I’m going to the show called Tots. It’s a preschool show. I want to recommend you for script coordinator. Which is kind of what I was doing on stretch Armstrong. And I thought, yeah, preschool is like baby stuff. I don’t know if I want to do baby stuff. And I read the pilot script to Tots and I thought, this feels like Pixar. Like if this is preschool, then I’m in, you know, so I wasn’t until I was exposed to it, I didn’t really know what that was. And so, I got hired on the show and I started freelancing at night on the show, I would write episodes at night and be like the writer’s assistant script coordinator during the day. And then halfway through season one, there was a staff writer spot opened up. And I had written a couple for the show already. So, I thought, I’m just going to put my name in and see what happens. And eventually it went to me. And so, I became a full-time staff writer, halfway through season one and then finished season two and season three on the show as a staff writer. And season three was when I signed with a manager.
Ashley
Gotcha. So just for our audience, give a little just description of what a script coordinator does. And how do you not be the annoying script coordinator that is clearly there just to advance his own writing, you know, and this is just what does it take just as far as your intuition, sort of social graces in those rooms?
Brandon Violette
Yeah, that’s a great question. Script coordinator is basically a writer’s assistant. You’d hear that in live action. Script coordinator is basically there in the writer’s room with the writers’ taking notes. You’re responsible for distributing all the materials, the scripts, the outlines, premises for every episode to the network. And so, you’re the one with all the Excel spreadsheets of all the tracking the schedules, all the tables, where things are out with every episode. And you’re the one that spends a little more time with the writers. You do the notes, things like that. And so, you’re there, kind of assisting the writer’s room and how to get seen, if you will, as a script coordinator without being annoying. I was lucky that the head writer on that show early on knew, of course, I wanted to write. Everybody who wants to be script coordinator eventually wants to write. And he said, if you have any ideas, feel free to throw them out there. So, he opened that door a little bit for me. And that was a big deal because you don’t want to overstep. And you don’t want to say something “stupid”. And then everyone wonders, well, how did you even get this job? And you know, but the fact that he did that, I felt seen and kind of removed the pressure of like – oh, do they know, can I speak up and all that like internal dialogue. And so, you just kind of wait for the moment and you do it. But I was lucky. But if someone doesn’t do that, for you, I would pull that head writer aside and say – Hey, how do you feel if I spoke up every now and then if I have something that appropriate, and I think that’s a good way to do it. I’m just pulling that person aside and ask them.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Okay, so it sounds like you got this agent you’re you get onto a number of other shows. I noticed on IMDB Cocomelon Lane is your most recent credit and you’re an actual creator on that show. Maybe you can just for our audience you can just run through the steps like I mean obviously you’re an established writer you have a track record at this point. But what are those steps look like for creating a original show and then getting it on air. It starts I’m sure with a with an idea and a script but just walk us through that process. You had this idea with this writing partner or just how does it come about.
Brandon Violette
So yeah, great. So, on season three of Tots, that show where I became a staff writer, the head writer eventually left that I told you opened that door for me a little bit. He left and he circled back with me season three, because he went to a different show. We’ve got a different head writer, but we stayed in touch. And this company, Moonbug, who owns the Cocomelon property, reached out to him and said, we are looking for writers to do a take on this property. But what we want to do is turn the Cocomelon property that everybody knows and loves, there’s nursery rhymes for toddlers. We want to age it up a little bit. We want to appeal to slightly older kids. And so, they were looking for takes from different writers. And so that head writer reached out to me and said, hey, do you want to do this together? Do you want to come up with something? So, we came up with a very simple pitch using these characters and kind of pushing it appropriately to slightly older. So something like we wanted it to feel like Rugrats. That’s where our head was at. And so, we pitched it to them, just like, you know, virtually. And here’s our idea. It’s like a 15-minute pitch, answer their questions. They said, OK, thank you very much. And then that’s like the first round. And then you wonder, did they like it? Did they not like it? And then they asked us back to pitch kind of the higher ups, which is always a good sign. We did that. And then after that, maybe another few weeks, we were notified that we got the development job. So now it was time to develop what we pitched into that series, which involves a show Bible and a pilot.
Ashley
And that’s it. And then if they like that, then they move you on to the next phase.
Brandon Violette
Yes, and in this case, because it was an existing huge IP, Cocomelon Lane, they knew it was going to go to Netflix. It was like a special deal between the company Moonbug and Netflix, and they’re like, we want that show, Cocomelon Lane, with the older characters. And so it was kind of a foregone conclusion that they were going to make it, and so we kind of had to develop kind of quickly and just jump into series. So it was, yeah, show Bible pilot and then get the official green light. And then, okay, now we’re doing 72 episodes and a couple specials, and we have a writer’s room and all that, yeah.
Ashley
How many writers do you bring on, is one season 72 episodes?
Brandon Violette
No, so I think it was like 24 episodes for what we call the season, but really because Netflix, Netflix can package it however it wants. And so, they do drops. And so, it’s just for like scheduling purposes, we call it seasons, we group it this way, but they could do whatever they want, and group it however. And so, but the writers, approximately two writers in the room to staff writers and the script coordinator. So just like I was, who we gave scripts to, to write, and then you have a handful of freelance episodes that you could reach out to, and have other writers, some new writers, some experienced to write on the show as well. And so, you’re always kind of looking for just in case something happens, or someone moves on, or you want to find the people that know the show in case you need them need to step in, or you just find your ringers, the people that kind of know it. And so that was the writers room.
Ashley
Gotcha. So, one question I would have, like you mentioned with Cocomelon, they wanted to age it up a little bit. Like, how do you know, are there tools, are there resources? Are there lists? Like, how do you know what’s appropriate for a seven-year-old versus 11-year-old? I have kids and now they’re teenagers. So, when they were seven or eight, I was watching what they’re watching. So, I probably had a better idea, but it’s sort of just an intuitive. I mean, for me anyways, it’s just intuitive. I don’t really have any great way of determining whether this is appropriate for a seven-year-old and this is an 11-year-old. But how do they do that professionally? Like, how do you know that your script is appropriate for a seven-year-old versus a nine or an 11-year-old?
Brandon Violette
Great question. In this case, Moonbug had an idea of what they wanted to impart with the show. So, if kids watch this show, this is what we want them to take away. Whether it’s going to the doctors for the first time, celebrating these kid milestones. That older kids are more familiar with and have been through. But for really young kids, it’s the first haircut or the first time going to the dentist or learning to tie your shoes. So, because they were looking for those kinds of takeaways, then you’re able to kind of reverse engineer. Okay, well, let’s get into the point of view of a kid who that is high stakes for this character. And so you find it that way. What is the point of the show? And then you kind of work backwards with what you hope kids take away watching it.
Ashley
So, let’s just talk about quickly your writing process. So, you’ve got this writer’s room, but you have credits of writing, you know, you’re just going to pitch ideas, you come up with outlines in the writer’s room, then the writers would take it and actually script out the pages. Maybe you can describe this process. What do you get in the writer’s room? And then when you go to your office and start cranking out script pages, what do you actually have to begin with?
Brandon Violette
So, the writer’s room gets together for the story breaks, and so that’s when you, like we’ve seen on TV, put it up on the board, and it’s act one, act two, act three, and it’s typically ABCD beats or ABC, just those important beats, and you map out the story. And so here’s the structure of it. And it’s really, you know, the hero’s journey, even in kids’ television, it’s okay, here’s, you have the midpoint, the escalation, you have the low point, you have, okay, now here’s the returning with the elixir, you know, the very end when the kid who successfully did that hard thing goes back to the playground and says to his friends – Hey, I remember I was going to go do that. Well, I did. And here’s why it was so cool. And so, it’s a kid version of the hero’s journey. And then, and then we’re pitching out gags and things like that, that, that to take into the script when it’s time for that. So, then the writer of that episode leaves with the story grid, and some joke gags and things like that, that we talked about for them to then adapt into a premise. And that could be a page summary of an episode beginning, middle and end, just this is now for the network, it goes to the network, we get notes back, okay, great. They’re like, we like this, change this, make sure to emphasize this, then it goes to outline a couple pages now. And the outline resembles more like the story break grid, where it’s like, okay, act one, ABC, ABCD, however many major beats you have, and each one’s about a paragraph. So, you’re getting a little more detailed into each of those important moments, goes to network, go, yeah, network, you get notes back, and then you go to script. And then from there, you’re adapting your own outline into a script. And, and that’s when you you’re cranking out those pages.
Ashley
Gotcha. So, who are these development executives giving you notes and what kind of background did they have? I mean, we always hear from writers, you know, these are business suits and they don’t understand the creative or whatever, but like who are these people giving notes on a kid’s show? Are they people with degrees in child psychology? Are they business people? Are they creative people with writing backgrounds? But who are those folks that are giving these notes?
Brandon Violette
It’s not uncommon to have a some sort of child psychology, child education background. You see that. You see creatives who it’s not typically like your stereotypical suit with no creative bone in their body. That’s not quite, there’s creative people on that side and some have experienced writing and some just wanted to go the executive route and they know; I’m not a writer but I love shaping stories. And so, there’s a range but it’s people in at least in our industry typically with experience with kid’s television and who have come up just like on the writing side you come up as a writing assistant. For those executives you start as an assistant to an executive and so you learn and absorb the language of kid’s television on your way up.
Ashley
How do you handle notes that you just really just vehemently disagree with, but they’re coming, you know, they’re coming from above. How do you handle those notes in a gracious way?
Brandon Violette
Yeah, you don’t respond immediately. You do you need to cool off. They say don’t look on notes on your phone because it always appears a lot longer of an email because it’s a smaller screen. So that’s a low that’s hard to do. But if you really, really have a problem with the notes, you do need some distance and by distance, I mean time. So, sleeping on it is a big one because you wake up the next day, you go, okay, it’s not so bad. It’s actually, if I do this, and I do that, then I think I’ll answer these notes and you do need a less emotional head about it. And I worked with an executive for a number of years, who said that her notes are the beginning of a conversation, not the end of one. And that’s the kind of attitude that you want from a collaborator, because you’re getting notes. And I really value those conversations are like – Hey, you said this, I’m thinking, what if we did it this way, and then you’re kind of spit-balling a little bit in the moment, and you go away with this new direction. And so if you need clarification, it’s worth the conversation. That’s very important, because it’s tough to just infer everything over email. Sometimes that happens, but that is part of the job. Just learning to deal with notes, you just have to deal with it. And so, the less emotional, the better.
Ashley
So, with Cocoomelon, you mentioned that you had two writers in the room, the script coordinator, and you also doled out some of the script assignments just to other writers. Maybe you can just quickly go through, how did you find those writers? Were they people you had worked with on Tots or other shows? But just give a sort of a rundown of just how did you find that script coordinator? How did you find those two writers? And how do you find freelance writers?
Brandon Violette
Yes, some of those writers, one of the writers came from a summit on another show I had, where I participated in this, like, it’s a writer’s room, but it’s a summit. So, everyone’s batting around episode ideas, because a new show is starting. And it was at a totally different company. That show never even happened. But I remembered a certain writer from that room, and I reached out to her. And some of it, the showrunner worked with an assistant on his last show, who shows a lot of promise. And so, we want to try to elevate her to staff writer. Someone else was the script coordinator came from interviewing with us on a different show that we didn’t ultimately move forward for various reasons. But it was like, you know, she was she had it, like, let’s go see if she’s available. So, you just kind of collect people in your mind overtime, the network is always going to have recommendations. So, you’re taking a lot of meetings. So that’s part of it is just, you know, it’s tough, because obviously, you’re always meet with way more people than you can fill. And so that’s part of the value of a summit is to what I referenced earlier. It’s the launch of a show, and you get like it’s over two days, five writers on one day, five writers on another day, and you’re just batting around show ideas, and trying to get springboard episode ideas, and you can see how people are in the room. And this is before you are writing episodes, there’s like a little period of just ramping up. And that’s a good way to try people out.
Ashley
So, just explain what these summits are. How does one attend one of these summits or find out when these summits are going on?
Brandon Violette
The best way to find out is just to stay in contact with the executives that are in your network or head writers in your network. Because that’s who will know. And so, the summit, it’s like, okay, the show is greenlit. We have a few weeks before we need to start breaking a story every single week. So, let’s just kick off the season with a bunch of ideas. We’re going to get, you know, five writers on one day five, the next day, the executives are in the room, head writers in the room, the showrunner, and everybody brings a couple of ideas based on the show Bible that that we wrote during development and the pilot so they have a kind of a flavor of what the show is and, and they come prepared. So we can see what they did ahead of time and also how they are just in the rooms being spontaneous and someone pitched something and they’re like, hey, that was really good. That reminds me maybe this and it’s like a it’s a test run for to see how the personalities will go together and who stands out and, and then from there, you want to stack it with people that are experienced, and also people that are new and that really are up and coming and hungry and you try to find that balance. And yeah, that’s really that’s really it.
Ashley
Gotcha. So, if someone were trying to break into animation today or you know this is a screenwriting podcast so there’s probably people out there with pilots for an animation series. What do you recommend that those people do to try and break into the industry in the year 2026, as we sit here?
Brandon Violette
Still the most important thing is to have that amazing sample, and to have things that you’ve done under your belt that you can talk about, that you can show, that’s very important. And if you’re very new, it’s not like you’d have to have the perfect script to get an assistant job but you have to be doing it and have done it a few times, and that’s important to because you’re at the beginning stages of developing a voice. And so, having that practice on your own matters a lot and then on the other kind of non-creative side, we all hear networking but following up with people that you meet with. You know, you meet someone for coffee and you stay on the radar every few months or you send them an email say – hey, I just finished this thing or I just got this new job, I just wanted to say thank you for your guidance or meet. All that matters a lot and I think following up is really underrated, especially for an up-and-comer because they don’t know anyone yet, but they’re afraid of bothering people and so people are afraid to send emails and they’re going to go on some list that says “this person bothers people, don’t hire them” and that list doesn’t exist. And it’s a I think it’s undervalued so a way to stand out is really have something great in your portfolio and follow up with people communicate regularly every few months whatever, that’s important.
Ashley
Do you recommend like your avenue getting a temp job, going to a temp service, trying to get in that? Does that seem like a viable path in the year 2026?
Brandon Violette
I think so. If they’re still out there, I think really it’s a matter of try something anything for a little while. And if that doesn’t work, try something else. And if that doesn’t work, you try something else. It’s literally that. And the temp agency was just me going, well, it’s better than zero responses in six months. And then that seemed to work. And then suddenly, I was there in the environment. But the key is, is if this doesn’t work, try something else. And you just repeat, repeat that. Yeah.
Ashley
So, I think that’s excellent advice, you know, double down on the things that are working and keep trying as many things as you can. So, what’s your take on AI? I mean, it seems to me that the animation industry is going to be impacted by AI before the live action industry. But maybe that’s just an outside observer who knows nothing about animation. But what’s your take on it? Where do you see AI going and how is it going to impact animation?
Brandon Violette
Yeah, hot question. So, okay, I have a view of it. It’s not actively used right now in our day-to-day, the writers’ room. It’s not there, yet, maybe it will be. But I kind of equate it to, because you can’t escape it, and it’s coming. And so, I think, you know, the movie Reds, the Warren Beatty film Reds from like 1981, old movie star, Warren Beatty with Jack Nicholson, and Diane Keaton is in there. And he was, of course, the star of the movie, the writer, director, producer. And I read his biography. He shot so much footage for that movie that his editor, Dee Dee Allen, who was eventually nominated for an Oscar, he had a team of editors to sift through all his footage, to put Reds together, the movie he shot. And he was criticized as not being a director, but a selector. He just shot all the footage, and then he made a selection later. I could see AI going that way where we’re selectors, because if you could just create anything with just a few prompts, then how do you make sense of it? What do you do? We all have our own personal taste. So, I don’t know if trying to write the perfect script with AI is the way to go, because what is perfection? It’s taste and it’s point of view. So, I could see us evolving into selectors. How widely adopted it’ll be? I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s coming for sure. But it’s not like day-to-day use yet. But yeah, that’s kind of how I think. I think of the Warren Beatty Reds analogy, being selectors.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah, I think that is a good analogy. So, tell us about what you’re doing over at the Stories Series. You have your Stories Series podcast banner behind us. What is that all about and who is that for?
Brandon Violette
Sure. This, Story Series podcast started about a year ago, almost now. And I got to a point in my career where I felt like I had done enough to speak to the up and coming and mid-level writers, that I had had a variety of experiences where I could give back and I can talk to other people in the industry and put that through my own experience and, and, and kind of impart some of that to, to other people. And I think that that’s really valuable. That’s something I, so in a way it’s documenting my own learning and sharing it with people. So, that it started. So yeah, it started that way. And I have this, this kind of philosophy behind the Story Series where it’s for writers who break the rules. And I think that the rules and advice that you decide to take and the rules and advice that you decide to just throw away are what makes you uniquely you. It goes back to that just point of view and that’s a personal decision. And there’s no one way to do it in this industry. If there was, then there would just be, this is the way to do it, but there’s not. And so, I think having that like rule breaker mindset or just like counter thinking of like, everyone says to do it this way, but maybe I could skip a step. And just all that is, is very helpful. I’ll give you like a quick example of like when I was, and so back to university, I would say, I would send out query letters. So, I would, because I wrote feature specs at the time. I had feature screenplays that I wrote and just trying to get, get out there as a student, get circulated. And I would send query letters out to production companies or managers, whoever. And then I would keep a list, right? So, it’s like send 30 at a time. Here’s, I’m a film student. Here’s my two scripts. I’d love to send you one that kind of template. Right. And I would call to follow up like two weeks later and I would get one of two responses. People would either say, what was on it? And then they would like look me up on a computer and what, and then I would just tell them over the phone, like, oh, well, this is what was on it here with my scripts. And they would either say, oh yes. And that one, or we’re not interested. Or they would say, oh, we respond to every query letter. So, if you haven’t heard from us, you will. And then I started thinking, I don’t even have to send a query letter. I could just call the follow up on a query letter. I never sense. And then they would say, oh, uh, what was on it? And then I would just tell them right there over the phone. And so, I thought that was like a funny way to like, you’re just skipping a step, and you get information faster and you can make way more phone calls than you can mail letters. And so, and then you got to practice, you know, practice pitching over the phone. And so I just thought that’s kind of funny. And like, what else is like that? Where you’re told to do things a certain way. It’s important to do things that way. Just do, you know, follow the rules. But then as you continue on, you’ll find, I don’t need to do that. I don’t need to do that. And so, I just think having that kind of mindset, just as a creative person, it’s kind of baked into all of us. And so, it’s nice to just keep that flame alive, you know, and just kind of do some inventory every once in a while on what you’re doing. And like, maybe I don’t have to do it this way. I could try it this way.
Ashley
Yeah, that’s a fascinating example because I completely can see how that works. So, I was a master at the query letter, but I’m not good at pitching on the phone. And I just I just would get so nervous so I could just I never was good. Like I just every now and then I would try it, but it was just so nerve wracking. I mean, I’m sure you’re like glossing over those 5,000 people that just hung up on you because I’m sure there was a lot of rue. You know, just who is this? Who is this? Like, you know, there’s that. So, it just it’s so it’s such a top cold calling. So, if you’re good at it, it’s things and you’re exactly right. I did do an experiment though, where I hired someone to do cold calling for me who was a professional like sales and she was able to call and pitch and she was able to get exactly what you’re describing. Like if she made 25 phone calls, she could get 20 of the production companies to actually read the script because she was a professional on the phone. You know, it just so whereas with me, I just sent thousands. You’re saying, oh, the batches of 30. I was sending batches of thousands of you know, and get and get a few to follow up. But that is a things. Are there any conventional wisdom about screenwriting like that that you can give us that you break conventional wisdom that you think is kind of maybe wrong or that you’ve circumvented over the years.
Brandon Violette
I would direct on the page. What I think a script should be, and you don’t overdo it, but, but any, any one that says don’t bold anything or italics, or sometimes I’ll change the font of something for emphasis, not very often, but sometimes there’s, I just, I think that a script should represent a complete vision of what’s in your head. And you just do not hold back. And especially in TV, where immediately after you submit a script, it’s going to go to storyboards, and then the actors, the voice records, they’re going to read it. And it gets hopefully better every single step, and it changes, and it evolves, and the actors add lip something great, and the board artists, you know, really flesh out this action scene. But you want to write and present a complete vision, so that anytime someone changes something, they feel like they feel inspired, not that they have to save it. So, so, so I would, you’re not overstepping if you’re directing, the camera does this, do all that, as long as, as it’s faithful to your vision, that there’s a reason for it. And so that’s how I think of every, whatever scripture, it should maximize and completely fulfill the promise of that episode. And so however you need to do it, I don’t think that scripts, I think you could have fun with the action lines, I don’t think that they need to read like technical documents, you know, show Bibles included, you have fun, instead of just starting off a show Bible saying it’s this is a show about this and this and this. And while that is important, and you want to be clear, start with this amazing teaser of like what a scene would feel like. And then that is your episode description, not here’s what each episode will feel like it’s I’m starting with this half a page of prose, but it sets the tone, and then you get into the technical stuff. So, I think to be playful and have fun, and to not read like a technical document is something I think is worth considering.
Ashley
Perfect. Yeah. I think that is excellent advice. So, how can people find the story series and really anything you’re comfortable sharing? Twitter X Facebook. I will round up for the show notes, but what’s the website for the story series?
Brandon Violette
Oh, sure. Storyseriespodcast.com. Okay. And it goes from there. You could find the Apple, Spotify, YouTube. I have a newsletter where I share different writing insights and things from every episode that comes out. So yeah, it’s having a blast with it.
Ashley
Perfect. Perfect. I will put that in the show notes when we publish the episode. So, I like to end the interviews just by asking my guests, is there anything you’ve seen recently that you thought was really great? Anything on HBO, Hulu, Netflix that you’ve been watching that our screenwriting audience might want to check out?
Brandon Violette
Yeah, so I have a toddler, so my viewing is very, Skew is very young. But we watched Elio, the Pixar film, and that was something that, I can’t wait until she can sit through a whole movie, and I’m really excited to have a little movie watching parties with her. She’s not quite there yet with just how old she is, but she sat for the longest that she sat through with Elio, and we finished it, we watched it in chunks, but I was able to talk to her about, oh these are the aliens, and he’s looking for a friend, and just having to explain the story so simply to someone that young is, I think, a testament of good storytelling because I knew how to summarize it, I knew how to explain it in a way that made sense to her, and I thought, oh, that’s a good test, can you explain what you’re watching to a toddler, and then they’ll repeat that, and they’ll know what to look for, and so Elio was a lot of fun.
Ashley
Okay, perfect. Yeah, that’s a great recommendation. So, what’s next for you? What are you working on now?
Brandon Violette
I’m writing on a show called Cars. So, speaking of Pixar, you know, the movie Cars, right? One, two, and three. Well, we’re making a Disney Junior show. So, a kid show. And it’s been announced all the voices are coming back. And so we’re writing episodes for that now. So, I think it’ll come out probably still a year away. But that’s what we’re cranking on right now.
Ashley
Okay, perfect, perfect. Yeah, I’m going to be excited to see that. So well, Brandon, thank you for coming on the show. This is a great interview, fascinating, lots of good information. Good luck with Cars and all your future projects.
Brandon Violette
Ashley, this is awesome. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.
Ashley
Thank you. We’ll talk to you later. Bye.
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