Basic Brainheart

Musician and author Matt Bronleewe grew up in rural Kansas. He gravitated toward music from an early age and hasn't looked back. He's honed his musical skills for over 20 years and has built a vast community in Nashville particularly within the Christian music community. These days he's pioneering new, exciting ventures with Unsecret and is beginning to see his love for both writing and music collide more frequently. On today's episode, he discusses his journey and philosophy for creating incredible art. No matter what creative discipline you're pursuing, Matt's story has something for you.

Find Matt:

Twitter: @mattbronleewe

Instagram: @mattbronleewe

Website: mattbronleewe.com

Unsecret: whoisunsecret.com

Introduction music courtesy of bensound.com.

In today's episode, you'll hear storyboard artist Lila Martinez's fascinating story.

Lila Martinez had a passion for animation while watching Disney animated movies, Looney Tunes and Tex Avery cartoons at an early age in Mexico City. Through tenacity and the drive to pursue her deep interest for the medium, she enrolled at the Vancouver Film School, where she diligently studied the craft of traditional character animation and CGI.

While employed in the Mexican feature animation industry as a character animator on Guardians of the Lost Code and Juan Escopeta & Heroes Verdaderos. She co-founded Phenomena a boutique animation studio, to provide pre-production art and animation service for the Latin America television commercial market.

In 2013 she made a decision to focus on storyboarding where she later realize her true calling is storytelling. Her strength lies in visualizing scripted narrative, problem solving story holes and building a character driven sequence. Within a year, she had the opportunity to become a story artist, on an upcoming feature animation produced by Original Force in Los Angeles. The offer came from Sandra Rabins the executive producer on Shrek. At Original Force, she storyboarded Duck Duck Goose (Spring 2018) under Cody Cameron (co-director, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2) direction and later Chris Jenkins (producer, Home). In addition to boarding two additional features in the studio pipeline with director John Eng (co-director, Rugrats Go Wild).

When a childhood fulfillment to work on The Simpsons as a storyboard artist came along through producer David Silverman. She was promptly hired to work on season 28 meeting the demanding television schedule and deadlines. Lila then moved on to another Fox TV Animation production, based on the popular Seth MacFarlane's primetime series, American Dad, for season 12. Where she applied her speed, story diligence and knack for problem solving visual clarity, in a fast paced environment.

Lila believes as a story artist each assignment is a creative challenge to exercise her story muscles, and reinforcing each production needs with the best possible outcome. From melodrama to visual gags to strengthening a story point and being a team player for the project to succeed. Her notable qualities is attributed growing up at a young age, with the desire and sheer perseverance to work in the wonderful world of animation.

Find Lila:

Web: http://www.lilastory.com/

Twitter: @lila_martinez

As an artist, Alison Mann always knew she wanted to work in Animation. She began her career at Nickelodeon Animation Studio as a finance department intern while
attending Columbia College Chicago. After graduating, she was offered the amazing opportunity to continue working with Nickelodeon/ MTV as their Recruiter/ Coordinator of Talent Relations. Through her 16 years in the industry, she gained experience in TV, Film and Gaming while working at Walt Disney Animation Studio, Zynga, Disney Interactive, and Paramount Pictures Animation. Currently, Alison is the VP Talent at Illumination Entertainment where she is responsible for supporting the development team, industry outreach and artistic talent acquisition.

Alison is a creative, tech-loving talent scout who believes that students should pursue internships to learn about the animation industry and get their foot in the door. Although her main focus is artistic talent acquisitions, she is passionate about guiding students and professionals to become more presentable and better equipped for the job market.

Find Alison: Twitter @thealisonmann

Music courtesy of bensound.com

Not only did Marcos Mateu-Mestre know what he wanted to be from a young age, he worked tirelessly until he achieved his goals. His epic career has landed him roles at some of the worlds most respected animation studios (Dreamworks, Sony, etc) and today he is an Art Director for Sony animation. On today's episode he shares his inspiring story and tips for creatives of all stripes.

Find Marcos:

Instagram: @mmateumestre

https://www.facebook.com/Marcos-Mateu-Mestre-893679814001650/

Amazon books:

https://www.amazon.com/Framed-Ink-Drawing-Composition-Storytellers/

https://www.amazon.com/Framed-Perspective-Vol-Technical-Characters/

https://www.amazon.com/Framed-Perspective-Vol-Technical-Storytelling/

Music courtesy of bensound.com.

Meg LeFauve is about as well-rounded a storyteller as they come. Throughout her impressive career she paid careful attention to the mechanics of storytelling from every angle before deciding to jump into the world of writing with both feet. Her recent work includes writing credits for Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur and Captain Marvel.

On today's episode Meg shares her own story and how she set a beacon for herself. Her path wasn't always linear, but she made it take her where she wanted to go.

Find Meg:

Twitter @storymeg

Music courtesy of bensound.com.

In today's episode, producer extraordinaire Kim Adams shares her story. Her interpersonal sensibilities and organizational superpowers have become legendary and I'm honored she spent an hour of her time reviewing her career so far and the lessons learned.

About Kim:

Kim Adams most recently was the Head of Production at Emmy Award-winning Oculus Story Studio, a team at Oculus that focused on narrative virtual reality content. Before Oculus, Kim transitioned into VR at Google Spotlight Stories, where she produced Rain or Shine with partner Nexus Productions, and Special Delivery, with Aardman Animations.

From 2009-2013, Kim was a Producer at Pixar Animation Studios, where she played an integral role in the creation of Pixar Canada. Adams led the creation of Pixar’s “Toons” / Short Film division, heading a team of 125 across two companies in two countries. She worked very closely with John Lasseter in producing Toy Story and Cars short-form content. Partnering with eight new directors, she produced 13 short films while shepherding the development of a multitude of additional Pixar shortformat projects.

Previous to Pixar, Kim served as a visual effects producer on several films including Apocalypto, where she was on location in the jungles of Mexico for seven months. She also worked at Asylum Visual Effects on films such as Master and Commander, which was nominated for an Oscar for visual effects.

Kim began her journey in the industry working her way up the editorial ranks on major feature films with such Academy Award winning masters as Walter Murch and Francoise Bonnot. Her first job in the industry was as an intern at George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic.

Music provided by bensound.com.

Aaron Waltke's impressive writing credits include the critically acclaimed series Trollhunters (Netflix) as well as the colorful, fun Unikitty show(Warner Bros). His uniquely intellectual and whimsical approach have quickly earned him respect within the animation industry and beyond. HIs willingness to learn more than simply "writing' has allowed him to serve in a showrunning capacity. He's enjoyed the incredible privilege of working alongside industry giants such as Guillermo Del Toro - watch out world, Aaron is going places.

Find Aaron:

aaronwaltke.com

Twitter: @goodaaron

Find Hannah:

Twitter: @basicbrainheart

Instagram: hannah_camacho

Music courtesy of bensound.com

On today's episode, screenwriter Eric Heisserer shares how he managed to break into the incredibly competitive world of narrative for the big screen. Believe it or not, he didn't attend a prestigious university, but instead used good old fashioned hard work and persistence to get where he is today.

is quickly becoming a recognized force in the world of screenwriting. He is best known for writing the screenplay for Arrival, which earned him a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination at the 89th Academy Awards in 2016. He has also written horror films A Nightmare on Elm Street, Final Destination 5, The Thing and Lights Out, and wrote and directed "Hours" with Paul Walker.

Eric:

https://twitter.com/HIGHzurrer

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GKNFPGK

Valiant Entertainment:

https://twitter.com/ValiantComics

http://valiantentertainment.com/

Music provided courtesy of BenSound.com.

Writer Laura Sreebny studied marketing in college thinking it was the sensible option. She didn't expect to fall into the fabulous world of animation, but happily did so and hasn't looked back. She shares her journey on the production side and how she ended up in the writers room.

Find Laura:

Instagram: @laurasreebny

Twitter: @laurasreebny

Find Hannah:

Instagram: @hannah_camacho

Twitter: @basicbrainheart

Music By: bensound.com

Kayla Coombs went to universtiy to study science, prompty got a job in science, then felt unhappy. She quit to pursue a career in art without any formal training. Through grit and pure determination, she is not only making it work but is poised to thrive as a gifted artist in a competitive space. In today's episode, Kayla walks me through her journey so far and shares so many relatable tips and tricks and my head is spinning.

Don't forget to follow Kayla:

Instagram: @kaylacoombs

Twitter: @KaylaJCoombs

Etsy: www.etsy.com/au/shop/KaylaCoombs

Videos Kayla references:

Eric Goldberg talks through his digital drawing process (this is what led Kayla to her current method of sketching, drawing outlines and colouring): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zSP_VoW8h0

Aaron Blaise’s tips for flow in character drawings (these videos transformed how Kayla draws characters):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usj75M0UOIg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mrhW6REKNQ&t=610s

Music courtesy of BenSound.com