GREG WEISMAN INTERVIEW:
DEVELOPER, PRODUCER, VOICE DIRECTOR,
WRITER AND STORY EDITOR
By Shannon Muir
Originally
published in three parts at Suite101.com
Read
the follow-up at Digital Media FX
***
PART ONE:
DEVELOPER AND PRODUCER
With twelve years in
animation, Greg Weisman's career includes writing, story-editing, producing,
voice directing, and development. Welcome to Part One of my three-part chat with
Greg about these aspects of the business. In this segment: his roles as development executive and supervising
producer.
---
After an earlier stint at
DC Comics and freelancing one animated script, Greg became a development
associate (a very junior executive) at the then-small development department at
Disney TV Animation. His boss went away
for what was supposed to be two weeks and ended up being six months. Since his boss' secretary was shared with
publicity and he was left as the only executive in the division, Greg started
aiding his boss' superior and became "indispensable." Greg admits it wasn't the path he sought --
he'd known since second grade he wanted to write -- but the job gave him regular
contact with writers and story-editors (the distinctions will be discussed in
Part Three). It also didn't allow him
time to work on his own material.
Greg's job duties included
managing script coordinators, writers, story-editors and producers; he also
regularly evaluated new and existing talent (writers and artists) for their
suitability to current projects. New
projects would come under his scrutiny. He also evaluated studio efficiency, to
find places for improvement and ensure that the products being made were what
had been promised.
When I asked Greg what he
thought someone in development needed in their background, he replied, "I
don't think there are any rules. Definitely helps to have a liberal arts education. It helps to have done some writing
yourself. Sometimes you don't get hired
for that reason. I've known people who
won't hire people on the executive track because those people were
writers."
Greg moved from being in
development to producing with the series, which still airs in
reruns on Toon Disney (check http://www.toondisney.com for a current schedule). Gargoyles began as a notion Greg explored with his
development team. Originally developed
as a comedy about medieval gargoyles awakened in the present, it took two years
to sell and became an adventure show different from other Disney projects. The timeframe caused a lot of turnover in
the development staff; also, many talents Disney normally relied on weren't
right for the project.
They found a line producer
to get artwork for Gargoyles underway, but needed a creative
head. Greg had a "passion for the
property" and stepped in to drive it forward. The first couple of writers didn't pan out, and Greg says,
"as we worked on story I became involved in a more hands-on way than I
normally would, but we had the green light and needed to keep things
moving." He began making decisions
producers make, not to overstep bounds but because there wasn't a producer.
Finally, Greg hired Michael
Reaves to story edit, and feels that Michael and he "were a great
team." Frank Paur came on as
creative producer, but Greg was so involved he "couldn't bear to give it
up." His superiors at Disney did
not let him become a credited producer; they required him to continue his
development job while being a supervising producer on Gargoyles first season. When it was renewed, Greg
became a full-time producer.
For more information on Gargoyles, visit the websites http://gargoyles-fans.org or http://www.s8.org/gargoyles -- on the latter, Greg has a moderated message board
where he interacts with fans of his work.
I asked Greg the difference
between producer and developer; he responded passionately. He feels the producer gets the show done,
while the executive does his best job "keeping out of the producer's
way." Greg firmly believes that if
someone's hired to produce a show, there should be enough faith the person can
handle it. "If you're in his [the
producer's] face, telling him how to get his work done, you're not respecting
that hiring decision in the first place."
Multiple executives often
reread the same script and give notes. To Greg, this "fosters an absolute system of disrespect." A lower executive's notes can be overruled
by higher up and "you know who you'll have to listen to," so it's
hard to take a lower executive's notes seriously. He also feels many of today's executives don't understand
animation; it's perceived as a stepping stone, but many never escape. "When I came in, I studied it,"
Greg says. "Every facet of it… I
went to recordings, mix sessions, edits."
Today's executives, Greg
feels, rely too much on focus groups and trends; they are "people without
the courage of their conviction." He also points out that "the largest successes often have
passionate creators behind them" (though the two are not mutually
exclusive). In short, "it's got to
start with the passion."
***
PART TWO: VOICE DIRECTOR
With twelve years in animation,
Greg Weisman's career includes writing, story-editing, producing, voice
directing, and development. Welcome to Part Two of my three-part chat with Greg
about these aspects of the business. In
this segment: voice directing.
---
Greg credits his foray into
animation voice directing to a longtime interest in theatre. He acted in high school and college plays,
though the majority of his experience was at the collegiate level. Once he found himself acting alongside
people such as Andre Brauer (the star of Gideon's Crossing on
ABC), Greg realized maybe he wasn't cut out to be a big-time actor. However, he very much enjoyed directing
college productions and made sure to try his hand at all aspects of play
production. Some things he liked doing,
and others not so much.
When Greg moved to New York
he left theatre behind entirely. Greg
told me there's really no room for someone who wants to do theatre as a hobby
in New York or Los Angeles because "community theatre in that sense
doesn't exist because there are so many actors looking for some kind of
showcase." Producing and directing
a play for his Masters Degree was the only theatre work Greg did for years
after returning to Los Angeles.
While a supervising
producer on Gargoyles (see Part One) Greg began to attend the
voice recording sessions. Greg
describes these sessions as "the fun part of the process… on the
whole," and a "compact moment of three hours all about the
possibility." Problems may crop up
later down the line in production, but at the voice recording, you get a sense
of what can be. Of the caliber of voice
actors he's worked with over the years, Greg says, "you can get… people,
professional voice actors and others to work your stuff. Absolutely talented and they bring the words
you've written to life." As a
writer, he feels 7 out of 10 times voice actors bring words alive, maybe 1 out
of 10 times it's better in your mind, but there's 2 times out of 10 where
dialogue's improved.
Greg transitioned to voice
directing while on Gargoyles. He sat in the sessions alongside Disney's voice director Jamie Thomason,
whom he credits as "a better dialogue director than I'll ever
be." Jamie gave Greg the opportunity
to oversee a few "phone patch" (phoned in) sessions and eventually
gave him the opportunity to voice direct an entire Gargoyles episode, "Vendettas." With
its small cast, "all five actors made my first experience of directing a
show myself a complete and total pleasure," though the final animated
episode didn't turn out as well as he'd hoped.
He also had the opportunity
to assist dialogue director Sue Blu with pickup sessions while working on the
several series with her at Sony. These
were Starship Troopers (the official show link is http://www.spe.sony.com/tv/kids/roughnecks/index.htm; http://www.trooperpx.com/RSTC/series.html also is also worth checking out) and Max Steel --
see sites at http://www.maxsteeltv.com and http://www.spe.sony.com/tv/kids/maxsteel/index_max.htm. Greg's big
opportunity came when a former USC student, Jonathan Klein, asked him to voice
direct a new English adaptation of the Japanese series 3x3 Eyes which
the company wanted to make a more prestige -- and union -- project. If you're not familiar with the series, you
can get more information at http://www.pioneer-ent.com/ and http://www.sazan.net/digest/news/, but be aware this series is considered for ages 13
and up in the United States. Greg
recruited many of the voice talents he'd worked with on other projects,
including Christian Campbell (Josh McGrath/Max Steel from Max Steel),
Brigitte Bako (Angela from Gargoyles), and Edward Asner (Hudson
from Gargoyles as leading characters.
Automatic Dialogue Replacement
(the technical term for the dubbing process, often called ADR) differs from
creating original animated product. When animation's created, the process goes from script to voice record,
then storyboard and animation. With ADR, the finished animation already
exists. Greg told me that the challenge
is "translating Japanese to English not only literally… also idioms and
that it fits the lip synch."
At the time of our
conversation, Greg had just begun work as voice director for the new Disney series Team Atlantis, based on the summer movie release Atlantis (see http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/atlantis/index.html for the official movie website). Of the first session he said, "It was
fun but it's too early to say how the whole thing will go." He looks forward to the challenge and feels
all his work up until now prepared him to helm voice directing for a series.
(NOTE: not long after this was published, Disney decided to shelve the Team
Atlantis series. The exact
reason is unknown. There are plans for
a direct-to-video using some of the completed material.)
Greg also enjoys directing
original radio plays every summer at the "Gathering of the
Gargoyles," an annual convention dedicated to the Gargoyles series he worked on as supervising producer. The convention's official website is http://gathering.gargoyles-fans.org/
***
PART THREE: WRITER AND
STORY EDITOR
With twelve years in
animation, Greg Weisman's career includes writing, story-editing, producing,
voice directing, and development. Welcome to the conclusion of my chat with
Greg about these aspects of the business. In this segment: writing and story-editing.
---
Writers craft the scripts,
but Greg says a story-editor’s job is “responsibility for the script process. A
writer may story-edit his or herself, or a producer may story-edit, but
story-editors always have writing credits on their resume. Multiple writers help shows meet deadlines,
so a story-editor sees their stories are within guidelines, have a consistent
tone, that the scripts are the right length, and are clearly understood for the
actors, artists, and crew to bring to life.
On Gargoyles, four story-editors worked on the second season. All reported to Greg, who acted
as supervising story-editor. They
sought consistent work from their writers, and then Greg supervised them in
turn.
Greg co-wrote for JEM -- see http://devoted.to/tojem -- before he moved back to Los Angeles. At Disney, he story-edited the last five episodes of Ducktales uncredited
because he was a development executive (see Part One). He developed premises, gave notes, and did
some rewriting.
The amount of rewriting is
“directly proportional to how in sync the writer is with the story-editor,”
says Greg. “I’d also like to say how
talented the writer is, but sometimes that’s not the case… if someone gives me
a script that needs a lot of work, I’m going to be doing a major rewrite. If someone gives me a script that doesn’t
need a lot of work… I’ll do as little as I have to in order to get it to be the
kind of script I want it to be.” A
talented writer may not understand a show, so being rewritten doesn’t
necessarily mean lack of ability.
With Gargoyles' third season, Greg wrote and story-edited –
but didn’t produce – the first episode. It “can be a dangerous process but it’s… more rewarding than
having someone else story-edit,” he said. An advantage is getting “the individual’s unadulterated vision… strong but
powerful, not always good… pure, and there’s something to be said for that.” As
to dangers, he admitted, “you get concerned with little details and lose track
of the bigger picture.”
Greg explains, “freelance
story-editing is tough. One is,
financially it’s not as lucrative thus you’re forced to do more work in a
shorter time to make an equivalent amount of money. The second reason… you’re not on site. You’re not engaged in… daily dialogue with the other people
working on the show. The only advantage
I can think of is the certain amount of freedom… that allows you to simultaneously
do something else.”
About writer/story-editor
relations, Greg says: “when people are in sync… the whole becomes more than the
sum of the parts… if you’re self story-editing, you lose the opportunity to
collaborate with another individual… who might provide additional ideas that
make it better.” However, it can become “an effort of mutual compromise and
homogenization, where you’re…not in sync with each other… not challenging each
other… finally you wind up with nothing of interest in the story.”
Greg feels a good writing
team also challenges its members “to create something greater than the sum of
its parts.” Since the same pay often gets split amongst the members of a team,
he states, “there’s no real financial advantage being a team, unless… you get
the X and Y name and you’ve got them working on multiple, multiple shows… it
becomes a brand… the brand can cover more territory and thus bring more money
in. Mr. X is working on Show A and Ms.
Y is working on Show B… it becomes a quantity thing. A true team, it’s not about quantity any more than an individual
is about quantity.”
On his early
partnership: “I think we were really
challenging each other to do better work… we went off to do some separate
things… not because the partnership was failing… we had these
opportunities. Having done that, I
wasn’t comfortable going back into the partnership, and I would say that was a
failing on my part. I didn’t want to
subsume myself in the way that it was before, even though that was a
challenging partnership I was appreciating the challenge of my own work.”
About a writer’s education,
Greg feels that (besides writing) you need to be willing to self-edit, take
others’ notes, proofreading, and read extensively – this is classic as well as
modern books, more than industry trades and newspapers. Also, watch contemporary and classic films
and “look at the history of these mediums.” For animation, he recommends taking classes, reading animation scripts,
and studying series to see “what works for you and what doesn’t.”
Thank you, Greg, for taking
time to share.
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