Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Bradley Raymond. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Bradley, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I believe that if you always believe in yourself and keep focused on your goals, you will succeed. There will be people that don’t hire you, don’t like a project that you are pitching or give you negative feedback. Those are the times that you need to stay focused on your goal and never lose faith in yourself. I applied for a job at a big studio and was told that I was not good enough to hire and that I should change careers. They suggested that I give up on my dreams. I didn’t take their advice, continued toward my dream and had a successful career. Don’t give up on your dreams!

Bradley, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a writer and director with over 30 years of experience in the animation industry. I started out working in the animation industry as a clean up artist at Don Bluth studios. When the studio was rumored to be going out of business, Don set one-on-one meetings with each of us artists to calm our worries. During my meeting, I didn’t bring up any worries, instead I asked if I could be promoted to storyboard artist. Don was impressed with my dedication and asked that I send him a sample of my work. The art director at the studio, Barry Adkinson, gave me advice on how to improve my portfolio and I followed his advice and got the job. I moved to Ireland to start my new job. Don Bluth personally trained me as a storyboard artist and that experience soon lead to my first directing job. Later in my career I had the great fortune to work with John Lasseter and his Pixar team while I was directing The Tinker Bell movie. This experience was priceless. During that time, I created a screenplay and storytelling template that is a one-of-a-kind guide to great storytelling that I now teach. Students that take my course get to learn how these legends of the industry make such great movies. It is truly a chance of a lifetime to get this knowledge.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When screenwriter, Jeff Howard and I first started preparing to pitch our take on the Tinker Bell movie to John Lasseter, I was very nervous. I was confident in my ability to tell a story at the time, but didn’t know what I didn’t know. So instead of putting my head in the sand, I reached out to the Pixar story trust for help. Maggie Malone, Mary Coleman and Kiel Murray were not only a huge help, they were the reason that our pitch succeeded. Jeff Howard was an amazing partner and I leaned on him a lot as well. Be resilient during the most desperate times. Ask for help and surround yourself with people who are better than you, more experienced than you and take their coaching.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I learned early on that you can’t do it all on your own. I tried to micro manage every aspect of our team in my first directing opportunity. And as I started seeing the amazing work that they were doing, I realized that they know how to do their jobs a lot better than I do and decided to stay out of their way. My job was to explain what I was looking for and react to their amazing work. Allow your team to take ownership of the movie. It is the difference between a bad movie and a great movie. Healthy collaboration is what results in great movies.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://1pagescreenplay.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1pagescreenplay?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551478193545&mibextid=wwXIfr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-raymond-87866329a?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0713214/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_in_0_q_bradley%2520raymond

Image Credits

Brad presenting Tinker Bell with her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Brad with John Lasseter. Brad teaching his storytelling template to CalArts.