[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: I believe it took you 10 years to get your first screenwriting credit?
I’m wondering if we can go back to the beginning?
Brandon Violette, Screenwriter / Founder and Host of The Story Series Podcast: I was close to graduating high school.
During high school, growing up, all I wanted to be was an artist.
I was drawing obsessively. And high school, I had this insight that I was a mediocre artist at best.
But through that was really a love of storytelling and filmmaking.
I was drawing but trying to draw stories. It wasn’t until I got out of high school and found my way through community college, College of the Canyons, and stumbled into a film production 101 class that cemented it for me.
It was all about screenwriting and filmmaking.
Story Questions book — Now on Payhip here!
I did not have the grades to go to a typical kind of university.
But that community college experience helped me find what I wanted to do which was tell stories through writing instead of drawing.
Film Courage: I feel like community colleges get a bad rap, especially in areas where there are prestigious schools, but having gone to a community college myself, I loved it. I felt like you get more individual attention.
Brandon: I think so. I think you have time to find yourself, find what you like, however you want to describe it, but because it’s way less expensive than a typical university.
So, you have time to wander a bit.
I stumbled into classes taught by filmmaker Mike Ott and screenwriter Ron Mita.
And these were professors that I still am…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
About:
Brandon Violette was most recently the Head Writer for RoboGobo and Pupstruction at Disney Television Animation and the Co-Creator/Head Writer of CoComelon Lane (Moonbug/Netflix), one of Netflix’s top-performing preschool series. His writing credits span hit shows including Dew Drop Diaries (DreamWorks), Pupstruction (Disney Junior), T.O.T.S. (Disney Junior), Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go! (Mattel), and Stretch Armstrong & The Flex Fighters (Hasbro Studios).
In addition to his screenwriting work, Brandon is the host of The Story Series Podcast, where he interviews writers, showrunners, filmmakers, author and creators about story structure, character development, pitching and the creative mindset.
Before moving to Los Angeles, Brandon studied at the Beijing Film Academy and continues to return to China as a guest lecturer, sharing insights on storytelling, animation, and the global landscape of entertainment.
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New book from Film Courage! – See it on Payhip here
