3.21 - The Consummate Creator, Brandon Schultz

[00:00:00] Hi, this is Brandon Schultz and you are listening to the SyFy Sistas, the baddest podcast in the universe.

[00:00:31] Hey everybody, welcome to the SyFy Sistas podcast where we give you our point of view. Today I'm joined by my sisters, Evette Blackmonton. Hello and Sabrina what?

[00:00:53] And I'm Tamiya Harper and we also have a really wonderful guest with us today and we're super excited and we've been a little bit of Twitter friends for a little bit and we follow him and we give him lots of love because we pretty much love everything he does.

[00:01:08] And I'm going to let Sabrina do the honors today with introducing our guest.

[00:01:14] I always get the honors when the writer is come on. Yay, our guest today is the incredible Brandon Schultz. He is one of the writers of our favorite Star Trek, the space nine discovery.

[00:01:27] Tell any boy discovery is our show and this is this Brandon Schultz has been with this show we just heard in our little you know meetup before the started taping that he has been with the show since 2016 which I did not know.

[00:01:41] But he is also second generation Hollywood. It's father directed all the movies that we saw when we were growing up all the movie all the movie.

[00:01:52] Coolie, hi.

[00:01:55] He is a more house man. He is a writer. He is an animator. He is a producer. He's everything. I am jazz can you tell.

[00:02:08] I am now Brandon Schultz here today. Brandon welcome to the show. I am super excited.

[00:02:14] Yeah, Sabrina, thank you.

[00:02:18] Sci-fi sisters.

[00:02:21] I mean digital living room.

[00:02:27] I love it.

[00:02:29] I love it.

[00:02:32] We just want to get into everything about this in you.

[00:02:40] And it's been a long time.

[00:02:43] I think some of you have not found out in the story yet.

[00:02:46] One of the writers on discovery and what I really want to get into first like first and foremost is just how you got.

[00:02:57] Intra- wires nation Hollywood and I a father Michael Schultz do director so and I understand you were actually in crush group.

[00:03:02] You gotta credit.

[00:03:04] We gonna be cool. Hi.

[00:03:06] Baby, I was the baby in the scene.

[00:03:12] Spoiler alert for all those.

[00:03:14] Where have you been for the past 40 years?

[00:03:20] In Cochise my big brother Cochise had a college scholarship and I was the one who donated the envelope to the toilet.

[00:03:32] Oh wow.

[00:03:34] Okay.

[00:03:36] I know it was a house to discover his college scholarship in the toilet.

[00:03:42] So my dad always tells the story of how he that scene was inspired by true events.

[00:03:50] Oh wow.

[00:03:51] It was a method acting as Toddler sometimes do.

[00:03:56] I thought it was fascinating to throw things in the toilet.

[00:04:00] See, well what's a good way to get into the scene?

[00:04:04] See, it's just in your blood.

[00:04:06] Yeah.

[00:04:07] So I am fascinated with writers.

[00:04:11] I'm a screenwriter myself.

[00:04:13] I went to New York Film Academy and I was fascinated with about your start number one with the credit from Coolee High.

[00:04:22] I was really excited about that.

[00:04:24] I was really excited about it.

[00:04:26] But did that?

[00:04:27] I know your dad is a director.

[00:04:28] So were you sure going right out the gate that that's what you wanted to do?

[00:04:32] And yeah.

[00:04:34] Well, no, no, it was interesting actually.

[00:04:39] I was my next role was in a movie called The Last Drag.

[00:04:45] Yeah.

[00:04:47] I had the life changing role of being the kid in movie theater.

[00:04:55] How I show enough, right?

[00:04:58] So I thought I was excited about it.

[00:05:02] I thought it was going to be great.

[00:05:04] And after being held up by my members only jacket.

[00:05:12] Who was six seven, you know, show enough for 12 takes by take 13.

[00:05:20] My armpits were on the blood and cracked and I was like, this acting stuff.

[00:05:28] I'm not sure this is for you.

[00:05:32] I was cured of wanting to be an actor.

[00:05:37] I always have a great respect for what I do.

[00:05:42] And to this day, I maintain that intense respect and admiration for actors.

[00:05:52] But no, I knew I was going to I wanted to do something in entertainment.

[00:05:57] And I wanted to do something a little different.

[00:06:01] And that's come into it in a different way.

[00:06:04] Do something not the same as, you know, what I had seen growing up.

[00:06:10] That's why my mom always encouraged me.

[00:06:12] My mom was also a Tony nominated actor.

[00:06:18] You know, so.

[00:06:19] And Dan and she was a Broadway dancer.

[00:06:23] She did a lot in the theater.

[00:06:27] And then she was a little later as acting coach and casting professional.

[00:06:32] So, so I knew those sides of the world theater and film.

[00:06:40] And sometimes after school, I had always worked on projects like growing up because it was just a fun thing to do.

[00:06:47] I grew up in Los Angeles.

[00:06:49] I worked on music videos with my friends on the weekends and we shot each other's music videos.

[00:06:55] And we thought we were going to be rap stars.

[00:07:00] Didn't we all.

[00:07:03] Day last soul.

[00:07:06] Tribe called quest and we were doing our own version of that.

[00:07:11] And even throughout my early years at Morehouse,

[00:07:16] a year after or two after graduation,

[00:07:21] I was a little bit more mature to get into animation.

[00:07:26] And a couple of friends from Atlanta were working on a music video that call for animation and they told the director,

[00:07:36] of course we can do animation.

[00:07:39] And you know, because we had a friend who, you know, could draw essentially.

[00:07:48] He was part of the crew. He could draw and he did, you know, character designs for Lisa left, I Lopez and people like that.

[00:07:58] And you know, he was an awesome designer, Shahid Ali.

[00:08:02] And then a couple more friends said, oh yeah, we are friends of his said, oh yeah, we actually have done animation before.

[00:08:12] And so before you know, we started cobbling together a crew of artists.

[00:08:20] I would I, I, you know, kind of was thrust into that world.

[00:08:25] And so I was the one who had production experience and knew how to do things, you know, edit, deal clients and sometimes de facto, I would end up writing.

[00:08:40] Well, kind of secured as way into writing was by working with a bunch of visual artists who are supremely talented at that.

[00:08:51] And then by necessity, you know, helping to write and produce.

[00:08:56] So that was our kind of, you know, or my, you know, animation school of hard knocks.

[00:09:05] And out of that, we get street legends ink.

[00:09:10] Yeah, yeah, we said Mark and Mike Davis were two of our partners.

[00:09:16] They're twin brothers who are amazing illustrators and creators.

[00:09:25] They, we were doing this work for hire. So we were doing TV show opens for you PN shows.

[00:09:35] Okay.

[00:09:36] We're doing a series of animated ad spots for a deed is.

[00:09:42] And we're doing client work, anything that was global youth culture that kind of fell under our purview.

[00:09:51] And we had a few ad agency people come to us and say you're the only people like this.

[00:09:57] And so it was kind of a great, you know, trial by fire each project.

[00:10:05] We learn more and more. We traveled overseas to work with overseas animation studios both in mainland China.

[00:10:15] And Toronto with the sister studio that we had there in South Korea.

[00:10:20] So we're really like learning how to do animation by taking projects that had this element of lack culture or hip hop or like just street, you know, culture and bringing them to life in an authentic way.

[00:10:38] So that was kind of our calling card. And then while we were doing that, we said, well, this service work is great.

[00:10:48] But we better also have our, you know, spider man, our Batman, okay, our version of that as well.

[00:10:58] And that's, that's where kind of street legends think was birthed with our first comic book project called blockheads.

[00:11:09] Nice.

[00:11:11] It's so fascinating.

[00:11:16] And I just love the way it was all sort of wasn't certain dip it is, but it was just you know one thing led to another and another.

[00:11:23] And it's just like now this is just gone crazy. I mean this whole comic book world is now driving everything on Hollywood now.

[00:11:33] Right. Yeah, we're at the Comic Con in the early 2000s. So it was like it was, it was the days before, you know, it had been so it had been huge right.

[00:11:45] And culture and it, but we saw it happen there for every year getting bigger and bigger. But it was great.

[00:11:54] And we actually did individual issues and so we would you know,

[00:12:03] and if you know anything about comic book production when you're doing it independently.

[00:12:09] It's extremely labor intensive. Sometimes it would take us a while to come with a new issue, but when we would have a new issue come at San Diego Comic Con.

[00:12:21] These people would you know descend on our table and a lot of times it would surprise us, you know,

[00:12:29] it was it was yes, it was kids you know who grew up wanting to see themselves. But sometimes it was like librarians.

[00:12:38] You know, right.

[00:12:41] Imagine it was middle aged white women, you know, everything.

[00:12:46] It was it was a great experience of being having a one-to-one conversation with an audience.

[00:12:54] And so I think that was something that definitely, you know, kind of stays, you know,

[00:13:00] Mark and Mike are still close friends. And actually, Mark is doing an amazing show right now.

[00:13:07] He's a supervisor director on a project called Young Love.

[00:13:11] Yes, yes.

[00:13:15] So that he has an amazing show. And so we keep in touch and you know, and we got some things, you know, in the in the planning stages.

[00:13:27] And Mike is a, you know, Harvard in the hip hop archive. He's a lot of people in the hip archive.

[00:13:36] He's a master's from Harvard and creative writing. So it's like, it's kind of great that like this kind of creative incubator, you know,

[00:13:47] that we started in the early 2000s.

[00:13:50] It's like continues to grow and spiral outwards. And we started by just, yeah, taking something that we're passionate about, which was hip hop.

[00:14:02] And it's like a supernatural, you know, and putting that into a story that could be told in comic form.

[00:14:13] Well, it's so, you know, it's so amazing for us. It's so valuable what you all did because, you know, again, like we talk about it all the time on this show.

[00:14:25] Here we are. These kids who just love anything weird, right? Science fiction, fantasy, horror, anything weird like we're all about it. And you know, we, you know, we got different generations of of sisters in the show.

[00:14:43] And you know, you can see the progression like from Sabrina's generation to our generation to our millennial friends and events, daughters.

[00:14:53] You know, all of us really constantly looking for ourselves.

[00:14:59] You know, I mean, I grew up reading science fiction and fantasy from a really, you know, from a really young age, like as soon as I learned how to read, like I used to have problems reading

[00:15:11] like in first grade, my parents got me a tutor. And after that, forget about it.

[00:15:16] I constantly had a book in my hand and I was reading far above my grade level all the time. And all those times, I mean, I started with, you know, with

[00:15:27] like the lion, a witch in the wardrobe and other wonderful classics, you know, for kids. And then I started looking for me. And like it was just so amazing to me that I was

[00:15:40] almost in a full blown adult. I think I was like 19 years old or something before I first saw myself on the cover of one of these books that I had been reading my whole life.

[00:15:53] And that was because it was an Octavia Butler book. And I finally discovered her in a bookstore. There was some bookstore that was spending my time in and I looked in the woman looked like me on the cover.

[00:16:06] So, you know, and I mean, I wasn't so much of a comics person growing up, but I was 10, 10 gently around comics, you know, and a lot of my friends were hardcore into comics.

[00:16:17] And I remember finally starting to see relatable black characters in those books and those comic books that my friends were bringing around to me, you know, in those graphic novels. And so it, I mean, it's so huge.

[00:16:33] My story is actually similar to yours in that I spent a lot of time, you know, just like with me and my brother growing up.

[00:16:50] Somehow, and he would we would create worlds together based off of the like latest sci fi that we have been exposed to.

[00:17:05] One of the big ones was Dungeons and Dragons.

[00:17:09] And which we just happened on the book and took for a lot of people, um, Dungeons and Dragons is about this like kind of larger community where you're able to play with a bunch of friends that was not my situation at all.

[00:17:25] It was literally like we came across the book, you know, bought the book at the bookstore and my brother was the dungeon master. And I was there.

[00:17:35] And it was like it was it need anybody else eating worlds.

[00:17:40] You know, he also liked to torment me.

[00:17:45] I think I'd be fighting, you know, warlocks and orange stuff, you know, casting spell.

[00:17:55] I mean, it was just it was so fascinating. So that's how things came into our world.

[00:18:01] It was it was in a very kind of individual way. And we had a lot of time to just read.

[00:18:10] Dun was one another one.

[00:18:12] Oh, yes.

[00:18:14] Related to that somehow it's like I don't know if you all had this experience like growing up in the 70s of 80s where there weren't black people, you know, or any representation, you would kind of invent it.

[00:18:28] Yes, absolutely.

[00:18:30] If you didn't say white, he was black.

[00:18:33] The block was definitely black.

[00:18:36] Oh, definitely.

[00:18:38] Oh yeah, definitely.

[00:18:40] Probably black.

[00:18:41] I do.

[00:18:42] Yeah, he is definitely black.

[00:18:45] I too can give a side eye like no one.

[00:18:51] And always mumbling under his under his right.

[00:18:56] And one of my first exposures, I just really one of my first memories was

[00:19:04] being a kid, being with my grandmother, having it be nap time.

[00:19:11] But something was on the TV that we wanted to watch and her going to shut it off and then seeing a black woman on the TV screen.

[00:19:21] And then she was like, I don't know, you know, I was like, a little nickels.

[00:19:24] As a whora and being like, OK, you can stay up and watch this.

[00:19:32] As long as she's on TV.

[00:19:37] Those truly memories of my grandmother, you know, kind of of watching something on TV.

[00:19:45] those are kind of my formational.

[00:19:47] You know, we get there moments.

[00:19:50] Yeah.

[00:19:51] So tell me how it came about that you got the call to do a short

[00:19:56] track because I hear you're doing here.

[00:19:59] You are doing all this animation.

[00:20:00] You're doing the comics.

[00:20:02] How did it jump over to discovery?

[00:20:05] OK.

[00:20:05] So I was working on as a writer's assistant

[00:20:12] on a discovery season one.

[00:20:15] And as I was always pitching to, you know,

[00:20:23] on stories where appropriate what I saw for the characters.

[00:20:33] And a lot of times as an assistant, a writer's assistant,

[00:20:39] you know, those pitches can be useful but probably not

[00:20:43] in the way that you might envision them.

[00:20:46] And so, but I think one thing that helped me with gain the trust

[00:20:54] of other writers in the room is that most of the things

[00:20:59] that I was pitching was additive to where the story was

[00:21:04] already going.

[00:21:05] So as opposed to, let me pitch something

[00:21:09] that kind of takes us off the tracks.

[00:21:11] So I think I was able to kind of gauge that because

[00:21:18] of my experience like collaborating

[00:21:23] with street legends and imagination, you know,

[00:21:27] working with other people and knowing kind of when

[00:21:31] is good to throw a new idea out there.

[00:21:34] And so season two came up.

[00:21:40] And in season two was my first season

[00:21:45] that I got a freelance script.

[00:21:49] And so I'm going to give you the long version.

[00:21:53] We hear it because we're in here.

[00:21:54] We're here.

[00:21:55] You see us all like, we'll get there.

[00:21:59] Take your time.

[00:22:00] OK.

[00:22:01] Thank you.

[00:22:03] So in season two, we set up a big mystery.

[00:22:10] But the thing for me in that great mystery was also

[00:22:21] promise that we have made the audience in season one,

[00:22:30] which was that Michael Burnham was 10 years old when she

[00:22:37] was adopted by Sarah Kenehmanda.

[00:22:40] Very.

[00:22:40] And she came to live with them.

[00:22:42] So being the father of a 10 year old, I said,

[00:22:48] that's a whole human being.

[00:22:49] Yeah.

[00:22:50] Yeah.

[00:22:51] Yeah.

[00:22:52] Like Michael Burnham had to be kind of really formed

[00:23:00] by the time she was adopted by Sarah Kenehmanda

[00:23:03] because personality, you know, and psychologists will tell

[00:23:09] you by the time you're seven years old, your general personality

[00:23:14] character has already formed.

[00:23:16] And I've been imprinted on you.

[00:23:18] Well, right?

[00:23:19] So so and then just as a parent, you know this.

[00:23:23] So that in season two, that's where my pitches became

[00:23:29] directed.

[00:23:30] Right?

[00:23:31] That we have to know that Sarah Kenehmanda

[00:23:36] are inheriting this fully formed human being.

[00:23:43] And you're told, although she had to adapt to being

[00:23:46] spoken.

[00:23:48] So essentially what we have this great mystery right

[00:23:54] to uncover.

[00:23:56] And so most of the focus and energy

[00:24:01] was in that direction.

[00:24:04] So I took it upon myself to go right, my pitches down.

[00:24:10] And I did what a lot of screenwriting, advice,

[00:24:16] or industry advice will tell you not to do, which

[00:24:19] is to write a spec script of your own show.

[00:24:24] I just want to get this out of my head because if I don't,

[00:24:30] I won't be able to live with myself.

[00:24:36] Right?

[00:24:36] You won't be able to write anything else until you get it out

[00:24:38] of your head.

[00:24:40] And as I got into it, I felt pretty confident

[00:24:52] that I was on to something.

[00:24:53] And so I mentioned it to showrunners.

[00:24:57] And I mentioned it to Alex Kurtzman who

[00:25:01] was our showrunner for season two.

[00:25:06] Michelle Paradise had joined in season two

[00:25:10] and was a major part of everything that we're doing.

[00:25:15] And I pitched the story, and it said, that's interesting.

[00:25:23] And I said, actually, I've written 40 pages.

[00:25:26] Oh wow.

[00:25:27] Oh good.

[00:25:28] And Alex said, well, would you share with me

[00:25:35] if the room can spare you for a day or two

[00:25:40] in an afternoon.

[00:25:41] I'd love to talk about it.

[00:25:44] So I of course sent him the pages that I had.

[00:25:51] Send me what you got.

[00:25:54] And I sent them the pages that I have,

[00:25:56] and I go for the meeting.

[00:25:57] And I walk in the room, and he has my pages out.

[00:26:04] And so he's just reading it as I walk into the room.

[00:26:09] And so I sit down and I've worked with Alex before, we go back.

[00:26:17] But this was a new level of intimacy.

[00:26:22] Reading script in front of you.

[00:26:25] In front of you.

[00:26:26] This conversation can go one or two ways.

[00:26:28] It's really going to be a good conversation

[00:26:31] or a tough conversation.

[00:26:33] He finishes reading, and he puts the script down.

[00:26:40] And then he is quiet, not for a minute.

[00:26:50] Probably a good four minutes.

[00:26:53] Oh my god.

[00:26:54] Oh my goodness.

[00:26:57] I'm just there.

[00:26:58] I'm just there.

[00:27:01] Just there.

[00:27:02] Marinate.

[00:27:02] I'm going to hang it out.

[00:27:04] And then he proceeds to integrating my story of Bernome

[00:27:11] finding her or reaching out for her birth parents,

[00:27:18] integrating that he proceeds to pitch me out

[00:27:22] his vision for the back half of season two.

[00:27:25] And all the things that end up becoming section 31,

[00:27:31] and you know, Bernome's birth mom and all those things

[00:27:34] all integrated.

[00:27:35] And he said, I think he said, not only is there something here,

[00:27:42] but this could be good.

[00:27:45] And you're going to write it or co-write it.

[00:27:50] And that will be your first start track script.

[00:27:55] It's a good one.

[00:27:56] It's a good one.

[00:27:59] And so that was a pretty awesome moment.

[00:28:06] And then he's still, he's got that look at the smile

[00:28:09] he's got now.

[00:28:10] I know.

[00:28:11] And this is what 2017.

[00:28:15] Right.

[00:28:16] Right.

[00:28:17] And so naturally as I promised, I'm going

[00:28:19] to bring it back to the short track of it all.

[00:28:21] And that I've been becoming episode 211, perpetual infinity,

[00:28:27] where Bernome meets her Dr. Gabrielle Burnham, her birth mother.

[00:28:32] Mama Burnham.

[00:28:33] And we all screamed on that episode.

[00:28:36] Oh my god.

[00:28:37] And we saw your name on the subject.

[00:28:38] We're like, who's this brandish old square?

[00:28:39] Is that a brother?

[00:28:44] Hold up.

[00:28:46] Two Alan McElroy and my co-writer.

[00:28:48] Right.

[00:28:49] Who is hell and a genius and walked me through

[00:28:55] and one of my, like my big brother.

[00:28:57] And he asked to claim me.

[00:28:59] I was.

[00:29:02] Hi, Alan.

[00:29:05] Master class in writing continued to be caught, taught.

[00:29:13] And so because I have that kind of background of working

[00:29:21] in animation and also writing for Michael Burnham and her family,

[00:29:29] and her birth family, her family who were those.

[00:29:33] I think that's why Alex, Jenny, and Akiva came to me for the short tracks,

[00:29:40] which ended up becoming a girl who made the stars.

[00:29:46] It was my favorite one.

[00:29:47] It's my favorite.

[00:29:48] It was my favorite.

[00:29:49] My favorite one.

[00:29:50] Five car.

[00:29:51] Awesome.

[00:29:52] I have to share something with you, Brandon.

[00:29:55] So my daughter is into stars right now.

[00:30:00] And she came in through a card, but I told her you need to watch discoveries.

[00:30:04] I think you'll enjoy it.

[00:30:06] So she watched the first season and I said, then I want you to watch the girl who made

[00:30:11] the stars.

[00:30:12] And she watched that and just bulb.

[00:30:20] You know, I mean, not you know, just as she's watching it,

[00:30:24] she's in all of it.

[00:30:25] And I'm watching her and she goes, nobody does this for us.

[00:30:30] Nobody ever does this for us.

[00:30:32] And I totally got everything she was saying.

[00:30:36] And I never forget that every time I watch that short track, I always think of that.

[00:30:41] So I want to let you know that how it affected little girls, big girls, men.

[00:30:48] You know, it was, it was, it's a powerful piece.

[00:30:52] Yeah.

[00:30:53] It is a classic, it's classic track.

[00:30:56] Yeah.

[00:30:57] There's no difference about it.

[00:30:58] And it is, it's powerful.

[00:31:01] I mean, there are, even when I think about it, I get like gooseies thinking about that

[00:31:08] episode.

[00:31:09] You did a wonderful job.

[00:31:12] I always wanted to let you know that.

[00:31:14] So anything that's, anything that starts a thousand centuries ago in Africa.

[00:31:19] Yes.

[00:31:20] And I'm like, oh, this is a real.

[00:31:30] I start off like, okay, this is the black version of an Egalaxie.

[00:31:35] Yeah.

[00:31:36] Yeah.

[00:31:37] Huge props to a Latune day on Tusson.

[00:31:46] There was just a lot of love in it.

[00:31:50] You could tell.

[00:31:51] You could tell Alex hurts me.

[00:31:54] He really, he would not let that not be everything that it was supposed to be and it needed

[00:32:05] to be.

[00:32:06] And I appreciate that commitment, you know, because your daughter is right.

[00:32:15] She was right.

[00:32:16] When she said that, I was like, we have not.

[00:32:20] And so but for that level of commitment by everybody who worked on that, our visual effects

[00:32:30] department, you know, wrote up their sleeves and they did amazing things.

[00:32:35] So I just keep on shouting them out.

[00:32:39] Yeah.

[00:32:40] Yeah.

[00:32:41] Because love it was that was definitely done with love.

[00:32:42] You could tell it.

[00:32:43] On.

[00:32:44] Yeah.

[00:32:45] They took care of it.

[00:32:46] You know, like it was the precious jewel that it is.

[00:32:49] Yeah.

[00:32:50] Yeah.

[00:32:51] And then it was really illuminating to be part of that process.

[00:32:59] You know, from the beginning to just beginning ideation.

[00:33:04] Right?

[00:33:05] Just seeing what the first draft of.

[00:33:08] Alex, I think we want to do after a future is on.

[00:33:12] I said, okay.

[00:33:13] And then he's okay.

[00:33:17] Yeah.

[00:33:18] That budget would be like the budget for like a season.

[00:33:24] Right.

[00:33:25] Yeah.

[00:33:27] A little bit, you know, so then that became a big game draft too.

[00:33:32] But yeah, he was into it.

[00:33:34] I mean, just the creative on that whole project was kind of a great experience of just like,

[00:33:42] you know, really everybody rolling in the same direction and aiming for something that

[00:33:49] would make your daughter react in that same way.

[00:33:52] And so my name is on there as written by but it belongs to like everybody on that crew

[00:33:59] from the creature designers to the voice actors.

[00:34:02] Can we agree?

[00:34:03] Yes.

[00:34:04] Yeah.

[00:34:05] Yeah.

[00:34:06] Yeah.

[00:34:07] Did a good job.

[00:34:08] You know, I watched it this morning to get ready for the show like, you know, 59th time

[00:34:14] I've watched this thing.

[00:34:16] It's so funny that watching it now after the four seasons have gone, that it reminded me

[00:34:23] I was seeing echoes of Burnham confronting this the fourth scene.

[00:34:30] The see.

[00:34:31] And it was like when she would win the little girl meets the alien with the light, you know,

[00:34:36] and she's not scared, you know, and she's going like everyone is telling her not to don't

[00:34:42] go there.

[00:34:43] I felt like season four, you know, it was like, it's like she's going to go to another

[00:34:47] galaxy.

[00:34:48] She's going to meet this alien.

[00:34:49] She's going to talk to it and it's going to give her something that doesn't seem to

[00:34:53] fall.

[00:34:54] Yeah.

[00:34:55] But it was so weird because of course, you know, I didn't see that when I was watching

[00:35:00] it the first time but like 59, I was like, oh, wait a minute.

[00:35:03] Right.

[00:35:04] Mm-hmm.

[00:35:05] 59th time.

[00:35:06] You know, you just put people put things in it now.

[00:35:10] Of course, you know, that weren't even there.

[00:35:12] Did you get to put it in?

[00:35:13] That's what I decided to put in today.

[00:35:16] As the father of two daughters, you know, that was just and also, you know, someone who

[00:35:25] kind of delighted in the ritual of the bedtime story.

[00:35:29] Mm-hmm.

[00:35:30] Yep.

[00:35:31] I was just, you know, couldn't be more happy to be telling a story that came from that

[00:35:42] kind of place.

[00:35:43] You know?

[00:35:44] And really, I'm Kendrick and Tyree McCalpin who's the voice actor for Tiny Burnel.

[00:35:53] I mean, they just—

[00:35:54] Yeah.

[00:35:55] It's like, who are these?

[00:35:57] Like, we're like—

[00:35:58] I nailed it.

[00:35:59] Jazz.

[00:36:00] I love the part where, you know, the little girl says that the father is telling her

[00:36:10] to story and he said that the people tell her to go play.

[00:36:13] And she said, oh, that was just rude.

[00:36:15] Oh, yeah.

[00:36:16] This is like spot on.

[00:36:18] Right here.

[00:36:19] He just—

[00:36:20] Yeah.

[00:36:21] I just love it.

[00:36:23] I just love it.

[00:36:24] I had those—I had those pom-poms when I was little.

[00:36:28] Me too.

[00:36:29] Yes, you.

[00:36:30] Yes, actually, yeah.

[00:36:31] I mean, that was the fun.

[00:36:33] We were recorded like our own scratch tracks for it because the short track were happening

[00:36:40] simultaneously to main production.

[00:36:43] Yeah.

[00:36:44] It really did feel a little bit more like, you know, a scrappy independent project that

[00:36:50] could, right?

[00:36:51] You know, so we were recording our own scratch tracks.

[00:36:56] My dad would play the elder.

[00:36:58] Oh, really?

[00:36:59] And Tiny Burnham, like just to cowl lay things down and try to get a sense of how to

[00:37:08] play that.

[00:37:09] I'm going to be calling her a Tiny Burn for the rest of my life.

[00:37:14] How's it going to be Tiny Burnham?

[00:37:16] Tiny Burnham.

[00:37:17] Tiny Burnham.

[00:37:18] I've got to be just an afro puff, you know?

[00:37:21] I don't love that.

[00:37:24] Tiny Burnham.

[00:37:25] I was just blown away by the way our design team just nailed it.

[00:37:34] Oh, they so did.

[00:37:36] Yeah, yes.

[00:37:37] And when that debuted, I mean, like Twitter, everything just went off.

[00:37:41] I mean, people were just—we couldn't talk enough about it.

[00:37:45] We were like, did you see short tracks?

[00:37:47] You know, but he was just kind of misslling.

[00:37:50] Well, it was so exciting, right?

[00:37:54] Because you hadn't had animation in Star Trek since the animated series.

[00:38:00] Yes.

[00:38:01] Okay.

[00:38:02] Well, us, you know, really the only other Star Trek that was on was Discovery at that point.

[00:38:11] I think the card had kind of entered in the mix.

[00:38:14] So there was this great, you know, hunger and anticipation and great job of, you know,

[00:38:25] the studio and the network in terms of like giving it the platform that it felt like, you

[00:38:31] know, it should have.

[00:38:33] So.

[00:38:34] I know.

[00:38:35] You can see we're all still like—

[00:38:39] And I'm really coming down from.

[00:38:42] For hearing you all, I mean, it feels like there is an appetite for more.

[00:38:47] Absolutely.

[00:38:48] Absolutely.

[00:38:49] I mean, if treated with the same love and care and respect, that came absolutely.

[00:38:59] It would be there for all day.

[00:39:00] I can tell you though that people are not there for it just because it's animated, you

[00:39:09] know?

[00:39:10] And, you know, but the quality, what you all did was so special.

[00:39:15] Yeah.

[00:39:16] You know, if you all got more of that, hell's yeah.

[00:39:21] We're on over it.

[00:39:23] We're going on.

[00:39:24] It was very interesting to put a fine point on it.

[00:39:35] If you remember the episode, brother.

[00:39:42] Yes.

[00:39:43] Alex and Jenny had a line in that episode that talks about this myth, this creation

[00:40:01] myth, where the girl dug her hands in the sand and threw them up into the stars.

[00:40:11] And that created the stars, right?

[00:40:13] It's just a line, right?

[00:40:16] And it's very poetic voice over that kind of leads us into the story.

[00:40:20] I'm like, what is that?

[00:40:23] Right?

[00:40:25] And so I had all these pitches about how that would incorporate into the finale of season

[00:40:33] two.

[00:40:34] And that didn't quite, you know, there wasn't quite space enough to do something even though

[00:40:40] like there was a lot of receptiveness towards those pitches.

[00:40:44] And so that's really where it was kind of like, okay, we're doing short tracks.

[00:40:50] You know, the idea for something that encapsulated the spirit of that story, that kind of creation

[00:41:00] story by keeping it very much in a star trek lens, right?

[00:41:07] Star Trek lens.

[00:41:08] What does that look like?

[00:41:09] You know, great stories.

[00:41:11] Now there's a great conversation to have.

[00:41:13] I feel like that's probably one that like, Avery Brooks probably loves, you know, because

[00:41:26] it felt like something like you could see a Cisco and Jake moment.

[00:41:33] You know, it's just as easily there.

[00:41:36] Right.

[00:41:37] Right.

[00:41:38] So interesting because I kind of came to DS9 a little bit later, you know, in my fandom

[00:41:45] because that was during college for me.

[00:41:49] Yeah.

[00:41:50] I really didn't track DS9 until like much later and I'm like, whoa.

[00:41:59] So far somebody told me to see far beyond the stars.

[00:42:04] And I was like, oh my gosh.

[00:42:06] Right.

[00:42:07] I was like, okay, wow.

[00:42:09] All right, this happened and I missed it and it was crazy, but it was a moment it felt

[00:42:15] like, you know, where we had more of that, it felt inevitable, right?

[00:42:22] Yeah.

[00:42:23] Yeah.

[00:42:24] Yeah.

[00:42:25] Yeah.

[00:42:26] More black led stories and images because you had, you know, Spike Lee doing transformative

[00:42:35] work in the early 90s and late 80s, you know, and you had, you know, you should get

[00:42:42] you even had homeboys and outer space.

[00:42:44] You had a whole bunch of guys taking yes, we did.

[00:42:47] Right.

[00:42:48] Until it was gone.

[00:42:49] Right.

[00:42:50] That's not it didn't exist.

[00:42:54] Right.

[00:42:55] Talk about so we see that these things don't happen on a straight path in terms of like

[00:43:02] infinite diversity and infinite.

[00:43:04] Right.

[00:43:05] Like a direct path like what is it?

[00:43:09] And then let's not do that anymore ever.

[00:43:16] Like we get back into the conversation and interesting like to, you know, I think where

[00:43:23] creatives are at the point now as well, we're not really going to let ourselves be at the

[00:43:30] whim of what the industry decides is the trend, you know, and if we are going to be bankable

[00:43:37] like you know that we have to do this work by any means necessary because of what it

[00:43:44] means to you all.

[00:43:45] And what it means to your daughter.

[00:43:46] You know, like absolutely ourselves, you know, like it's not negotiable.

[00:43:51] Right.

[00:43:52] Whether we continue to do this work and elevate it until do it from an authentic standpoint,

[00:43:58] you know, and yeah, that has to be next regardless of the trends and the noise.

[00:44:12] The larger systems.

[00:44:13] I think it's so different now too when we have these conversations because there are

[00:44:20] so many more ways that people can access and control content and output.

[00:44:29] Then we used to have it our fingertips before like in the 90s, right?

[00:44:33] You know, sort of like digital has changed everything and streaming has changed everything

[00:44:39] and you know, it's so much easier I think for us to say now, I'll just do it myself.

[00:44:48] You know, I don't need your backing necessarily.

[00:44:52] I don't need this.

[00:44:53] I can create my own studios.

[00:44:55] I can I've got my own actors and writers and you know sound designers and etc.

[00:45:01] Like we just are much more willing now to just do it ourselves.

[00:45:06] We had these people laying out road maps and putting down these these cobblestones for us the whole way.

[00:45:13] And that's a thing if we work together, right?

[00:45:16] We've heard you know, and it's like we have to kind of teach as we go.

[00:45:22] Like before the Oscar Micheal existed.

[00:45:28] Right.

[00:45:29] I think that's great about the new Academy Museum.

[00:45:37] Yes, that when it opened, there was an Oscar Micheal exhibit within the, within the, within the Academy.

[00:45:46] There also was an exhibit that had a few, I think, Cooley High and Car Wash in it.

[00:45:54] Oh, we generations was to see that.

[00:45:57] Yeah, it was all there.

[00:45:59] But my daughter came home from attending the museum a year and a half later.

[00:46:07] And she said she didn't see it.

[00:46:09] Oh wow.

[00:46:10] It was no longer there.

[00:46:12] It had been changed for the city exhibit was you know said to be temporary but the Oscar Micheal wasn't.

[00:46:22] So she came back saying I didn't see it.

[00:46:26] It definitely is a thing that we the more we kind of are in community, you know like with shows like the platform that you all have.

[00:46:39] I mean, the more important it is to actually support those people that are bootstrapping as well as the great franchises that are done by our studio friends,

[00:46:51] which we're all going to love.

[00:46:53] You know what I mean?

[00:46:54] And we're going to like it has to be a healthy balance, you know what I mean?

[00:46:58] And a healthy ecosystem so that we can do both but we know that we have the, you know capacity to be not only creators, but also the builders of our own kind of story,

[00:47:12] and the legacy and architectures.

[00:47:16] And so that's, if anything, that's the education that I've received, you know, that I want to kind of continue that work.

[00:47:27] A lot of things have brought me full circle back to writing for for comics and writing for, you know my own projects.

[00:47:41] You know that we can sell.

[00:47:45] You can go in full circle. I just wanted to ask you how did you enjoy going back to more house for the panels with celebrating the 10th anniversary of your cinema TV and emerging, emerging media school that's your track that you majored in right now with Mr. Love of who they cloned Tyrone.

[00:48:10] I just saw that movie.

[00:48:14] So yes, that was amazing.

[00:48:18] I was with Dr. Stephanie who brought us to more house for the 10th anniversary right a program cinema television emerging media.

[00:48:39] I did not exist when I was at more house.

[00:48:43] Okay, I do have you know, but was not yet in place.

[00:48:49] And so it's a program that they brought about 10 years ago and so now the program is graduating students out into the world who are coming with portfolios with a vision for who they want to be as storytellers.

[00:49:06] So the more house legacy that includes you know people like Sam Jackson and Spike Lee.

[00:49:15] But now Stephen love, you know and others is just don't give it a Washington.

[00:49:22] I think take a quantum leap in terms of our kind of reach in the industry.

[00:49:32] And so it's been Ben Corey Jones, I'm just thinking of people off the top of my head right.

[00:49:40] Much less more students that right and tie we credible thing.

[00:49:47] And going back or they were kind of to bring us back in August.

[00:49:54] And I got to be on a panel with Pat Charles, who is a writer for shows like sons of anarchy.

[00:50:08] And what else I read for black lightning.

[00:50:16] Yeah, I got to and it is a friend, you know, who you know personal friend who goes back to our comic book and animation days.

[00:50:31] And so Pat and I have been on a journey, like working on each other's projects going back you know 20 years.

[00:50:41] So that was a really cool combination.

[00:50:46] And then we start meeting the students right.

[00:50:51] Just you know more house students right but students from across the Atlanta University Center,

[00:50:59] as a no, are.

[00:51:02] Yeah, five.

[00:51:05] A use five HBC use you know in one larger Atlanta campus.

[00:51:11] So, uh, Clark Atlanta University which my wife is a proud alum.

[00:51:20] And then students, Morris Brown, ITC and then more house.

[00:51:26] So we were there the students were incredible because they were so ready for to have these conversation.

[00:51:38] And I met a young woman who was who came up to me.

[00:51:45] And within like 30 seconds of starting our conversations, like how do I get any animation?

[00:51:53] Okay, all right.

[00:51:55] Do you have a pencil?

[00:51:58] Step one.

[00:52:00] She had 20 with it.

[00:52:03] And then I just want to show you how you know.

[00:52:06] And so there was just really a great kind of cross section and you really saw that hunger, you know.

[00:52:15] That was the kind of the most exciting thing is that in everybody who came and presented.

[00:52:24] The hunger that the students who were there had to talk to them and find out more.

[00:52:32] And so I think that was the kind of thing that I had left feeling inspired and definitely encouraged.

[00:52:39] We were in a good, in a good place going back to the well.

[00:52:44] Yeah, yeah.

[00:52:46] And so I hope to kind of you know go back to become more of, you know, part of the program.

[00:52:56] And you know, really do whatever we can to kind of create a virtuous circle.

[00:53:08] Right?

[00:53:10] It's so necessary because you can in this industry, it doesn't matter how you're connected.

[00:53:17] It can be a very lonely place.

[00:53:20] Yeah, it can be extremely lonely because you have to do things that are abnormal.

[00:53:29] You know in order to, you know, create a life that feels, you know, rewarding.

[00:53:37] And there's very few people outside of the industry.

[00:53:43] You know, can understand your set of circumstances and even less can understand what it is to be from, you know, the background that you come from.

[00:53:58] Yeah, to have these cultural this need to tell these cultural stories.

[00:54:03] You know, whether or not like that is the trend or not.

[00:54:08] Right, right.

[00:54:10] How is that also like making a career and making a life that you know pays you, you know what you need to survive and thrive and raise a family.

[00:54:22] All those conversations, all those things are, are things that we can do a better job of supporting one another with.

[00:54:34] You know, and so that's what I left most excited about.

[00:54:40] What was that fact?

[00:54:43] I wanted you to talk a little bit about that program because, you know, people wanting that like he said, those kids are so hungry for it.

[00:54:50] And I think a lot of people don't realize that there are other schools that offer these great programs besides, you know, USC and, you know, tissue or whatever, you know, even you've been a film academy, whatever film schools, you know,

[00:55:03] you know, there's these other schools. You know, we have Howard here in DC this doing some wonderful things and, you know, I definitely wanted to make sure we mentioned this program at Morehouse and have a little promotion for it because I'm just,

[00:55:17] I was amazed when I looked at the panel program. I was like, oh wow, this is the shed here.

[00:55:26] I would have died to go and I was looking at it like I wish I could have been at this panel.

[00:55:31] May, I know what will hopefully we'll do it again because also Kevin hooks is the visiting professor.

[00:55:42] Oh man, yeah.

[00:55:44] So if you don't know Kevin hooks, he was the director of passenger 57 before that. He was an actor, a son of actor Robert and Kevin was on the white shadow, which was early.

[00:56:03] I think it's such a question.

[00:56:06] Yeah, and these kids are getting him somebody like that on a daily basis.

[00:56:14] Wow. That's pretty cool.

[00:56:17] You know, he's made this his life right is he.

[00:56:21] And so it was great to be able to connect with him again, Pat Charles who is not more as alum. He's not more as alum either but he's a visiting professor there.

[00:56:32] And all that's highly hugely accomplished writer, you know what I mean? He is part of the faculty.

[00:56:40] So it's like we're really putting together like best and brightest.

[00:56:47] I mean, and I know plenty of film school.

[00:56:52] That you know have, you know, prominent names and reputations that do not have that level right?

[00:57:05] And I think it's a lot of leadership and of instruction.

[00:57:10] Yeah, I'm excited for.

[00:57:13] And you're right there in Atlanta which is like the number three, you know production capital, you know, Hollywood New York Atlanta. There you are.

[00:57:21] Yeah.

[00:57:22] And yeah, so.

[00:57:25] Oh, I'm excited. It's exciting.

[00:57:28] Yeah.

[00:57:29] And even the and the facilities, you know, we're that was surprising. It was new. It was all new to me.

[00:57:37] So yeah, huge, huge.

[00:57:41] Oh, see man, right? He's an alum now.

[00:57:46] And he's been directed episodes of the wire.

[00:57:49] Yeah.

[00:57:51] And all your favorite TV show.

[00:57:55] I'm telling you, this was no joke. I was looking at this panel and who was there?

[00:57:59] And who's coming out of this thing and what this program is like wait, wait, wait, wait.

[00:58:03] I didn't know more house had all this.

[00:58:07] I want to make a side note real quick Robert Hooks was in Star Trek.

[00:58:12] He was at Moumaro or something like that.

[00:58:15] Oh, yeah.

[00:58:17] Robert Hooks.

[00:58:19] Robert.

[00:58:20] He was going to decommission the enterprise but I was great.

[00:58:23] I look them anyway.

[00:58:25] Robert was Robert Hooks was a member of the Negro Ensemble company.

[00:58:33] Oh, yeah.

[00:58:34] Oh, wow.

[00:58:35] I was a big fan of the 70s and 70s.

[00:58:40] When, and that's where my dad got started in theater.

[00:58:47] Wow.

[00:58:48] Was part of that company.

[00:58:50] So I get there and like I'm getting like the world's biggest hug from.

[00:58:56] I was probably too young to remember. He was older, you know, kind of remembered me and so I was like wow, yeah.

[00:59:06] It's a great name.

[00:59:07] He was trouble man.

[00:59:08] He was trouble man. That's all I got to say.

[00:59:12] The original white suit.

[00:59:14] The original one.

[00:59:16] I love that movie.

[00:59:20] I love it.

[00:59:21] Yeah, so there's a deep well of talent.

[00:59:25] And you know, I think Atlanta, you know, is, you know, this is really an interesting place.

[00:59:36] And so I proudly call it my second second home because you know, it's.

[00:59:44] It really is chocolate city.

[00:59:46] That's where we're at.

[00:59:47] I'm not sure if it's that much.

[00:59:49] I think it's that much.

[00:59:50] Yeah, as well.

[00:59:51] Yeah, definitely took that from DC.

[00:59:54] DC is no longer chocolate city.

[00:59:56] I mean, I grew up here my whole life's being so proud to be from chocolate city.

[01:00:00] And we are not chocolate city anymore.

[01:00:03] I can tell you that much.

[01:00:05] It comes out your fast.

[01:00:07] Boy.

[01:00:08] Yeah.

[01:00:10] Look out your window.

[01:00:12] Who's that walking that dog?

[01:00:13] I still talk to people like who move here, you know, black folks who move here from other places.

[01:00:20] And who are still just so amazed because.

[01:00:23] And I take it for granted how wonderful it is that I've grown up around black folks doing all sorts of stuff on the daily basis right black professionals.

[01:00:34] Black folks are all sorts of walks of life but seeing us.

[01:00:39] Fully engaged in in our citizenry and.

[01:00:44] You know, living our lives in a very free way.

[01:00:48] And I take it for granted until I talk to somebody else who is not from a place that is so.

[01:00:55] Right, you know, they have so many black folks and you know there's the one of the few or like never saw black professionals.

[01:01:03] Until they moved here, you know, never saw any black people in a.

[01:01:08] Outside of like maybe a teacher right but didn't never didn't know black doctors or black lawyers or.

[01:01:15] You know black architects, you know certainly not any black politicians.

[01:01:20] You know, you know, I mean and these are just this is just normal life for me, you know so I forget that you know I really.

[01:01:28] Even though we're not chocolate city anymore i'm still very blessed to live in this environment and to have been raised in such a way.

[01:01:38] Yeah no and it's something that you can't it's something that's hard to kind of quantify that right to yourself.

[01:01:50] In the majority, you know or just even in numbers right.

[01:01:57] I had this experience a few times in my life, you know one time was was when I when I first visited.

[01:02:09] The Atlanta University Center and I was sure I was not going to more house.

[01:02:16] I was not going to be able to do it.

[01:02:26] You know what, because it was all male school right yeah thank you very thank you but no thank you.

[01:02:34] Bless her was just always been the one in our family who brought you know our culture revolutionary thinking black trivial pursuit and she's like you gotta go.

[01:02:53] And my cousin had gone the year before me and I was like okay well there might be something to it but i'm definitely not going here it's either like Hampton or Howard.

[01:03:06] I was HBCU definitely happening and needed you know a different experience because I had grown up in a very progressive you know small.

[01:03:19] High school you know which was great and nurturing and all that but it was like I knew was not real life right.

[01:03:29] Not real life.

[01:03:32] No, no this was not check out yeah that's the headliner.

[01:03:39] Right.

[01:03:42] So I knew I had and I wanted to get out of LA as well so it was Howard or Hampton but I'll go and visit then you know my cousin takes me to.

[01:04:00] It's a Friday just on a random spring day nothing special and he's like yeah come with me we're going to go to the yard yard what's that you know.

[01:04:12] And I was like wow where are we.

[01:04:38] I was outside of my body because something that existed in Los Angeles at all we were in the height of you know gang era and yeah.

[01:04:51] I've been shooting and I've been to a couple of.

[01:04:56] And you know so I really felt like okay maybe John Singleton was on to something.

[01:05:11] Yeah, I was like okay maybe he's on to something that's very interesting and I never got a chance to ask him like why that was so important because John Singleton as we know went to USC.

[01:05:26] Yeah.

[01:05:28] Even to people who didn't go there it meant something and I got that in that moment.

[01:05:35] And so it didn't take long for it didn't even take the whole weekend for me to decide.

[01:05:45] This is where I wanted to be.

[01:05:47] I'm going to say Saturday morning.

[01:05:49] I'll call me here this is it yeah you can count them on one finger.

[01:05:57] I'm early and I'm getting out and by the way circling back to your first question after reading my my college essay that's when my mom turns you know ghost me and she says you know you're a writer right.

[01:06:12] I'm like to me like you know I struggle with you know writing and you know it's hard and like I do it when I have to get into a college that I really.

[01:06:37] I had to get an A on the last you know chemistry paper in order to pass the class you know so you know that's when and those words kind of stay with me.

[01:06:52] She was definitely she said it more she had said it to me before she'd said it more than once and it took so long slow learning.

[01:07:06] But eventually I sometimes it does click you know to point where I like yeah I can't deny this like this is the most fun.

[01:07:18] You know thing that occupations is the most fun journey you know that I could be on because it's something that I can do you know and work on from the heart each day you know so it kind of makes everything.

[01:07:35] Having that that privilege you know not just to you know have be associated with you know a great project or have a great job but just to push yourself in order to tell the story best stories that you possibly can.

[01:07:59] It's an incredible gift and also an incredible responsibility yeah yeah not only to yourself but like to all the people who you who are going to stand to be touched you know I mean by what you're why what you're doing by what you're.

[01:08:19] Yeah yeah yeah yeah and it's just one one page of the time right.

[01:08:34] Over and over again.

[01:08:43] Over and over again really briefly I wanted to because I know we've got you and we're taking up a lot of your time I really appreciate it just I just realized what time it is how long we've been talking it's just been a lot of fun.

[01:09:00] And also I mean it you guys represent like my wildest dreams.

[01:09:08] I would tell anyone who had listened like in the first season of discovery like we need to reach you know our outreach you know needs to be as diverse as our cast is right how can we get.

[01:09:29] People like the sci-fi sisters talking about the show right and then even broader than that aside from anything that's.

[01:09:41] That star track related right how do we start how do we nourish right and ecosystem that celebrates and upholds you know content that we want to see right and how do we make this.

[01:09:58] Conversation that really platforms you know the great stuff that we're doing they so I it's I feel really.

[01:10:11] I'm really honored to be here and just excited for like all the other times you guys all the other all the other times i'm planning to come back on sci-fi.

[01:10:22] Yeah.

[01:10:25] So it's a great guys schedule up.

[01:10:36] We can act as we go and so that's why I love that it's not limited you're not limiting yourselves to any single fandom right much is I will always you know and foundationally a tracker right right.

[01:10:54] love the tracker is like what we're talking about is everything. It is Afro-futurism, you know,

[01:11:01] is how we see ourselves and also how we end up in conversation with other communities right

[01:11:09] and um and and kind of you know forge you know walk and fresh snow you know yeah as it were and

[01:11:21] so for all those reasons like you know bring me up bring me up any time. Thank you.

[01:11:30] Careful with your wish. It's on take it's on take now. So yeah go back on it now.

[01:11:41] There are and hopefully the doors open to where I can do the same. I have you know some exciting

[01:11:49] things on the horizon that I kind of hope to be able to share with. Yeah that'd be great. We're

[01:11:55] really looking forward to to what's coming you know yeah but thank you for everything that you

[01:12:03] brought thus far but you know we really can't wait to see what else is coming down the pipe.

[01:12:11] Amazing amazing. And yeah I just really you know kind of feeling a tremendous gratitude for

[01:12:28] for this uh the existence of a show you know like like yours keep keep going keep getting bigger

[01:12:38] and oh better I hope that you guys talk to up like people who are in our other unions right yeah

[01:12:47] yeah yeah just WGA and SAG people but like customers I don't know if you guys have been in touch

[01:12:55] with Gershia Phillips not yet but if you got a number. Not snudge wing wing she's on our wish list

[01:13:03] things she was our customer for season one and two yes uh currently she is the best

[01:13:10] she has the best yeah amazing I in preparation for this you know conversation I did peek back at

[01:13:23] um uh season two episode that I co-wrote with that we talked about earlier with Alan McHell

[01:13:30] Roy um perpetual infinity and I was just struck by like the costumes right the set design um

[01:13:43] uh what doctaria alpha you know look like which is the research station where dr gabriel bernum and

[01:13:54] and mike bernum were stationed um and some of these all all of the different storytellers right

[01:14:04] throughout our crew um do things with such thoughtfulness right um and such intention behind them

[01:14:17] to like carry forward our words and so you will not be disappointed

[01:14:24] you know um yeah from the vfx side okay we're down for that we like actually we've talked about

[01:14:35] that a lot a lot yeah yeah so you're you're absolutely reading our minds because uh because of

[01:14:42] exactly what you said because there's a whole there's a lot of us that you know people focus on

[01:14:47] the the talent on the screen like the actors yeah but then there's all this other talent surrounding

[01:14:52] to bring all these stories to life you know and um and our voices are so important in every aspect

[01:14:59] we get to be on there you know and I remember just really starting to understand this while

[01:15:06] I was watching ds9 like because avry brooks made no bones about the culture that he was sprinkling

[01:15:13] throughout that station that was ours to make sure that we understood he was talking to

[01:15:21] us little black science fiction fans you know it's to let us know that we were there we're there

[01:15:27] in the future you know and um you know and there was a conscious decision so you know it

[01:15:33] it's it's huge we would love to that's just a long way of saying yeah bring it on

[01:15:44] oh my god guys we really have to wrap it up though because for real like like otherwise

[01:15:48] your wife is gonna be like hello are you still talking can you

[01:15:52] have that you done now like what's up

[01:15:57] well everybody's on board everyone my daughter knows you guys oh

[01:16:05] I don't know surprise she's like she's she's like a partial nerd

[01:16:11] oh yeah but um that's so cool and she and her and sci-fi sisters I said I'm on the sci-fi

[01:16:21] sister yeah oh that is really good please tell her we said hello because without discovery

[01:16:30] there would be no sci-fi sisters they fed the cats super super super is right Sabrina just said

[01:16:40] if it wasn't for discovery there would be no sci-fi sisters yeah so um that I always say that um

[01:16:47] discovery is just so important um in in the Star Trek world I think in just science fiction

[01:16:54] storytelling it just it's just brought people like I said with my daughter it just it just hit people

[01:17:01] that needed to be hit you know it was a love letter to all those fans who were out there who just

[01:17:07] we like we love Star Trek but we still never saw ourselves we knew we were there because of certain

[01:17:13] people but then discovery came along and I don't know I just made it real you know and it made it

[01:17:21] real for another generation which I absolutely love yeah go we knew we were there but they weren't

[01:17:26] particularly telling our stories right you know and it's like you know it was kind of like the sort of

[01:17:33] the you know the sort of uh what's the word like like white washed version you know I mean part

[01:17:41] in the pun but you know where it's like you know like you know you have certain authors that are

[01:17:45] like yeah I have a really diverse cast of characters but they don't deal with anything culturally it's

[01:17:51] just like you're just in this story and this person happens to be brown or happens to be

[01:17:57] of some type of Asian descent or happened but they all culturally uh it's really homogenous

[01:18:03] you know sidekicks once again yeah right oh whether there are main characters too you know like

[01:18:08] I mean I've read I've read some authors that I really love but and they people their stories

[01:18:14] with us but it's you could tell it's not somebody writing from a perspective of other

[01:18:21] ever yeah yeah I mean and those are when it you know it when it feels real

[01:18:32] and authentic and like center yeah like and it's not something that you can always articulate right

[01:18:41] yeah you know but some you know it when it's not right and sometimes it's not the fault of like people

[01:18:52] who might have happened to be on the show because it's like right yeah yeah yeah yeah staying on

[01:18:58] discovery that we have been really fortunate is like is that you know we've had that year right

[01:19:08] to listen to say when we throw one a flag has been thrown and so that doesn't feel right

[01:19:17] or you know how about this right how about incorporating you know the birth parents of our lead

[01:19:27] character you know into into the story and grounding that like those are times where I feel like

[01:19:37] you know the people running the show have kind of have stepped up and been part of it even

[01:19:44] parts of the show like in sanctuary episode 308 where blue

[01:19:56] um dubbario or actor um their character comes out as

[01:20:05] non binary right um but I prefer just in the most in simplest terms yeah saying

[01:20:15] they have always felt like a thing um and

[01:20:20] and that was a converse that was the result of conversation you know and listening a lot of

[01:20:29] the live listening then imposing right yeah being a small part of that team um it was really

[01:20:40] meaningful you know and and the fact that things landed with you all

[01:20:48] yeah right and like and your daughters like that's incredible because of the plague we have to touch

[01:20:59] you know we have to reach fresh ground well of course we're gonna you know

[01:21:04] have all the klingons we're gonna have spock and introduce a pike and you know we're gonna

[01:21:12] you know we're gonna you know we also we want to reach you know um if we reach these new audiences in a

[01:21:21] way that they feel seen you know that's that's what star trek has always done right then we're

[01:21:28] we're in that legacy and that's like my grandmother pausing before she turns off the TV

[01:21:35] yeah okay you go wash this exactly exactly that's a direct line I love it you know so to be part of

[01:21:45] that has been been a lot of great privileges in my life so cool no it's been it's been a super

[01:21:51] privilege for us to spend this much time with you and to talk to you and get to know you and um

[01:21:58] I mean we're just so delighted we love you and you can't get rid of us so don't even try

[01:22:08] yes that's great oh man yeah uh yeah well please um don't hesitate to reach out I was

[01:22:18] honored that you guys reached out you know just recently and um uh and I look forward to doing it again

[01:22:26] okay yeah yeah part two we got a lot more talk oh yeah we sure do because we we only touch the tip of

[01:22:32] the ice fair this time like we haven't even talked about like upcoming stuff that you can talk

[01:22:38] about yes do you have anything that you want to pitch real quick before we go that you can talk

[01:22:45] yeah follow me on uh on the Instagram try not to get better at that

[01:22:56] it's be shouts writing you know and I think that's where we'll kind of let we'll do our announcement

[01:23:03] funnel okay okay and things and things of that nature um but yeah well maybe a little premature right

[01:23:10] now but okay we're really excited um to for a few projects that I'm up to oh and also I'm developing a

[01:23:18] project that is an animated project that would be like right down the alley of what we've we've talked

[01:23:26] about sweet sweet another thing so anyway y'all hear that I'm still sticking in the kitchen

[01:23:34] yeah I love it I'm ready to serve it so if that you want to let people know where they can

[01:23:43] reach us if they have thoughts on anything that we discussed today or just want to say hi to

[01:23:48] Brandon via us you can find us on sitefysisters.com that's sy-f-y-s-i-s-t-a-s.com join us on the mother ship

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