We were lucky to catch up with Josh Weisbrod recently and have shared our conversation below.
Josh, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
When I was in school and envisioning my ideal career, I would imagine myself as a professional working in the animation industry, but who also pursued my own creative endeavors on the side. In practice, this is very difficult– it turns out creative energy is finite. It’s not that I don’t try to always have a personal project going (I do), but coming back to a computer screen after spending 8 hours staring at one can feel suffocating. Plus after finding a solution to and overcoming a difficult problem in my professional life, sometimes my brain just feels like two sparking, disconnected wires that can’t come together anymore.
It can be easy to feel buried under everything I feel obligated to do. So I think it is important for me to stay inspired about life in general. Creativity doesn’t need to be solely tied to work (whether personal or professional). I love to meet and hang out with people who really listen and who make me laugh. I have been enjoying hiking and have started to dip my toe into performing stand-up comedy. When I’m open to these experiences, I will generally learn something new. And when I am learning new things, I am happier about life. And when I’m happy, I am more creative.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a storyboard artist in children’s TV. Currently I work at WB on Teen Titans Go! I really enjoy my job because, although I have worked on something like 50 episodes of this show, it always feels different and always presents new challenges. For example, I have done a lot of montages and scenes of the characters eating or getting sick to their stomachs– but still, each one has to be different from the last.
I am originally from Dallas, Texas and I always loved animation and comic books. When I was a kid I didn’t even really want to watch things that weren’t animated. My Bar Mitzvah was animation-themed. I went to New York City for college but I graduated directly into the 2008 recession. I had a lot of trouble finding work in animation– I would call studios and sometimes they would talk to me on the phone for a while, telling me about how the industry was dead and it wasn’t picking up anytime soon. I ended up working at a comic book store (Forbidden Planet NYC) for several years, which allowed me to meet a lot of like-minded people and opened me up to great (if not necessarily professional) opportunities. As things started to pick up economically, I began to get small freelance animation jobs with various independent animators and studios. At the same time I was trying to complete my own creative projects. I wrote and drew a comic, I started doing paintings and painting/ sculpting lamps, and eventually I completed a short animated film which I submitted to festivals.
After a few years out of school, I decided I wanted to try going for a Masters, which would give me time and mental space to make more films, meet new people, and give me more options. I ended up moving to Los Angeles to attend USC’s MFA program. Since then I have mainly been working at WB, for about 8 years now. TTGO! feels like it encompasses a lot of my previous interest in animation and comics, so I am very happy to have gotten a chance to work on it.
This past year I decided I wanted to try to step more out of my comfort zone and try stand-up comedy as a hobby. It’s a lot of fun and I have even met a few animation professionals who also do it! It is much faster to write and perform stand-up than to produce an animated short or a comic and fulfills some performative need in me.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I think being open to direction and able to adapt to the needs of a production or director is a very valuable and underestimated skill. As an independent filmmaker I could be sort of a control freak and really limited the amount I wanted anyone else to touch one of my projects. Working in TV is about working together for the betterment of the whole project. Once I became open to these suggestions I was able to take what felt right to me and that became part of my own style. It helped to make my communication that much clearer.
Improvisation is another key skill to have. It is beneficial to be able to think on your feet and find many unorthodox solutions to problems in the moment– both in work and in social situations. Plus, always say “yes!” “No” feels more comfortable but “Yes” will keep things interesting.
My other best quality is my work ethic. I am always willing to put in a lot of time and effort into any project I am doing. Otherwise I just feel like I am wasting everyone’s time including my own. I’m not sure if this is always healthy, sometimes I take it to an extreme where the needs of the project exceed the needs of my own health. But as in all things, it is always a journey trying to find a balance.
As for what I would tell people early in their careers, I think it is a good idea to really listen to people with more experience in your industry. Don’t judge anyone too quickly. It doesn’t always feel like it, but there really is no limit to the amount you can learn and it is always possible to improve your skillset.
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
I am a pretty big proponent of going all in on your strengths. I think it is great to be well-rounded, but in the end, all you can be is yourself, and the only voice you can have is your own. Lots of people have excellent technical skills, but point of view is something that can’t be learned really– and yet everyone has one.
When I was tested for what would eventually become my first job in TV animation (Right Now Kapow!), I really tried to show off my technical skills. You know, different angles, cool shots, etc. I also turned in my most recent film at the time (“Unfriended”) as part of my application.
In part, I was very lucky to get this job. And my boss told me so. I had known him from a previous job we had had teaching together, which is what brought me to his attention in the first place. A lot of people say “It’s who you know,” which I think isn’t necessarily always true. But in my case it got my foot in the door. But my boss also told me, my test– which had included all the cool angles and things I was trying to show off– was not the reason they hired me. They hired me because they liked “Unfriended,” which was a very personal film that showcased my point of view. It’s not that it wasn’t technically impressive– but it had what they were looking for, and it showed that I was an individual and was able to express that individuality.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://joshweisbrod.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/space_lt_josh/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-weisbrod-4948883b/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Space_Lt_Josh
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0cV31tTzhkx_2GLIJKF0hw
Image Credits
Teen Titans Go! storyboards are property of Warner Bros TV Animation
