Brandon Lane, a 2010 graduate of the Children’s Media program, has taken meaningful strides in this industry within his role as a Development Producer at Nelvana Ltd., a global children’s entertainment company that focuses on TV and film animation production, and as the Showrunner, Writer, and Lead Director on the Daytime-Emmy nominated pre-school series, Miss Persona.
His interest in writing and performing for kids ignited around the time he was eighteen years old. Growing up next to Niagara Falls, Brandon got a job at Marineland as Court Jester where he performed for the crowds. “I'd do five shows a day and I fell in love with entertaining kids. They are such a brutally honest audience! You can lose them pretty quickly. Luckily, I was able to entertain the crowds and discovered I had a talent for kids entertainment,” he shares.
In high school, Brandon says he dove into theatre, and wrote, directed, and acted in several successful plays. “The shows were always quite imaginative and absurd, and though they weren't written for kids, they had that surreal quality that lends itself to kids. Once, a play I had co-written with a friend named Cory Ker made it to the finals of an Ontario-based high school play competition called the Sears' Drama Festival. The play was adjudicated by a judge who criticized our writing as something that wasn't worthy of the stage, and more suited for Saturday Morning Cartoons.
It was meant as a critique. However, that was the moment I realized that people were actually paid to write cartoons! I lost interest in theatre in that moment and focused on TV and Film instead – applying to and being accepted into the York University Film Production program.”
While in the film production program, Brandon’s thesis was a live-action preschool TV pilot featuring puppets called, Alfredo Tomato. “After I had graduated, I maxed out my credit card to attend the Banff Television Festival and pitched Alfredo to whoever would listen. One person I pitched to was Marie McCann, who is the head of CBC Kids and a former instructor at Centennial. She rejected Alfredo since they already had a live-action preschool puppet series featuring a piece of food with a rhyming name as the star called, Mamma Yamma. Marie sent me a wonderful rejection letter, though – I put it on my fridge and I still have it in a keepsake box. She encouraged me to stick with Kids TV as she saw something special in the project,” he shares.
After producing four more episodes of Alfredo Tomato, with the program eventually airing on a local Niagara Falls community cable channel, and working as a foley artist, sound recordist, and sound designer, Brandon came across a news article showcasing the brand new Children’s Media post-graduate program at Centennial.
“It was the first year of its existence and was starting the next week. I emailed Suzanne Wilson, who was coordinating the program, begging to attend. I sent along Alfredo Tomato, filled out the application and was accepted! That week I quit my Foley Artist job and went to school instead. Considering how few Foley Artist jobs there are around – my boss must have thought I was nuts!”
How the Children’s Media program prepares students for the industry
Looking back at the program and what it offers students, Brandon says, “The Children's Media program prepares individuals with a very solid bird's eye view of the industry as a whole, and each class tackles a different section of the industry that you will encounter in your roles as you enter the industry.
Grads leave with an understanding of the different aspects of the industry and how all those different pieces fit together as a whole. You leave with knowledge of writing, content development, business, branding, digital media, production and early childhood cognitive development.”
The moments that stand out most from the program for Brandon are those moments of realization about why it’s so special and such a big responsibility to be a storyteller for children. He says, “When you realize how important stories are when your brain is developing. That the stories you tell kids will be some of the first stories they experience and they deserve to be told those stories at the highest level of execution.
Childhood is when you build your 'moral scaffolding' and stories are elemental in building that moral structure. Childhood memories ripple out for the rest of our lives – a well-told story to kids today will be held in their hearts as nostalgia for decades to come.
The privilege of telling these stories means you are contributing to the development of the next generation, and Canadian kids' content travels around the world so your stories ripple across the globe. The weight of that responsibility really hit me at the Story Arts Centre, and I carry that perspective with me through every decision I make in my career.”
The creative process of writing and directing Miss Persona
Since Miss Persona is made for a young audience, finding ways to teach important lessons while remaining entertaining and engaging requires immense planning. Brandon explains, “I always try to ground every story and every decision in the experience of being a child. Everything needs to be relatable to their lives. With Miss Persona, the show is really about experiencing and processing emotions. So, I always begin with that – what emotion is Brandon Bear, our preschool audience's surrogate character, processing?
I build from there: what is the best action that will bring out that emotion? What situation will put Brandon into a position where he experiences that emotion? Then, what costume can Miss Persona wear that will facilitate imaginative dress-up play that helps Brandon process that emotion? Everything then builds out from there, and every step of the way it always needs to tie back to the theme of learning how to process emotions through imaginative play.”
That's the key to any writing or directing decision to me: what is this story about? Not in terms of plot points, but in terms of the theme of the story. That's the North Star that guides all decisions. What emotion do I want the audience to feel?
Miss Persona was recently sold to Peacock, an American streaming service that is owned and operated by NBCUniversal, which is a major step for the Canadian show. “Julia Dodge at Nelvana sold Miss Persona to Peacock and we were so excited when she shared the news! I grew up watching NBC and Universal movies and to be on an NBCUniversal streaming platform is a dream come true! We are so excited for children in the US to get to watch the series and extremely proud to be part of the Peacock family. We told a lot of meaningful stories in the past season of Miss Persona, and it's an honour for those stories to reach audiences in the US.”
Congratulation, Brandon, on your continued success and impactful storytelling within the children’s media industry!
For those interested in learning more about our Children’s Media program, check out our Program Overview page for more details.
Article by: Alexandra Few