By Carol Badaracco Padgett
Collaboration is the week’s word. It’s on the lips of every showrunner, post-production artist, screenwriter, producer and actor attending the 12th SCAD TVfest at the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Midtown Atlanta campus, February 7-9, 2024.
The context: stories on the small screen, where series plots draw out and take serious twists and turns over time, are most excellently crafted when creatives pool together their energies and talents.
This year’s SCAD TVfest – Georgia’s only festival focused on TV, according to SCAD — is a show place for the work of A-list creators and talent, highlighting some of the most riveting series on small screens and mobile devices today. Max’s Tokyo Vice, for example, Paramount+’s Fellow Travelers, and Warner Bros. Animation’s My Adventures with Superman were all among the Day One highlights. The format: panel discussions, screenings, press junket interviews, and presentations and awards, all attended by the public and SCAD students and alumni.
The voice of Atlanta’s Moonshine Post-Production founder and post-producer, Drew Sawyer, began the day in “The Power of Post-Production” panel. Other panelists’ voices included Tyler Perry Studios post producer David Joseph; Clair Shanley, producer of The Gilded Age; and Shelly Westerman, editor of Only Murders in the Building.
“We see a variety of different projects from week to week … and our post production work is all about collaboration,” Sawyer shared with the packed room at SCAD’s FORTY building.
“You’re going to spend a lot of time with these people, and you need to bond with them,” Sawyer said of putting together a strong team. “I get more done by building a better team than by getting one person who’s the best.”
On the red carpet in the Day One press junket line, My Adventures with Superman series executive producer, Jake Wyatt, said this about the series produced by Warner Bros. Animation: “We were lucky enough to have in the leadership of our show people representing different genres in entertainment. For example, our co-producer Josie Campbell comes from comedy, and she has also been in the press. So she could belt out continuous jokes but also relate to how things were for [the character]Lois Lane, and what her feelings were as a young reporter struggling to make buck and to get a job.”
Another writer on My Adventures with Superman team came from the action genre in animated shows such as The Legend of Korra and Voltron, and so he was all about seeing the characters through the conflicts that arise in the storylines of a series, Wyatt explained.
Again, the message came through about the importance of collaboration and the pooling of individual strengths in order to create truly excellent stories.
Day Two of SCAD TVfest coverage from Georgia Entertainment will bring red carpet TV interviews with host Jezlan Moyet.
