Recently during a Reddit AMA, executive producer Joel Trussell talks about his newest Netflix creation, the dark comedy Captain Fall which recently came out, along with other works he’s credited for such as Pickle & Peanut, “Electric City” and several Episodes of “Yo’Gabba Gabba!” along with his past in directing music videos, and how he got into animation with some extensively long answers… On how he got into the animation industry. I grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee which isn’t exactly the industry capital of the world. I just loved drawing cartoons and making my friends laugh. I ended up going to the University of Tennessee and earned a BFA in Drawing since I had no idea or guidance on how to get a job in animation. I left town after graduating since there were no animation jobs in TN at the time and left for Seattle since I had a few friends from college that already lived there and I knew no one in LA or NY. Luckily there was an online animation boom at the moment and I started doing Flash animation for Icebox (Zombie College). Flash (Animate) was really easy to learn and easy to animate in and it remains one of the two programs I use to this day. (Not that I’m some champion of the software… it ain’t great. I’m just lazy.) The bottom fell out of the dot com industry around 2001 and I moved back to Knoxville with my new understanding of Flash and worked remotely freelance for the next 8 years. I mostly did music videos, commercials, and TV segments for Yo Gabba just by cold emailing as many people as possible looking for opportunities. My work circulated enough to grab the attention of some bigger studios and I freelanced for them too. Eventually, I moved to LA in 2009 and have been working for several major studios in many capacities. Most recently I seem to work in developing television shows. Happy to embellish on any of this, but don’t want to ramble! On the dumb luck he has in ‘knowing the right people”I’m from the mid-sized town of Knoxville, Tennessee so I didn’t know anyone at all in the industry at first. I took a leap of faith after college and moved to Seattle, WA. I only got an animation gig by volunteering to work for free at an animation studio on the weekends to help them with any undesirable work they had. This landed me a gig eventually. Along the way I’ve made mutual friends in the industry and that for sure is valuable, but at the beginning of my career, I had no classmates going after the same career path I was pursuing and knew no one that was already established. The best way I made connections was by completing my small animated projects and putting them out in the world. Also participating in message boards and posting work online back when that was a thing helped. I went from Dollywood, TN to Hollywood, CA simply by churning out work. Hopefully, people will find that encouraging if this hillbilly can do it.On how does he feel about the industry presently? I feel this question. It’s a tough time for sure. I’ve seen some similar events happen in the past. Personally, the closest related incident was in 2001 when the dot com crash happened. I was working in Seattle as a director/animator of online narrative animated shows for Icebox.com. It was my first animation gig and the projects for that site were created by real-deal comedy writers from Los Angeles (Simpson writers, Futurama writers, Seth MacFarlane even Larry David!). I couldn’t believe how great it was, then the bottom fell out. The tech bubble popped… no none did online narrative content at all. It all turned to corny interactive games, so I moved back to my hometown of Knoxville, TN figuring that was career suicide. So I just started freelancing as much as possible rather than relying on being part of larger projects. I would hunt for work about as much as I would work, but it ended up… I loved working for myself. I was probably the best boss I ever had. So freelancing is a possibility. It’s tough though. Things did start to come back eventually and work came in pretty steadily (with effort) after a year or so. The 2009 housing crisis was also a pretty big punch to the industry/economy/gut. That also took about a year to recover. I think it’s especially hard because we just came off a strong wave of animation work. There were so many productions going on in 2019… it was hard to find anyone NOT working. So it ebbs and flows. Hopefully, this is the bottom of the wave and things will level out when the strike is over. Don’t stop hitting people up, applying, cold emailing, and posting… staying active, working on your stuff, and asking around is always valuable. I think the work will come back. Hang in there and thanks for checking out Captain Fall. Help us get enough viewership to renew. It’ll create more jobs!On people offering who wish to be mentored by him that want to work as a creative executive in the industry.It’s a weird thing being an executive producer. The title is pretty nebulous. I would label a “creative executive” as an employee of the studio who oversees several projects. My job as an “executive producer” is more like a showrunner who’s specific to one particular show. As an EP I help with every aspect of the production from breaking the story to selecting the cast, going to records, helping with storyboard quality, and approving art… it’s pretty great. It’s tough to mentor someone as an executive producer I feel since it touches so many facets of production. I think a creative executive path is more direct and a bit corporate. But I can try and answer more questions on the topic if you have them!About indie animators who wanna submit their works to film festivals. Just be careful which ones you submit to. There are loads of predatory film fests that aren’t worth the price of submission. At this point, I would only submit to a festival that has a solid reputation for quality. Some obvious targets would be Sundance, SXSW, or animation-specific targets like Ottawa or Annecy are all very prestigious and throw great events. There are plenty of others too, but just be a little cautious as you look at options.On people who wanna get into storyboarding and character design. And the challenges in creating animation. As long as the intention is to show what you can do as a skill it should be fine. Doing something as fan art can still be skillfully done. I say go for it! As for the animation process, I’ve worked a few times with creators from live-action who are making an animated show for the first time. There are always a few issues to get used to, but I’ll say the Norsemen creators (Jon Iver Helgaker and Jonas Torgersen) made it very easy. They have amazing sensibilities that translated well to the medium. I think one of the biggest challenges is just because you perceivable “can” do anything in animation… it doesn’t mean you should. It’s best to stay true to the vision of what the show premise and tone calls for rather than putting cartoony gags in if unnecessary. Also, animation does allow you to create a big world and that’s liberating, but at the same time… artists still have to draw it. Crowd scenes, lots of locations, and complicated movements all add up so you still have to keep boundaries on expectations. Jon and Jonas were very quick to pick up on this, but at the same time kept challenging us to try more artistic, daring, and cinematic approaches to the look which in the end I think feels rewarding.On advice for individuals trying to switch careers to be in animation. To make the switch you’ll need to have a portfolio pulled together to showcase what you can do. One way to go – you may want to hone in on one particular department like character design, background painting, storyboarding, etc. I would have a variety of samples to potentially catch the eye of more people… however, some will advise investing in one particular style and mastering it. That’s valid, but I advise a little diversity. Another way to go is being a jack of all trades (my path) and approaching smaller boutique animation studios rather than the big studios. They are a little more approachable and are often looking for non-union, versatile players that can get their hands into all different types of departments. You’ll still need to have some sort of portfolio of work to share. If you have video clips of your work… even better!On what Liza’s accent is specifically? And what’s his favorite episode of Captain Fall? Our actress is Lesley-Ann Brandt who has lived in South Africa, New Zealand, and California so it’s a bit of a blend. Primarily the accent is South African with a touch of the others infused. I enjoy it when Jonathan starts to feel confident that he’s doing a great job, so ep 7 and 8 are some of my favorites. His co-workers start to feel some sympathy for him, too, which humanizes them and gives them dimension. I know it takes a minute to get there, but I think it makes the payoff feel earned. My favorite part of working on the show was being at the beginning and coming up with story beats alongside the creators. Formulating the show’s look was a lot of fun, too. The guys are from Europe so we leaned into styles from French graphic novels as a foundation. Books like The Speed Abater by Christophe Blain and Miss Don’t Touch Me by Hubert and shows like Herge’s Adventures of Tintin were sources of inspiration.And finally, his favorite part being a Showrunner and Executive Producer. My favorite part of being a showrunner is having so much involvement in every aspect of the show from the writing to casting, to quality control, etc. I love conjuring up something amazing from nothing and seeing it fully realized. Creating stuff is the best. Especially if it’s received well. Even if it isn’t… it can still be fun making it. The worst part is when partnerships don’t work out. Sometimes things sour or people just aren’t a creative fit. Hate experiencing that, but sometimes the chemistry just isn’t there. When it does… there’s nothing much better. It’s a pretty great job that I hope I can keep doing. Hope you’ll watch Captain Fall and maybe I can!There’s no single path to being an executive producer. Probably the most prominent way is by being a writer. Writers typically start as writer assistants, then they start getting chances to write a script or two, then become staff writers. Eventually, they may become a story editor or head writer then executive producer (probably on a show they even created, pitched, and sold). By contrast, PAs often go down a production path: PA, coordinator, production supervisor, production manager then line producer. But not always. My path was going from an animator on a team to an independent animator (meaning I made my shorts), then directing teams, then supervising directing, then I had an opportunity to be a consulting director/development producer. This ended up with a showrunner opportunity once the thing I was developing went into production. I’ve continued to work as a developer and showrunner on several projects since. It’s a stranger path, but not entirely uncommon. My day varies pretty wildly depending on where we are in production. Right now, the show I was primarily on (Captain Fall… premieres in the next few hours… please watch) is wrapped and I’m in promotion mode. I also am helping the Netflix development department with a few other projects that are percolating. For those, I’m doing everything from directing an animatic for a pilot and organizing visual exploration for some new concepts. When I’m at peak production my day is scheduled down into 15-minute segments because my bandwidth is stretched thin. You kind of have to be ready to work 55+ hour weeks at certain points. Loving what you’re doing helps in a big way. We already have another 10 episodes written, recorded, and storyboarded and ready to animate, but they will only be produced if these first 10 get a robust reception so I appreciate the support! We have a great cast Jason Ritter (Gravity Falls), Lesley-Ann Brandt (Lucifer), Anthony Carrigan (Barry), Alejandro Edda (Narcos Mexico), Christopher Meloni (Law and Order), Adam Devine (Workaholics) just to name a few. The artists on these things were all-stars, too. If you like dark comedies like White Lotus or Barry or hard R comedies like Righteous Gemstones or Step Brothers then this will be up your alley.Thanks again!!!Captain Fall is streaming now on Netflix