DreamPath Podcast
Bryan Smith - Dream Path
Recent Episodes
Bill Oakley is a Portland-based writer and producer known for his work on The Simpsons (where, with partner Josh Weinstein, he was executive producer and showrunner for the 7th and 8th seasons), Futurama, Regular Show, and Mission Hill. He most recently served as a writer and producer on Portlandia, Disenchantment, Chicago Party Aunt, and Close Enough on HBO Max. Bill is also popular on Instagram and Twitter (@thatbilloakley), where he reviews fast food from the comfort of his car, and has been dubbed "The Gordon Ramsay of Fast Food" by The Wrap Entertainment News. He appears regularly on the History Channel's "The Food That Built America" and will appear on Netflix's travel cuisine documentary Somebody Feed Phil this season as well.
What you will learn:
- How Bill broke into the world of writing for animated television.
- The advantages and disadvantages of writing partners.
- What it was like writing for and being a showrunner on The Simpsons in the 1990s.
- Strategies Bill implements as a writer to avoid distractions and enhance productivity.
- Why writer's rooms are overrated.
- How writers on animated shows were paid differently in the 80s and 90s vs. today.
- How residuals work for television writers
- How Bill found creative freedom as a food critic.
- How Bill hopes to parlay his food blogging success on social media into career opportunities.
Resources:
Rayka Zehtabchi is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker who won the Academy Award for her film Period. End of Sentence in 2019. Shaandiin Tome is an Albuquerque-based filmmaker whose breakout, award-winning short film Mud (Hashtł'ishnii) premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2018. Rayka and Shaandiin co-directed the documentary short Long Line of Ladies, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, and will be featured at SXSW next week. Long Line of Ladies follows a girl and her tribal community as they prepare for her Ihuk, the once-dormant coming of age ceremony of the Karuk tribe of Northern California.
What you will learn:
- How Rayka and Shaandiin found the story for Long Line of Ladies and brought it to film.
- What inspired them to tell the story of a tribe which resurrected a long-dormant coming of age ceremony for young girls.
- How Long Line of Ladies thematically is very different from Period. End of Sentence.
- Why they chose to lean into the positivity and lack of conflict they discovered in this story, as opposed to search for conflict as a story-telling device.
- The challenges they faced co-directing with each other for the first time.
- The choices they made before filming regarding what aspect of the story they wanted to tell, and what part of the story they chose to leave to the imagination of the audience.
- The challenges they faced using 16 mm film as opposed to digital cameras.
- Why they are excited to show the film at SXSW.
- What types of projects they hope to focus on in 2022.
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