I was somewhat surprised a few months ago when I heard that Wild Brain, in San Francisco is shutting down. Everyone was either laid off or quit. Even the partners that owned the studio went elsewhere! There is only a skeleton crew left.
How did this happen? Well, I cannot say for sure. But the rumor going around is that when the previous CEO left, they brought in a woman to run the company. She was a TV producer down in LA and her big bright idea was to shutter the SF office. Supposedly she put the kibosh on any incoming projects, just to guarantee there was no work to support the studio.
Nothing like what it was in SF, but WB still exists in LA. I've heard they are doing some really crappy work. They've still got Yo Gabba Gabba and a few other projects, but I'm pretty sure there isn't much else.
5 comments:
I guess the saying might be that they always took the opportunity to do the wrong thing, but that might be a bit harsh. They had, in the start, an esprit de corps, since I was one of the original 7 or so with the company.
"We few, we merry few..."
And yes, we took chances, we got creative, and we got things started and done since it was all of out asses on the line. Once it got too big, once money came into the picture, then you really could see the divisions, especially during the Dot-Com blizzard of cash and idiocy. Once the bottom fell out, so did all barnstorming and chance taking. The joy was sucked out of it. Wounds never healed. Backs remained stabbed.
We need that kind of company in the Bay Area again, like the early days of Colossal or the 'Brain. Small enough to take chances and try new approaches, but egalitarian enough to avoid the layers of fat and mindless loyalties.
"I've heard they are doing some really crappy work."
You've heard wrong. Really - you have. I work there and the show we are doing is knock down drag out hilarious.
(and I'm as bitter and cynical as the next guy)
The creepiest thing about it all is that they took the name. Talk about insult to injury.
Employee #8
Wildbrian LA has quite a few productions that are super cool. No crappy work going on there. Only great projects and nice people to work with.
Ohhh! I worked there for a short time, in a little group changing the website, which I though was just fine as it was. They'd hired someone to direct this project who hadn't a ghost of an idea of what he was doing.
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