Hi Mark. Thanks for agreeing to answer some questions for Beast Wars international.
Hey, thanks for asking.
1. Before you did your episode of Beast Wars, were you a fan of Transformers?
Despite being a lifelong comic book fan – and in my case the word fan is definitely short for fanatic (at one point my comic collection topped 15,000) and a major toon fan, I’d never really tuned into Transformers before.
2. How did you get the job of writing the episode?
I’ve got this satirical musical comedy act called Local Anxiety www.localanxiety.com and someone who was working at Mainframe Entertainment, Helen du Toit, saw one of my shows, thought it was funny and asked a mutual friend if I’d ever written for kids. I’d written some children’s theatre. I’d also written a spec episode of The X-Files as an attempt to learn how to write for TV. I walked into the office and the Mainframe guys immediately started calling me “The X-Files writer.” They hired me on the spot to write an X-Files parody for ReBoot and Gillian Anderson agreed to guest star as Data Nully. When David Duchovny passed on playing with us, I suggested an old friend from high school, Scott McNeil, as Fax Modem. That episode went over so well that I was asked to write the season finale and became the writer who killed Bob – for a while anyway. And Scott became a Mainframe fixture. Then I was invited to pitch for Beast Wars (or as they called it in Canada, Beasties because, hey, war is bad). I studied the show and came up with a few pitches.
The Law of the Jungle" pitch was my favourite. The one line pitch I made verbally was along the lines of “After the death of his tiger friend (Snowstalker) shows that violence has real consequences on this planet (when you’re not a robot in disguise), Tigatron moves to Canada to escape the Beast Wars.”
This pitch came about in part because I’d recently spent just under a year covering real life crime as a journalist and I was having a lot of trouble dealing with violence as entertainment, so I tried to think of a story that spoke out against violence. Also, growing up in Vancouver I knew a lot of US "draft dodgers" -- so that was a powerful image for me. The timing was also good for the show because a group of parents, or maybe it wa a religious group?, was decrying Transformers for all the violence. I was told at the time that killing a character – not a robot, but someone/something that actually died and stayed dead – was never done in cartoons. Since I'd only written two other cartoons and had already killed the hero of one of them, I clearly didn't know that rule. So here I was and on my third script I’d not only killed Bob in ReBoot, I buried poor Snowstalker!
I’m cutting and pasting the initial one paragraph pitch from the letter I faxed to Jonathan Goodwill on August 26, 1996.
"The Maximals and the Predacons are in the middle of a heated battle on Tigatron’s turf. In Transformer mode Tigatron shows up to save the day and fires some major missiles/energy beams that knocks out one of the Predacons -- but in the process he destroys a mountain (or starts an avalanche, which would be more exciting) and accidentally kills an animal, a tiger. As the Predacons retreat, defeated, Tigatron cradles the dead tiger. He vows NEVER to Transform again. (If this isn’t too heavy a thought he may even declare that it is the Transformers who are the true “beasts.”) Tigatron: “I will not talk to you again.” He transforms into a tiger and races off. Dinobot worries that Tigatron is a threat. If he’s not with us, he’s against us. Rattrap doesn’t disagree. Tigatron explores animal life as the Maximals return home to their base -- only to be caught in a Predacon trap. Tigatron sees what’s going on and saves the Maximals from the Predacons -- as a tiger. He does NOT transform back to help them but saves them with tiger stealth and cunning. Then he ends up saving a tiger from a natural disaster (an earthquake, avalanche or forest fire set off by the fight) -- as a Transformer. He realizes that he is both a Transformer and a Tiger -- and that there’s nothing wrong with being both."
I would have been wary of describing the disaster because at that time I knew fire had been flagged as a major animation challenge for CGI. Obviously, we played a lot with the story after that pitch but that's what sold the story to Jonathan. In the small world of the internet, Jon and I just reconnected on Facebook when he friended me AFTER you asked to interview me.
3. Can you tell us about anything you did to prepare for writing the episode?
I studied the show. I met with the story editor, Larry DiTillio, in Los Angeles, and he was very generous with his time and knowledge. I talked about the show extensively with Scott McNeil and… before I submitted a draft…went to Scott's house and had him play all the roles for me to make sure the voices worked for the characters. I figured if they sounded right to him, they'd sound right for everyone else.
I also remember having one of my absolute all-time favourite career moments on this show when Larry and I were on the phone trying to figure out whether Tigatron’s cold powers would beat Inferno’s heat blasters and I burst out laughing. And when I finally stopped laughing I explained to Larry that I remembered having the exact same argument in my best friend’s backyard as a kid when we were playing on his jungle gym and I was arguing that Iceman could take Human Torch and that with enough willpower Green Lantern could totally demolish Superman. And now here I was… an alleged adult… being paid really well for having an argument I’d had on the jungle gym as a kid! Seriously, how fantastic is that? When people ask me why I love to write cartoons, that's always the story I tell.
4. How pleased were you with the final episode when you saw it finished?
Thrilled! I think director John Pozer did an amazing job. And years later he tracked me down and bought me drinks to thank me for a script that he said really helped make his name in cartoons. I read on one fan site that the ep scored a ten out of ten with fans and made people cry and that thrilled me.
5. Was there anything in the script that got cut from the final episode?
It has been so long that I’d have to go back to compare and contrast. I’m sure there were some jokes in earlier drafts that I liked that got cut. There are always cool jokes in drafts that get cut! And I remember there were dialogue changes for cadence/voice -- as someone who has worked as a series story editor, I know the story editor generally revises for voice. But I remember being blown away at how similar the episode was to what I'd written/envisioned.
6. When looking back at the episode with the hindsight of time and experience, would you do anything differently?
I probably would have thought more about pitching the next episode and the episode after that and the episode after that so that I could have kept playing in the Transformers toy box.
7. The episode was very much about nature and it’s affect on all of us. Do you think you said everything that could say about the predicament of trying to achieve peace through non-violent means and holding true to those ideals, even in the face of violence?
With only 22 minutes to play with, I think John Pozer and I got a lot across about both violence and the environment. But I was pitching ideas for eco-themed cartoons before Transformers and I’ve been pitching them ever since. I’ve also been writing a lot about environmental issues for adults. I’m not sure if you want me talking about my other work here, but in case that’s okay…
I’ve written, directed and produced an award-winning feature film “The Green Chain” – about a dying logging community. One of the stars of the film… Scott McNeil! I’ve hosted a podcast series for thetyee.ca - the same online that launched The 100 Mile Diet – interviewing experts about forestry issues. I’ve released a book “The Green Chain – Nothing is Ever Clear Cut” dealing with all these issues. My comedy troupe, Local Anxiety starred in a TV special and released a CD called “Greenpieces” where we take on everything from “Green Guilt Blues” to the vanishing ozone layer. And I’ve got a short eco-comedy, The Green Film, (which I wrote and coproduced) playing festivals everywhere. I’m also cowriting the biography of one of Canada’s top environmentalists. And I’ve slid a lot of eco stories into my “for hire” TV writing for every age I’ve written for. So… I’m kinda big on the green thing…
As for the nonviolence… that’s something I’m just as passionate about, but haven’t written much about directly… Although you’ll rarely find guns in anything I write. And one of my other pitches in that letter was also a non-violent episode (inspired by the movie, Enemy Mine) where Cheetor and Waspinator were stranded on a recon mission and had to play nicely together.
8. Do you regret not coming back and writing more episodes of Beast Wars?
Because I ended up doing this by accident, I really didn’t know much about the world of TV, so it never occurred to me that I was supposed to keep pitching. I figured if they wanted me they’d call and now I realize that once you’re in the door for a show you pitch and pitch and pitch again until they ether give you more work or slam the door. So I do regret not chasing after more eps. That said, if someone said, “you can only write one episode for this series” this was definitely the story I would have chosen to tell.
9. Would get involved in Transformers again if you were asked?
Are you asking? Sure! And I'd probably pitch another "green" episode!
10. What medium do you prefer working in? TV, film, comics, theater or journalism?
It depends on the story. What I love is writing and I sort of put the stories I’m passionate about wherever they want to go. I love writing toons though and I'm currently working on three fantastic ones -- one I'm not supposed to talk about yet, another I'm developing with Steve Smetzler and Wray Arenz (they have a feature coming out called Meet the Dwegons) and RollBots http://rollbots.com, created by Michael Milligan (aka MCM, uber-present net-worker and creator of The Vecor http://the-vector.com), that had a fantastic debut season on Teletoon in Canada and is now rolling with high ratings on CW4Kids and other nets around the world.
11. Any advice for aspiring writers out there?
I was just asked to write a list of ten pieces of advice for a Canadian writer’s magazine. Here’s the full list I made for Wordworks. If you'd like me to cut this down for you, no worries. If you'd like to rerun the way it ran for them, feel free.
Mark’s 10 Tips for Making a Living as a Writer
1. Write. A lot. Then write some more. The more you write, the better you’ll get.
2. Recycle. Or at least never throw anything out. I wrote Never Shoot a Stampede Queen in 1988 and spent a couple of years trying to get it published before surrendering. Three years ago a couple friends read it and kicked my butt to revise it and take one more shot at publishing it. Thanks Tony, thanks Ian.
3. Pitch, pitch, pitch. Pick the places you really want to write for, study them, pitch them and when they say no a dozen times, keep pitching them. I loved (and still love) The Utne Reader. I have no clue how many pitches they rejected before they finally bought a story from me. Let’s just go with a lot. But after they finally said yes, they hired me another half dozen times and I scored a ton of other work because I’d been published in The Utne Reader.
4. Reject rejection. My rule used to be that every time I got a rejection slip (or email), I’d send out five new pitches that night.
5. Check out what’s happening in left field. I’ve done a lot of gigs that I didn’t realize existed until people told me about them. I got to write the send off for Canada’s Olympic athletes when they went to Nagano (who knew someone wrote that). I wrote the script for a house of horrors at a theme park in Indonesia—definitely one of the stranger things in my oeuvre. I’ve got a friend who wrote pledge drives for Ontario public television. I know people who have written corporate reports, internal PR and speeches. Almost every company uses words and pays someone else to string them together: If you’re looking to pay the bills, that writer could be you.
6. Just say “no.” Don’t take a job you’re pretty sure you can’t do well. Good work will get you more work. Bad work will cost you.
7. Grief to cost ratio. If a gig is going to be a lot of grief (and you can usually tell before you say yes), you should charge as much as you can get away with. If a gig is incredibly fun and/or emotionally or spiritually satisfying (and isn't that why you write in the first place), that’s where you can worry less about the money because chances are that’s where you’ll do the work you’re proudest of and that’ll get you more and cooler work.
8. You’re crazy if you don’t use contracts whenever possible, especially when you’re working with or for people you like. There was one year where I was suddenly possessed by the spirit of the Age of Aquarius. I was approached to work on three different projects by three different friends. My agent said, “Are you sure you don’t want contracts?” And I said, “La la la la la. Contracts are totally ungroovy and if we all just trusted each other the world would be a better place.” In all three cases, not only did the jobs go off the rails, but so did the friendships because we were never clear on who was expected to do what. After that year, I told my agent that if I ever agreed to do another handshake deal on a major project, she had permission to take a hammer and break my hand.
9. First drafts are for friends and loved ones, not for people who pay you for them. When you write something you’re getting paid for (or even when you’re not getting paid), read it out loud when you’re done and share it with friends who actually love you enough to tell you when your work sucks. This is where writing workshops—or at least friends from writing workshops—can be invaluable. If you’re not on deadline (like that ever happens), set the work aside and read it again in a day or two to see if it’s ready to put out into the world. And then, when you’re sure it’s ready, take one more pass. Or two more passes. Or three. Or ...
10. Whatever you’re doing to pay the bills, always make time to write the stuff you love. The words you write for money aren’t likely to be the words that make you rich or famous or proud. Write the stories you need to write. Chances are it’s the story that you have to tell that’ll change your life and maybe even someone else’s.
12. Before writing for Beast Wars, had you done much writing for TV?
Just the two ReBoot episodes.
13. Do you think that writing for Beast Wars has helped to shape your career at all and the writing you’ve done since?
Yes, because it taught me that instead of trying to figure out what a show “wants” I’d rather pitch a story I’m passionate about and try to get everyone as excited about it as I am. Most of my other pitches were stories I thought they’d like. This was the story that I was excited about. And in the rare moments I've wondered about my TV career, I've thought about that moment laughing with Larry DiTillio about who had the cooler powers and realized how magical it is that I get to play on the jungle gym for a living.
14. If you weren’t a writer, do you know what kind of profession you’d be working within instead?
I never had a Plan B. Im grade ten I had a high school Family Studies teacher threaten to fail me if I wouldn’t give her a “plan B" on a project I was doing about career planning. She told me almost no one who wants to write for a living get to and that most professional writers starve, so I needed a more realistic option. So when I did the paper for her I wrote: "Plan B -- starve.”
15. In all of the material you’ve written, how high would “Law of the Jungle” stand in there?
Between The X-Files parody “Trust No One” and Beast Wars “Law of the Jungle” I don’t know if any TV animation writer ever had a cooler debut as a writer for hire (obviously it'd be cooler to debut with a series you created). Those two scripts were able to get my agent in any door for any animated show in Canada and even scored me a big meeting with Dan DiDio in LA, back when he was a big boss at ABC Kids. If I’d had an LA agent or any interest in moving to LA to write cartoons, I suspect they could have opened the door to any animated show there too. So while I’ve written a lot of stuff that is dearer to me, these two scripts (and it is tough to separate the two since they were both used whenever I was submitted for jobs) had a huge impact on opening doors for me in the world of animation. And both shows were so well-known that when I met with people in the toon biz they not only knew ReBoot and Beast Wars they all knew the episodes I'd written.
16. Did you continue to follow Beast Wars after your episode had aired?
A little bit, but once it became clear I wasn’t going to get to play anymore it stung a little to follow the show, so I tuned it out.
17. Where can someone find out more information about you?
www.leiren-young.com
