Ep281 - Spire Animation Studios Founders Brad Lewis & P.J. Gunsagar

Brad Lewis produced the Oscar nominated “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” the critically acclaimed conclusion of the trilogy. He also produced Storks, The Lego Batman Movie, and worked at Pixar on films like Ratatouille, Cars 2, among many other successful movies. P.J. Gunsagar is an entrepreneur at heart. After starting his career in finance, working as an investment banker at UBS Warburg and early-stage investor at Intel Capital, he focused his career on building companies at the intersection of technology and media from the ground up. Spire Animation Studios is the fourth company co-founded by P.J. In this interview, Lewis and Gunsagar discuss “technology to wow the world,” live action ideas versus animated ideas, the extended story process for animation, how they think about big ideas and original stories, the importance of creativity and risk, and they share a few details about an upcoming project with funnyman Danny McBride. If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below… Join the email list here: www.brockswinson.com Follow us on Instagram for updates: @brockswinson If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!