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Iyanu Isn't Here To Play Games With You!!! The Iyanu Interviews) · For All Nerds Show

0:11
Speaker 1: Well, first of all, thank you for joining us, for
0:14
Speaker 1: having us today. We watched three of the episodes and
0:17
Speaker 1: really enjoyed them. And the other day, Actually, it's funny
0:21
Speaker 1: that we got to do this interview today because the
0:24
Speaker 1: other day I was speaking to a group of African
0:26
Speaker 1: American They're about six and seventh graders, and I was
0:30
Speaker 1: speaking to them about pop culture and geek culture and everything,
0:33
Speaker 1: and they really couldn't believe that there was a time
0:35
Speaker 1: when black Panther wasn't a household name.
0:38
Speaker 2: So how does it feel.
0:39
Speaker 1: For you all to know that one day kids won't
0:42
Speaker 1: be an imagine a world without Ayanu.
0:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm excited. I'm blessed that this is coming at
0:51
Speaker 3: this time because it's much needed. I've lived in America
0:54
Speaker 3: for over a decade, and I have seen how black
0:58
Speaker 3: kids question a lot of things, wonder about a lot
1:01
Speaker 3: of things, and their curiosity about who we are as
1:03
Speaker 3: a people, where we're from originally, the culture, the history,
1:08
Speaker 3: you know, the authenticity and everything. So for me, Eano
1:12
Speaker 3: coming at this point represents a time where black children
1:15
Speaker 3: can actually look at themselves and know that you know,
1:18
Speaker 3: they're worth it. They can be seen they are in
1:21
Speaker 3: a world where this is possible. It's not just about
1:25
Speaker 3: fictitious worlds. It's not just about made up worlds. We
1:29
Speaker 3: do exist as a people. We have cultures as beautiful
1:32
Speaker 3: as they saw in Black Panther. We have community, we
1:35
Speaker 3: have costume, we have the look, we have our special
1:39
Speaker 3: dances and all of that. It is what we have
1:43
Speaker 3: in Africa. And it is beautiful that they get to
1:45
Speaker 3: see it where they are because normally this kind of
1:48
Speaker 3: story will be told for us at home. But the
1:51
Speaker 3: fact that they're all going to see no matter where
1:53
Speaker 3: they are, it's a beautiful thing for me. And that's
1:56
Speaker 3: what Eano is doing and representing for us.
1:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, indeed, I'm curious to see what everyone else thinks
2:02
Speaker 4: about that point. Yeah.
2:03
Speaker 5: Please, very very excited as well. Like I've said a
2:08
Speaker 5: couple of times, and I will keep shouting from the
2:10
Speaker 5: top of the rooftop, reputation matters, and that's this is
2:15
Speaker 5: very important. The twelve year old in me is completely
2:18
Speaker 5: ripped out. It's about times. It's been a long time coming,
2:23
Speaker 5: but I'm really excited that it's finally here. Like Stellar said,
2:25
Speaker 5: authenticity matters and the fact that we get to tell
2:28
Speaker 5: a story that's so deeply rooted in authenticity is very
2:33
Speaker 5: very heartwarming for me. And to have that story be
2:36
Speaker 5: told by us as well, with authentic accents, and you
2:39
Speaker 5: get to see the authentic costumes, and you get to
2:41
Speaker 5: see the authentic hairstyles, and you get see different skin tones,
2:45
Speaker 5: and you see the pounds of the hands are different.
2:47
Speaker 5: Like just the little details and the big things as well.
2:49
Speaker 6: That makes so special.
2:52
Speaker 5: I'm really really excited for the world and for black
2:55
Speaker 5: kids to experience because you know, the show touches on
2:58
Speaker 5: self worth and self awareness and empathy and love and
3:02
Speaker 5: so many things that partnant to human existence. Now I'm
3:07
Speaker 5: really really, really, really really I don't know if you
3:09
Speaker 5: can tell up said people.
3:10
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, I'm really.
3:12
Speaker 5: Excited for everyone to see.
3:14
Speaker 4: This excitement is so exciting. I love even just walking here,
3:17
Speaker 4: everyone just seeing brimming with energy. Sarah, how did you
3:21
Speaker 4: think about this?
3:23
Speaker 7: Well, I mean, I grew up watching cartoons, you know,
3:26
Speaker 7: on Cartoon Network, and you know, I think it's it
3:29
Speaker 7: is such a dream. I am humbled, I am privileged,
3:32
Speaker 7: and I feel absolutely honored because I talk about cartoons,
3:36
Speaker 7: you know, and how they impacted me when I was
3:38
Speaker 7: much younger, and Saturday Mornings and you know, we just
3:41
Speaker 7: knew that Saturday mornings were for cartoons, and you know,
3:44
Speaker 7: we got to explore all kinds of cartoons. But you know,
3:47
Speaker 7: now I get to see you know, I'm just thinking
3:50
Speaker 7: of the eight year old me, the twelve year old me,
3:53
Speaker 7: even the fifteen year old me who finally gets to
3:57
Speaker 7: see someone who looks like her on the screen, you know,
4:00
Speaker 7: someone who speaks like her, someone who struggles with what
4:04
Speaker 7: she struggles with, you know, and it's just it's so
4:08
Speaker 7: surreal that I get to be part of that. It's
4:11
Speaker 7: surreal that I get to be a catalyst for that,
4:13
Speaker 7: and I think it's it's just an amazing feeling. And
4:17
Speaker 7: to know that Nigerian kids all over the world, black
4:20
Speaker 7: kids all over the world get to see this side
4:24
Speaker 7: of Africa. They get to see this side of where
4:26
Speaker 7: they come from and know that it's not all just poverty.
4:29
Speaker 7: When you think about Africa, you know, there's wealth, there's culture,
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Speaker 7: there's so much there's so much talent, there's so much
4:38
Speaker 7: to see. You know, it's not just what you've been told,
4:41
Speaker 7: it's you get to see it firsthand. And this has
4:45
Speaker 7: made you know, I'm going to keep saying it for
4:47
Speaker 7: us by us presented to us, and it's so exciting,
4:52
Speaker 7: and yeah, I'm so excited about it.
4:55
Speaker 4: I'm gonna step in carry before you answer, being that
4:58
Speaker 4: we were one of the writers. And I'm listening to
5:00
Speaker 4: everyone's response. I wonder how much their experiences and life
5:05
Speaker 4: informed how you wrote this too, because and and something
5:09
Speaker 4: you did and I don't know if this was your
5:10
Speaker 4: line or what, but something you did with the Allori character.
5:14
Speaker 4: It sounds like every Nigerian parent I ever met, every
5:17
Speaker 4: Nigerian parian I grew up with Nigerian friends, and the
5:21
Speaker 4: level of reading that they do their children is epic,
5:24
Speaker 4: like when a Lauri says, you know, I wonder if
5:27
Speaker 4: the space between your ears is a tunnel, right, you know?
5:29
Speaker 4: Or the forest animals do not care for the course
5:31
Speaker 4: of anything like that is legit, not legit Nigerian parents.
5:35
Speaker 4: So again, I'm just curious it was your own personal
5:38
Speaker 4: experiences to deliver that help deliver that tone and cadence,
5:42
Speaker 4: or you know, just everything that you've learned after you
5:44
Speaker 4: know you've met this cast.
5:46
Speaker 8: Well, I've got to give credit to roy A Kupe,
5:48
Speaker 8: the leader of Leanu. He's the one who really kind
5:51
Speaker 8: of set the tone in terms of how the characters speak,
5:55
Speaker 8: their mannerisms, their expressions. He's a Nigerian man, so that
5:59
Speaker 8: is all credit to him. I'm not Nigerian, but I
6:02
Speaker 8: am Jamaican, and there's a lot of similarities in the
6:06
Speaker 8: way that we read each other. Are the way parents
6:09
Speaker 8: read their.
6:09
Speaker 4: Kids, yes, yes, So just being I.
6:11
Speaker 8: Was just just like I'm in the diaspora, you know
6:15
Speaker 8: what I mean, and we're all from the same place,
6:18
Speaker 8: so that just that was just really natural to embody,
6:22
Speaker 8: you know, my own parents and grandparents and ancestors when
6:27
Speaker 8: in you know, like writing dialogue for instance, and we,
6:30
Speaker 8: like I said, we had a lot.
6:31
Speaker 4: We had the source material which.
6:33
Speaker 8: Was so vast and so rich and really gave us
6:37
Speaker 8: everything we needed. And then of course infusing my own
6:40
Speaker 8: personal experiences. I was born in Jamaica, grew up in
6:43
Speaker 8: Jamaica until I was eleven years old, so you know
6:46
Speaker 8: what I mean, Like that is just to me in
6:48
Speaker 8: a very it was my formative years, my formative experiences,
6:53
Speaker 8: and like everybody else here, like you know, grew up
6:56
Speaker 8: Saturday morning cartoons, watching the Undercats and he Men and
7:02
Speaker 8: you know, gem and the Holograms and all of that,
7:05
Speaker 8: and then to.
7:05
Speaker 4: Be able to write something.
7:07
Speaker 8: My very first show I worked on was The Backyardigans,
7:10
Speaker 8: which was also huge for representation. And you know, I
7:14
Speaker 8: can't see a lot of people I've mentioned this to
7:16
Speaker 8: can't see a world without that. So I love this
7:18
Speaker 8: question and this idea that kids are going to see
7:21
Speaker 8: this and grow up and cannot imagine a world where
7:26
Speaker 8: Eanu didn't exist, and not just Yanu, but her friends,
7:28
Speaker 8: her family, all the characters. That what I love is
7:30
Speaker 8: that you get to see all the aspects of humans,
7:34
Speaker 8: all aspects of humans and how humans show up in
7:36
Speaker 8: the world. And we're not one dimensional, we're not a modelith.
7:40
Speaker 8: We encompass, you know, so many things, and we get
7:43
Speaker 8: to see that with Leanu.
7:46
Speaker 9: Everything she said, you know, just to contribute to what
7:52
Speaker 9: she said.
7:53
Speaker 7: It's like when I was talking about, you know, being
7:56
Speaker 7: able to meet as a young child, looking back at that,
8:00
Speaker 7: I think about how years from now, you know, people
8:05
Speaker 7: maybe my age at that time, get to talk about
8:07
Speaker 7: how Yano impacted them, And you know, that is just
8:10
Speaker 7: mind blowing.
8:11
Speaker 4: You know, that is so mind blowing.
8:13
Speaker 7: And someone who interviewed us earlier, he literally said, you know,
8:17
Speaker 7: we're doing what Naruto did for the Japanese anime, and
8:21
Speaker 7: that was so powerful because I never saw it like that.
8:24
Speaker 7: But I mean, looking at you, that's exactly what we're doing,
8:28
Speaker 7: and that is so amazing.
8:32
Speaker 1: I agree really quickly. One thing that I really appreciated
8:35
Speaker 1: about the show is the politics of Yurubiland, as they
8:38
Speaker 1: don't show like a perfect society, cause we often think,
8:41
Speaker 1: you know, Africa, if we had we didn't have colonization,
8:44
Speaker 1: it'd be a paradise. But reality is everyone is human.
8:48
Speaker 1: So what led you to depict the world in this way?
8:52
Speaker 4: Carrie? You want to go for that?
8:54
Speaker 8: I mean, again, credit to Roy Akoupe, who created this
8:57
Speaker 8: world and wrote the graphic novel it's based on.
9:01
Speaker 4: But I don't want to.
9:02
Speaker 8: Speak for him, but I think that, like you said,
9:06
Speaker 8: you know, we all we assume, oh, if we didn't
9:08
Speaker 8: have colonization or whatever, it would be paradise, it would
9:11
Speaker 8: be utopia. And that's just not the case. And I
9:13
Speaker 8: think one important reason to have representation is to depict
9:19
Speaker 8: people in their full humanity. And I think what you'll
9:23
Speaker 8: see you'll see a lot of and that includes being
9:26
Speaker 8: you know, not everyone's a good guy. You know, some
9:29
Speaker 8: people are bad guys, but more likely it's somewhere in between,
9:32
Speaker 8: and there's you know, elements of good and elements of bad,
9:37
Speaker 8: and we get to what I love about this too,
9:39
Speaker 8: is we really develop the characters in such a way
9:42
Speaker 8: that everyone goes through an arc that is really brings
9:47
Speaker 8: true to human experience, is recognizable, and there's some ambiguity
9:56
Speaker 8: along the way, you know what I mean. And I
9:57
Speaker 8: think that that's just multi dimensional and that's just human.
10:01
Speaker 8: So that's something that I'm really grateful you know that.
10:05
Speaker 8: I mean, like you said, all the politics, it's so familiar.
10:09
Speaker 8: It's like humans are gonna human no matter where we.
10:12
Speaker 10: Are, of course.
10:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, so yeah, I love that. Yeah, No, we definitely
10:18
Speaker 4: appreciate talking with all of you. I mean, this is
10:20
Speaker 4: a really important project and this is going to really
10:23
Speaker 4: make an impact on everyone, to be honest, kids, adults,
10:26
Speaker 4: everyone has already made a huge impact on me. And
10:28
Speaker 4: that Saturday morning vibe is there, so I'm happy they
10:31
Speaker 4: viewing on a Saturday. So thank you all again. We
10:33
Speaker 4: really appreciate you me talk to you again, yes.
10:36
Speaker 2: So much, Carrie, real quick.
10:38
Speaker 1: I see that Emmy back there, and thank you for
10:39
Speaker 1: that too, because that is needed on them.
10:43
Speaker 2: Keep that so much.
10:51
Speaker 1: I know you listen to the show, you watching the show,
10:53
Speaker 1: you're enjoying the show, you loving for all nerds. So
10:56
Speaker 1: why haven't you told your friends about it? Why haven't
10:58
Speaker 1: you told your family about it? Why haven't you told
11:00
Speaker 1: your foes about it? Let him know about four our nerds.
11:03
Speaker 1: And while you're at it, make sure you hit those
11:05
Speaker 1: subscribe buttons on YouTube, because you're watching us right now.
11:08
Speaker 1: You're seeing our beautiful, melanated faces. You're loving all of
11:12
Speaker 1: this gloriousness right now, So stop watching and lurking. Hit
11:16
Speaker 1: the subscribe button, follow join the fan.
11:19
Speaker 2: Fan. We love you for it. Thank you so much
11:22
Speaker 2: for all the support.
11:23
Speaker 4: Boom, thank you so much, Brandon carry Pauler for speaking
11:26
Speaker 4: with me today. I'm actually going to jump in. This
11:29
Speaker 4: is a question that Carrie may be familiar with. Actually
11:31
Speaker 4: asked this to the Voice cast, my media partner. He
11:35
Speaker 4: is a writer. He was actually speaking with a group
11:38
Speaker 4: of sixth graders and they couldn't believe there was a
11:41
Speaker 4: time where black Panther wasn't a household name. So I'm
11:44
Speaker 4: curious as too as I'm seeing Ianu and how far
11:48
Speaker 4: this is going to go? How do you feel that
11:49
Speaker 4: there's going to be a point where kids are not
11:51
Speaker 4: going to be able to imagine a world without Eanu.
11:54
Speaker 6: One only hope.
11:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, any other thoughts on that this was the show, Oh,
12:00
Speaker 4: go ahead saying I.
12:02
Speaker 11: Was just equip But I'd say if this show gains
12:07
Speaker 11: the kind of traction and the kind of notoriety that
12:11
Speaker 11: we would hope it gets, then I think it'll speak
12:15
Speaker 11: to a lot of different people on a lot of
12:17
Speaker 11: different levels. And I would like to become kind of
12:19
Speaker 11: a cultural phenomenon, like a few other projects that I
12:22
Speaker 11: can't name, but that that happens with with media.
12:27
Speaker 6: With content.
12:27
Speaker 11: You know, if you strike the right nerve and the
12:30
Speaker 11: the zeitgeist of the flow of history, it could be
12:34
Speaker 11: a flashpoint, which would be awesome.
12:36
Speaker 4: See and Paula, you had a comment, Oh, this is
12:40
Speaker 4: part of the reason I was excited to work on
12:42
Speaker 4: this was it was the kind of show that I
12:43
Speaker 4: wish I'd had as a child. So yes, I hope
12:48
Speaker 4: that other especially brown and black kids, will be like, yeah,
12:52
Speaker 4: this is mine now. Because once once a group of
12:55
Speaker 4: children takes ownership of something cultural like this, it will
13:00
Speaker 4: have life forever, because then it becomes something they share
13:03
Speaker 4: with their children and something that they share with their children, etc.
13:05
Speaker 10: And so forth. So you hope it takes that kind
13:08
Speaker 10: of hold.
13:09
Speaker 4: Absolutely absolutely, And you know, particularly to Brandon and Carrie,
13:14
Speaker 4: when you're talking about the task of translating from graphic
13:17
Speaker 4: novel to animated series. Obviously different mediums, you have different tools,
13:21
Speaker 4: you can use, different ways to go about showing the story.
13:25
Speaker 4: Did you have any trepidations or challenges when it came
13:27
Speaker 4: to be being true to the source material or knowing
13:30
Speaker 4: when it's okay to make adjustments?
13:31
Speaker 9: Brandon, I'll let you speak to this first.
13:34
Speaker 12: So, yeah, I was hired to originally take portions of
13:40
Speaker 12: Volume one and turn that into the pilots, which is
13:42
Speaker 12: episodes one on one, And with all adaptation projects, it's
13:48
Speaker 12: never a one to one translation or adaptation, So I
13:52
Speaker 12: just tried to figure out the parts of the story
13:54
Speaker 12: that would resonate most immediately with viewers who have never
13:59
Speaker 12: read the graphic novels or the comics. I mean, you
14:02
Speaker 12: see this with stuff like Doune, you see this with
14:05
Speaker 12: stuff like you know, Little Shopping. I mean, there's so
14:07
Speaker 12: many great adaptations out there from previously existing materials, particularly
14:11
Speaker 12: like Stephen King novels and so forth, and so on.
14:14
Speaker 12: I think with Iyanu, Royal Koupe and Godwin ik Pin,
14:19
Speaker 12: who the creators at the Volume one, they had such
14:22
Speaker 12: a lavish and brilliantly paced story. It lent itself to
14:28
Speaker 12: visual storytelling in a way that a lot of stuff
14:31
Speaker 12: that's come across my desk did not. It was paced
14:34
Speaker 12: very well, and pacing is something that's vastly underrated and storytelling,
14:39
Speaker 12: and so I just tried to find the things in
14:42
Speaker 12: the first two episodes that would immediately grab people but
14:47
Speaker 12: also reflect the lore that roy had created, and that
14:51
Speaker 12: was that was really the challenge. But it was beautiful
14:53
Speaker 12: because it was easy because so much was emotionally bullet
14:56
Speaker 12: pointed already that it was just a matter of executing.
15:01
Speaker 4: I see, I see, carry Did you have anything to
15:04
Speaker 4: add there?
15:05
Speaker 13: You know?
15:05
Speaker 8: I just think that what the world that existed in
15:10
Speaker 8: the graphic novels was so rich. I had previously come
15:15
Speaker 8: off aida Twist Scientists, which is also adapting a series
15:20
Speaker 8: of books into a show, and that was a little
15:22
Speaker 8: bit different because it was picture books, which has a
15:26
Speaker 8: lot less you know, to kind of work with in
15:30
Speaker 8: creating the final series or the final product. But it's
15:34
Speaker 8: similar in the sense that people love the books, you know,
15:39
Speaker 8: and you want to maintain like a really like a
15:43
Speaker 8: strong connection to the spirit of the book that already exists.
15:49
Speaker 8: And then also we worked really closely together in the
15:52
Speaker 8: writer's room to kind of lay out what needs what
15:55
Speaker 8: needed to happen, you know, throughout the course of the season,
15:59
Speaker 8: you know, the arcs of various characters had to fulfill
16:04
Speaker 8: in along their journeys, and I was just really happy
16:07
Speaker 8: that we had the source material to look at, like
16:12
Speaker 8: it's just beautiful, rich and vast, and like Brandon said,
16:16
Speaker 8: a lot of it was figuring out like what to
16:18
Speaker 8: keep in, what to leave out to be the most
16:22
Speaker 8: emotionally resonant in the amount of time that we have
16:25
Speaker 8: to show this on screen, and then to service the
16:27
Speaker 8: characters that we have to service. So if that answers
16:31
Speaker 8: your question, I feel like it does.
16:32
Speaker 4: No, no, No, that does. And it makes me think
16:36
Speaker 4: just about having this so close to heart and being
16:40
Speaker 4: very deep into the source material as well as trying
16:42
Speaker 4: to make a new wave into an animation perspective. I'm
16:46
Speaker 4: curious if any of these characters really started kind of
16:49
Speaker 4: imprinting themselves onto you, Like there was a character that
16:51
Speaker 4: you like, this is my heart. I love this character.
16:54
Speaker 4: And this is really a question for everyone here. Was
16:56
Speaker 4: there any particular character even that you can speak of
17:00
Speaker 4: a scene or something I really stuck with you as
17:02
Speaker 4: you were developing it.
17:04
Speaker 2: I love can.
17:08
Speaker 4: Too early. Now, Okay, it could be Yan with herself.
17:11
Speaker 4: It's just herself.
17:13
Speaker 8: I really relate that her She resonates with me because
17:17
Speaker 8: the young girl trying to figure out her place in
17:20
Speaker 8: the world, she's awakening to all of this information that
17:25
Speaker 8: she's learning about herself, her past. She feels like an other,
17:29
Speaker 8: like an outsider in some way. I mean, I'm Jamaican.
17:32
Speaker 8: I moved to America when I was eleven, so that
17:35
Speaker 8: feeling of being an outsider, you know, is something that
17:39
Speaker 8: I still carry with me. I feel like I became
17:42
Speaker 8: a writer, and so I really relate to her and
17:46
Speaker 8: her journey. But I think what's cool about these characters too,
17:50
Speaker 8: is that there are elements of each character that we can,
17:55
Speaker 8: I think, see in ourselves. Like Toya is really the
17:58
Speaker 8: you know, super bookish guy, and Bese a little bit
18:03
Speaker 8: more of a smart ass. And I love that that
18:05
Speaker 8: they're so built out that you can see helping each
18:09
Speaker 8: of them.
18:10
Speaker 4: Absolutely, and this was very giving me Saturday Morning cartoon
18:14
Speaker 4: happiness and vibes because I was like, this is absolutely
18:16
Speaker 4: something that I watched. It's something I watch now. I
18:17
Speaker 4: watch cartoons now to this day, and it's just something
18:20
Speaker 4: where the characters were lovable, they were relatable, and I
18:24
Speaker 4: was able to connect with them very quickly. Yes, it
18:26
Speaker 4: helped that they were the same skinstone as me, but
18:29
Speaker 4: even so, just from a human manistic perspective, it was
18:32
Speaker 4: just so refreshing to be able to jump into this
18:34
Speaker 4: project and everything looked really good and you mentioning Carrie
18:39
Speaker 4: that you're Jamaican, you know, it reminds me of just
18:41
Speaker 4: stud ask for overall. Right, Like how even though this
18:43
Speaker 4: is a Yarova focused Nigerian story, that it touches the
18:48
Speaker 4: entire Aspera right, And I'm African American and it touches
18:52
Speaker 4: my and informed some of my experience, the experience of
18:55
Speaker 4: growing up with other Nigerians, things like that. So being
18:58
Speaker 4: that you have all of this rich history under it,
19:01
Speaker 4: then to be able to see that this is funded
19:04
Speaker 4: by a black company, right, it's part really funded by
19:07
Speaker 4: lying Forge and maybe this is vincent you can talk
19:10
Speaker 4: to this like this makes this a very for us
19:12
Speaker 4: by US endeavor. So you know, could you talk a
19:15
Speaker 4: little bit more about how that partnership, like just further
19:18
Speaker 4: informed how you manage this whole project.
19:22
Speaker 11: Yeah, actually that's a conversation. It's a little bit above
19:25
Speaker 11: my pay grade. But I was instantly in admiration of
19:30
Speaker 11: the level of commitment that not only financially, but in
19:35
Speaker 11: terms of you know, adhering to the idea of authenticity
19:39
Speaker 11: and trying something really ambitious from a black owned company,
19:43
Speaker 11: really wanting to like walk their talk, you know, because
19:47
Speaker 11: a lot of people talk about diversity and inclusion, authentisical
19:50
Speaker 11: and all that stuff, but nobody ever really owns it
19:54
Speaker 11: one hundred percent. You know, very rarely do you see
19:57
Speaker 11: someone that's really you know, doing that. So for me,
20:01
Speaker 11: it was tremendously uh inspiring to see a company that says, no, no,
20:06
Speaker 11: we're going to do this right and they brought me
20:09
Speaker 11: in because I do this, and I was happy to
20:14
Speaker 11: jump on that's exact.
20:17
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's the thing. I mean that really made me
20:19
Speaker 4: happy to hear. And you know, I love the line
20:21
Speaker 4: forged projects in general, so this was really good that
20:23
Speaker 4: they were able to bring this about. And then you know,
20:26
Speaker 4: Paula This question is really centered to you just when
20:29
Speaker 4: we talk about the voice acting and the casting process,
20:31
Speaker 4: and you know, there's always changes and different ideas and
20:35
Speaker 4: you know, different paths that you take from where you
20:38
Speaker 4: started till now as you were and look, could you
20:41
Speaker 4: just tell me more about that process of casting and
20:44
Speaker 4: as you were doing that, were there any big surprises,
20:47
Speaker 4: you know, from what you originally thought to what you
20:49
Speaker 4: ended up with the incredible voice cast you had.
20:52
Speaker 10: Well, the process was long and arduous. It was not argeous.
20:56
Speaker 10: It's actually a lot of fun. It was fun because
21:01
Speaker 10: I was being introduced to so many artists that I
21:04
Speaker 10: probably wouldn't have worked with otherwise. So we received about
21:09
Speaker 10: sixteen hundred auditions and it was about an eight month
21:12
Speaker 10: process and the biggest thing was maintaining the level of
21:20
Speaker 10: Nigerian authenticity that Roy wanted and he was very clear
21:23
Speaker 10: about what he wanted to hear. I was the performance arbiter,
21:27
Speaker 10: but he was the accent vocal choice arbiter, So we
21:31
Speaker 10: had a tag team role with each other. And I
21:33
Speaker 10: would bring it a series of auditions to him and
21:36
Speaker 10: say I really like what they're doing with the character
21:38
Speaker 10: work here, and he would say yes, yes, yes, this
21:40
Speaker 10: is East African, this is South African, this is and
21:43
Speaker 10: so so I learned over time how to recognize the
21:49
Speaker 10: sound he was looking for, and it was a matter
21:51
Speaker 10: of building out the tapestry of the world to make
21:54
Speaker 10: it feel as authentic and varied as possible. I hope
22:00
Speaker 10: I'm answering your question.
22:02
Speaker 4: You are, No, this is great and laugh when you
22:05
Speaker 4: mentioned South African East African. Was there something that happened
22:08
Speaker 4: at that point?
22:10
Speaker 11: No, just that's that's been a recurring today that like
22:13
Speaker 11: you know, but Roy's.
22:14
Speaker 6: Like, no, that this needs to be not just Nigerian,
22:16
Speaker 6: but Oruba Nigerian, right, I.
22:18
Speaker 4: See, yes, very particular.
22:21
Speaker 11: I wouldn't know the trip between Ethiopian and Nigerian, but
22:25
Speaker 11: he was very he was very specific.
22:28
Speaker 10: And then as far as as the working with the
22:31
Speaker 10: cast in the actual recording process, there were lots of
22:34
Speaker 10: times when I would say, what would you say? What
22:38
Speaker 10: would you say at this moment? And so there was
22:40
Speaker 10: a lot of just your the slang and yeah, and
22:44
Speaker 10: then we used to do what would I jokingly called
22:48
Speaker 10: the American read. I would say, do the American read
22:51
Speaker 10: and then say it how you would say it?
22:53
Speaker 4: Say if you were just.
22:54
Speaker 10: On the Street, What would you do with this? And
22:56
Speaker 10: because it's these subtle things where the emphosis is just
22:59
Speaker 10: on slightly different levels, you know, then make it love
23:03
Speaker 10: that make a huge difference to how a world sounds.
23:07
Speaker 10: And so during that first four episodes, especially for me,
23:12
Speaker 10: it was a bit of a learning process of balancing
23:17
Speaker 10: the authenticity of how people speak with what I knew
23:22
Speaker 10: a North American audience could understand when hearing it, and
23:25
Speaker 10: so I was always weighing that and why would i?
23:28
Speaker 10: Roy and I would have quite long discussions sometimes about
23:31
Speaker 10: what how far do we want to push this? How
23:34
Speaker 10: Nigerian can we make this? Yeah?
23:37
Speaker 4: Yeah? And you want you want to make a certain
23:39
Speaker 4: group of people happy, right, especially you're going to say,
23:41
Speaker 4: all these are Nigerian yardbook characters? Are they truly that?
23:45
Speaker 1: Right?
23:45
Speaker 4: And then at the same time trying to hey, can
23:47
Speaker 4: can this person from middle of America understand what they're
23:51
Speaker 4: talking about? Absolutely? I get it? And Brandon and Kerry
23:54
Speaker 4: were you and Paul it plice to the three of you.
23:56
Speaker 4: Were you involved with each other when it came to
23:58
Speaker 4: writing or rewriting or even changing tones of certain things
24:02
Speaker 4: the characters were saying Based on the voice actor because,
24:05
Speaker 4: for example, I know, in a lot of animation, and
24:08
Speaker 4: again this is from the drawing perspective, animation deal maybe
24:11
Speaker 4: adjust how our character looks to further match the voice actor.
24:14
Speaker 4: Were there any changes or adjustments made from the writing
24:16
Speaker 4: perspective or was it like you guys already had the
24:20
Speaker 4: dialogue and then the voice of cast just went went
24:23
Speaker 4: with it.
24:25
Speaker 12: We had the initial draft, and then we would do
24:28
Speaker 12: what we called a roy draft, which he would put
24:31
Speaker 12: in the slang and intonations, and then we would do
24:34
Speaker 12: a comedy draft, which one of our writers, Ivory Floyd,
24:37
Speaker 12: was really good at.
24:39
Speaker 2: Comedy, which I'm I'm not a comedian.
24:41
Speaker 12: I'm not really good at that type of I can
24:43
Speaker 12: write funny scenes that I'm not like funny, you know
24:45
Speaker 12: what I mean, not intentionally.
24:46
Speaker 2: People laugh at me all the time, but not on purpose.
24:49
Speaker 9: You know.
24:50
Speaker 12: But the trick is that we did have different, right,
24:55
Speaker 12: different drafts, but they didn't really go through what I
25:00
Speaker 12: would say would be like a voice like we It
25:02
Speaker 12: was like a reformatting of scripts for voice. But I
25:06
Speaker 12: always felt like once it gets to that level, you
25:08
Speaker 12: let the voice folk do their job. And since it
25:12
Speaker 12: was like one am Pacific time, a lot of the
25:14
Speaker 12: times I would be worthless in the recording session, and
25:17
Speaker 12: a few times I tried to show up at three am.
25:19
Speaker 1: I'd go, yeah, ye, that it was good, you know.
25:22
Speaker 2: So the trick is.
25:24
Speaker 1: Is that.
25:26
Speaker 12: I had utmost faith in Paula and Roy being in
25:31
Speaker 12: the voice sessions because he's in Maryland. I'm in Calavis
25:34
Speaker 12: three thousand miles more and that's what three more hours more?
25:38
Speaker 12: So like yeah, like as Vincent always says, we were
25:41
Speaker 12: in five time zones globally.
25:43
Speaker 4: Oh wow.
25:44
Speaker 12: You had to absolutely trust and trust and respect the
25:49
Speaker 12: flip sides of the same coin. I respected and I
25:51
Speaker 12: trusted everybody I worked with. There wasn't a there wasn't
25:54
Speaker 12: a point in time where I was afraid of letting
25:56
Speaker 12: go of script, you know. And that's something that where
25:59
Speaker 12: sometimes people get too precious about their scripts. I was
26:02
Speaker 12: not that I knew that Carrie, Ivey, Matt and Roy
26:06
Speaker 12: could execute. And part of being a head writer is
26:10
Speaker 12: not stepping on anybody's shoulders or neck. You let those
26:13
Speaker 12: people run because they're that good. And they all the folks,
26:16
Speaker 12: everybody in this call was that good and.
26:18
Speaker 4: Beyond you know, Yeah, I know that Emmy's saying the
26:21
Speaker 4: same thing in the background of Carrie's video. I am
26:26
Speaker 4: that good. I think no, I think that's excellent. And
26:30
Speaker 4: you said, so the entire production, you guys were doing
26:32
Speaker 4: across five time zones.
26:34
Speaker 10: Yeah, because I'm I'm in Portugal, but I was directing
26:37
Speaker 10: the cast to Nigeria, and then yeah, so.
26:40
Speaker 14: Our directors in Nigeria and our showrunners in our show
26:44
Speaker 14: creators in Maryland, and we had a studio in Atlanta
26:47
Speaker 14: and in the corporate home office in Saint Louis, and
26:50
Speaker 14: then we're on you know, we have a Korean studio
26:53
Speaker 14: that's on the right.
26:55
Speaker 9: Yeah, right, So yeah, over all the time zones and
27:00
Speaker 9: the actors were all over the world, because yeah, yeah, yeah,
27:03
Speaker 9: So scheduling the sessions was always really interesting where I
27:06
Speaker 9: was like, okay, it's four am in Ottawa and nine
27:08
Speaker 9: am here and nine am for me, yeah so or
27:12
Speaker 9: nine pm for me.
27:12
Speaker 2: So it was.
27:13
Speaker 4: Always yeah, yeah, negotiation. That's a good level of faith
27:17
Speaker 4: and understanding too, and in respect, I would say, the
27:20
Speaker 4: utmost respect for everyone that you work with to be
27:23
Speaker 4: able to with those hurdles, to be able to come
27:26
Speaker 4: out with what you did, which is really a beautiful
27:29
Speaker 4: animated series. And you know, I do hope that enough
27:32
Speaker 4: people watches where they're just going to be in shock,
27:34
Speaker 4: and I really can't wait till they hear this part
27:37
Speaker 4: saying that you guys were all over the world doing this.
27:38
Speaker 4: I mean this is truly, quite literally, it's like a
27:42
Speaker 4: diasporic endeavor, this whole thing. I really love that. You know,
27:48
Speaker 4: considering everything that you've all have been working on with this,
27:51
Speaker 4: what ultimate lessons did you learn, whether about yourself or about
27:55
Speaker 4: your craft?
27:56
Speaker 10: The power of collaboration. I think I've worked on a
28:01
Speaker 10: lot of shows usually sort of, as you know, the
28:04
Speaker 10: voice director, you're kind of a cog in the wheel.
28:08
Speaker 10: And with this show I was allowed to take a
28:11
Speaker 10: level of ownership that I'm not always when you're a
28:13
Speaker 10: gun for hire. So being able to send off the
28:17
Speaker 10: prelay and then get notes back about character changes and
28:22
Speaker 10: how sections were going to be shifted or rearranged or
28:24
Speaker 10: like that kind of malleable process was a joy. And
28:28
Speaker 10: the fact that everyone was kind of always firing, firing
28:31
Speaker 10: on all cylinders and having a blast doing it was
28:36
Speaker 10: that was that's not always how it.
28:38
Speaker 5: Goes, so I was I was the process in general totally.
28:43
Speaker 6: We had to build an amazing team from everywhere. But
28:46
Speaker 6: what's the saying. I hired the right person for the
28:48
Speaker 6: job and then let them do it.
28:50
Speaker 15: It's like the big reward was being able to see,
28:55
Speaker 15: these are the people we need for this, this, this, this,
28:57
Speaker 15: and this. They're the best people for this, and we
29:00
Speaker 15: should get them. And then once we got them, I said,
29:02
Speaker 15: I didn't micro manage them. I said here's the idea,
29:05
Speaker 15: will you own miss and make it rock? And everyone came.
29:08
Speaker 11: With that with that one hundred percent like yeah, I
29:10
Speaker 11: get it, I'm on it, and they brought their a
29:12
Speaker 11: game and that a spree of corps has been so
29:15
Speaker 11: high across five time.
29:17
Speaker 6: Zones for a couple of years. But you know, the
29:20
Speaker 6: proofs and the.
29:21
Speaker 4: Pudding, you know, indeed carry Brandon any lessons you learned
29:26
Speaker 4: of yourself, of your craft.
29:28
Speaker 8: I mean, Paula kind of stole a part of my answer.
29:31
Speaker 8: Corporation was huge, Yeah, important. I mean, it's what you
29:36
Speaker 8: do when you work on any series and you you
29:40
Speaker 8: know the value of the writer's room is just can't
29:43
Speaker 8: be overstated. The value of that having your fellow collaborators,
29:46
Speaker 8: it just makes it better, you know what I mean,
29:48
Speaker 8: It just that group brain just makes it better.
29:50
Speaker 2: But what I learned.
29:51
Speaker 9: One thing I learned was, oh, I could write night scenes.
29:57
Speaker 9: That's not something that I do regularly. And it was
30:00
Speaker 9: really fun and surprising to me, even though ultimately that's
30:05
Speaker 9: the storyboard artists and the directors kind of like that's
30:08
Speaker 9: their thing.
30:09
Speaker 8: But to just be the first stab at, like, you know,
30:12
Speaker 8: how this could be choreographed, even though ultimately it's up
30:17
Speaker 8: to the artists to kind of take that in whatever
30:19
Speaker 8: direction they want to take it.
30:20
Speaker 10: But that was really fun.
30:22
Speaker 4: That's awesome. Brandon, I gotta ask you, what is your take?
30:26
Speaker 4: What did you take away from this?
30:28
Speaker 12: Well, I'm gonna be very candid and I'll say this,
30:31
Speaker 12: being a large black male as a writer in Los Angeles,
30:35
Speaker 12: things do not fall in your favor quite often, and
30:38
Speaker 12: there is a kind of what I've learned is that
30:42
Speaker 12: the true commodity in this town is the benefit of
30:44
Speaker 12: the doubt, and when you're a large black man, you
30:47
Speaker 12: do not get that very often or at all. And
30:50
Speaker 12: I started to, unfortunately, I started to internalize some of
30:53
Speaker 12: that because I was surrounded by it, almost like a
30:55
Speaker 12: mitosis of negativity, right, and I doing this project taught
31:02
Speaker 12: me how to regain and this is a good thing.
31:05
Speaker 12: Sometimes a little bit of the ego and a little
31:07
Speaker 12: bit of the arrogance that you need as kind of
31:10
Speaker 12: a suit of armor. I don't mean in a narcissistic way,
31:14
Speaker 12: but I went through some very harrowing things in this town.
31:19
Speaker 12: But there's definitely a lack of respect if you're large
31:22
Speaker 12: and black and male. Whether it's body shaming, whether it's
31:26
Speaker 12: just skin color, all that kind of stuff, it plays
31:29
Speaker 12: into it and you have to really be careful not
31:31
Speaker 12: to swallow that pill and let it grow inside of
31:34
Speaker 12: you like a virus.
31:36
Speaker 2: And it took me quite some time because this is
31:39
Speaker 2: nothing anybody prepares you for.
31:41
Speaker 12: There is no roadmap for anti blackness and how to
31:46
Speaker 12: circumvent anti blackness in this industry.
31:49
Speaker 2: And I'm from Baltimore originally Maryland.
31:52
Speaker 12: I don't play games with people, and I don't I'm
31:55
Speaker 12: not into the political games of Hollywood.
31:56
Speaker 2: I'm just not. And that has hurt me.
31:59
Speaker 12: And it took me a little while to realize that
32:03
Speaker 12: it wasn't me that was broken, it was the environment
32:08
Speaker 12: that was sick, to quote Dave Chappelle. And it took
32:13
Speaker 12: me a little while to realize I didn't do anything wrong.
32:16
Speaker 2: I had never There's not a single person in this
32:18
Speaker 2: town and I can say this with.
32:19
Speaker 12: A clear conscience, that can say I did anything wrong
32:21
Speaker 12: to them, that I mistreated them, that I've done anything
32:24
Speaker 12: wrong anywhere. But I was always treated as if though
32:28
Speaker 12: I had done something wrong, that I would and I
32:31
Speaker 12: realized it was just my existence that was the problem
32:34
Speaker 12: for these people, right. So, working on Ayanu and there
32:40
Speaker 12: were two times in my entire writing career I felt
32:43
Speaker 12: valued as a human being. One was that Blizzard Entertainment
32:47
Speaker 12: and two was on a honor That's it, And I've
32:50
Speaker 12: worked on a lot of stuff, but those were the
32:52
Speaker 12: two times I ever felt valued as a human being
32:54
Speaker 12: when nobody cared how much I weighed or what the
32:57
Speaker 12: skin with my skin tone is. I'm not even the
32:59
Speaker 12: darkest cat in the world, but I was treated like,
33:02
Speaker 12: you know, horribly, you know, and so And it wasn't
33:04
Speaker 12: just by white folk, you understand, It wasn't just by
33:08
Speaker 12: white folks.
33:08
Speaker 2: Black folk and other folk had their hand in it too.
33:12
Speaker 12: So it took me a little while to grow out
33:15
Speaker 12: of that. And this show was, I guess, the final
33:19
Speaker 12: step in my personal act of self love. And that
33:25
Speaker 12: was something I learned, and so that's what this show
33:28
Speaker 12: means to me. And I don't mean to get too deep,
33:30
Speaker 12: but literally, this is what it means to me because
33:32
Speaker 12: it showed me that I was capable, that it was
33:34
Speaker 12: no imposter syndrome at play, that I belonged here in
33:39
Speaker 12: this town and this business.
33:40
Speaker 2: So that's what I got from this show, straight up.
33:44
Speaker 4: Absolutely, thank you all you all belong and I definitely
33:48
Speaker 4: appreciate this, this project. I can't wait to see the
33:50
Speaker 4: rest of the series. Thank you, Vincent, Carrie Brand and Paula.
33:53
Speaker 4: Have a great evening. Thank you, Thank you so much.
33:55
Speaker 4: All Right, Hey, what's up? Internet's in a fan fam
34:05
Speaker 4: This is Tatiana King for four All Nerds and I
34:07
Speaker 4: want to thank you so much for listening and watching
34:10
Speaker 4: the four All Nerds.
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