Interviews – Brian Ward

Hi, I'm Brian Ward, DVD producer from Shout Factory,

and you're listening to the Geekcast Radio Network.

Welcome to All Things Transformers. I am Mike

Blanchard, and joining me today is Kevin Optimus

Solo Thompson. Hello. Hello, sir. And Stephen

C. Phillips. How are you, sir? Good. So today

we have another interview for the listeners.

Steve, who are we talking to this time? Today

we are talking with Brian Ward. Hi, Brian. How

are you? Doing well, guys. Excellent. Very, very

cool. Very excited to talk to you. Yes. And pick

your brain about Shout Factory. Oh, well, I've

got things to say about Shot Factory. All right,

so starting off, you spent most of your youth

in North Carolina. How would you describe yourself

as a kid? What were your favorite TV shows and

cartoons growing up? Wow. I was a complete television

addict. Still am. TV, DVD, Blu -ray, those are

my vices. I grew up the son of a military man.

So I found over the course of my life that you've

got two types of military brats. You've got the

kinds who make friends everywhere they go and

then the kinds that don't really make friends

anywhere because what's the point? You're just

moving in a couple of years. And that was me.

And I mean, I'm not saying that to be, you know,

sad or anything, but it turned out I just really,

really enjoyed Alone time, and in doing that,

I got to fall in love with the television and

came home every single day. My all -time favorite

was Transformers G1. G .I. Joe was probably a

quick second along with Voltron. Thundercats

was a staple in the house. You know, those sorts

of... And it's funny, I always go back to the,

I think the Sunbow series were always my go -to

for as long as I could get them. And then when

they sort of went away, things started to sort

of decline for me. But I made a comment to some

guys, to Joe Bacall and Tom Griffin, actually,

when I was doing the original Matrix set and

Foot Locker sets for Transformers and G .I. Joe,

that I didn't really get into playing sports.

Like football, I played football throughout all

of high school and my freshman year of college

before I got hurt. And I didn't get into sports

or any kind of after -school activities until

I realized they weren't making any more episodes

of Transformers. And once I caught on to that,

I was like, I might as well just stay after school,

do a little something. Excellent. All right,

so obviously you're a Transformers fan from a

kid to now. Yeah. Did you collect any of the

toys, or are you collecting any of the Transformers

stuff nowadays? I have an original Optimus Prime

sitting in my office as we speak. It's mine from

a kid, so it's very well played with. He has

no arms. Oh, poor Optimus. I know. But he fought

hard and valiantly, and he still won the battle.

As he always does. I'm not really collecting

anything now. Usually I kind of go after the

more vintage stuff, the stuff that I grew up

on. I'm very much a product of nostalgia, which

I guess is good since I work here at Shout. But

I'm finding a lot of the stuff that comes out

today is really cool, but I'm not sure what I

would do with it outside of display it. I've

got a collector mentality, but I also have the

for the love of all that's holy, I want to rip

into it and play with it mentality, which I don't

think works very well with the stuff they're

coming out with today. Right. Your IMDb bio states

that you were a child actor, but it doesn't list

any of the shows or credits for you. There's

a good reason for that. You know, I did stuff,

stuff. You know, there were commercials here

and there, and there were shows and guest appearances

on shows. So if we went to YouTube right now

and searched Brian Ward commercial, an old 80s

commercial would show up? I'm not sure you would

find it. I did do a, I did a, there was like

a Frosted Flakes ad that I did. Did you have

a favorite appearance that you made? Not really.

I just enjoyed it. I mean, I've enjoyed just

kind of being social and being an actor in any

way that I could. When I moved out to L .A.,

it certainly wasn't to act, but it's definitely

a first love. It's something that I would like

to do more of, but not necessarily as a career.

I just had an awesome thought. What if he is

the kid from the Transformers commercials? He

would have told us that. I'm the one that's blurred

out. Yeah, sadly, I didn't get a chance to do

the Transformers stuff. Man, that would have

been killer. Yeah, it would have been. So how

did you get into DVD production? You know, it

was actually an accident. Well, I went to school

for television production and came out to Los

Angeles sort of on a whim and found myself very

quickly having to fall back on my old job in

retail, which before I moved out to the West

Coast, I was... managing a Suncoast video. And

did that for a couple of years after school when

I found out only afterward that communications

is the most saturated degree you can possibly

get. And then found myself managing an FYE out

here and selling DVDs and CDs to everyone. Put

me in touch with an acquaintance who informed

me that they had a position as a marketing assistant

at Shout Factory. And I came in, literally worked

my way up from the ground floor. I was here three

days a week, part -time, stuffing envelopes of

CDs and DVDs that went out to radio stations

and things like that for giveaways. or review

copies and things like that, and made it very

clear very early on that I knew DVDs. And within

a year, I was in the DVD department, and within

six months of that, I was producing my first

title. Nice. Wow. Without saying anything, that

will get you. What's that? Cops, the animated

series is my first title, yeah. Excellent. Oh,

one of Kevin's favorites. I own that one. What

things do you like most and least about your

job? You know, I don't think there's anything

that I – it's funny. I was having this conversation

with someone not too long ago, and I don't really

think there's anything I don't like about the

job. Well, that's not true. The one thing that

I would say that I have to complain about is

the fact that these projects have to end sometimes.

Or sometime. I've come across so many different

projects that I've enjoyed working on so much.

The Middleman is still, to this day, one of my

all -time favorites. The Matrix Leadership Edition

on Transformers. The Foot Locker on G .I. Joe.

Dark Skies last year, Max Hedrum last year. I

mean, these are all titles that I grew up with

and absolutely loved any opportunity I could

get to put these things into a DVD player or

to produce bonus material for them. And eventually

it comes to harsh realization that it's got to

end. And I think that is sort of the part that

I have trouble with is letting go, realizing

that at some point in time it's got to go to

the plant. But at the same time, the best part

of the job is seeing it when it's done. I love

putting together the interviews and putting together

any kind of archival bonus features I can get

my hands on. I'm just very much into the collection

as a whole, and I think that's the beauty of

Shout. get a say and we all seem to get it we

all very much come from that kind of collector

mentality so it's it's not um it's not five or

six departments all working without knowing what

each other is doing they're all trying to interact

um our dark skies dvd set uh you know from the

packaging to the menus to the bonus features

it's all one cohesive thing like you you feel

like The entire thing is kind of an experience.

And that couldn't have been done if the art department

wasn't involved and the marketing department

wasn't involved with our stuff. I came across

the right company for sure. Which fandoms have

been the most helpful or the most annoying for

you as you try to collect bonus materials for?

What DVD set did you get the most feedback or

help in gathering content for production? Well,

you know what? The Matrix of Leadership Edition,

for sure, had a great deal of fan interaction.

One thing that I'm really happy about, if I was

working for any of the studios, I wouldn't be

able to go to the fans. These guys very much

are part of what makes... our DVD sets worth

watching. Very early on, as soon as we announce

the deal, I'm usually either on Twitter or I'm

on shoutfactory .com. We've got a community forum

there where I'm there every day, just about,

or at least I try to be. And I can be very...

straightforward and tell people exactly what

i'm doing what i'm working on sort of giving

them um as much of a look behind the curtain

as i'm allowed to um sometimes i might give them

a little too much um but it allows everyone to

get an opportunity to see exactly what's going

on and and if for some reason something that

they really wanted to be on a box that wasn't

there usually they'll find out that I tried or

they'll see it right there that I tried and for

whatever reason it couldn't be there. So it's

not that we didn't put the effort in or we didn't

know. It's because it wasn't available to us

or whatever. So the fans are very much involved.

The Transformers collection was definitely one

that... They donated a lot. All the commercials

you see there are all from fans. Hasbro didn't

have any old archival commercials available to

us, and they were kind enough to allow us to

use them when we got them from fans. A lot of

the artwork and things like that came from fans.

G .I. Joe was the same way, and right now I'm

finding that I'm almost having to kick people

away. when it comes to gemming the holograms.

Everyone, there are so many people who have collected

so much material. In fact, I just gave Hasbro

some old archival stuff that they no longer still

had, but that a fan had a pristine copy of. Nice.

And, you know, I'd scanned it at really high

resolution, and I just handed them the disc the

other day. So they're very grateful for their

fans. Who is the coolest person that you've gotten

to meet through your job? The coolest person?

You know, I actually got a chance to meet a couple

of my heroes. I've met a few of my heroes. I

mean, being able to interview Ernest Borgnine

and Tim Conway for McHale's Navy was pretty special.

But I would say that probably, wow, God, interviewing

Frank Welker for Transformers. But I would say

that really the two people that stick out the

most are Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Shlomi on Sports

Night. Getting an opportunity to meet those guys.

Sorkin's been my all -time favorite television

writer since Sports Night and West Wing. And

Shlomi has been my all -time favorite director.

So to have them both in a room. And to be able

to be a part of that was really a dream come

true. Very cool. Switching into the process of

producing a DVD set, what stages? Can you kind

of walk us through Shout Factory's process of

when you guys first get, you know, like you have

this deal with Hasbro. What's the process of

selecting the next big thing and how do you guys

go about from beginning to end putting that together?

Well, it's interesting because a lot of times

what we want to do the first time is sort of

get our foot in the door. You obviously don't

want to go to a licensor and make a lot of demands.

You sort of go for what you think will be good

popular sellers. But you don't go in with a list

of 20 titles. You go in with a list of a handful

because it's just a lot easier to clear those

sorts of rights. If it's something that's going

to take a lot of work, then a lot of times those

deals aren't going to happen. And then luckily,

because we're shout and because we've got a pretty

good name, sometimes the licensors come to us.

And so we've got a pretty fortunate gig there.

Once we make the deal, And what a lot of people

don't realize is this sort of thing can take

years. It can literally take – we just literally

closed the Nickelodeon deal and started releasing

Nickelodeon stuff. The name Nickelodeon has been

going around Shaw Factories Hall since I started

working here. It's sort of a coup to get in with

Paramount and all the studios. We feel really

lucky that they all seem to like us. Once we

get the title, we then orchestrate delivery of

materials like masters. We go through a QC process

to make sure each master is the best one that

we can find. If there's something wrong with

it, we'll send it back and request another. If

it's something that requires tricky little edits

or anything like that, we'll go and do that.

Occasionally, we'll restore or remaster something,

depending on what it is. A lot of our Roger Corman

titles are brand -new high -def remasters. and

look gorgeous, and occasionally we've done that

with television. I just did a 37 -disc box set

of Leave it to Beaver, where the last, I guess,

all six seasons were from brand -new high -def

transfers. The first and foremost is making sure

that the television, that the show itself is

the best quality you can possibly get. After

that, I immediately watch every episode. I want

to be as informed as I possibly can. And I go

looking for archival material. And if there's

something that I want and it doesn't exist, I

go trying to find as much as I possibly can when

it comes to creating new bonus material, which

is probably my favorite part of the production

process. I coordinate with my DVD authoring houses.

what we think the menus should look like. Again,

like I said, we like to make it an experience.

So I try to make the menus as consistent with

the packaging or as consistent with whatever

I can get. I want you to put the disc in and

think that you're seeing something that's all

cohesive. So we sort of coordinate all of that

with the art department. The art department works

on the art. We approve that. Then we approve

the menus and finally QC the DVD when it's all

done. And the licensor gets a say in all of it.

And luckily I've not had too many problems with

licensors just not liking something. The beauty

of the studios we work with is they all seem

to get it, which is good. I know there's probably

some fans out there that get frustrated when

a certain show gets a first season release and

never gets its second season, or maybe gets a

couple seasons but doesn't get that last season.

Is that all strictly just on sales? It is. One

thing that fans have to realize is they paid

maybe $30, $40 or something for a collection

on DVD. Shop Factory paid a whole lot more than

that. So it's not really a matter of, you know,

we got a five -season TV series and then just

decided not to put out seasons two through five.

It would be a huge problem for us to spend the

amount of money that it takes to license a TV

show, to market the TV show, and then... The

production costs alone are astronomical. And

so it really does, you know, we love what we

put out on DVD and Blu -ray. But it is, at the

end of the day, a business. And if we're not

selling enough, if the audience doesn't appear

to be there, we literally can't afford to stay

in business if we just keep producing them. What

a lot of people don't understand is there's a

natural drop -off. in sales of each volume so

if one volume sells 30 ,000 the second volume

isn't guaranteed to sell 30 ,000 it's going to

sell a little bit less and then it's going to

sell a little bit less in season 3 and a little

bit less in season 4 and it really becomes a

numbers game if by the time we get to season

3 we're not selling enough or we don't think

we're going to sell enough It becomes a question

of, well, is this something that goes to Shout

Factory Select, which we can sell fewer of and

still make some money? Or is it something we

have to kind of say, maybe the fan base we thought

was there isn't? Or they're just not, in this

economy, they may not be ready to buy yet. You

mentioned Nickelodeon, and I just want to bring

something up because on another one of our podcasts

we had a lengthy discussion recently that none

of the game shows from Nickelodeon are available

on DVD. Is there any chance that there would

ever be a best of Nickelodeon game shows if you

guys couldn't do the individual shows themselves?

I don't know. I mean, it's something that's come

up on our forums a number of times. My personal

thought is I don't know. I don't know how...

I find myself looking back at things like Double

Dare and thinking, what a great show, but not

sure if it's something that I have to have on

my shelf. Now, I realize that I'm not the Double

Dare owner, and I wonder how many Double Dare

owners there are out there. So I think it's definitely

a risk because you're still talking about a game

show. But you've got certain game shows that

have come out there, that have come out, and

they've sold fairly well. So, you know, particularly

a lot of the classic game shows from the 60s

and 70s have sold really well on DVD. So who

knows? I think it's certainly worth a shot. I'd

love to get Mark Summers into a room and ask

him questions about Green Slime and obstacle

course. Well, yeah, like you said, I don't know

if I'd want a whole one on Double Dare, but I

think it'd be... cool as heck if there was a

DVD that had a couple episodes of Double Dare,

a couple episodes of Guts and Legends of the

Hidden Temple. Yeah, it could very easily be

something that we do similar to our Mary sitcom

or our Haya Kids collections where it's a single

episode of each one and maybe you do a two or

three disc set of just your favorite game shows

from the 80s and 90s, Nickelodeon or something

along those lines. I think it'd be great. I'd

be all over it. What was the hardest DVD collection

that you've had to work on since being at Shout

Factory? What DVD collection, getting it together,

what was the one that gave you the most issues?

Well, I guess it would just depend on what the

issues were. We've had issues that have involved

masters where it's been like you really don't

want to use what the studio has or what still

exists. and you find yourself kind of looking

at it going, oh, I don't know. But I wouldn't

say that anything has necessarily given me a

lot of trouble, per se. I mean, I've had various

degrees of problems, but I wouldn't say that

anything has been, well, everything's kind of

been overcome. And in some cases has been made

better. For instance, when it came to Max Headroom,

which was a set I absolutely loved working on,

we weren't legally allowed to use clips in our

bonus features, clips from the show. I mean,

certain contracts for when the TV show were created

didn't allow that sort of thing later. And unfortunately,

because of the era it was created, no one understood

that this would eventually become something that

people wanted to see and own on home video. And

therefore, we couldn't use clips, but we had

roughly 90 minutes worth of interview material

or featurettes. And they actually turned out

really, really well and kind of earned us an

award this year at the TV shows and DVD awards.

So, yeah, we kind of overcame our problems, and

it sort of worked out for the best. I wouldn't

say that anything has been a horrible, horrible

problem or anything. Occasionally you're running

that TV show that has, like, syndicated masters

or something like that, and you just can't find

original broadcasts. And, unfortunately, you

have to make do with it. But for the most part,

everything's exactly the way we'd want it. Cool.

And switching gears, we're going to be jumping

into the Beast Wars questions. That one. That

one is the one that's giving me the hardest time.

I can honestly see some of that. I've seen some

of the posts. What was that? No, no, no. Go ahead.

All right. What did you try to do differently

on this version of the Beast Wars DVDs than Rhino

did in theirs? Everything. No, not even really.

I respect all the things that Rhino did in the

heyday of DVD. I think that if I do anything

that's specifically different from Rhino, it's

the bonus material. Rhino used to include a lot

of six to eight to ten minute interviews say

a writer um and it would be it would be an edit

that was a simple edit between two shots a medium

close -up and a close -up that was very similar

to the medium close -up um no cutaways nothing

to illustrate points nothing to um and and i

don't really you know it doesn't really matter

who you are if you're watching just what seems

like raw footage um It doesn't take long to suddenly

start to glaze over it. Yeah. So I think I try

to, you know, with our featurettes and our bonus

material, we try to make them a bit more exciting

for people to watch. But I wouldn't say that

we necessarily... The beauty of these particular

shows were that they were computer animated.

and they didn't have the same sort of mistakes

that, say, the G1 series had with Transformers

or that Jem had when Rhino released them. So

there was nothing that we had to really go in

and correct, per se. I did notice... The matches

were all in pretty good shape. Sorry. No, no,

go ahead. I did notice when I looked at the...

because I have one of the complete series sitting

in front of me. Sure. I noticed that you guys

actually got the episode orders in correct, whereas

Rhino had some of them in the wrong area. Right,

right. Now are you saying we got them correct?

Yes, they're in the correct era to be in the

correct chronologically. They're correct chronologically,

because we actually did this on our Beast Wars

review podcast, and we're like, yeah. And this

was before the announcement that it was even

going to be on DVD. We're like, we hope Shout

gets it and corrects it. Yeah, because on the

Rhino DVDs, Rhino has the probe and a better

mousetrap reversed. Oh. So it doesn't fit chronologically.

Right, right, right, right. Well, and I seem

to remember there was something along those lines

the fans would say on our forum, you know, to

make sure that the episode order was correct.

And that's something where, granted, Wikipedia

probably wasn't, if it wasn't around, or if it

was around, which I don't think it necessarily

was, but if it was around, it probably wasn't

as widely used or as accurate, quote -unquote

accurate, as Wikipedia is today. But the beauty

of it is, you know, now I can go to Wikipedia,

I can go to TVRage, I can go to TV .com, I can

go to IMDb, and I can pretty much find a definitive

answer to what order TV shows should be in. And

when you're ever in doubt, go to the fans and

ask them because they know. So I always sort

of cross -reference all these things, and I make

sure that everything fits because I grew up with

G1. I didn't grow up with Beast Wars. By the

time Beast Wars came out, I was already, like

I said, I was already doing after -school activities

and things like that. And to be perfectly honest,

I was a little creeped out by a computer -generated

animated series. I started producing this box

set right after I finished up Reboot, which was

also done by Mainframe. And I thought Reboot

was fantastic. And suddenly got really excited

about the prospect of a Transformers series done

by these guys. And then as I started watching

Beast Wars, I got it. And suddenly... It made

sense to me. And the depth of character and just

the darkness of the tone. This is, you know,

it's not necessarily your little kid's Beast

Wars or, you know, Transformers. But at the same

time, it's very family friendly. So the show

was pretty fantastic. But I would never want

to see it out of chronological order. Unlike

G1 or some of the G .I. Joe series, which were...

pretty much just a 23 -minute standalone TV series.

This one had a story arc, and that's something

that's pretty important. Yeah, and I noticed

with the booklet, too, it's also a lot nicer

where it's not glued to the case like Rhino's

was. Right, right. Yeah, I mean, like I said,

we basically see everything from the perspective

of a collector. Even if we're not fans of a particular

show, we know that there are fans out there,

and we all have the eyes of collectors. So we

know exactly what it is they would want to see

as collectors. And to me, there are certain things

that are absolutely no -brainers. Making your

packaging less than difficult is a must. If you've

got things like booklets, you don't want to necessarily

have to pull out a slip case or another digipack

or something in order to read the booklet. It

should be separate. So really, it just becomes

kind of less is more. I get the impression that

a lot of times early DVD companies would sort

of adopt this rule of let's make the packaging

as cool and as complicated as possible because

it'll be awesome. Really, it just becomes troublesome

and kind of annoying. And so, yeah, I think now

we've sort of gotten into this method of let's

give them a book. Let's give them a comic book,

which we did for Beast Wars. And, you know, let's

make their collections easy. The Shout website

just lists new interviews as a part of the Beast

Wars collection. Is there any way you can tell

our listeners who those interviews are with?

Yeah, we interviewed Christopher Brough, who

is the producer, who has a lot of really, really

great things to say about the series. Let's see,

we used a couple of archival interviews with

Bob Forward and Larry Dottilio. I'm trying to

remember now who – this was forever ago. I'm

trying to remember. Oh, we also talked to folks

at Hasbro, Aaron Archer and a couple of guys

there who were heavily involved with the toys.

This was a really interesting experiment for

Hasbro to take a previously established franchise

and toy line and then completely reinvent it.

And it was a big gamble. It was, you know, can

we be as successful by taking these toys and

doing something completely different with them?

And can we make the TV show as successful as

the G1 series by doing something completely different

with it? And so we talked to some of the guys

that were at Hasbro at the time. And talking

to them is absolutely fantastic because they've

got a complete, just a complete wealth of knowledge

that's, Absolutely fascinating. I mean, they

can remember specifics about toys and deciding

to do this and deciding to do that and why they

decided to do that. So 15 years later, you're

listening to the stories and then you're hearing

Chris Broff talk about producing the series.

It really was quite a thing. When you go to obtain

these interviews for the bonus features, how

does that work? Do you send out like a mass request

and just see who responds? Do you handpick who

you want to talk to? Well, I handpick. Basically

what I do is I go looking for, I do a great deal

of research to find out who actually did the

work. There are a lot of times, especially in

older television, where due to certain union

rules or certain rights or regulations or whatever,

certain people were getting credited for things

they didn't necessarily do. And what you really

want to do is go and do the research. You need

to figure out who did what, and then you go and

you find those people who were most essential

to creating the show. And so that's what we do.

If it turns out to be something like, you know,

say you want to interview voice cast members,

you go looking for the people who are the no

-brainers. And you don't necessarily go for the

person who wrote one episode of these wars. You

go for the person who wrote 15 episodes of these

wars. Or you go for the person who directed.

22 episodes or whatever, because those guys are

the ones who were there day in and day out, and

they're good enough to keep coming back. That's

not to say that people who wrote one episode

of Beast Wars weren't good enough, but they were

definitely freelance writers. An amazing episode

was written by one of my favorite writers, Len

Wein. For anyone who knows DC or Marvel Comics,

this guy created Wolverine, created Swamp Thing,

and he went on and wrote an episode of Beast

Wars. So it's pretty fantastic to then see this

stuff. So yeah, you go and you look for those

folks and you see what you can get them to say.

Now, what is your opinion on Easter eggs being

included on DVDs, and are there any on the Beast

Wars set? I'm honestly trying to remember if

there are any on the Beast Wars set, and I say

that because I have a tendency to put Easter

eggs on things. The mere fact that I have to

think back to whether or not I did it... I want

to say that there are not Easter eggs on this

one. But I'm in favor. I'm very much of the...

Look, I'm the guy who won't buy a DVD if there

isn't bonus features on it. There are movies

that are in my top ten of all time that I don't

own because the studios haven't treated them

well yet. To me, if it's something that doesn't

necessarily find its way into a featurette or

if it doesn't necessarily make sense as a little

standalone bonus feature, I hide it. And I, you

know, I offer people to go look for it. I mean,

you can take, I don't remember, I don't think

Cops necessarily had one, but I know Super Mario

Brothers, Super Show had Easter eggs. I mean.

And if you're planting Easter eggs on the Super

Mario Bros. Super Show, you're someone who likes

Easter eggs. And I do. I think it's fun, and

I think it gives someone an opportunity to do

something with the DVD to make it a little more

interactive than your traditional point -and

-click. In fact, if there's anything that I lament

about Blu -rays, it's the fact that it makes

Easter eggs a lot harder when you don't have

menus to play with. Where are you going to hide

stuff? Right. Didn't think about that. If there's

one thing you could have gotten and added to

the Beast Wars DVD sets, what would it be? There

are a couple of things I really wanted to add.

And then for one reason or another, whether it

was legal concerns or whatever, there was a fan

film that was a theft of the golden disc that

I had and really wanted to include. And unfortunately,

there were reasons why we couldn't. And I can't

think of anything off the top of my head. Well,

no, that's not true. There were things that I

want more voice cast. You know, sadly, they just

wouldn't agree to it. I don't know. I mean, I

just can't. I mean, these guys are all busy.

Um, so it's really hard to, uh, it's really hard

to pin everyone down and it's really hard to

get them all, you know, and together, you know,

together at the same place at the same time.

Um, or even be able to afford multiple shoots

from different locations to do this or that.

Um, I, it's hard. Um, I really want to hear people

talk about their characters. Um, and, uh, I just,

I couldn't, I couldn't get it. You know, if the

BotCon lineup this year was all Beast Wars people,

you'd have perfect timing to do that, but you

wouldn't be able to make the time to release

the set on the set date that you guys had set

for it. Right. In fact, I think it's the Tuesday

after BotCon, I think. BotCon is this coming

weekend, I think, and I think Transformers is...

I think Beast Wars comes out the following Tuesday

or something. And it always seems to happen that

way, too, where you're kind of like, oh, yes,

this would be perfect. And then all of a sudden

it's like, oh, no. How did the Beast Wars selection

differ from G1, G .I. Joe, Gem, Mask, Rockwell's

Modern Life, and The Sword? I'm sorry, repeat

that? How did the Beast Wars selection differ

from all the other productions you've worked

on, such as Transformers, G .I. Joe, Gem, and

Mask? When you say selection, in what way? The

Beast Wars. Just in terms of the collection?

How was that particular set different than the

others? Yes. I wouldn't say that it was really

all that different than anything else. It was

probably about the same. I mean, the thing about

the Nickelodeon stuff so far is we've had very

little success actually being able to get bonus

material for it. There are fans online that are

raving about how Paramount won't let us, Nickelodeon

won't let us, and it's not true. We've just not

been able to get any for one reason or another.

Beast Wars worked out pretty well with the number

of discs. There weren't a whole lot of bonus

features or additional bonus materials I could

have put on here just due to space. The discs

already are pretty packed. But one thing that

made it cool was I don't think we've ever included

booklets before, but we've never been able to

make a deal where we were including something

like the prequel comic book. that we did for

Beast Wars. It's a reprint of a comic that was

released, I believe, as a BotCon exclusive at

one point. Dawn of Future's Past. Yeah, exactly.

And so we got the rights to it. In fact, they

were like, hey, you want it? Yes, we do. And

Hasbro was cool with it. And so we turned it

into a smaller, you know, mini comic. And that

was pretty cool for me because, A, I'm a huge

comic book geek. So being able to work on a set

that gives you the right to have a comic book

is always a winner for me. So I would say in

that regard, you know, I actually really appreciated

the things I could get out of Beast Wars. But

I will say that because of the nature of the

show and the fact that it was computer generated,

there isn't a whole lot out there that's, you

know, the commercials aren't as readily available.

In fact, I put the call out many times to fans

asking for things, and they didn't really have

any. And Hasbro, sadly, didn't have any in their

archives. And there isn't anything like concept

art, per se, because, again, it was rendered

in a computer. Now, on the DVDs, you get to see

the original character models, but it's not quite

the same as if you were looking at a rough pencil

sketch of a character and then watched as it

evolved to its final incarnation. There's a little

bit of that, but it's not quite the same just

based on the nature of how the show is produced.

Yeah, I noticed some of that, and a lot of the

toy commercials were, unfortunately, very low

resolution, as was the return of Megatron Spark

and the Nemesis two -parter that was cut out

of it. Right. I haven't seen this done before,

but what made you guys do Season 2 and 3 in one

case? I want to say it was the, if I remember

so correctly, it's probably just the number of

episodes. I think season one was probably, what,

the full 20? 26. 26 episodes. Season two was,

I'm guessing season three was shorter. Two and

three were 13 episodes apiece. Yeah, so basically

it's just worked out that way. We both ended

up creating two four -disc sets at 26 episodes

each. Makes sense. We understand that fans, if

they're getting a four -disc set, they don't

necessarily then want to be gouged. So it's like,

yeah, we could have given them a four -disc set

of season one, and then we could have given them

a two -disc set of season two, and then another

two -disc set of season three, and charged them

more. But like I said, we're very much in tune

with fans, and we understand when you're kind

of getting gypped. We don't want to make you

keep putting money in. And then sadly, The reality

is, let's say season one didn't sell as well.

Or let's say season two didn't sell as well as

season one. Then where's season three? So we

like to minimize that sort of risk to the fans.

We like to try to give them everything as quickly

as possible. And we also like to try to keep

them uniform. So two four -disc sets at the same

price or the complete collection. I think it

just works out. Yeah, it does. We just have a

few more questions here. You seem to be really

in touch with the fans out there through your

Twitter account, posting on the shout message

boards, etc. Do you make it a point to stay connected

with the fans, and do you enjoy that interaction?

I love the interaction. It's not part of my job

description. I was never asked to join the forum,

and I was never asked to join Twitter. But it's

got a couple of things. You know, I'm a nerd.

I'm a geek. And I'm very much a social media

type person. And I think that that's sort of

a great way to market something. But not only

market it, it gives you an opportunity to interact

with people that are basically making your job

easier. I can be happy with a DVD set, but I'm

not necessarily... Look, I don't mean to bring

down the fourth wall, but I get a free copy of

it. It's the people who spend their money. I'm

not happy with the DVD set unless they come back

with unboxing videos and they're excited. Or

if they go onto Twitter and they talk about the

bonus features. I don't even necessarily hold

professional DVD critics. in as high regard as

I do the people who went and spent their paycheck

on it. And I'm the same way when it comes to

things that I buy. I work in the DVD industry

and I don't have a single industry hookup. I

go to Best Buy and I go to Target and I go to

Amazon with my paycheck every Tuesday and I spend

money on DVDs and Blu -rays. And if I'm not happy

with those, I don't necessarily think that the

DVD or Blu -ray producer should be happy with

it either. And so I can't know that until I either

go to the fans and ask them ahead of time, what

would you like to see on this? And how would

you like it to be treated? Or I could just sit

around and wait like other studios do and see

what the reaction is afterward. And that's a

pretty big risk for me. I mean, I'd rather put

my hand on it once and give everybody. everybody

everything they want the only way to really do

that is to talk to them and to to treat them

like equals you know i mean because we're all

in it together and and uh if they give me ideas

that i never would have had before um that it

just made the set better but at the same time

if there's something that they suggest and i

can't get it i let them know uh so that they

don't go oh i can't believe that guy didn't put

this on there You know, what an idiot. You know,

and, you know, I could slap my head and be like,

I totally didn't think of that. Or I could say,

you know, look, guys, yesterday we were turned

down on this. Unfortunately, we can't do it.

Here's why. And then they go, oh, okay, that

makes sense. Right. So for fan interaction, what

are the best ways, if any, for a fan to attempt

to get their show on DVD? What should or shouldn't

they do? Because over on the Shout message board,

you guys have some pretty rabid fans over there.

Yeah, a little bit. But rabid is good, too. I

mean, I was just having a conversation the other

day where someone asked, hey, do you think, you

know, how big is this fan base? You know, the

vocal fans online don't really seem to be that

big. are they worth listening to or should we

just go ahead and do this thing the way that

we want to do it? And luckily I wasn't having

this conversation with anyone at Shout. I was

having it with someone outside of Shout. And

I made it very clear to them. I'm like, look,

you don't even pay attention to the people. You

pay every bit of your attention to the people

who are online. It could be three or if they're

writing you letters or if they're sending you

voicemails or emails. Only listen to the people

who are devoted enough to contact you about it.

Because if they're not into it enough to go talking

about it online or via email or via voicemail

or letter, then they're people who would have

bought it anyway. I really go after the people

who want to say because those are the ones who

care about it enough to be vocal. And so, no,

you're absolutely right. There are people who

can be downright mean. It is the Internet. But

at the same time, it's the Internet. So, you

know, it's like I can take that with a grain

of salt. I can guarantee that a lot of the more

negative things that have ever been said about

me or about our company, the same person wouldn't

necessarily say if they were coming up to me

on the street. So, you know, you just sort of

take it however you want to, and you say, look,

this was helpful or it wasn't. The interaction

is the important part. Knowing that you're unhappy

is one thing. Why are you unhappy? Okay, now

I know. And I can take away all of the... all

of the less than superlative nouns that you've

called me, and I can break that down. But, you

know, that person was eager to jump online and

throw in their two cents, and I think that that's

valuable. I think that everybody should be doing

it. I mean, unfortunately, in this litigious

age, you know, studios... can't really afford

to go in there and talk to all the people they

want to talk to. And I think that's unfortunate

because it makes them closer to the fans. But

at the same time, it's pretty time consuming.

Yeah. If you could produce a DVD set for any

show that hasn't had one to this point, regardless

of legal issues or this or that, if you could

just pick any show that's ever been on to work

on that doesn't have a set, what show would it

be? I wish I knew an answer for that. I say this

because last year at Comic -Con in San Diego,

I was on a panel for thedigitalbits .com, and

the same kind of question was asked. And unfortunately,

right before that panel, I had just finished

up the last of the... six shows I had come into

Shout Factory on a wish list, and I had done

all six of them. And so I don't know that I have

one. Okay, all right, I will say this. There

are shows that have had releases that I would

like to go back and redo, and this is sort of

a pipe dream, but going back and redoing Friday

Night Lights would be a dream for me. Because

the ones that were released by NBC, Universal,

were A, cut episodes and had music replacements

for the last couple seasons. The ones that were

on Dish or whoever, who did that one? The Dish

Network or someone? It was all, you know, they

were basically syndicated cuts of a show that

just aired six months ago. And I don't, I can't

get behind that. I can't go spend the money.

Right. Probably my OCD. But, yeah, I don't know

that there's necessarily one that I'm dying to

work on. We are doing more movies now, and I

would say that there are probably some movies

that I would, you know, kill to work on. I can't

think necessarily of them at the moment. Mr.

Mom. I would love to work on a special edition

of Mr. Mom. I can't lie. It's a childhood favorite.

And to be in a room with Michael Keaton, that

would be, you know, that'd be worth the price

of admission for me. Oh, yeah. Yeah, from Mr.

Mom to Batman to Ken. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so

it's like, I'm in. I will totally, I will work

on a Mr. Mom DVD. I could get that from MGM.

We have to petition somebody for that. And that

one I don't even think... That's another one

that I refuse to own because it's only in Panit

Scan. No widescreen transfers. I can't be bothered.

Can you give us any information on which sets

you will be working on next? Any kind of spoilers

on, for instance, G .I. Joe, the Deke series,

or just anything in general? I'll tell you, we

are working on the Deke series. Yes. What I can't

say is when. I can say that it's probably safe

to say this late in the game that it won't be

this year. You would be my hero if you could

somehow track down a voice cast list of who voiced

every character. That would be awesome. Yeah,

I mean, well, and it's one of those things where,

well, let's see, and that was produced by Deke.

So I'm sure Maurice Lamarche was in there somewhere.

Yeah, but for BehindTheVoiceActors .com, a site

that I work on, it's been literally impossible

to track down who voiced every character for

us on the Internet. Really? You know what? I'll

be more than happy to look up that information.

Excellent. You know, we are going to work on

it. It is going to be released. We don't have

a date yet. And that's really only because we

are so incredibly busy with a ton of stuff that's

coming out, some of which has been reported and

some of which hasn't. So there are things I can't

say right now, but there are things that people

are going to want. And unfortunately, as a result,

I've had to put the Deke series on the back burner

just because I want to be able to give every

bit of attention to it that I possibly can. And

I don't want to rush it out there. Right now,

I'm having a great deal of fun working on Jem

and the holograms. Speaking of that. Yeah. Really

quickly, can you confirm or deny whether we'll

actually get a complete series box set like Beast

Wars, or will it just be seasons? I cannot confirm

or deny either of those. Too early to say. Yeah,

I've been specifically told I am not allowed

to say the configuration. This is actually for

one reason in particular, and that's that the

press release hasn't been... it has not been

formally approved. So I am not allowed to divulge

any of that information. I will say I have loved

all 65 of these episodes that I've seen so far.

Excellent. Anything else coming up besides Jim

that you're allowed to say or not yet? I'm hard

at work right now on the Transformers Japanese

collection, which for most fans, they all know

them as the Takara series. Headmasters, Super

Godmaster Force and Victory. Having a lot of

fun working on that because it's not something

that I got an opportunity to see as a kid. I

was very much into anime as a kid in the 80s.

But never got an opportunity to see, and now

I'm getting a chance to see it, and it's pretty

fantastic. And it's original Japanese with brand

new subtitles. And, yeah, that's turning into

a lot of fun. And that one we're making available,

I think that's July. And then, let's see, what

else am I working on? I will actually come right

out and say I was a huge fan of Greek on ABC

Family, and I'm getting an opportunity to finish

that series up with the fourth season, which

was something we weren't sure if we were going

to be able to do, but we got the rights, and

that's going to be coming out. I haven't started

working on that yet, but can't wait. Yeah, there's

just a lot of really good stuff and some good

movies that are coming out as well. A British

movie that just hit the circuit, the festival

circuit last year that's been announced. It's

sort of From Dusk Till Dawn meets Lock, Stock

and Two Smoking Barrels. It's a British gangster

film where the seedy club owner suddenly finds

himself going up against vampires called Dead

Cert. It's pretty awesome. So I'm having a lot

of fun with that one as well. Besides your full

-time job, I understand you also like to write

and direct your own short films. Do you have

a favorite, and are there any that you are currently

working on? You know, I just wrote a web series.

I just wrote a nine -episode web series. For

whatever reason, I have suddenly found myself

surrounded by people who are producing web series.

And I sort of talk to them about it. I'm like,

well, you know, what makes this something that

you really want to do? And I find that the majority

of them answer that they simply love television.

And if they can't necessarily go into television

right away, they want to start producing their

own. And certainly by doing it as a short web

series, it is making itself more widely available

and not necessarily easier because it still costs

money. Filmmaking is a very expensive hobby.

So you can raise a lot of money and do very little

with it because it just doesn't stretch. But

these web series are turning out to be really

amazing. One of my favorites is called Solo,

about a guy who finds himself trapped in space

on a reality TV show that's a one -man mission

to Mars. And then after he's been launched into

space, the show gets canceled due to low ratings.

And now he's by himself. And No Way Back. And

so it's great. It's a great series. Awkward Embraces

is a really great web series. It's a comedy about

geek girls. It's basically Sex and the City for

geeks. I've seen a few episodes of it. It's hilarious.

Yeah, like those girls are fantastic. And so

I've just made friends with all these guys. And

as a result, I sort of got talked into taking

an idea of mine and turning it into a nine -episode

series. And it basically, it's my love letter

to cosplay. Nice. I do love a good cosplay. I

don't do it myself, but I... I have a huge amount

of respect for anyone who does. And it's one

of my favorite things to do when I go to Comic

-Con. I will always go to Masquerade. But that

kind of thing, you know, in terms of writing

and directing, I can write anything from a romantic

comedy to a horror film. Sometimes they're one

and the same. And, you know, we also, Ghosts

of Girlfriends Pass. But, yeah, I mean, I like

everything. Awesome. So is Twitter the best way

for fans to stay connected with you? What are

the best ways? Yeah, that's a really easy way

to stay connected with me. I'm at BWard028 on

Twitter. And then, to be perfectly honest, I'm

there almost daily on the shoutfactory .com forum.

Just go to shoutfactory .com and go to the community

tab. We're about to change our website within

the next couple of months, so that might change

a little bit, but we're always going to make

sure that we're actively communicating. So find

me, and I respond to as many people as humanly

possible. Awesome. We'd like to thank Brian Ward

for taking the time out to talk with us today.

Brian will ask you to hold the line, and we will

be back after this. I come from the net, through

systems, peoples, and cities, to this place,

Mainframe. My format, Guardian, to mend and defend.

Now on DVD, Seasons 1 and 2 of the groundbreaking

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