Ask A Former Assistant: Christopher Callison (Creative Executive, Starburns Industries)

Christopher Callison,

Creative Executive at Starburns Industries

- Interview by Don Rutledge, Staff Writer & Former Participant Assistant - 

Chris Callison is a Creative Executive at Starburns Industries (Rick and Morty, Anomalisa, HBO’s Animals). The projects he has developed are under massive NDAs, and he’s afraid of being arrested by breaking such NDAs, but he’s helped develop shows and movies at Amazon, HBO Max, and Adult Swim with people like Neil Patick Harris, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Ben Stiller, Michael Cera, George Saunders, and Paul Feig to drop a few names.

When he’s not working, he spends his time trying to impress middle-aged women at line dancing bars in the Valley. He’s also a triplet.

Hi Chris! Thanks for taking the time to interview. Let's start off: what’s the day-to-day life as a Creative Executive at Starburns?

Since Starburns is primarily an animation company, I spend a lot of time browsing Instagram trying to find up-and-coming talent and unique art styles while avoiding doing any real work of substance. Then, I spend the remaining hours of the day replying to a large stack of emails with agents and writers, hopping on notes meetings to discuss scripts, doing practice pitches and real pitches, and giving my design assistant vague unhelpful notes on her choice of fonts for our decks.

What is your favorite part of the job? Hearing pitches? Going to events?

This is going to sound corny as hell, but my favorite part is meeting artists and writers. I feel like half the reason I do this job is to send an email to an animator whose work I’ve been fangirling about for years—and then I actually get to meet them. I also love that this part of the industry is about "blue-skying" what the coolest, most interesting take on a show or project is. The disappointment of budget limitations, studio notes, and aggressive agent calls only occasionally enter the sphere I’m in, and I’m very thankful for that.

Hearing pitches is awesome, but it can be a gamble since it feels so forced and awkward a lot of the time. However, when they’re good, they can be incredibly inspiring. Sadly, I don't have enough nice clothes to have a good time at industry events yet.

You and I have known each other for a while—about six years. I remember when you were a Production Assistant on HGTV's Fixer Upper. What was the journey between that and then landing your first Assistant role at Starburns before becoming a bigshot executive?

Wow, great memory, Don! Yeah, I was PA on Fixer Upper. The only real connection to my current job was that in my cover letter to Starburns, I wrote about a time on Fixer Upper where I had to wrangle Chip and Joanna’s family dogs from eating a severed horn from one of their cattle who had ripped it off in a fence out of fear while we were filming. Very violent show behind-the-scenes.

After that, I did a stint on Travel Channel’s X-treme Water Parks Season 6 and day played on a handful of feature film productions in Austin until finally moving out to LA with my school’s study abroad program. Here, I interned at Fox under an incredible showrunner named Felicia Henderson who had an overall deal, and then I interned at Starburns where I’ve been at ever since.

How did you go about growing in your Assistant role at Starburns and building skills to eventually get promoted? Especially during the pandemic?

I just waited for people to quit, which sounds like a joke, but it's true. I don’t want to downplay the tons of work I did as well; however, I got very lucky that the tasks that I was helping out with and the conversations I was involved in allowed me to keep moving upwards as positions opened up. I also got extremely good at building pitch decks and became the “go to” when writers wanted to start thinking about their projects visually. After consistently nailing a large handful of decks and learning how to have one-on-one rapport with creative people, it was natural for me to move into the position I did when the time came.

I think a lot of moving up in development comes down to positively expressing your passions and making sure you are delivering solid work. There is, of course, a lot of luck, but I think people really do recognize good work and want to help people who are caring, nice, and have good taste. The key is the positive part. Don't be a snob—be a hype man. 

The pandemic was an intense time because animation development really boomed. I took on a lot of responsibility, worked insane hours, discovered the wonders of therapy, and grew a lot.

Do you find that your old PA and Executive Assistant skills still serve you in your role today?

Yes, yes, yes, 1000x yes. If anything, just to recognize how incredibly hard it can be to do assistant work. Trying to set a time with 20 high-profile execs across three co-pros with two showrunners who live on opposite sides of the country and only communicate through a chain of reps and assistants is horrendously difficult.

Having been on those email threads, I see how a lot of bureaucratic tangling can be avoided if an exec just picks up the phone to clear a simple misunderstanding.Also, seeing how "the sausage gets made" on the ground floor helped me understand the chain of command and how easy things can get miscommunicated, so I try to be overly communicative in my job now. (To certain reps reading this, that might sound like I’m lying, but I promise I will reply to your emails ASAP!)

Being an EA also helped in my prioritization and compartmentalizing skills and taught me to be way more organized.

I can also send my own Zoom links which seems to be surprisingly hard for a lot of execs.

Did you always know you were going to go into animation and development? What attracts you to this side of the industry?

Not even a little bit. I came out to LA wanting to work for David Fincher [Oscar-nominated film director], and it turns out he’s a lot harder to get a hold of than I imagined. Who woulda thought! However, I’ve been obsessed with animation for most of my short life, and I feel at home doing what I do.Animation is also interesting because it's one of the most limiting and limitless mediums. It costs the same amount of money to draw Mars as it does to draw a living room, but every time you do a reverse shot on a couch, you have to redraw the moon, if that makes sense. Also, I think the amount of labor that is necessary to complete anything in the medium breeds a lot of really creative yet humble people. It is the ultimate form of expression, and you can tell boundless stories in vastly unique ways.

If you had to go back in your career, would you do anything differently?

I’d take my own personal life and health more seriously sooner. When I first got promoted, I had drinks with an exec from another company, and she asked what I did outside of work. I remember not having an answer for her, and she looked genuinely concerned for me which made me realize how easy it is to lose track of yourself out here.Please, please, please, if you’re an overworked assistant reading this, start using this time to learn how to set boundaries, eat well, and exercise.  I used to have a lot of panic attacks, and I missed out on opportunities to see friends and family that I’m realizing are more and more rare as I grow up. I hated my life for a while, and I see now how easily that could’ve been avoided if I had just spoken up for myself and treated myself better. This industry is about the long haul and it doesn’t help anyone, especially yourself, to burn out and crash before you’ve even started.

Take that day off. Even if you have to hyperbolize spiking a 104-degree fever just so you can stay home and have a movie marathon and call your parents. (Which to past, current, and future employers is a totally hypothetical scenario that I have never done!) Work very hard, but please, don’t kill yourself over entertainment or, in my case, cartoons.

Over the last year or so, I’ve started consistently going to the gym and stopped checking email on the weekends, and it's done miracles to my mood, relationships, and ironically, my work. (Also, just wanted to say in a publication that I workout in case any potential suitors are reading this.)

I really appreciate that candid advice. And it ties into this edition's op-ed piece!Before we sign off, are there any other words of wisdom you'd like to share with Hollywood assistants looking to carve out their paths in 'the biz'?

Treat people well. Hype them up when they do good things and have careful but honest conversations when things aren’t working. There is a lot of drama in this industry, a lot of people being dishonest, and a lot of sweaty career climbers. The real way to cut through the noise is to be a genuine person who is excited, passionate, and able to speak without BS'ing. People remember how they are treated way more than you think, and this town really ain’t that big.

Also, learn the Adobe Suite. If you can design cool pitch decks and learn how to edit videos, you’ll never be unemployed here.