Recent UCLA graduate and Treefort Media associate producer Aidan Brooks joins Entertainment Unscripted to share his journey from campus productions like Spring Sing to high-profile shows like The Late Show and “CHINWAG.” Hosted by Mia Fernandez, this episode dives into navigating internships, producing with purpose and why saying yes – even without all the answers – can open unexpected doors.

Mia Fernandez: Hello everyone, and welcome back to Entertainment Unscripted. My name is Mia Fernandez, and in today’s episode, I’ll be speaking with Aidan Brooks. Aidan is a recent UCLA graduate who currently works at Treefort Media. We’ll discuss his journey as a fellow Bruin making his way in the industry.

MF: Aidan, thank you so much for being here today. We met at UCLA’s Entertainment Networking Night. Even through our brief conversation, I learned a lot from you, so I wanted to have you on here, help out our listeners.

Aidan Brooks: Great, excited to be on.

MF: As a fellow Bruin too. Just before we get into everything, I like to ask my guest: What led you to the media and entertainment industry?

AB: I’ve always been a big fan of TV, movies, and I had one really good teacher in high school who had a lot of entertainment experience. He was a screenwriter for years. Him and his sons did that show “Wild Wild Country” on Netflix. After that, I just went, “OK, I’m going to do this.” I was talking to a family friend, and they knew the now-former executive of “Jimmy Kimmel (Live!).” She invited me to come and watch an episode. I got to sit in the control room and watch it go as it goes. She went, “OK, alright, now there’s no break,” then takes me into this other room. Rob Thomas from Matchbox Twenty is playing. There’s a whole audience, everybody’s there. After that day, I went, “Oh my god, this is somebody’s job. This is what somebody does for a living.” They watch “Jimmy Kimmel,” they obviously work, then they have the opportunity to see incredible performers play. Since then, I’ve been like, “Anything I can do to do this is what I want to do.” I think that was when I was 15 or 16. Since then, I’ve been trying to be on that path as much as possible.

MF: I’d say that’s a really great introduction to the industry. That’s a great story. Did you do anything in high school after that?

AB: After that, I did an unpaid internship at CBS, where I worked on this one development for this one show. It was a sizzle reel for a show that was kind of like a knockoff of “Dr. Phil.” It was shot at the Radford Studios, which was a beautiful lot. So many cool things have shot there. I think “Big Brother” still shoots there, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” was shooting there at the time. I got to be a fly on the wall. Some days, my only job was to put the staplers and make sure that they’re straight. Then other days, I would get to hang around with the producers, drive around the golf carts and go watch as the show was undergoing. Just being on a set propelled me to enforce what I want to do. Once I got into college, I just tried to do more of that. I made films in high school, but I was directing, and I realized sooner than later that that wasn’t my path. Producing was going to be something that was more aligned with my interest.

MF: Interesting. At the CBS internship, were you a production assistant?

AB: I was just an intern. I wasn’t doing any of the hands-on work that I’d later be doing as a PA.

MF: It seems like good exposure to the industry, at least.

AB: It was great. Any opportunity in the industry, especially when you’re that young, pre-college, and somebody gives you a chance, it’s great.

MF: After that, how’d you decide to go to UCLA?

AB: UCLA has been my dream school since I was a little kid. I used to do Dribble for the Cure, the event that they have in October. All the basketball players and raising money for pediatric cancer. I’ve been coming to UCLA since I was a little kid – I grew up in the area. I always knew this is where I wanted to be. I heard about the World Arts and Cultures program here and realized that that was going to be perfect for what I wanted to do. It’s an interdisciplinary program. I took classes from stand-up comedy to acting to interviewing to documentary filmmaking. All the things that I was interested in, I got to play with and explore. I was also a film minor, but it’s not limited. It was fun.

MF: I didn’t even know we had a stand-up comedy class.

AB: It happened one time, two or three years ago, and that was it. It never happened again.

MF: The stars aligned for you.

AB: It did. It gave me no credit. I don’t think I got any requirements, nothing for it, but it was fun.

MF: That’s OK. It’s experience. Yeah, cool, yeah.

AB: Exactly, it was fun.

MF: It sounds like some really amazing classes. What about extracurriculars?

AB: I was in a fraternity for a year here, but the main thing I did while at UCLA was be a part of the Student Alumni Association here. Mostly Spring Sing, that was the big thing. My freshman year was the COVID year. There was nothing going on. I heard about this thing called Spring Sing. They needed a production crew. It was my first time I actually had a reason to be on campus besides just being bored and walking around when nobody was here. I got to go and film these really cool videos with these incredible actors and comedians and now they’ve gone on to do some really cool things. Really excited for all of them. It’s really cool to follow along with what they’re doing. I got to be the guy who is filming some videos, editing some videos. Needed to recharge a battery? I was the guy that would go and do that. I realized I want to keep staying involved with this. My sophomore year, I joined SAA with the sole intent to become the production coordinator of the show – and did that. That was really fun. Junior year I took a break, and then senior year became the executive director of Spring Sing for a great show that never happened. It was unfortunately canceled.

MF: Is there a reason why?

AB: It was while all the protests were going on. While we had come up with a plan to go forward with it, the school ultimately decided that it was not going to be safe to put on. It was canceled.

MF: How was the planning process? You went through the whole process, right? How was that?

AB: It was great. Company was the comedy group, they were incredible. They made some really funny sketches that are on YouTube now, but I wish it could have seen more of an audience. We had incredible music guests. The most exciting thing was, throughout the whole year, I was in talks and finally booked Dave Grohl to come and receive an award. Come and receive a live. He was all set to do so, and then we didn’t get to. I dropped it off in this manager’s office, and if you check out his Wikipedia page, it’s a little paragraph on there.

MF: There you go. It exists. It’s out there.

AB: It’s a real thing. It’s not a lie. It would have been cool to hand it to him in person.

MF: Of course. Well, you never know. Anything else you did on campus, or anything you wish you did or you recommend students doing who want to be in this industry?

AB: While you’re in college, especially UCLA, it’s in LA, you can do so many things at once. My class was special in that way that we were so bored that first year. I was so bored that I was doing the readings. I did all the readings.

MF: You can admit it now that you’ve graduated.

AB: Exactly. I could admit it then. You have all this opportunity to do really great things, especially if you want to do something entertainment. What you’re doing right now, this is something that you can be doing. Student Alumni Association, CEC (Campus Events Commission), UCLA Radio. There’s all these different opportunities that you can do, and some are really hard to get into, but you have this at your disposal. If you don’t want to do any of those things, you could just do your own thing.

MF: We’re very lucky to have so many resources on campus. Even the Alumni Networking Night, that’s a great opportunity. Obviously, that’s how we met. Did you feel that was a little bit full circle, since you were in the Alumni Association setting things up, and you came back to help out?

AB: For sure. That time the year before, I was being yelled at by an agent who was like, “I can’t be at the same table as that guy. I need my own table.” To be on the other side of it and get a table, get to talk to people, and have people interested in talking to me, was cool. It’s fun. It was cool to be on that side, so 100%. I got to meet some really cool people, and we actually hired an intern from it.

MF: Really? That’s amazing.

AB: She’s been great. It’s been really cool. It was really successful.

MF: I had fun. I met a lot of cool people. Definitely recommend.

AB: Next year, anyone listening, go to it.

MF: Are you going to be coming back next year?

AB: If I’m in LA, I’ll be there.

MF: So you graduated 2024?

AB: I graduated in March of 2024, so one quarter early.

MF: About a year ago. How does it feel one year postgrad?

AB: It’s weird. I was walking on campus to get here. It’s weird because it’s dark out, so everybody looks like somebody that I know really, really well. I would go and do the thing you look at somebody and go, “Oh, oh no, they graduated.” It’s weird. It’s like going back to your high school. It’s the same feeling, it doesn’t go away. You’re like, “Aw, this was fun.” That’s really it.

MF: All the memories. You started as an intern at Treefort, is that correct? Did that immediately flow into a job after graduating?

AB: It did. I started interning at Treefort, I did one internship after my sophomore year somewhere else, and then I did another. Then I did the internship at Treefort after my junior year, that summer. I came in with an intern class. There was five or six of us. They said, “If you want to stay on through the school year, we’d love to have you.” I go, “OK, great.” I stayed on as an intern working on our flagship talk show at the time, Paul Giamatti’s “CHINWAG.” I started in June as an intern, and then stayed as an intern until the next June, where they offered me a full-time position after college.

MF: That’s great. How was it balancing the internship while being in school?

AB: I was a World Arts major. I was not STEM, I was not cramming for exams or doing those things. I also found a lot of ways to take lighter course loads when I could. I was only doing 10, 12 hours a week. It was pretty standard. We’d have really cool guests on the show, and I’d do research packets so that our host can take a look at them. It was pretty contained in my role. It was nice to have one thing to focus on. Ten hours a week. Do it. Get a little paid too, which is nice. Focused on Spring Sing and all the other things I was doing. By the time I graduated, I felt very prepared to continue on.

MF: It can be a little scary going into postgrad if you don’t have something lined up. What am I gonna do? The future’s so unsure.

AB: Especially entertainment right now. It’s not easy. I have friends that are very qualified for things and are not even able to get interviews. It’s tricky. To have that comfort was really nice.

MF: The industry’s changing.

AB: It’s changing. It’s moving out of LA. It’s scary.

MF: You mentioned you also did an internship after your sophomore year. What was that for?

AB: That was for “The Late Show.”

MF: With Stephen Colbert?

AB: Yeah. That was really fun. I got to be in New York for a summer. I came in with an intern class of 15. A lot of us have stayed really close since. They’re all doing really cool things now. It was a fantastic program. They got to rotate us around to different departments. You really felt like you were involved in the show, and everybody there was just so nice to the interns, which tells you something.

MF: Good work culture.

AB: For sure. They gave us a lot of responsibility too. So it was nice. Eventually, they brought me back as an interim PA to train the following class. That was a blast. I specialize in the talent department there and got to show those interns around. Some of them still work at the show, some are doing other things, comedy. A lot of them are doing comedy.

MF: Is “Stephen Colbert” comedy?

AB: Yeah, he’s a comedian. The Second City, he had a show on Comedy Central. It was great, they even gave us opportunities to get a joke on the air too.

MF: Really? Did you get one?

AB: I got one. One joke.

MF: Nice. That’s a huge accomplishment.

AB: Yeah, it was fun.

MF: That’s exciting. I also saw that you did a Fox internship, “Pictionary” production assistant. What does that mean?

AB: “Pictionary” production assistant. It was this show, I think it’s still running on Fox and syndication. “Pictionary,” it’s exactly what it sounds like. It is Pictionary. It’s hosted by Jerry O’Connell. That was my first PA job. I did that the summer after my freshman year, I did a few PA gigs. That one shot up in Pacoima. We did an entire season of “Pictionary” in two weeks.

MF: Wow. How many episodes? Do you remember?

AB: Had to be upwards of around 20.

MF: Really? In two weeks?

AB: In two weeks. We would do about five a day. No, maybe it was 40.

MF: That’s a big jump.

AB: We would do up to five episodes a day.

MF: Wow. Many hours, I’m sure.

AB: Honestly, not too crazy. For a PA gig, it wasn’t sunup to sundown.

MF: That’s good.

AB: It would be regular morning time, and we ended at a reasonable time too. Considering that we did sometimes up to five episodes a day, it was not too crazy. It was fine.

MF: How does that production assistant job compare to the ones you’ve done on the other shows?

AB: It was very similar to the one I did afterwards. It was a show called “Legends of the Hidden Temple.” Show for the CW based off of the Nickelodeon game show from the 90s. Ran only one season, but it depends. “Pictionary” was shot at a soundstage. It actually shot right next to the soundstage for “Insecure.” It was all self-contained. It was COVID times, so there was a lot of COVID compliance work. Making sure for lunch, it wasn’t one long table, everybody got their own individual table. Usually one PA had to go set that up. There’s a lot of those other kinds of things that came into play with it. COVID was so new and trying to figure out how to keep working while that’s going on. But the following show was shot in Simi Valley. There was a moat, there was a castle. It felt like being a camp counselor because I specialized with contestants. Getting them to point A to point B for almost up to a week at a time with no phones. They became best friends, and they’re still best friends, I see through Instagram.

MF: That’s so wholesome.

AB: Completely different. “Pictionary,” you have contestants come in for 30, 45 minutes. “Legends of the Hidden Temple” was the whole week that they had to hang out, do obstacles, climb castles, jump into water and do crazy things. Very, very different, but that’s what game shows and competition shows are. Everything is going to be different.

MF: Were all of your production assistant opportunities on set?

AB: Yeah. Typically PAs are just production. Versus if Warner Bros. was hiring, they would probably hire an executive assistant unless they had a project where they needed that person. That’s usually pretty rare. For those PA gigs, it was just on that one show. Because of that, you’re hired by the production company. You’re not getting your paychecks from Fox or from CW. You’re getting it from Red Rocket Productions. I just made that up. So it’s a little different there. Your pathway is different depending on if you’re in an office versus on a show. It’s a completely different trajectory.

MF: I see. For these positions, were they all cold apply or how did you even find them? Did you know somebody?

AB: I found that in going from job to job. My strategy has just been telling everybody I know, when it’s applicable, what I want to be doing. The more that I’ve been able to tell people, “Hey, I want to be doing this. I want to be doing this.” “Oh, you know what? My patient did this.” “Oh, my neighbor used to do…” Just putting it out there, seeing what comes back. At least for the first one, I got in touch with the EP at “Pictionary.” He had me on. We had a call, and we had an interview and everything like that. He liked me, and we still stay in touch. For the next gig, I did a few favors on that show for one of the producers and would become the producer on “Legends of the Hidden Temple.”

MF: Wow. You never know.

AB: He was like, “Oh, hey, why don’t you come on to the next one?” Then for “The Late Show,” I cold applied, and it happened to be that the person in the hiring position was a fan of the original “Legends of the Hidden Temple” game show as a kid. I have a feeling he wanted to talk to me about that, but it got me an interview. You never really know. It’s a lot of luck. Each one of these times was just luck.

MF: Maybe it was meant to be, though.

AB: I hope so. Knock on wood. It’s been going well.

MF: It’s some subtle networking.

AB: Yeah, exactly. We’ve all met those kids that are a little too much about it. I remember there was a class that I had, a film class. I was talking to a friend of mine. She just got an internship at a really cool comedy production company. I said, “That’s awesome, that’s awesome.” Then this kid in the row in front of us went, “Oh, wait, you’re working there?” Then he comes and sits down next to me and wants to be part of our group. You’re like, “Alright dude, she’s just an intern.”

MF: She’s not the boss.

AB: Exactly. You don’t want to be that guy. It’s all using your judgment, it’s a conversation.

MF: It doesn’t hurt.

AB: Doesn’t hurt. Exactly.

MF: Do you have any advice for internship search in college?

AB: It’s tough. Even after, I’ll give you an example, “The Late Show.” We met with recruiters at Paramount, and they told us, “Now that you’re part of Paramount Global Family, you got an in. You’re at least going to get an interview.” The following summer, I applied to 15 Paramount internships thinking, “OK, this is where I want to focus.” I don’t think I got an interview at more than one of those. It’s really tough, but it’s people that I know that apply to as many things as possible. On the side of that, too, telling as many people as you can and going to networking events. That’s where those internships are a lot easier to come by because at least you talk to somebody. That’s what we did. We hired somebody from that because, “Oh, I know her. She told me about what she does. She’s really good at that.” She has been great. It’s a lot safer to do that too. I also think cold reach-outs don’t hurt.

MF: Through LinkedIn?

AB: LinkedIn. Doesn’t hurt. The worst that something can happen is you don’t get a response. I remember that time being like, “They’re going to think I’m stupid,” or, “I’m going to say the wrong thing.” Nobody is, nobody cares. Nobody’s thinking about it. Just putting all your eggs out there, hoping that one of them hatches.

MF: I like that.

AB: I’ve never said that.

MF: I’ve never heard that.

AB: I don’t think it’s a thing.

MF: It’s a thing now. It worked. I thought you were going to go to all eggs in one basket.

AB: That’s where I was going. Then I went, “That doesn’t make sense.”

MF: I like that though. It hatched.

AB: Because when your eggs hatch, then you get the job.

MF: Since you’ve worked with live productions…is Spring Sing live?

AB: Yeah, Spring Sing is live.

MF: You’ve worked with live productions. You’ve recorded with live audiences with Stephen Colbert, right? Now you’re doing podcasting, which is prerecorded. How do those differ, those different types of productions, and do you have a favorite?

AB: It’s a good question. I still love live. Live is really fun. It’s stressful, it’s high-energy. I can go into podcasts. They differ too. I’ll focus on Paul Giamatti’s “CHINWAG.” Most of those episodes were through Zoom. Prerecorded through Zoom. That way, it allows us to get really good guests. We had some awesome guests on that show because they hop on a Zoom 30 minutes or an hour or two hours. Some did. We also did live episodes. We went on tour. We did that whole thing last year, and we shot an episode at Dynasty Typewriter with Paula there and co-host, Stephen. We had Bill Hader as our guest. It was fun. We did the whole thing live, and it was hilarious. It’s my favorite episode because it’s so funny and the audience is really thriving and reacting. When a live event comes together, I don’t think there’s anything better. That feeling of just seeing work that you put in. You get to see that instant response versus a few comments on your YouTube page.

MF: I didn’t realize that you did the live tour. That sounds really fun.

AB: We did an LA show, a Seattle show, Harvard, Boston and New York. We did one in New York too.

MF: You got to go?

AB: Only the LA. I was still an intern at that phase. I did definitely help with the production stuff for the LA show, so that was cool.

MF: That’s fun. Do you work remote if you do Zoom?

AB: Yeah, primarily. The main thing that we’ve been doing recently, now that, unfortunately, “CHINWAG” ended. We had our 100th and final episode in February.

MF: That was the two-hour one?

AB: Two hours. I think the final lag is what we called it. Since then, we’ve been doing a few audible originals. We just finished production on one. That one differs too. A few weeks ago, we recorded remotely. We had some actors Zooming in from LA, some actors Zooming in from New York and one actor Zooming in from Vancouver, all the same day. Some of them are recording together, even though they’re in different states. We did those in recording studios and booked time at different ones and did a whole multicast recording that way. It really differs. There’s a lot of creative flexibility. You can do it in a studio like this, you can do it at a recording studio. You don’t need video. Do it on Zoom. If people have a good setup, you can do it in their closet. Who knows? You really have all those options.

MF: Podcasting is pretty diverse. Did “CHINWAG” do video podcasts as well?

AB: We never did video. If you look on the YouTube, there’s a lot of demands for video, and I always felt bad that we didn’t. We would sometimes take clips out and put them out there. Editing video is a whole different medium. We just did a video podcast for Netflix called “State Secrets: (Inside) the Making of the Electric State.”

MF: That new movie.

AB: We did that one. For that one, we have to have a video editor that will come in and do that. You edit video first and then go to audio, rather than a show like “CHINWAG,” where I would go in and edit it like it’s a Google Doc in a software called Descript. It’s a very different production process, where you edit audio after, if it’s video, and you have to edit video before.

MF: I don’t know if you noticed this as well, but I’m noticing video podcasts gaining popularity, especially amongst influencers and actors, whatever it may be.

AB: Big time. I think if a big actor, for example, I saw Amy Poehler, just launched a podcast. It’s great, it’s really good, but it’s a video. It’s in studio, and it’s more of a talk show. It seems like talk shows are moving into that direction. Amy Poehler is somebody who, I think, 10 years ago Fox or CBS would go, “Hey, we want you to fill a slot and do a talk show.” Now it’s more lucrative, and it’s easier to do a podcast.

MF: That’s something I’ve been debating, and if you have opinions, happy to hear it. What’s the line between a video podcast and a TV show or a talk show?

AB: It’s blurring. It’s really blurring. We had a lot of conversation about that with the podcast we did for “The Electric State” because the production of that is the same as a TV show. It’s a documentary series in a way. That is also replacing the former, when you had Blu-ray, and you had the video commentary on it. You don’t have that anymore. Now you have companion podcasts, but we do it like it’s a TV show, so it’s really blurring. It’s really, really blurring in that sense.

MF: I didn’t even ask you about Treefort. What does Treefort do, and what do you do there?

AB: I can definitely go into that. After college, I became a production coordinator there. After a few months, I got moved up to associate producer. So my role, usually no day is similar to the one before. For a while I was specializing in Paul Giamatti’s “CHINWAG.” We had a few personnel changes, so I got to have a pretty elevated role in that. I was editing the show, I was doing research packets, I started designing all the cover art that we did. The last 20 episodes, all the cover art I did having no graphic design experience. Just figured it out.

MF: Went for it.

AB: Just went for it. Figured out Photoshop, watched a few YouTube videos and went, “OK, I can do this.” I got to do that and got to be in charge of the release calendar, suggesting when we should do which episode, when, how long and should we cut these into two. Really starting to help make really cool decisions, working with really talented producers that we have to figure out what the best way to release these were. I was also in charge of the RSS feed, so that means that I was posting like you guys are on Spotify, Apple Pods (Podcasts), YouTube and creating social media videos. That was really my main role at the company for a long time. Helping to continue on that ship of “CHINWAG.” Now it’s shifted a bit. It’s definitely shifted. Now that the show’s over, I’m doing different things.

MF: That’s exciting. I took a look at the cover art. That’s amazing that you didn’t have any experience because they’re very branded.

AB: They’re wacky.

MF: Very abstract. They’re very interesting. Did you practice on your own? How was that?

AB: A lot of trial and error. I think for it too, I had a really good template to go with. We worked with a really talented artist named Alex Sokol, who was really instrumental in creating the visual identity of the show. He’d do a lot of animations and all the art before. I saw that and I went, “OK, I’m gonna try to embody this as much as possible.” As I got more comfortable, I started, “OK, I can Photoshop in a face.” There’s a few episodes where there’s no faces, no Paul Giamatti in there. I was like, “OK, you know what? I’m going to get a little more creative. I’m going to do that, start taking more risks and having more fun creating the monsters that are in there.” It’s a really esoteric, eccentric show, so I tried to make the covers embody that. That was my favorite. That was fun.

MF: I think it worked out. There definitely was a theme going on, for sure.

AB: Thank you. Thank you.

MF: In a podcast like that, where it’s connected to a very well-known actor, and I know there was a philosopher, as well as a host.

AB: Stephen Asma.

MF: Is the branding of that something that the team handles, or is that something that usually the host puts their input and you guys build onto it?

AB: I think that’s it. You described it. There had probably been about 10, 15 episodes before I came on the show. That brand identity has definitely worked with talent, the producers at Treefort, Paul Giamatti’s producing partner Dan Carey and the series producer Rachel Witlieb Bernstein. All these different people that I think put that together. I look back at decks, and I could see that they definitely wanted to have that esoteric, weird feel for it. That’s something that you come up with really early in the process.

MF: I’ve noticed across all different media forms, like TV shows, movies, even people. Everything has to be branded these days. It can’t just be a project. It can’t just be a podcast. It has to be an entire brand. How do you effectively build a brand for maybe a podcast specifically?

AB: It’s a great question. Every podcast we do, we are not just in production, we also do development as well. We do a lot of pitches to Audible to iHeart to Wondery, all the major players out there. For that, you can’t just go in with an audio sample. You can’t just go in with a write-up or a deck. What usually happens is, if we come up with the idea ourselves, we’ll do all that stuff. Other times, we’ll just have somebody come to us and want to set a meeting. Maybe they have a written deck, maybe they have a few photos. Then we take it from there, further develop it and create that brand that you’re discussing. We create a really nice, classy pitch deck and show what it would look like. Even envision what this could look like possibly in your podcast app. Create the icon itself so that whoever we’re pitching it to can go, “Oh, OK, yeah, I know what it is. Let’s do it like that.” Everything that we pitch, we’re also creating a brand. It’s a really good question.

MF: Do you have to create a brand per episode, or do you mean by series?

AB: “CHINWAG” was unique in that we had created a brand per episode where I really figured out what the color scheme was, this and all that. All that kind of stuff while I’m editing the episode, take notes, write the episode description and go, “OK, how are we gonna craft around this and make it engaging?” Good title. That’s a unique show when you’re creating a brand per episode. I’d say most shows and most podcasts out there, cover art is typically simple or the same per episode, it’s usually one. “CHINWAG” was a unique piece.

MF: It’s interesting that you were able to effectively create a brand per episode, but it also was consistent amongst all the episodes as well.

AB: Thanks, that was the goal. I tried to keep that same visual style. It’s the goal. You’re trying to do it. We have a general color scheme that we can go with and we kind of dive into, but you’re trying to make it fun each time and engaging. Playing around with what works and what doesn’t. Trial and error.

MF: It seems like you still work a lot in production. How does that compare to being a production assistant?

AB: It depends. I’ve been an associate producer on a few shows now, and the role is completely different per show. For “The Electric State” show that we did, it was about scheduling, interviews, booking the catering order, all the little things in there that you work through. “CHINWAG” it was a lot more hands-on. It was really crafting each episode. For these Audible shows, it’s been trying to figure out all facets of production. Booking talent, dealing with their reps. Making sure that they have their contracts, making sure that they have everything they need, making sure they have food, making sure if they need a car service. Looking into their contracts and seeing how many days are they booked for. Some actors you can only work with for two days per their contract. Some you can work for four or as long as it takes to get done. It’s about trying to balance all that to get a show done in a way that comes out great, leaves everyone happy and doesn’t spend an abundance of production money. That’s been my job on this last show and this other one going forward. It’s very different per show. That’s the thing about production is that every show, your title does not necessarily mean you’re going to be doing this work. It just means it’s your level in the production.

MF: That makes sense. You said show moving forward? Is that more of “The Electric State”?

AB: No, we just wrapped production on one show for Audible, and then we’re in preproduction right now on another show.

MF: Can you tell us about it yet?

AB: I unfortunately can’t. I can’t. Our writers just finished the scripts, so we’re just taking a look at it and trying to think about casting. That kind of thing. Because it’s not been announced by Audible yet, I can’t say anything about it.

MF: We’ll keep an eye out.

AB: Yeah, I’ll let you know. It’s exciting. We got one good name attached to it, too, already.

MF: How was your experience working with talent?

AB: How do I say this? I think coming into the industry, you hear stories that everybody is a nightmare, and everybody is this. I’ve only had great experiences, which I’m gonna knock on wood for. I would say that working with talent has been great. I think “The Late Show” really prepared me for that. A lot of days there, my job was to welcome talent and make sure that their green room was set up. If they needed to know where the bathroom was, I was the guy. If they needed water, if they needed vodka, if they needed whatever, I was the guy to figure that out and get that for them. I got to hang out backstage. Doing any sort of interview you’re nervous, especially coming onto a big show like that. Some of them were alive. I got to be around a lot of very, very cool talent. Big celebrities and politicians, and got to see how to really interact with them. Now, when I’m doing these shows, I’m coming in as an associate producer. There’s no production assistant in the studio, so when the catering order comes, I’m not just putting it on the counter. I’m laying it out all nice. I’m making sure that the things that are cold are in the fridge. I’ve realized that any little thing you can do goes a long way. Trying to take those things that I learned. To put on that customer service hat when I deal with talent. It pays dividends to do that.

MF: That’s interesting. How was it working with Paul specifically?

AB: It was great. We met in person only once because we did that episode in LA. I got to spend some time there. He was great. He’s so enthusiastic about this stuff and the knowledge that he had. Most people know him as an actor, but he has an encyclopedic knowledge of anything history, any book he’s read. For him, he just wanted to talk about all that stuff. He didn’t want to talk about his roles. He wanted to focus on that really cool stuff. He was great and super nice. So was Stephen, too. Stephen’s working with us on a project that we’re currently doing called Storyrabbit. It just got nominated for a Webby, so that’s exciting.

MF: Wow, congrats.

AB: It’s cool. It’s a mobile app that he’s a voice on.

MF: That’s part of Treefort?

AB: Yeah, we’ve gotten into the AI space. Storyrabbit is our way in there. It’s essentially an app where, based on your location, you get an option to different genres. You tap that, and it’ll tell you an AI-generated story based on whatever that is. Stephen is the monster guide. You want to learn about monster stories around Westwood? Tap on that, and it’ll generate a podcast for you live, for that.

MF: He’s the voice of it?

AB: He’s the voice of it.

MF: It’s like a Siri. A storytelling Siri.

AB: Exactly. It’s a storytelling Siri.

MF: That’s crazy. Have you seen AI come into the space in any other way?

AB: I think I mentioned the audio editor that we use, Descript. It uses AI to transcribe every podcast so you can edit it like it’s a Google Doc. AI for editing social media videos, using things like CapCut. CapCut’s great. It generates captions as you go. For Storyrabbit, for the promos we do there, we use visuals generated from Sora, which does AI-generated visuals. There’s a lot of AI tools. Of course, you try the AI audio editor and it goes, “Whoa, this sounds really good,” but it takes out all the laughter. So there’s these really awkward pauses. Things aren’t 100% there yet, but it’s cool to see what’s coming. A lot of these make our lives easier. So you can put a script into a GPT and say, “Hey, remind me, when does this character talk about this? I’m trying to look for it in the script, but I can’t find it.” It’ll tell you, and you go in the script and go, “Oh, OK, it’s there.” There’s a lot of those things that help speed up your day, and there’s infinite uses.

MF: I’m curious to see where it’s going to go. It feels like it developed really fast, and so I feel like it’s going to exponentially keep going.

AB: I agree. I think it’s going to be the folks that know how to use it and know how to use it to advance themselves and their projects without it taking away jobs from talent and whatnot, are going to be able to benefit from it. I’m really glad that we’re already in the space because we don’t have to be the ones left behind.

MF: Just to wrap us up here. Do you have any lessons that you’ve learned, any advice that you can give to our listeners or our fellow Bruins listening?

AB: When it comes to entertainment, you always want to be the guy that can do everything. I’ve gotten some bad advice that was: Be really, really good at one thing. Don’t do that because graphic designers are getting left in the dust because now people can use AI tools and create visual arts themselves. I found that anytime there’s an opportunity for me to go and learn something new, for example, “CHINWAG.” We decide we don’t want to go with the same cover artists, and I said, “OK, I can do it.” I didn’t know how to do it, but I knew I could figure it out. Now I’m introduced in meetings as, “This is Aidan. He does everything.” That’s a good place to be because the thing about production is shows end. You want to be the guy that gets kept on so that you can do the next job, even if you don’t know how to do it. You want to be the guy that can show people that you can figure it out. Learning as much as you can and saying yes to every opportunity, even if you don’t know how to do it. I have one regret, and I will never make that mistake again. I got offered to be a van driver on a really cool game show, and I said, “I don’t know how to drive a van. I’m not good at driving big cars.” So I said, “No,” but it would have been cool. I could have figured it out.

MF: Just say yes.

AB: Within reason.

MF: Great advice. Thank you, Aidan, that was really awesome. I learned so much again.

AB: This was fun. This was really fun.

MF: Thank you all so much for listening to another episode of Entertainment Unscripted. If you want to hear from more amazing individuals in the media and entertainment industry, make sure to tune in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and dailybruin.com. Follow @dailybruin and @dailybruinpodcasts on Instagram to be the first to know when a new episode premieres.

BOTH: Bye.