Exclusive Interview with Jeff Sager: Prayan Animation Studio’s Presence at Annecy 2023

• Could you please introduce yourself and provide insights into your journey as a scriptwriter? Additionally, could you share some of your notable works and enlighten us about the experiences you had while working on those projects?

My name is Jeff Sager. I began writing professionally in 2015 during my post-grad program at Humber College for TV Writing and Production. A former graduate of the program was guest-speaking in our class, and at the time, he was show-running the animated series The Bagel & Becky Show. He invited any student in the class to send him a spec script and original pilot for a kids’ animated comedy. I watched some of his previous shows and felt connected to his sensibility, which inspired the sample scripts I wrote and submitted. He ended up liking my stuff and ultimately hired me to write three episodes of that series.

Since then, I’ve worked on around twenty other kids’ animated series in both the preschool and 6-11 spaces. In the last few years, I’ve also been hired to develop several series for various broadcasters, studios, and production companies, in addition to creating some of my own shows in development. Some of the more well-known shows I’ve written on include The Snoopy Show, Super Wings, and Paw Patrol, the latter two of which I’ve been writing for the past two seasons. To reflect on my experiences, one thing I can say is that I always find it interesting how differently each show operates. It’s become clear to me that there is no magic formula that works for every show. For me, it’s important to really nail down what the essence of a specific show is that makes it special and unique and make sure to stay true to that in the stories we tell.   

• Throughout your career, you have collaborated with esteemed companies such as Nickelodeon, Disney, Apple+, BBC, Netflix, and Cartoon Network. Could you share valuable lessons or insights you gained while working with these prominent brands?

I feel super grateful and lucky to have worked with all of these legendary companies. As exciting as that is, however, it’s also important for me to zoom out a bit and just focus on my job as a writer. No matter who I’m working with, I always just make sure to do the best job I can at coming up with creative stories that explore the most interesting elements of our characters and the most meaningful themes for our audiences to connect to. TV is such a collaborative medium, so working with these proven companies provides me with a great deal of trust that if I do my best work, everyone else will be doing the same. For me personally, the most important thing is working super hard to get my scripts to a place that meets the high standards of this industry while knowing that the rest of the team will be doing the same.

• Can you brief on your recent association with Prayan Animation Studio and your expectations with this collaboration?

I have absolutely loved working with Prayan! It’s been a very collaborative effort to develop our three series, each with their own unique point of view and important message to share. They’ve been so supportive of the visions I have with each show, and their ability to produce high-quality art for my series at such a fast pace has been a true luxury.

As far as my expectations go, this is such an unpredictable industry, so honestly, I usually try to have none at all! That said, I think we have some really fun and meaningful series here, so I do feel confident that some people will connect to them in the same ways we did while developing them. Hopefully, we find some partners who are excited enough by them to want to get involved.

• Could you tell us what you are looking forward to at Annecy International Animated Film Festival? Additionally, could you share your plans regarding taking your project, Prayan, to Annecy?

I really love these conferences because they expose you to like-minded, creative people from all around the world. I have now worked with companies in Italy, Japan, Germany, South Korea, and India all from the genuine connections I made while meeting them at these markets. This is my first time at Annecy, and I am really looking forward to opening up more doors and connecting with more people on both personal and professional levels.

I am excited to share the projects I have been developing with Prayan, as well as some other personal projects I’ve been developing. It will be great to get feedback to help improve the development process and get a sense of what other people are seeing in these shows. Ideally, we will find the perfect partners to help us take these series to the next level.

• You have worked on a live-action tween comedy series with CBC, can you share that experience? What difference you felt while writing the script for a live-action compared to the animation?

Developing a series with CBC was a very cool experience. It was a series I co-created with a close friend of mine named Joel Buxton, and we were very grateful for the opportunity to work on it with CBC.

There are definitely some differences between live-action and animation, especially on the production end. For the writing and developing process, however, we really tried to stay true to our instincts and just tell the stories that best served the characters, world, and show we created. From a live-action standpoint, it was cool to kind of fantasy-cast the show with actors we would have loved to work with and base our characters around the look and vibe of those real people. That’s something we don’t always get to do, primarily working in animation, so that was a fun process.