From scoring the adventures of rebellious teenagers to creating fan support for new video game series, a panel of multi-talented creatives wowed Comic-Con viewers with a discussion on some of the most acclaimed productions in television and video games.
July 23, 2020
Photo & Poster Credit – Impact24 PR
San Diego, CA – For this year’s Comic-Con @ Home 2020, excited fans watched virtually to hear the secrets of creative experts on the “The Art of Collaboration: Duos Behind Top Films, TV Shows, Video Games and More!” panel. The conversation included 2nd unit director and stunt coordinator Hiro Koda (Stranger Things), stunt coordinator and performer Jahnel Curfman (Cobra Kai), professional video game streamers Avori and D__Rich (303 eSports), producer and supervising editor Arielle Kilker (Cheer), and supervising editor David Nordstrom (Cheer). The panel was moderated by content creator and actor Chris Villain.
Arielle Kilker began discussing collaboration and how it has shaped her and David’s work together on Cheer: “Ultimately, the projects that we work on have benefited from us working together because there’s a constant stream of ideas. We have to think about how do you tell the story over six episodes for it to land so the audience can connect to the subjects? By collaborating, you can channel collective energy into the thing you’re working on together.” David added: “Everyone can recognize what each other’s strengths and weaknesses are and you fill in the gaps. There’s a strong sense of duty to share the stories of people who have opened up and portray them well.”
Hiro Koda discussed the importance of versatility in regard to his work on Cobra Kai and Stranger Things, “Every show requires different things. Cobra Kai was all martial arts. For Stranger Things, I had to double kids and monsters that were not there. The more skills you have, the more hireable you are.”
Adding her experience working on Cobra Kai, Jahnel Curfman also discussed the role of women in stunt coordinating: “As a woman stunt coordinator, you look around and go ‘Oh gosh, I’m so outnumbered.’ It can be really hard. Stunt coordinating is very much a boy’s club. We don’t want to be there because we’re women and we’re being given a chance. We want to be there because we truly are the best at what we do, and we deserve a seat at a table.” Arielle also added in regards to Cheer: “It was important to hire a bunch of women behind the scenes so the cheerleaders felt comfortable being filmed in the gym. But why not just hire a bunch of women all the time? We always hire a bunch of men.”
Broadening to new areas like streaming and the future of entertainment, 303 eSports’ Avori and D__Rich brought insight into collaborations in the gaming world. Avori shared, “There’s a lot of things that go into a stream… there’s so much work that goes in on the back ends that people don’t even realize. With gaming, you start from zero. There is no entry. You have no way of making a name for yourself unless you know somebody.” D__Rich continued, “You can be really good at gaming, but if nobody knows you, it will be difficult. So you have to depend on collaborations. We learned to rejoice in each other’s achievements and be happy for each other’s successes and not compete against each other.”
Virtual Comic-Con attendees left with even more insight into how collaboration can help create some of the best moments in entertainment and how they can adapt it into their lives, no matter the field or storytelling medium they want to enter.
