W. David McBrayer: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:WDavidmc.jpg|frame|McBrayer in 2005]] |
[[Image:WDavidmc.jpg|frame|McBrayer in 2005]] |
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'''William David McBrayer''' (April 13, 1950) is an award-winning American [[Film producer|film]] and [[television producer]] and writer. |
'''William David McBrayer''' (April 13, 1950) is an award-winning American [[Film producer|film]] and [[television producer]] and writer. |
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== Early life == |
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McBrayer, youngest son of Beatrice Adella (nee Hatchett) and Robert Vaughn McBrayer, was born at Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia on April 13, 1950. He has an older brother, Robert Vaughn McBrayer, Jr. (born October 6, 1938), and an older sister, Lynda McBrayer Tyler (born July 25, 1942). |
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When McBrayer was five years old, his family moved from Atlanta to Brainerd, Tennessee, a section of Chattanooga. The family resided at 4144 Lilac Lane. |
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In junior high school, McBrayer was a member of the Dalewood Junior High wrestling team, for which he received a junior varsity letter. After graduating from Brainerd High School in 1969, McBrayer attended the [[University of Tennessee at Chattanooga]]. During college, McBrayer worked as Vice President of Regency Galleries furniture store in Rome, Georgia. McBrayer graduated from UTC in 1973 with a B.S. in Psychology and was published in the Psychometric Journal for his innovative research in signal detection theory. |
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A year later, McBrayer moved to [[East Lansing, Michigan]] to attend [[graduate school]] at [[Michigan State University]]. He graduated from Michigan State in 1976 with a Masters of Arts in Advertising/Mass Communications and won the Graduate competition for his Partsgrabber advertising campaign for the Michigan Association of Auto Parts Resellers. |
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== The New York Years (1976-1985) == |
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After graduate school, McBrayer began his ten year advertising career on [[Madison Avenue]] in New York. He started at Grey Advertising as an Assistant [[Account Executive]], then went to work for [[Young & Rubicam]], one of the world's largest advertising agencies, where he worked as an Account Executive for clients such as [[Warner-Lambert]] (maker of [[Dentyne]] chewing gum), and Culbro Corporation / General Cigar and Tobacco Company, a billion dollar consumer products company. By age 27, McBrayer was Senior Vice President, Advertising & Brand Management with Culbro's General Cigar Division. He was the youngest senior executive in the company's 75 year history. After officially leaving Culbro in 1980, McBrayer continued his career in advertising as owner and President of Ad Associates, Inc., an advertising and communications company. In 1983, McBrayer founded National Market Measures, a [[Cleveland, Ohio]] based [[market research]] company.<ref>http://www.nmminc.com/</ref> He sold National Market Measures in 1987. |
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During his ten years in the ad industry, McBrayer won several national and international advertising awards, including the prestigious [[Clio Award]], the International Award for Advertising Excellence, and the International Television Association Gold Medal Award for Multi-Media. |
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In 1985, McBrayer all but retired from his advertising career and moved his family to [[Roswell, Georgia]]. |
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== Next Steps (1985-1999) == |
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A few years after moving back south, McBrayer co-founded Digital Solutions, Inc., a technology company specializing in [[digital non-linear editing systems]] for the film and television industry. DSI -- which McBrayer built from the ground up -- was quickly recognized as one of the most successful and innovative companies of its kind in the digital broadcasting industry. While President of DSI won the Outstanding AVID reseller award and McBrayer was selected by UPS for Excellence in Business for his Golden Rule approach to business-to-business marketing. Under his leadership Digital Solutions started the DSI-AVID Educational Center to train professional editors in the latest film and television techniques. |
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In the mid 1990s, McBrayer also co-founded Z Post, LLC, a television production and post-production facility in Atlanta. Z Post's clients included [[the Billy Graham Association]], [[Turner Broadcasting]], [[the Cartoon Network]], {{dn|Vanity Fair}}, [[Avid Technology]], [[Fox Broadcasting]], Channel 36, [[Warner Bros. Records]], and [[Walk Thru the Bible]]. Z Post produced "Creating Hollywood Style Special Effects on the Avid Media Composer," the first authorized training CD ROM for [[Avid Technology]], the industry leader in television and film editing and special effects technology. |
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In 1998, McBrayer sold Digital Solutions for an undisclosed amount. |
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In 1999, McBrayer created and wrote (along with [[Touched by an Angel]] writer Bob Colleary) and executive produced a [[television pilot]] entitled "Postcards From Heaven," starring [[Marion Ross]] and [[John Haymes Newton]] <ref>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0200367/</ref> Postcards From Heaven won the Global Association of Independent Television Award for Outstanding Drama Programing in 2000. McBrayer was awarded the top prize by famed writer/producer Stephen Cannell. |
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In 2000, Z Post produced "Hope For Africa," a hard-hitting, six-part television series highlighting the AIDS epidemic in Africa, for the [[South African Broadcasting Corporation]] (SABC).<ref>http://www.writingstudio.co.za/page1379.html</ref> The series was shot entirely on location in South Africa and Kenya. It was during this trip that McBrayer got the inspiration for his 2003 film, Beat The Drum. In 2000, SABC aired “Hope for Africa,” in [[Swaziland]] and more newspapers were sold that day in the paper’s entire history because of the special brochure that was produced to accompany the series. <ref>http://www.beatthedrumthemovie.com/Beat%20the%20Drum-Press%20kit.pdf</ref> |
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==Beat The Drum== |
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While filming “Hope for Africa” in Kenya, McBrayer and his producing partner had an exclusive audience with Kenya's then-president [[Daniel arap Moi]] at Moi's private estate. The filmmakers were met by armed guards carrying machine guns and escorted into the compound to Moi's private chambers. At the time, President Moi was extremely unpopular and was taking a lot of heat in the media for the [[AIDS epidemic]]. During this meeting to discuss "Hope For Africa," McBrayer asked the President what else he could do to help highlight the gravity of the situation to the people of Africa. “Make me a cinema about AIDS that would scare them to death” was his response.<ref>http://www.beatthedrumthemovie.com/Beat%20the%20Drum-Press%20kit.pdf</ref> On their way back to the airport McBrayer and his team discovered from their cab driver their interview with Moi had been televised without their knowledge and that their meeting was all over the news stations in Kenya. |
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McBrayer began writing the script for ''[[Beat the Drum]]'' soon thereafter. The film tells the story of a young Zulu boy, Musa, who is orphaned after a mysterious "curse" strikes his village. To help his grandmother, Musa sets out for Johannesburg with his father's last gift, a handmade tribal drum, in search of work and his uncle. The journey confronts him with the stark realities of urban life, but his spirit never wavers. He later returns to his village with a truth and understanding his elders have failed to grasp: that the "curse" that is killing their people is in fact AIDS, a disease that can be prevented.<ref>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387057/plotsummary</ref> |
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McBrayer assembled a predominately South African production team and shot the film in 26 days during the summer of 2002 on-location in [[Johannesburg]] and [[KwaZulu-Natal]]. The film is dedicated to "Beatrice," McBrayer's much beloved mother, who passed away in October 2002. |
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Starring Clive Scott and Owen Sejake, ''Beat the Drum'' premiered at the 2003 [[Mill Valley Film Festival]].<ref>http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/296809/Beat-the-Drum/overview</ref> |
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McBrayer has said that he wrote ''Beat The Drum'' to "help give a voice to the voiceless", particularly "the innocent children in South Africa, who, for no cause of their own, were orphaned and homeless. I simply wanted to be an honest witness to the plight of these kids." <ref>http://www.writingstudio.co.za/page1379.html</ref> |
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''[[Variety<!-- magazine -->]]'' heralded the the film as “spectacular," calling it a "handsome well-crafted family drama...naturalistic performances...affecting human drama...first-rate!" <ref>http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117922198.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&query=beat+the+drum</ref> Leonard Maltin of [[Entertainment Tonight]] called it, "a film with a big heart and a vital message.” |
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Beat the Drum has won 30 international film festival awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (David Hickson), Best Supporting Actor , (Owen Sejake), Best Actor (Junior Singo), Best Music (Klaus Badelt and Ramin Djawadi) and several Audience Awards <ref>http://www.beatthedrumthemovie.com/awards.htm</ref> |
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== Personal life == |
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== Family== |
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McBrayer met his wife, Sandra "Sandy" Lee Hildebrand (born September 19, 1951), at a [[Boy Scout]] Christmas party in December 1963. McBrayer and Sandy started "going steady" on January 7, 1964. Although they went to different junior high schools, the two ended up at Brainerd High School. In the spring of 1969, McBrayer broke up with Sandy in order to take another girl to his [[senior prom]], but the two got back together several months later. On January 8, 1970, six years and a day after they first started going steady, McBrayer proposed to Sandy in the upstairs living room of her parents' house. The two were married at Brainerd Methodist Church in Chattanooga on August 8, 1970. Immediately following the wedding, the newlyweds hopped in their Datsun 2000 and drove to [[Mexico]] for their honeymoon. |
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On September 20, 1972, the couple's first child, Stacy Michelle, was born. On Stacy's second birthday, they moved to Michigan so McBrayer could attend graduate school. While McBrayer attended classes and got involved on campus, Sandy worked in the Benefits Office of the University, putting him through graduate school with her income. |
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When McBrayer and his family moved to Manhattan in 1976, Sandy began interviewing for executive assistant positions on Wall Street. She was offered a job as the Director of Public Relations at the [[Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange]] at the World Trade Center. |
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In 1978, McBrayer, Sandy and Stacy moved to [[West Orange, New Jersey]]. Two years later, on March 4, 1980, their second child, Lauren Ashley, was born at [[NYU Medical Center]] in New York. In 1985, McBrayer moved his family to Roswell, Georgia, in part because he wanted to spend more time with his two daughters. |
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On November 12, 2004, daughter Stacy gave birth to McBrayer's first grandchild, Hannah Beth Troubh. |
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McBrayer has referred to his family as the most important thing in his life. |
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== Religious Beliefs == |
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Raised as a Southern Baptist, McBrayer spent several years in the late 1970s questioning his faith. In the spring of 1984, McBrayer traveled alone to Jerusalem for Pentecost. During this trip, he prayed that God would give him "unwavering faith." Before returning home, McBrayer was baptized in the [[Jordan River]]. |
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In the late 1980s, McBrayer met Dr. Charles Goodwin, a Baptist minister and Greek teacher, at a bible conference. A few years later, McBrayer and Goodwin co-authored ''Original Word Teaching Series I: Introduction to New Testament Greek'', a comprehensive video teaching series designed to enable pastors and lay people to learn New Testament Greek.<ref>http://www.logos.com/products/details/1065</ref> |
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McBrayer is an ardent pacifist who strongly opposes the war in Iraq. His progressive take on Christianity resembles that of a [[Red-Letter Christian]].<ref>http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/2006/02/Whats-A-Red-Letter-Christian.aspx</ref> |
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== Philosophical Interests == |
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In college, McBrayer developed a keen interest in the work of Swiss psychologist [[Carl Gustav Jung]], and in particular, Jung's concept of [[synchronicity]]. McBrayer also ascribes to certain tenants of [[Eastern philosophy]]. |
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== Hobbies == |
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McBrayer is an avid [[cyclist]]. In 199_, he won a regional [[fencing]] tournament. |
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==References== |
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{{reflist}} |
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[[Category:Screenwriters]] |
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[[Category: Film producers]] |
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[[Category: Media occupations]] |
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Revision as of 20:11, 16 February 2009
William David McBrayer (April 13, 1950) is an award-winning American film and television producer and writer.