Brian Keith McDonald (born February 18, 1965)[1] is an American screenwriter, director, teacher and author, who lives in the state of Washington.
"[4] McDonald made his first film, The War, which featured green plastic Army men in battle, when he was 10 years old.
[1] McDonald started his first film-related job as a teenager around 1979, working for Bruce Walters at a company called Trickfilm in Seattle, making animated titles, motion graphics and effects for commercials.
He interned for Alpha Cine labs, working for Bruce Vecchitto in the FX and title department, and for the Tennesson/Tobin Animation Studio.
At the same time, he was writing speculative screenplays, comic books, and jokes for Ron Pearson, a comedian and old friend.
"[1] After seven years of struggling in L.A., juggling jobs in the film, comedy, and comic book writing fields, he returned to Seattle in 1993.
McDonald has also directed several online advertisements for Visa Inc.[5] In 2002, he was a camera operator on Elixirs & Remedies, a music documentary.
[8] In the same year, McDonald started work with Tom Skerritt and the US Army, as part of the Red Badge program which encouraged US veterans to tell their stories.
[12] McDonald directed a documentary short called Squirrel Butter and the Tall Boys – Old Time music for MTV in 2009.
Brian McDonald has been publishing The Invisible Ink Blog[13] since 2005, in which he analyzes great movies and discusses aspects of screenwriting theory.
In 1995, Brian McDonald was one of the primary contributors to a four volume anthology called Colors in Black[14] (with story pieces in issues 2, 3 and 4),[15] published by Dark Horse Comics in cooperation with Spike Lee, which focused on African-American creators.
In 2001, McDonald contributed the story "The Misadventures of Tommy T-Rex" to the Dark Horse Comics Collection humor anthology book Scatterbrain.
In 2003, on the advice of a student, Brian McDonald compiled his screenwriting notes into a book he called Invisible Ink.
By then it was already well known in filmmaking circles and championed by people such as Andrew Stanton, who opened the door for McDonald to teach at Pixar.
In 2010, Libertary Editions also published The Golden Theme: How to Make Your Writing Appeal to the Highest Common Denominator by Brian McDonald.
[18] Brian McDonald wrote Tarzan: The Gorilla Camp Raiders for United Media Syndicate.
He wrote the Hellboy spin-off, Abe Sapien: Drums of the Dead for Dark Horse Comics in the same year.
Those produced include the mockumentary short film White Face in 2001, and a thriller feature called Inheritance in 2004.
In 2009, he stepped in on short notice, following the sudden death of Blake Snyder, as keynote speaker at the Write on the Sound Writers' Conference,[21] presented by the Edmonds Art Commission.