Daily Inspiration: Meet Brian T. Arnold

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian T. Arnold

Hi Brian T., thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I wanted to write and make movies and television before I understood what that meant. When I was in elementary school, I wrote letters to Fox about how my friends and I should be the next Power Rangers. In middle school, I entered a short story contest with a sequel to the Naked Gun franchise. When I was 14, I wrote my first screenplay. Most people would have called it fan fiction, but I genuinely believed I had a shot at getting hired for X-Men 2. But, as it turned out, the studio was looking for someone with a little more experience and who wasn’t a freshman in high school.

But, high school was a turning point for me, when I finally was able to put into words what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a screenwriter and filmmaker. That’s what I wanted my life to look like. I started getting more into film, writing scripts, and trying (and mostly failing) to make movies with my friends.

But as much as I wanted to be in this industry, moving to Los Angeles and giving it a real shot scared me for a long time. I was a kid from a small town in West Virginia. The prospect of going after this crazy, unrealistic dream was daunting. So, I tried to find other, more stable things that might make me happy and at least scratch that itch a little. I studied broadcast journalism and worked for a time as a local news producer. I figured there’s writing, there’s cameras, there’s editing, it’s a form of storytelling… Eh, close enough!

But, it wasn’t. As valuable and important as local news is, I wasn’t happy in that world. So I decided I had to give my dreams an honest shot and moved to Los Angeles, sight unseen. It was a wild adjustment from small-town life in Appalachia, but I loved it immediately. I toured the studios, I sought out Billy Wilder’s star on the Walk of Fame. I started studying improv and sketch comedy at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and The Groundlings. I wrote and performed for a sketch team at iO West and wrote for the CBS Diversity Comedy Showcase. I made wonderful lifelong friends burning with the same passion and love that brought me here. West Virginia is where I grew up, but Los Angeles is where I truly found myself and where I belong.

Then, a few years ago, after years of work and struggle, I was fortunate to win the Script Pipeline Competition, and that changed everything for me. I met my managers, my agents, and my attorney, optioned a script, got on the Black List, and have been a working screenwriter and producer ever since.

There are still struggles, of course. This is a famously tough industry to make a consistent living in, but I’m doing the work I love every day, and that’s really hard to beat.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not only has it not been a smooth road, I’m not sure I’d even call it a road. It was, and continues to be, a dusty twisted dirt path full of holes, wrong turns, and the occasional rattlesnake (metaphorically and literally).

While I was trying to make it as a screenwriter, I worked I don’t know how many different jobs. Full-time, part-time, internships. Background acting, editing, and churning out bucketloads of “content” for less than reputable companies. Making popsicles, which honestly was kind of a fun one. All so I could afford to stay here and keep trying, keep reaching for the seemingly unreachable.

There were years of ups and downs, wins and losses, odd jobs, unemployment, and food stamps. I kept writing, but it wasn’t going anywhere. As a screenwriter, you have to hear the word “no” a thousand times and keep coming back for more, all in the hopes of one elusive, impossible yes.

There was one point where I thought I’d made it. I finally had a script making some waves, signed with managers and agents, and foolishly quit my job because I just knew the red carpet was finally rolling out for me.

Ultimately, that script went nowhere, and nothing else I was writing at the time did either. My agents dropped me, which I don’t blame them for. I let go of my managers because the fit just wasn’t right. After coming so close, I felt like I was starting over from scratch.

But, failure is valuable and, in my mind, highly underrated. You have to fall so you know you can get back up again. So after I licked my wounds for a while, I dusted myself up and started writing again. And that next script was what turned things around for me.

But even after “making it,” it wasn’t easy, and it’s still not easy. I tell aspiring writers that when you’re a working writer, you still get told no just as often. It’s just by cooler, more famous people. The strikes were necessary but so hard. There are fewer buyers than there used to be, and they’re buying less stuff. Making a consistent living in this industry is harder than it’s ever been.

But, we don’t get into film and television because it’s easy. Sure it’s hard now, but it’s never been easy. Los Angeles is a city of dreamers who persist no matter the odds, and what’s more beautiful than that?

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I mostly write dramatic comedy, sometimes with sci-fi or magical realism elements. Sometimes more grounded. My vibe as a writer is the same as my vibe as a person: funny, pretty weird, and often at least a little bit sad.

The weird thing about being a screenwriter is you can make a living at it, but until something you write actually hits the screen, there’s not much tangible you can point to. Ask me this question in a couple of years, and I hope there will be at least a handful of movies I can show you, but for now, most of my projects are still in development with various production companies.

It’s a goal of mine to, while still writing bigger projects, start making some stuff independently. Short films, sketches, features. The industry is so collaborative, which is great, but it also means you have to wait for a hundred people to say yes before anyone can see your work, and I’m more and more interested in working on some projects that I can put out there myself just to have something tangible that I control.

I’m working on a podcast with another writer friend of mine, developing a short to direct, and I’d also really like to turn some of my old stage sketches into filmed ones and put them online. Stay tuned for all that.

In the meantime, you can check out the web series I co-wrote, produced, and acted in. It’s a few years old, but hey I still think it’s a lot of fun. All the episodes are on https://openhousestheseries.com/

What matters most to you? Why?
People. As much as I love my work and what I do, as important and magical as film can be, there’s nothing more vital than the people you love. The recent fires in Los Angeles are such a stark, sad reminder that everything material is fragile and finite. Nothing we build is permanent.

People who create art of any kind hope their legacy and work lives beyond them, but eventually, that’s forgotten too. Sometimes I struggle with getting so lost in my work that I neglect friendships, family, and relationships. We’re probably all guilty of that, but it’s something I’m trying to work on.

In just the last few years, we’ve dealt with, and are still dealing with, pandemics, wildfires, political uncertainty, industry strikes, and tragedies both personal and shared. And, as awful as all of that has been, it’s been amazing to see people come together, support each other, and get each other through it. There’s nothing more beautiful or important than that, and it’s a feeling I hope my writing invokes.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.briantarnold.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/briantarnold/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briantarnold1/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BrianTArnold
• Other: https://bsky.app/profile/briantarnold.bsky.social