Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Gross.
Hi Laura, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
“Once upon a time”…oh, wait, my story? The nickel version, I guess. I love rock and roll, and I love creative writing, so after college, I put the two together and started writing articles about rock and roll, then began a radio show called Backbeat on college station KCSN, graduated to the then powerhouse LA radio giant KRLA, where I did interviews, marketing, promotions, and ultimately became on-air talent. After 4 1/2 whirlwind years interviewing everybody from Muhammed Ali to Smokey Robinson to Bob Hope and beyond, management changed, I (and everyone else at the station) got fired, and I started freelancing for radio syndicates like Dick Clark Productions, The Wolfman Jack Show, Drake Chenault’s The History of Rock and Roll, Casey Kasem’s famed Top 40. It was both challenging, trying to build enough of a client base to actually make a living, and thrilling. Interviewing top stars for the top shows. But I wanted to move on to television, and after 4 1/2 years of a very slow but continuous effort to get MTV, then in its infancy, to hire me, they finally did. I became the unofficial West Coast office for MTV and later VH1 before they had West Coast offices. Talk about heady, they were in their heyday, and the reflected glory was very shiny! But, as with anything, crazy politics and playing in the big leagues was also stressful and demanding. I also became second unit director on ABC’s In Concert, but I was getting older, and the acts were getting younger! Just when I was about at my sell-by date for MTV and In Concert, like a fairytale, Disney came to the rescue. I was offered the chance to produce an electronic press kit for the VHS (remember those?) release of Sleeping Beauty. As a Disney geek, nothing could have been more thrilling, and I began a glorious and multi-year relationship with Disney, which led to working with Pixar, and then becoming well-known as an animation behind-the-scenes EPK and DVD producer, moving on to work with many major studios on their animated and occasionally live-action films. And, in the middle of all this, the greatest project brought me back to rock and roll and the best band ever (I accept no challenges on this fact!), The Beatles. Having worked with all of the former Beatles on solo projects, I was incredibly privileged to be the one chosen to create EPK’s, video news releases, even a CD Rom in the early days of that technology, for The Beatles Anthology. I was flying back and forth from LA to London (and occasionally New York and Monte Carlo!) for the best professional 18 months of my life. It was joyous, creatively thrilling, and, of course, fraught, as real life is, with the challenges of doing the best job possible for clients who set the highest bar. I have been lucky to continue for many years doing projects for The Beatles’ mothership, Apple, and the individual solo artists, as well. Now, it seems my company, L.E.G. Productions, has weathered the Covid storm well (at least to this date!), and we recently finished producing the Bonus Materials for Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank, a really fun animated film directed and produced by our long-time client, Rob Minkoff. Currently, we are working on the Awards Season campaigns for many long-term clients, creating exciting making of videos to showcase their brilliant work. I love the creativity, the camaraderie, and even the difficult challenges (well, I love those after we find a way to address them) of the work we do. I have such a fantastic team who backs me up and makes me look good. And we’ve been really fortunate to have some amazing projects to work on. A few highlights: Coraline, Surf’s Up!, Waking Sleeping Beauty, Toy Story 2, and of course, The Beatles Anthology. Always worth repeating that one! My story: it’s a good story, I think. Does it end with “, and they lived happily ever after?” We’ll see.
Definitely a good story. Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Wow, obstacles and challenges, they are a part of everyday life, right? And, trying to build a career and a business from scratch? If anyone says that is easy, they are lying or have some magic fairy dust surrounding them. In any job, there’s always the unpleasant reality of politics. People wanting your job or wanting to get the promotion you’re after or people who just don’t like you. It happens to all of us, and it’s never fun. I try to be kind and fair in all my dealings in life, but when you’re up against tough adversaries, it can be hard to hold on to that core of integrity. I think I’ve succeeded at that almost always, but it’s certainly one of the big challenges of a career in a competitive business…which is every business, right? Another challenge is how to handle the disappointment and sometimes even heartbreak of not getting that promotion, or in the case of my career now, not getting that big project you were up for, salivating after, and already strategizing on. There’s that sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach, and the chasing the failure in your mind like a hamster on a wheel. Running fast and getting nowhere. I’ve tried to be mature about these setbacks, allow myself the emotional fallout of the letdown, but not hang on to that for too long. Another obstacle in my career can be simple technological failure. We’ve had enough hard drives die to learn to back up incessantly, which may at times seem neurotic but is, in fact, quite practical. If you’ve ever had an entire project representing weeks of work disappear before your eyes, you know what I mean! What have I taken with me when evacuating from California’s terrifying wildfires? Hard drives. Seriously. Another obstacle that every human being faces is just dealing with other people. Even your favorite people can be difficult some days. And, when you have lots of clients, not everyone is always your favorite person. I, again, have been so lucky to almost always work with creative, brilliant, and supportive people. Many of them have become friends. But, in the rare occasion when the person isn’t so supportive, I try to remind myself that I don’t have to like them, I just have to get along with them. While that’s easier said than done, in the end, the work is what counts, and you just have to suck it up sometimes!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Our work is crafting behind-the-scenes stories of how movies and music are created. The idea is to pull back the curtain a little and let the audience in to see the creative process behind their favorite films and albums (I can still say albums, right?), It’s one of the greatest privileges of my life that I’ve been able to work behind the scenes on the most inspiring art of this era. Finding Nemo, The Lion King, Coraline, Yellow Submarine, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Spinal Tap, Pirates of the Caribbean. The list goes on and on, you can check out our website to get a small taste. And we worked on EPK’s for re-releases of Disney classics like Snow White, Cinderella, Pinocchio, 101 Dalmatians. As a Disney geek, mining this treasure trove was a dream come true. In music, we have been privileged to work with some of the greatest artists of our time: The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, Bonnie Raitt, Steve Winwood, Fleetwood Mac, we literally have hundreds of interviews in our tape library. Again, the challenge and the joy of this is to discover what is that shiny inner glow that makes the work so magnificent, and then share that with the audience. The work is almost always creatively rich and satisfying and finding work that you love is definitely a blessing. As always, it’s real life, with its challenges and obstacles (see above), not idyllic. But, wonderful, overall.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I always wanted to be a schoolteacher when I was growing up, and I did that for four years while pursuing my rock and roll journalist path part-time. And I think the rock and roll bug bit me very early, I always remember loving music, even as a kid. I also loved Al Jolson and Nat King Cole (favorites of my parents) and got to do the EPK for Nat King Cole’s Greatest Hits release, interviewing both Marie, Nat’s widow, and Natalie, his daughter. That was a thrill. I was kind of a goody-two-shoes as a kid, I guess I still am with a healthy dose of rock chick, animation geek, and independent thinker thrown in.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.legproductions.com
Image Credits
Laura
Smokey
Wolfman Jack
Nancy Clendaniel
