Our Story

Bradford Keatts' path into the production industry started with his older brother Mark, a sound engineer already working at Soundcastle Studios in Los Angeles. Mark's presence in the industry brought Bradford to California, where he started on the studio floor — literally scrubbing floors at Soundcastle — then ascended to Second Engineer. At Soundcastle, Bradford recorded sessions with Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Ice-T's Body Count, alongside Warner Bros voiceover sessions with artists including James Earl Jones, Mark Hamill, John Denver, and Ringo Starr. Mark went on to become a senior sound engineer at Warner Bros, where he continues to this day — a family legacy in production sound spanning decades.

In late 1991, Bradford Keatts was hired as a runner at Warner Bros Animation — delivering scripts, moving equipment, learning the studio from the ground up. His reputation from Soundcastle followed him: Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson, recognized him on the lot and vouched for his audio engineering talent. Within months Bradford transitioned from runner to Post Production, and in 1992 he assembled the first Avid Film Composer system ever delivered to Warner Bros Animation — a milestone that launched his 17-year career as the studio's pipeline architect.

Meanwhile, Jeff Curtis began his career at Film Roman on The Simpsons in 1994. He spent a decade managing production on The Simpsons and King of the Hill, then moved to Fox Animation managing post-production on American Dad, then to Bento Box as Production Manager on the launch season of Bob's Burgers. In 2011, Bradford recruited Jeff to join him at Hasbro Studios. Together they built Hasbro's global media distribution infrastructure. Jeff became Director of Production, Distribution, and Operations, overseeing the entire studio's output for nearly nine years. Bradford taught Jeff technical mastering, compliance, digital specifications, and language versioning. They became a trained operational team — two horizontal thinkers who could see the full pipeline end to end.

Together at Hasbro from 2012 to 2021, Bradford and Jeff co-created a holistic asset management methodology — a proprietary system for managing global media distribution, production pipelines, archival, and multi-territory delivery. This system was forged inside a major studio's production pipeline managing worldwide distribution for My Little Pony, Transformers, Power Rangers, and the entire Hasbro animated library. That methodology — decades of production engineering crystallized into a repeatable system — is the intellectual foundation of everything MRC builds today. The same train-tracks-of-production thinking that kept major studios running now powers custom software, AI workflows, and production pipelines for clients at every scale.

In 2023, Bradford and Jeff took 50+ years of combined production engineering experience and founded Mission Ready Contractors. Bradford is a U.S. Navy veteran with an honorable discharge. The mission: bring production-grade pipeline engineering, operational expertise, and custom technology solutions to companies at every scale — from small businesses to enterprises to entertainment studios. Whatever fits for both parties. Every conversation starts with a Google Meet. No pressure, no pitch deck. Let's talk and see if there's a fit.