Category Archives: Media

Interviews: 66-Year Old Editor And Journalist Tina Brown (NY Times)

From a New York Times Magazine article (Feb 7, 2020):

Tina Brown New York Time photo Feb 7 2020Is being an editor in chief again something you’d ever think about doing?

 I have to suppress those feelings, because I love content, to use the horrible word, and editors now are so beleaguered that all the fun that I had isn’t there to be had. It’s a shame that editors get so little time now to think about stories and writers. Most of their time is spent having incredibly boring meetings about distribution and platforms and branded digital content. All this stuff, it’s just incredibly miserable. What I love, and what I’ve always loved, is telling stories.

What’s a third-rail conversation that you’re not having or that isn’t happening at Women in the World events? #MeToo is fraught, because anything can be taken and become this flying I.E.D. that can mess you up. It’s difficult to have a debate about that topic, because all the things that people say off-camera they don’t want to say in public.

Unlike most journalists, Tina Brown carries with her an aura of swashbuckling glamour, a remnant of her starry, high-budget run during the 1980s and ’90s as editor in chief of Vanity Fair and then The New Yorker. Like many journalists, Brown, 66, has pivoted in recent years to an adjacent line of work, in her case the live-event business. Her Women in the World Summit, which has hosted speakers like Oprah Winfrey and the Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad, is held each spring at Lincoln Center. (The New York Times was once a partner in the business.) She has also written two best-selling books, “The Vanity Fair Diaries” and “The Diana Chronicles,” a tell-all about the British royal family.

Read full article

Media Infographics: “Radio’s Unparalleled Reach” In U.S. (Statista)

Radio's Unparalleled Reach Infographic Statista.com

With all the talk about digital media, it’s easy to forget how powerful traditional media such as radio and television still are. Radio in particular rarely gets credited for what it still is: a true mass medium. According to Nielsen, radio even trumps TV in terms of its weekly reach.

According to Nielsen’s measurements, far more than 200 million Americans aged 18 and older listen to the radio at least once a week, equaling a reach of 92 percent of the adult population. Television came in a close second with a weekly reach of 86 percent, while 80 percent of U.S. adults now use apps or browse the web on a smartphone in any given week.

While radio does win in terms of sheer reach, TV remains unparalleled with respect to average daily usage. According to Nielsen’s measurements, U.S. adults spend an average of 4 hours and 27 minutes a day watching TV (live and time-shifted), which is more than 2.5 times the amount of time they listen to the radio (1h 42m).

Website

Top 2020 Super Bowl Ad: “Jeep – Groundhog Day” Featuring 69-Year Old Actor Bill Murray (Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnhzGUcENWo

It’s “Groundhog Day” all over again as Jeep brand debuts a Big Game spot starring Bill Murray (in his first-ever national television commercial). But this time reliving the same day over and over again is always a new adventure when you’re driving the 2020 Jeep Gladiator. Jeep. There’s only one.

From AdWeek:

It is fortuitous that the Super Bowl falls on Groundhog Day. Yet it seems as though only one brand, Jeep, has taken advantage of that fact so far, with Bill Murray reprising his role as Phil Connors, the Pittsburgh weather reporter who relives the same day over and over in Punxsutawney, Pa.

The 60-second Super Bowl ad, done by Chicago-based agency Highdive, reprises the classic 1993 film Groundhog Day. And while a younger generation may not necessarily know the movie, it’s an easy gag to understand. Of course, Murray is an outsized cultural icon, and the fact that the brand is using real characters from the film (Brian Doyle-Murray and Stephen Tobolowsky also appear in their original roles) makes the spot very strong.

Read article

Podcast Interviews: Travel & Style Magazine “Cereal” Editor Rosa Park

The Modern House podcast logoRosa Park is founding editor of Cereal, which is dedicated to thoughtful travel and lifestyle stories and known for its pared-back aesthetic. Here she reveals her love of Bath’s sandstone buildings, the unique style of her family home – and why you’d better not call her a minimalist.

Our guest for the first episode is Rosa Park, founding editor of Cereal magazine, a biannual publication dedicated to thoughtful travel and lifestyle stories and known for its pared-back aesthetic. Rosa was born in Seoul, grew up between Korea and Canada, studied in Boston and worked in New York before settling in Bath, Somerset, where she now presides over the magazine, a series of travel guides and her latest venture, art gallery Francis.

Cereal Magazine

Cereal Magazine content

Tune in to hear Rosa talk about how she got Cereal off the ground, why beige is her favourite colour and why she doesn’t define home as being about a place. Plus, hear why Rosa’s picked Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, Vincent Van Duysen’s home in Antwerp and her parents’ home in Seoul as her top three picks.

Website

 

Podcast Interviews: “DOG” Magazine Editors Julian Victoria and Emily Rogers

Monocle 24 The Stack logoMonocle 24 “The Stack” speaks to Julian Victoria and Emily Rogers, the duo behind ‘Dog’ magazine.

DOG is a modern lifestyle magazine exploring the presence and influence of dogs and their owners in society. Each issue centres on a specific breed and theme and explores the meaningful interactions between individuals and their dogs through photographic portfolios, interviews and personal essays.

Dog Magazine Instagram photos

Visual, poetic, current and innovative, DOG offers original content and a new perspective on what it means to be a dog lover and owner. Content for DOG comes from a variety of creative sources, including emerging and established photographers, designers, illustrators, writers and visual artists.

Website

New Branded Short Films: “Duality”, Written And Directed By Joe Sill (2020)

Written & Directed by: Joe Sill

Starring: Matteo Aluisi, Dante Spencer, Shahanna Jaffer, Naiya Singh Padilla, Mona Sishodia, Iyad Hajjaj, Zoya Yaseka, Meghan Alexander, Jon Komp Shim, Darren Kendrick
Client: HITACHI

Original music was done by electronic music duo Gramatik & Luxas.

Duality Cinematic Poem Short Film For Hitachi Directed by Joe Sill 2020

“We are wanderers
Exploring our world
As travelers without a map.

And our artificial intelligences
Have long gazed deep into our world.”

Two A.I.’s — one older generation and one newer — wander through a looking-glass of a limbo world, gazing at humanity’s past and present in search of humans who might carry the torch into humanity’s future — and give what knowledge they can, in hopes that we may one day solve the problems we’ll face in the future.

This is a branded short film for the Japanese technologies company, HITACHI, where the company was seeking to find a way to tell an emotional story about the many crises we face as a human race, and our relationship to artificial intelligence. It was a unique situation where a technologies company sought to craft an abstract, art-driven and hypothetical film as a vessel to spread an important message to anybody developing artificial intelligence: that we must do so quickly and with a moral compass, in hopes that one day AI will be advanced enough and driven by empathy to help human beings solve potential crises together… as AI, being one of our greatest creations, may be the essential factor in ensuring the survival of the human race.

Duality Cinematic Poem Short Film For Hitachi Directed by Joe Sill 2020

Production Company: SIOUXX
Executive Producers: Andreas Neumann, Khadija Donatelli
Creative Directors: Ken Hanada, Andreas Neumann
Producer: Michael Rodriguez Dueñas
Copywriter: Benjamin McAllister
Futurist: Julian Scaff
Production Supervisor: Jake Brown
Production Coordinator: Pure Brisbon
First Assistant Director: Adam Zimmer
Second Assistant Director: Luther Sartor

Director of Photography: Nico Aguilar
First Assistant Camera: Connor Lambert
Second Assistant Camera: Nick Vannatta
DIT: John Goodner

Duality Cinematic Poem Short Film For Hitachi Directed by Joe Sill 2020

Website

Super Bowl Ads: Planters To Kill Off 114-Year Old “Mr. Peanut” (1916 – 2020)

From an AdWeek online article:

AdWeek logo“It’s with heavy hearts that we confirm Mr. Peanut has passed away at 104 years old,” said Samantha Hess, brand manager for Planters, in a statement. “He will be remembered as the Mr. Peanut in 1950'slegume who always brought people together for nutty adventures and a good time. We encourage fans to tune in to Mr. Peanut’s funeral during the third quarter of the Super Bowl to celebrate his life.”

In a shocking move, Planters, the Kraft-Heinz-owned snack brand, has killed off its iconic mascot in a teaser for its Big Game spot. Mr. Peanut’s untimely demise began with a Nutmobile crash, followed by falling off a cliff and ending in an explosion.

In the 30-second teaser, Mr. Peanut is driving his signature Nutmobile around a winding cliff with actors Matt Walsh (Veep) and Wesley Snipes in the front and back seat, respectively. Walsh spots an armadillo in the road, and Mr. Peanut swerves—right off the cliff.

Read full article

New Documentaries: “Ali & Cavett: The Tale Of The Tapes” On HBO (Trailer)

Eye-opening documentary explores the life of boxing legend Muhammad Ali through the lens of his many appearances on Dick Cavett’s iconic, long-running talk show. Ali & Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes premieres Feb. 11 at 9pm on HBO.