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letterboxd · 3 years

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Truffle Hunter.

As Pig snuffles its way up Letterboxd’s best of 2021 ranks, Mitchell Beaupre hunts down writer-director Michael Sarnoski for a chat about some of the finer creative points of his Nicolas Cage-starring meditation on cookery and grief.

In a time when audiences know too many specific plot details of films months before they’re even released, the idea of a surprise sensation feels like a fleeting memory. Yet that’s exactly how one could describe Pig, the debut feature from director Michael Sarnoski. With minimal pre-release buzz and no flashy festival premiere, Pig is a film whose status has been created through sheer quality alone.

This is a true word-of-mouth smash, hailed by critics as one of the best films of the year, as well as quickly earning itself a high placement on our Top 50 of 2021. Jacob Knight praises the film as “an existential rumination regarding how people find meaning in a mostly meaningless world”, while Muriel declares it “the most unexpectedly wholesome movie I’ve seen in forever”. Not bad for a first feature.

Written by Sarnoski, from a story he developed with co-producer Vanessa Block, Pig opens on Rob (Nicolas Cage), a loner isolated in the woods with his truffle pig. Rob makes his living selling truffles to the eager and ambitious Amir (Alex Wolff), but when two people break into Rob’s home and steal his animal companion, he must do whatever it takes to be reunited with his only friend.

A rough day deserves a decent vin rouge.

While that setup led many to give Sarnoski’s film the moniker “John Wick with a pig” when the trailer dropped, the story ends up charting a course away from genre thrills and towards something else entirely. Pig is an exploration of grief, loneliness and compassion, featuring one of the finest performances of Nicolas Cage’s illustrious career.

Raised in Milwaukee, Sarnoski and co-producer Block met in college before working together on the documentary short The Testimony, which focused on the largest rape tribunal in the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That film made it onto the shortlist for the 2016 Oscars, putting the two of them on a path that would lead to their breakthrough opportunity with Pig.

Sarnoski spoke with us about the origins of Pig, the long-term impacts of loss in his own life, the joy of hand-cranked pasta and Bruce Springsteen.

Congratulations on the film! How has it felt seeing this outpouring of love coming for your first feature? Michael Sarnoski: It’s been amazing. Everyone who made this movie felt for themselves that it was special, and we all put a lot of care into it. We also knew that it was a risk, a strange film we figured would hit right for some people, but then plenty of others would think it was boring and weird. We’ve been very pleasantly surprised that it’s a small minority of people who feel that way.

What was the seed of the story that would eventually sprout to become Pig? I had this image in my head of an old man in the woods with his truffle pig. There was something sweet and tragic about that. Then I began asking questions about who this guy is and why he’s out there alone in the woods. What’s his backstory? It all evolved from there.

While the first act inhabits that “John Wick with a pig” space that people were perhaps expecting from the trailer, the story then takes a swerve and becomes a somber, thoughtful character study. Could you speak about navigating that unique arc with your storytelling? We never set out to try and subvert that John Wick sort of genre. We knew that we were playing with that lone-cowboy idea of a film and some of those tropes, but we never wanted to poke fun at that or switch people’s expectations in some sense by choosing Nic to star. We never wanted to “surprise” people by making a quiet Nic Cage movie. It was always just about these characters, what this story is, what we’re trying to explore. I think if we had tried to be subversive it would have come off as hokey.

Silence plays a key part in the film, as so much is being said in those spaces between the dialogue and action. How did you want to utilize the impact of saying more with silence? From early on, we always knew it was going to be a very silent film, and that followed all the way through the edit. Some of us wanted that opening to start out the way it’s done in the movie, where it’s totally silent and the music only comes in at the very end, while others were worried that people would get bored with it. The argument against that was that if they’re going to get bored with that, then they’re going to get bored with the rest of the movie. So, we might as well just lean into it, and let them know what it’s going to be.

From there we gauged how we wanted to approach the silence throughout. There’s some beautiful music in the film that Alexis Grapsas and Philip Klein did an incredible job with that allowed us to bring this beauty and splendor into the scenes. But there were also a lot of really quiet moments where we wanted the audience to be focused on the faces of the characters, and really be feeling the space and letting the sounds of the forest, or wherever we were, come across.

Nicolas Cage, his knife skills, and cinematographer Patrick Scola.

Along with the faces, you focus a lot on hands in the film. Whether it’s in scenes of violence or making food, there’s a real emphasis on what hands are capable of. Where did the inspiration for that come from? Nic was very into the idea of conveying artistry through your hands. He spent a lot of time with local chefs to try and get the vibe of how they moved and how they worked. He was always practicing knife skills in his room. I was constantly waiting for the AD to come up and tell me that we can’t use Nic today because he cut off a finger, but thankfully that never happened. Nic really sold that emphasis on the hands. Those shots could have felt empty if it wasn’t for him. I still am surprised watching some of the little hand choices he made.

I remember there was one shot where we didn’t get it on the day. So, we set it up with his stand-in, and just had him wearing his gloves. We all watched it, and it just wasn’t the same. Nic agreed, and so we reset the entire thing just to get that one shot with his hands in there instead. It was totally worth it. He’s an incredible actor, and it comes through every part of him.

Cage is an actor with an almost otherworldly mythos about him, which allows people to sometimes forget what a tremendous performer he’s always been. What was your experience in building a relationship with him, not just as an actor, but also as a human being? I only have positive things to say. That’s not just a gimmick. From the moment he read the script, he was interested, and he really responded to the character. He was committed to bringing the script to life, and was extremely respectful towards everyone on set. He had no reason to respect me. I’m a first-time director. He could have been a total diva. He could have been whatever he wanted to be, and we still would have paid him and been happy with his performance.

He was very kind, and maybe some of this came from the character, but he was also kind of somber and quiet in general on set. At the same time, he can also be very playful and sweet, even though he was trying to remain in the mood of the character. He set the tone, in a way, for the whole crew. A crew could easily look at a first time director and decide to just slack off and scrape by, because I wouldn’t have even known the difference. The fact that Nic treated me and the material with such respect really trickled down, and was so valuable to the film.

We shot the whole thing in twenty days, so if there had been any weak link with someone not doing their job or not being totally on top of it, we would have been screwed. I credit a lot of that to Nic, and him treating this with an incredible amount of professionalism. I think that’s where a big part of his long career comes from. He’s an incredible actor, but he also takes the art form seriously, treating it as both an artist and as this being his job, knowing that you have to do both in order to get what you need across.

Do you have a favorite Nicolas Cage performance? Other than Pig, of course. There are so many incredible ones. I really love Moonstruck. I saw that a couple of years ago, right before we officially cast him, when I was going through some of his ones that I hadn’t seen. Part of it I think is because I’m half-Italian, and I felt like it was showing me a side of my life that I never realized because my Italian family is on the east coast, and we moved out to Wisconsin when I was very young. I never got to be a part of that kind of thick Italian family, and seeing that on screen gave me a taste of what that would have been like. I loved him in that role. He was the perfect balance of sincere and sentimental, and also over the top when he needed to be.

Grub’s up.

Speaking of being Italian, Pig gets deep into the transformative power of food, and of the right meal. Has food always been an important part of your life? Definitely. I’ve never worked in restaurants. The closest thing was when I worked at a snack bar at a summer camp, which was very fun and also kind of a nightmare in its own way. I think most of the importance of food for me came from when my grandma lived with us. It was after my dad passed away, when I was a little kid, and she became this sort of old Italian cook in the house who was using food as this language of love and also as a sort of control. It had a lot wrapped up in it, this sense that we’re going to have family dinners to prove that everything is fine.

I think any Italian family is that way, but especially in that situation, having that presence come into the house when I was a kid, it made food quite charged for me. It was both a form of bonding and love, but also that control. That was very important to me. As I got older she taught me how to cook some things, and I became interested in that. I had a lot of friends who were great cooks and taught me how to do different things. I’m not an amazing cook, but I love cooking.

I love that act of making something that’s about to disappear. I think if you can be okay with that, and put a lot of time and care into that, it’s kind of a therapeutic thing to do. Accepting transience is a big part of cooking.

What’s your favorite dish to cook? I would say over the pandemic I really got into making lasagne. I had my grandma’s old hand-crank pasta maker, so I was enjoying making my own pasta and lasagne with that. I don’t know if I could pick one favorite dish, but that is definitely one that contributed quite a bit to putting on the Covid pounds.

Rob (Cage) and Amir (Alex Wolff) discuss their business relationship.

There’s a scene in the film where Rob and Amir go to a restaurant and Rob has a conversation with the chef there, who used to work for him, about the idea of losing our sense of identity when we give up on our dreams in order to fill this role that society expects of us. Is that something that you personally connected with? Yeah, people ask me a lot about what I think of the high-end cuisine world, and I have to say that I wasn’t trying to solely express that this world is garbage and phony. I was looking at it as another kind of art form. Any time you have an art form that combines someone’s personal passion with some sort of economy there are going to be conflicts to navigate. Whether you’re a painter, director, writer, whatever, those are going to be things you have to juggle. How true to yourself are you going to stay?

For myself, I’ve definitely found that when I try to focus on doing something that I care about, that’s kind of all I have control over and that’s what I should focus on. Pig was that for me. This isn’t the kind of script that you write where you’re expecting a big payday. It’s this weird movie that for some reason really means something to me.

The scene climaxes with Rob saying the line, “We don’t get a lot of things to really care about”. What about this movie exemplifies the things that you really care about in your life? It’s so many things, and even more things came from going through the process of actually making it and falling in love with Portland. It’s become even more than what it was initially intended to be. I mentioned earlier that my dad passed away when I was a kid, and the most personal aspect of the film for me was exploring that idea of what grief does to us long-term.

As I’ve gotten older I’ve been watching how my family members changed the way they interact with the world and built their perception of the world around some aspect of grief. It’s not those immediate effects of shock or sadness. It’s how those things ingrain into your worldview. I became much more conscious of how I was doing that in my own life. That was the deepest, most general thing that I was bringing to it, and that I was exploring personally through the film.

As far as specific things that I care about, I think I have all the classic things. I care about my family, and my friends. I care about the world, which is why this year has been so devastating. I don’t have one single pig. I think we all have a few different pigs in our lives.

Director Michael Sarnoski on the set of ‘Pig’.

Another scene that really stands out is the one in which Rob returns to his old home and sits with this young boy, having a conversation about a persimmon tree that used to be there. Talk to me about the significance of that moment for Rob. One of the things I love about that scene is that it seems so simple, kind of quiet and basic, but it’s getting into a lot of different things. I will say one thing about that scene. That was the first scene that we shot on the first day of filming. That kid was great, but filming with a child on your first day of your first feature was very much a moment of wondering what I had gotten myself into.

That scene does a few things. I won’t get into spoiler territory, but for starters he’s going back to his old house, so it’s his first attempt to really look at his past in the face, and to acknowledge that. I like that in that moment this is also one of the first times that we hear him speak romantically of food, because those things are very tethered to each other.

We get both the sense that there was a past, a personal path that he left behind, but intricately involved in that was how he interacted with food and his art. It’s the first time that we hear him acknowledge who he was in a way that’s okay. He tells the kid his name, and he’s acknowledging his identity that he’s been trying to hide from or ignore. Through doing that, it’s engaging with his passions and how that tethers everything together. I also thought it was cute explaining what persimmons were to a little kid.

I’ve got to ask you about the use of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘I’m On Fire’ in a very meaningful moment. What made that the perfect song choice for that scene? Obviously, who’s singing it is very meaningful. I liked that song, though, because it’s different from the sappy direction we could have gone with that moment. There’s something very passionate about ‘I’m On Fire’, of course, and it’s a pretty sexual song. It’s really charged, but it also has this kind of ethereal quality to it that’s seductive in a non-sexual way. It washes over you, and it feels very mystical. This sounds so “film talk”-y, but I liked that meeting of that transcendent, abstract feeling with that immediate sense of passion and love and obsession.

Finally, what’s the film that made you want to become a filmmaker? Probably Sam Raimi, his first Spider-Man movie. That was the first time I realized what directors do. I had a very strong association with Spider-Man growing up as a comic-book fan, and I was seeing how someone was filtering their own understanding of this character. Raimi coming from his horror background and being into the nitty gritty filmmaking with practical effects and everything, I got this understanding of how a director touches a film and shapes it.

Related content

Steve’s list of pigs in film

Melissa’s list of films featuring food, chefs, bakers, restaurants, cooking, hospitality, hotels, wineries, grocers

Rachel West discovers Nicolas Cage is her most-watched actor of all time

Letterboxd’s Official Top 50 of 2021—Jack Moulton’s list

Follow Mitchell on Letterboxd

‘Pig’ is currently in US cinemas via NEON, and available to buy/rent on digital.

#nicolas cage #pig #pig film #neon #neonrated #neon rated #nic cage #cooking films #cookery film #films about chefs #truffles #truffle pig #truffle hunter #letterboxd #filmmaker

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owicpub · 5 years

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I AM not amused

I AM not amused is a modern and different take on Christian entertainment. This book takes us through my story of growing up during the radical shift in media entertainment, evaluating the message in entertainment from the mouths of the creators, and then dive into the Bible to see how we should respond.

[Links and Details]

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 2

Writing the Ballads

If a man were permitted to make all the ballads he need not care who should make the laws of a nation – Andrew Fletcher

As we venture through our examination of media entertainment, it is important to consider what the artists themselves say about their creations. It seems media’s proponents and opponents always cross words, both making specific claims about the entertainment they produce. Truly, what is the intended meaning behind a song, a movie, or a game? Do artists really just create entertainment for creation’s sake? We cannot rule out some art is constructed to teach or promote a concept or a lifestyle. Education was the intention behind the after school HBO presentation, The Truth about Alex, and another program by CBS titled What if I’m Gay? Both of these presentations were produced as after school specials to entertain but also to teach kids about homosexuality as merely another lifestyle choice. While our modern culture routinely discusses homosexuality, the 1980’s media landscape generally treated the topic as taboo. Like all social agendas, artists broke into media to influence the audience’s mind, which slowly becomes law. To that end, the next two chapters will examine how media affects us and what the modern artists intend to teach the consumers through their art, whether present or absent from the life of Christ. With the popular artist’s influence established, we will determine what they intend to teach us and what lifestyle has resulted from their beliefs.

Early World Entertainment

On the seventh day of creation, God rested, and the command to observe the Sabbath was included in the ten commandments to reflect the general principle of rest from a hard week’s work. The exact purpose of the Sabbath is not entirely clear. It could have been a day to set aside for the complete worship of God, or it could have been a day set aside to merely rest. Because the entire Israelite social system was theocratic and Paul declared Jesus the fulfillment of the Sabbath rest, its observance was no longer commanded according to a few separate verses from Pauline writings (Romans 14:5, Colossians 2:16). I will simply suggest our rest is a matter of the conscience and I will leave the discussion of the Sabbath intent to others. With that, however, we are free to engage in entertainment to the extent God is honored by what we do.

We know that the root of the Olympics was born from the sports-like competitions used to showcase the best warriors of the ancient Greece. Gladiatorial games were spawned by the cruel Emperor Nero who turned the games from simple competitions into a bloody fight to the death. Sin had taken hold and our bloodlust spilled over into violence. The gladiatorial games finally ended when a martyr named Telemachus died in the arena in protest to Christian Rome participating in the ungodly games[i]. His death ended the gladiatorial games once and for all under Emperor Honorius, but we know what comes next for our unrestrained entertainment: either more bloody violence, uncontrolled heathen sex, or maybe a spattering of other sin.

The lost city of Pompeii was discovered in the mid 1700’s and the archaeological excavation continues today. The archaeologists revealed a culture so vile the people experienced what had to be a replay of Sodom and Gomorrah. Curiously, another town, Herculaneum, was also destroyed by the same volcano, Mount Vesuvius, in AD 79. The still available artwork inscribed on the statues, pillars, and walls in these towns depict a city totally saturated in sex and perversion. I am not about to suggest all natural disasters in our world are God’s specific judgment, but perhaps artwork from the valley of salt would yield similar imagery before the sulfur fell from the skies, and perhaps God acted in this manner to destroy a city so vile a message would ring through to the young expanding church: beware of resting too comfortably, a lesson Israel failed to learn time and again through the historical period of the judges. About the great city of Pompeii, the artist Bastille wrote[ii]:

Oh where do we begin? The rubble or our sins?

This artist asks a reasonable question which we must ask ourselves. Though our world is mostly not in total rubble, the sin of the culture is leaving a rubble of wrecked lives, ruined marriages, fatherless children, and drug and alcohol abuse. Do we start with our rubble or our sin? That is the core of what we are trying to answer in this book.

Pleasure is entertainment’s destination, and research has shown the more affluent a culture becomes, the greater the people seek both pleasure and entertainment. Since all means of entertainment is from the hearts of the people that produce it, it is not any wonder that their heart comes out in the art they produce. C.S. Lewis wrote the great series The Chronicles of Narnia. Though people frequently say that he wrote it to portray the sacrifice and redemption of Christ, that is simply not true. C.S. Lewis spoke many times on the subject and made it very clear he was merely writing in-depth children’s stories during a time it was assumed people did not want to read fanciful tales (an aspect he made light of in Eustace’s family in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader). He says that the Christ-like imagery merely came out of his heart because defending Christianity was one of the ultimate callings in his writing. But some hearts are full of evil. During the creative process, the evil present in an artist’s heart will spill out into the books, games, and productions they create and the end result will be a work that is not wonderful or beautiful, but twisted and evil. Such was the case of the Golden Compass series. The author, Philip Pullman, is an outspoken atheist. His childrens’ story depicted an enemy who was none other than God Himself. Such was the outpouring of his heart. In light of this, one Christian commentator of the entertainment industry revealed that for the most part, the writers, directors, and producers in Hollywood are generally not church-going people, and do not typically regard God or His word. Let us not be mistaken, if these are the people that are writing the shows we watch, let us not presume their views on life will not impact our own worldview. My message is clear: be careful what you watch on your television, do on your computer, or listen to in your personal time while secluding yourself through headphones.

Considering some artists teach out of intention and others teach out of the overflow in their hearts, we are led to a discussion of ethics. Most college programs now require students to take ethics courses. I was a graduate student studying biological sciences and our ethics course was intended to teach about what is right and wrong in scientific studies. Of course, the typical university preaches there is no absolute truth, so how can we possibly define what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong’ in a college ethics course? This is not a moot point because when the ground was broken for the USC film school, the attendants were Steven Spielberg, George Lucus, Irvin Kershner, and Randal Kleiser. In the article about the event, Lucas gave this ominous observation of the position of film in our modern age:

Film and visual entertainment are a pervasively important part of our culture, an extremely significant influence on the way our society operates. People in the film industry don’t want to accept the responsibility that they had a hand in the way the world is loused up. But, for better or worse, the influence of the church, which used to be all-powerful, has been usurped by film. Films and television tell us the way we connect our lives, what is right and wrong.[iii]

From one of the top directors of that time, and even still currently after three decades, Lucas reminds us that film and television do impact our lifestyle and thought. He even acknowledges movies and television impact us more than the church, for better or for worse. For this reason, Lucas goes on:

It’s important that the people who make films have ethics classes, philosophy classes, history classes. Otherwise we are witch doctors.[iv]

It is interesting Lucas wants to talk about ethics. According to Webster, ethics is the area of study dealing with moral right and wrong. From sciences to business, to human and animal studies, universities that proclaim there is no moral right and wrong want to teach their students about what is right and wrong! Chip Ingram deals with this problem in his message on Whatever happened to Right and Wrong?[v] He says that everyone agrees we need ethics, but no one can agree on whose ethics we adopt. I agree. My ethics, my moral rights and wrongs, are defined by God’s character as expressed in His Word. Other people say we should let our internal compass and feelings define what is right ‘for us’. This was the message in an interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono who helped to spread the mantra of existentialism, which is basically the ‘do your own thing’ philosophy. Ravi Zaccharius, however, observes that some cultures want to eat with their neighbors while other cultures want to eat their neighbors…do we have a preference? Yes, ethics are important, but unless those ethics are grounded in truth, they may be little more than lip service. We will continue a discussion of Christian ethics in chapter 4, for now, ethics aside, we want to see what the artists and producers want to teach us about the influence of art, and also what they want to teach us through their art.

The Method of Impact

The documentary Decadence: Decline of the Western World explores the steady decline of the Judeo-Christian culture that has dominated the western world for over 300 years. The description of the film on IMDB declares: The West consumes without consequence, loves without longevity and lives without meaning[vi]. The latter part of the film discusses media and religion. The narrator gives a prophetic summation about how our consumer lives are influenced by the media:

We watch helplessly as our sons and daughters, mesmerized by pop-idols and Hollywood’s cut-glass heroes, advertise for sex first and then maybe a relationship which soon enough reaches for the headache pill.

About two decades before Dunn wrote this prophetic statement, Alan Bloom wrote similar projections in the book, The Closing of the American Mind:

Picture a thirteen-year-old boy sitting in the living room of his family home doing his math assignment while wearing his Walkman headphones or watching MTV. He enjoys the liberties hard won over centuries by the alliance of philosophic genius and political heroism, consecrated by the blood of martyrs; he is provided with comfort and leisure by the most productive economy ever known to mankind; science has penetrated the secrets of nature in order to provide him with the marvelous, lifelike electronic sound and image reproduction he is enjoying. And in what does progress culminate? A pubescent child whose body throbs with orgasmic rhythms; whose feelings are made articulate in hymns to the joys of onanism or the killing of parents; whose ambition is to win fame and wealth in imitating the drag-queen who makes the music. In short, life is made into a nonstop, commercially prepackaged masturbational fantasy.[vii]

How did we arrive at such a place where our freedoms lead us only to perversion? To examine how our culture slipped to this extreme is not an easy task and entire books have been written on the topic. I only hope to summarize some of the debate with the sheer intention of whetting your appetite to search for better personal conclusions on the matter. Examine everything carefully.

Musicians, film producers, video game programmers all agree their respective art affects us. But as George Lucas notes in the above quote, they do not want to admit they have any role in how bad the world is, but most want to declare that art makes the world a better place. It is true, from the Christian pop-artists to the thrash-metal bands, from the shamanistic styling of the Grateful Dead to the unique brand that is Frank Zappa, musicians, neurologists, and everyone else who looks casually at the facts will honestly agree: music greatly affects our disposition. Research is starting to mount that other forms of media entertainment also take hold on us, teaching us, forming us. Rand Salzman said it best: “Viewers simply cannot help but be ‘rippled’ by the emotional gut-wrenching influence of huge moving color images backed by stereo sound.[viii]” The question remains is whether this emotional, gut-wrenching influence is a good influence or a bad influence on the consumers of such entertainment.

Some may argue the influence is negative. When school shootings and other violent acts are perpetrated by youth, some people are fast to point the finger at the violent songs, games, or movies often consumed by these kids. Such blaming is an oversimplification, however, on the other hand, many will suggest that their favorite music has no impact on their worldview; they merely ‘like the beat’. That, too, is an oversimplification. The delivery as media is actually neutral, like money. The point of agreement among those with a positive view and those with a negative view is that music can affect the way we live, it can give us something to relate to, something by which to blow off steam, or something by which to teach us about our world.

During the initial influx of film into the American culture, it was very clear that the entertainment industry was going to change the way people lived their lives. During the 1920’s, a series of morally questionable films, the murder of William Taylor, and a Hollywood rape prompted the proposal of several laws to place regulations on the film industry. Will Hays was appointed to produce a conduct guide for Hollywood film producers, a guide that became known as the Hays Code. The document begins by saying:

If motion pictures consistently held up high types of character, presented stories that would affect lives for the better, they could become the greatest natural force for the improvement of mankind.[ix]

The introduction to the document continues on to say entertainment and art are important influences in the life of a nation, thus the film entertainment is “directly responsible for spiritual or moral progress, for higher types of social life, and for much correct thinking.” The code guided and directed the moral content of the film industry for over forty years, but some people whom did not agree with the code or the morality it proposed pushed the boundaries so far as to force the document into the ancient and out-dated relics of the American entertainment industry. The code was later replaced with the current rating system which will be discussed in more detail in chapter 8 of this book.

During these early years of film production and with consideration of the Hays Code, the realization that film does impact the moral disposition of its viewers, Warner Brothers adopted the slogan, “Good Citizenship with Good Picture Making”. In the early years, the film company did focus on morally good films, but the steady decay began to erode the message and while to this day the company has an entire affiliated website dedicated to good citizenship, that may be exclusive lip service from the company that brought us such morally bankrupt films as Natural Born Killers. In all, despite the clear evidence film does morally direct the society, the film industry merely produces what we pay to see.

The power of film transcends beyond simple moral messages, and music can direct the listeners to the intended message the artist seeks to teach. With a full-on media campaign, anyone can convince even the most studious people to change their ways and adopt a belief system for which they generally do not believe. This was very clear by governments who started to use the power of film to change the minds and beliefs of its citizens into their own ideals. Although many people will point to the Russian (Alexander Nevsky) and German films (Triumph of the Will) that were used to turn the citizens of those countries into what amounted to war criminals in the reigns of Stalin and Hitler, the Italians and the United States were also among those using film for propaganda. Gerald Nye, a Republican senator from North Dakota, declared in a congressional meeting:

When you go to the movies, you go there to be entertained…and then the picture starts-goes to work on you, all done by trained actors, full of drama, cunningly devised…Before you know where you are, you have actually listened to a speech designed to make you believe that Hitler is going to get you.

Nye was attempting to make the point that Hollywood was being transformed into a propaganda machine for war-mongering to change the American people’s stance on World War II. Nye was against the Hollywood propaganda machine, but the President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, considered it necessary. In 1939 Nazi Germany was producing propaganda in a full-fledge media campaign to garner support for the Nazis under Joseph Goebbels. Roosevelt responded with using American film to sustain morale and according to Nancy Snow, Hollywood now acquired a prominent place in the battle for men’s minds[x]. 1940 saw the creation of the Motion Picture Committee Cooperating for National Defense, the industry-wide organization that would produce military training films and patriotic films for the American people in order to gain support for a war effort that many Americans were not sure merited participation. The government only unofficially supported this effort, though after the entrance into World War II, FDR created a specific division in the government to inform Hollywood producers on ways to portray any manner of political matters from war and foreign policy to domestic affairs. Though it is unclear whether this direct influence is still enacted, officially, in 1949 an appropriations act restricted the use of public funds for “publicity and propaganda.[xi]” Regardless of this act, film plays a large part in unifying the ideals in the people whom consume media.

Though we hear very little about it today, marketing itself is propaganda. Companies pay millions to place their products in movies, and in America today government-paid advertising on health care, political parties, food, defense, and social services can be observed daily on television and displayed as Internet advertising. Even the enemies of the United States use propaganda in order to garner support for their cause. Suicide bombers for Al Qaeda and likely also ISIS are recruited by viewing the successful explosions of other martyrs and hearing the praise for the perpetrator and seeing the community celebritizing the remaining family, showering them in riches. Such films and rallies gain support for the cause of suicide bombings and acquire willing people to carry out the acts[xii]. Whether we are seeing a commercial for the latest laundry detergent or seeing a new spin on a political agenda, we are better off acting on our mind’s sound logic rather than by the seductive, humorous, or emotionally appealing commercials.

Beyond propaganda, modern entertainment including movies, music, and video games desire to teach the consumers. The writers and producers want to convey a worldview or question the audience’s presuppositions. This is not just a modern trend that cropped up in the last decade. As early as the 1920s, research was commenced to determine the influence movies exert over youth. The results of the studies determined teenagers learned how to dress, how to behave socially, and how to think about the world though film. Some movies, such as The Crying Game sought to question erotic love between same gender adults and For a Lost Soldier examined homosexuality in adult-child relationships. Both films were released in 1992, though the latter was a foreign film. These productions were very intentional in how they made the viewer question their presuppositions. Most movies have just as great an impact in a passive way like the manner in which dirty uncle Eddy can influence the kids into uncouth manners.

Taken together, these observations indicate media entertainment, in any form, can certainly convey a message to those who consume the art. The message is not entirely bad or entirely good. The creators and producers of the art cannot choose to positively impact the consumer because they wish to deny the negative consequences of bad media, but neither can someone decide a certain song or movie contains all negative impact based solely on the beat or the reputation of the band. All these taken together, we will consider next some special considerations surrounding music and video games and their role in impacting the consumers.

Music and Sound

Music is all around us. While some want to dismiss music as a harmless pastime, most artists defend the positive impact of music in the world, though as Lucas admits, they do not want to admit the negative impacts. Even the MTV producers know about the impact that music can have on the listeners. One executive for the station said:

Music tends to be a predictor of behavior and social values. You tell me the music people like and I’ll tell you their views on abortion, whether we should increase our military arms, [and] what their sense of humor is like.[xiii]

Likewise, Michael Greene, the former president of the Grammy Music Awards, said in his 2000 speech:

Music is a magical gift which we must nourish and cultivate in our children, especially now as scientific evidence proves that an education which includes the arts makes a better math and science student, enhances special intelligence in newborns, and let’s not forget that the arts are a compelling solution to teen violence, they are certainly not the cause of it.[xiv]

Notice how Greene defends music as making students better at math and science, though those studies were conducted using classical music including Mozart and Beethoven, not the music the Grammy’s generally support or award. He talks about music’s impact in the newborn, and simply dismisses the clear impact it can have in rebellion of the listener. But his 2001 speech embraces the rebellion behind music:

People are mad! And people are talking and that is a good thing, because it is through dialog and debate that social discovery and progress can occur. Listen, music has always been the voice of rebellion, it’s a mirror of our culture, sometimes reflecting a dark and disturbing underbelly, obscured from the view of most people of privilege…We cannot edit out the art that is uncomfortable. Remember, that is what our parents tried to do to Elvis, the [Rolling] Stones, and the Beatles.[xv]

Greene discusses a very true point, and it is one point that I am attempting to make in this book:

Most of the adults who pass judgment have never listened to, or more to the point, have never even engaged their kids about the object of their contempt [the music]. This is not to say that there is not a lot of fear in this violence driven society of ours.[xvi]

I agree with Greene on this final point, but he does not go far enough. It is not a matter that we just need to look at the media our kids are consuming; we need to look at the media we are consuming because our kids model our own behavior before they will live out our instruction. We cannot blame music or movies entirely for the cultural decay Greene clearly admits, but we are foolish to think watching violent, sexual films or listening to violent, sexual music is just a meaningless distraction, since we already believe music alters our mental and emotional state. We must find a balance and consider that art does teach us and we will learn the messages they espouse whether we want to or not.

Michael Greene is not the only professional in the industry to believe music can cause tremendous positive impact while denying it’s negative effect. To a degree, these people are correct. When the Columbine shooting occurred, Marilyn Manson was thrown under the bus as a major cause of the event, even though Klebold and Harris did not even like his music. Manson wrote an article in his own defense appearing in Rolling Stone magazine, and Manson does raise several great arguments. He writes:

Responsible journalists have reported with less publicity that Harris and Klebold were not Marilyn Manson fans -- that they even disliked my music. Even if they were fans, that gives them no excuse, nor does it mean that music is to blame. Did we look for James Huberty's inspiration when he gunned down people at McDonald's? What did Timothy McVeigh like to watch? What about David Koresh, Jim Jones? Do you think entertainment inspired Kip Kinkel, or should we blame the fact that his father bought him the guns he used in the Springfield, Oregon, murders?[xvii]

Manson is not alone in the camp of artists who do not like to hear their art being blamed for violence in the culture. Some people echo the sentiment of a young heavy metal fan who said, “It’s all fantasy, none of it is real, you can’t take this seriously, it’s just like a movie.[xviii]” Many artists over the years have been asked if they believe violence in music has any impact on the listeners, and their answer is generally a resounding ‘No’. But that does not stop people from trying to blame music anyway. In a commentary blog, the author identified “Six Most Idiotic Attempts to Blame Musicians for Violent Events.[xix]” The article was written on the heels of the attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson. It appears the perpetrator was a big fan of the song, Bodies Hit the Floor which the artists, Deadpool, say the song is about the moshpits in heavy metal concerts (curious how we are in a relativistic world yet the violent interpretations are not accepted). Nevertheless, the connections have been made not only to this song, but others as well.

Some arguments suggesting that music plays a role in violence can seem valid, such as the teen suicide committed when a young man placed the Ozzy Osbourne song Suicide Solution on repeat while he hanged himself. The AC/DC song Night Prowler was blamed for the Richard Ramirez murders, and serendipitously, he accidentally left his AC/DC hat at one of the murder scenes! While researching about lessons learned from school shootings, the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine researchers compiled a book depicting the warning signs and character traits of several high-profile shootings from the 1990’s and it would appear violent music lyrics did have a role in the legal cases surrounding a copycat killing a month following Columbine[xx]. These are just a few of the notable examples where music has been blamed in part for violent crimes.

Though I do not in any way suggest music is the root cause of violence and rebellion in our culture, I do not deny it may be a rather large contributing factor. I personally have listened to my fair share of horrible music including heavy metal and gangsta rap, but I for one have not gone out killing people. I do find it telling, however, that very few mass killers are not big fans of Beethoven although heavy and violent music more often than not is readily consumed by the young killers in our society.

Taken together, it is more likely music and movies reflect our nature back to us. As they become more violent, violence starts seeping out into the culture at large. So music may not cause the violence, but it is a reflection of the violence we feel inside ourselves, more of a mirror and less of a causation.

1. [i]The Last Roman "Triumph", Foxes Book of Martyrs, John Foxe, Chapter 3

2. [ii]Pompii, All This Bad Blood, 2013, Bastille, Virgin Records

3. [iii]U.S.C Breaks Ground for a Film-TV School, New York Times, November 25, 1981

4. [iv]ibid

5. [v]What Ever Happened to Right and Wrong, Chip Ingram, Living on the Edge

6. [vi]Decadence: Decline of the Western World, Pria Viswalingam, 2011, Fork Films

7. [vii]The Closing of the American Mind, Allan Bloom, 1987, Touchstone Publishing, Part 1; Music

8. [viii]The real effect of make-believe Don't let filmmakers tell you they can't shape public opinion, Atlanta Journal Constitution, May 19th, 1991 pg D1

9. [ix]Hayes Code, http://pre-code.com/the-motion-picture-production-code-of-1930/, Accessed November 11, 2018

10. [x]Confessions of a Hollywood Propagandist, Nancy Snow, https://learcenter.org/publication/warners-war-confessions-of-a-hollywood-propagandist-harry-warner-fdr-and-celluloid-persuasion/, Accessed November 11, 2018

11. [xi]Advertising by the Federal Government: An Overview, Kevin R. Kosar, Congressional Research Service

12. [xii]Cult of the Suicide Bomber, 2006, Disinformation Studios

13. [xiii]MTV is Rock Around the Clock, Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov 3, 1982

14. [xiv]2000 Michael Greene Grammy Music Awards speech, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Glq-ecgGjE, Accessed November 11, 2018

15. [xv]2001 Michael Greene Grammy Music Awards Speech, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP4vcVcydkM, Accessed November 11, 2018

16. [xvi]Ibid

17. [xvii]Columbine: Whose Fault Is It, Rolling Stone, May 28, 1999

18. [xviii]Heavy metal and violence: More than a myth?, CNN, May 12, 2008

19. [xix]Six Most Idiotic Attempts to Blame Musicians for Violent Events (or, the Tucson Tragedy was Caused by a Crazy Person, Not by Drowning Pool’s “Bodies Hit the Floor”, LA Weekly, Thursday, January 13, 2011

20. [xx]Deadly Lessons, Understanding Lethal School Violence, The National Academy Press, 2003

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comiccrusaders · 7 years

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Writer Marc Guggenheim Attached to Make the Classic Series Soar Once More!

Dynamite Entertainment is proud to share the exciting news that thanks to the overwhelming support and effort made by comic book lovers everywhere, the Swords of the Swashbucklers Kickstarter successfully attained its goal after an exciting, month-long campaign. Thanks to the more than 800 backers, Dynamite will now not only restore the beloved series, but also bring the tale back to life with all-new adventures after more than twenty-five years out of print! Legendary screenwriter, producer, comic book writer, and novelist Marc Guggenheim (X-Men Gold, The Flash, The Amazing Spider-Man) has been tapped to write the new ongoing Swords of the Swashbucklers series, which is slated to land in stores December, 2017.

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Following the success of the original Kickstarter campaign, Michael Mantlo, brother of Bill and spokesperson for the Mantlo family stated, “Earlier this year, a Kickstarter campaign was set up to fund the re-release of Bill Mantlo’s & Butch Guice’s The Swords of the Swashbucklers. By ALL accounts it was a tremendous success, and now, after more than a quarter of a century out of print (and out of sight), the epic space opera has returned in a gloriously remastered edition AND in a new series that will continue the adventures of Domino Drake and the crew of the Starshadow! The hope is that this endeavor will introduce the Mantlo/Guice masterpiece to a whole new generation of fans. On behalf of Bill Mantlo, I’d urge everyone to carry this wondrous story far into the future by signing on for the journey through the purchase of these books. Not only will you get to enjoy a magnificent tale, you will also be helping support Bill Mantlo finally being able to improve his quality of life, and having the opportunity to experience the joy of knowing just how loved and respected he is by the comic book community.”

The Swords of the Swashbucklers co-creator Butch Guice says, “I am both humbled by and extremely grateful for the tremendous outpouring of support the Swords of the SwashbucklersKickstarter launch received earlier this year, and am excited to see these characters being published again for fans old and new. My participation in telling the adventures of Raader, Domino, and the gang hold a very special place in my memory, and it is extremely gratifying to discover they are so fondly remembered by others as well. Thank you to everyone who has had a hand in putting this launch together, and thank you to the many people who have helped make this revival happen.”

Lawrence Klein, attorney for the Mantlo family added, “I wanted to be Bill Mantlo when I was a kid, a lawyer and comic book writer. I fondly remember meeting Bill and Butch at a small comic shop in NYC way back when. Now grown up, sort of, I am thrilled to work with Bill, Butch and Dynamite to do my small part and bring a great story and many new ones to the published page. It is amazing to see the continued support for these stories and especially the love for Bill. Thank you Bill and Butch for a great legacy in comics.”

Writer Marc Guggenheim said, “Swords of the Swashbucklers has long been a favorite of mine and it remains one of the great high concepts in all of comics, which is unsurprising when you consider that Bill Mantlo and Butch Guice were the creative forces behind it. I’m humbled to continue their work and looking forward to introducing this remarkable comic to a whole new audience.”

Hailing from Long Island, New York, Marc Guggenheim served as a lawyer in Boston while working part-time as a writer, until one of his earliest scripts led him out west and directly into the television and movie industry. His first television project was ABC’s The Practice, before moving on to write several television smash-hits, including Law & Order, CSI: Miami, Eli Stone, Arrow, and most recently Legends of Tomorrow. His feature film credits include 2011’s Green Lantern and 2013’s Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. After the launch of his successful career in television and film, Guggenheim decided to turn his attention to comics, and has since served as writer on many of the top comic book franchises in the industry’s history, including Aquaman, Wolverine, The Punisher, Blade, The Flash, The Amazing Spider-Man, Young X-Men, and Super Zombies. Guggenheim currently serves as executive producer on the Emmy Award-winning Netflix series, Trollhunters from Guillermo Del Toro.

“We are so proud that we were able to achieve our goal and bring attention to Bill Mantlo’s heartbreaking story, but we could not have accomplished this incredible feat without the help of our fans, backers, and all of the amazing creators we work with on a daily basis that rallied the support for one of their own,” says Nick Barrucci, CEO and Publisher of Dynamite Entertainment. “By bringing on the always incredible Marc Guggenheim to serve as writer, we can guarantee the new series will show the proper respect for Bill Mantlo’s work, while introducing an entirely new generation to the series that inspired so many of the great creators throughout the comic book industry today!”

The Swords of the Swashbucklers #1 will be solicited in Diamond Comic Distributors’ October 2017 Previews catalog, the premier source of merchandise for the comic book specialty market, and slated for release in December. Comic book fans are encouraged to reserve copies of The Swords of the Swashbucklers #1 with their local comic book retailers. The Swords of the Swashbucklers #1 will also be available for individual customer purchase through digital platforms courtesy of Comixology, Kindle, iBooks, Google Play,Dynamite Digital, iVerse, Madefire, and Dark Horse Digital.

Dynamite will begin shopping the film and television rights shortly. Dynamite is repped by Charlie Ferarro at UTA, Ford Gilmore at Illuminati Entertainment, and attorney Howard Abramson. Guggenheim is repped by WME, Ziffren Brittenham, and Cliff Roberts.

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT SET TO PUBLISH NEW THE SWORDS OF THE SWASHBUCKLERS SERIES FOLLOWING SUCCESSFUL KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN Writer Marc Guggenheim Attached to Make the Classic Series Soar Once More! Dynamite Entertainment is proud to share the exciting news that thanks to the overwhelming support and effort made by comic book lovers everywhere, the

#comics #Dynamite #Kickstarter #MARC GUGGENHEIM

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romeyramshey · 6 years

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FOR CHANGING THE NARRATIVE

When Reese Witherspoon was 17, she had already appeared in four ﬁlms. Still, she took an unlikely part-time job, as an intern in Disney’s post-production department. “I wanted to learn about editing, visual correction, and sound mixing,” she tells me 25 years later. Not long after, she worked as a production assistant on the 1995 Denzel Washington ﬁlm Devil in a Blue Dress, helping with casting, among other things.

Also: “I parked Denzel’s Porsche!” That inquisitiveness, as well as nearly three decades in front of the camera, has made Witherspoon one of Hollywood’s most astute producers. She turned Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl into a $369 million worldwide hit in 2014 (that earned Rosamund Pike an Oscar nomination) and did it again, that same year, transforming Cheryl Strayed’s best-selling memoir, Wild, into a breakout success ($52 million plus Oscar nods for Witherspoon and costar Laura Dern). Then came HBO’s Big Little Lies, executive produced with costar Nicole Kidman; the cultural bellwether about female relationships and domestic abuse, based on a novel by Liane Moriarty, swept nearly every category it was nominated in at 2017’s Emmy Awards.

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After years of hearing from studio executives that there was no market for femaledriven ﬁlms, Witherspoon had succeeded to a degree that proved a hunger was there. Her instinct for what women want is now being tested on multiple platforms through her 18-month-old storytelling company, Hello Sunshine. She and her team currently have shows in development at Hulu, NBC, and Apple TV (which has partnered on three projects, one rumored to be the biggest deal in history for a straight-to-series show), as well as a ﬁlm at TriStar/Sony Pictures. But Witherspoon is also laying the foundation for a direct-to-consumer brand, one that is already beginning to speak to women through a website, social media, YouTube and Facebook videos, audiobooks, podcasts, and newsletters—whichever platform she and Hello Sunshine execs think best honors the story being told. For all the company’s digital ambition, Hello Sunshine’s Santa Monica, California, headquarters have an old-fashioned feel.

The loftlike interior, with exposed wooden beams and pipes, is cheerfully decorated by Crate & Barrel (Witherspoon collaborates with the retailer). Vintage typewriters and hundreds of books make plain the company’s abiding passions: stories and the people who tell them. Sheets of paper with typewritten words to live by, tacked to a wall, gently rustle every time the front door opens. “I hope that you will ﬁnd some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there,” reads one, a line from Nora Ephron’s 1996 commencement address at Wellesley College. “And I also hope you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women.” Fluorescent signs at the back of the room illuminate a ﬁve-word ethos: OPTIMISM, HUMOR, CURIOSITY, HONESTy, GENEROSITY. The space—which doubles as a set for interviews—is recognizable from videos on the Hello Sunshine website. Witherspoon’s glassed-in ofﬁce is within shouting distance of her coworkers, who on a late March day sit or stand at a handful of desks or read books in armchairs. Witherspoon is wearing a navy blazer and a blue shirt with white hearts, both from Draper James, the apparel and housewares brand she launched online in 2015 as a “hey y’all!” celebration of her down-home roots. Her look is feminine, but not precious.

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Or, as her friend Kerry Washington describes it, “genteel Southern badass.” Witherspoon, in person, bears a distracting similitude to Elle Woods, the character she made famous with 2001’s Legally Blonde. Celeste Ng, whose novel Little Fires Everywhere is being adapted by Hello Sunshine for Hulu, had a similar ﬁrst reaction: “She’s bubbly and perky and scarily smart. I thought, Oh my god, it’s Elle Woods! But there’s a kinship with [Election’s] Tracy Flick, too, in that people who underestimate her learn their mistake really fast.” Wherever Witherspoon goes—Asia, Europe, Africa, South America—she is stopped by Legally Blonde fans: “I went to law school because of you,” they’ll say, or, “You helped me believe in myself.” She gets teary talking about the ﬁlm’s impact. “I didn’t even understand when I was making it that it was a bit of a modern feminist manifesto,” she says. “Seeing a woman who is interested in feminine attitudes—getting her nails done—but who is also interested in promoting herself and accomplishing things was a new idea of feminine. A lot of women related to that, and the feeling of being underestimated.” Cynics might wonder if Witherspoon’s production company was merely designed to capitalize on #MeToo’s momentum. But Hello Sunshine was founded in November 2016, nearly a year before the ﬂood of 60-plus allegations against veteran Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein exposed just how endemic and toxic the industry’s gender imbalance has been. The outpouring of ﬁrsthand accounts of sexual abuse from fellow actors encouraged Witherspoon to reveal her own multiple experiences of harassment and assault, including by a director when she was just 16. She was among the Hollywood women who organized the all-black dress code for the Golden Globes this past January as part of the Time’s Up movement. “Part of me is incredulous,” says Witherspoon of Hollywood’s quick “pivot to addressing gender disparity. “I can’t believe people are actually listening now. It’s also a relief,” she adds with a laugh, “not to have to spend the ﬁrst 15 minutes of every meeting talking about the lack of content for women. Now it’s, ‘Yeah, got it.’ ”

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At the same time, she says, “a lot of us are having to step up into leadership positions that we didn’t know we were capable of. I deﬁnitely feel that in my life.” Putting more women on screen is a Hello Sunshine mandate. But surfacing the voices of real—and diverse—women is the company’s true mission. There are many female-focused production companies, and several successful digital brands that produce social content directed at women, but no entity has yet tried to do what Witherspoon is attempting: to build a premium independent ﬁlm and TV studio within a directto-consumer, female-led brand that operates on multiple platforms. “Fortunately,” Witherspoon says, “I like proving people wrong.”

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Hello Sunshine is Witherspoon’s third production company. At 25, she had an ofﬁce and ﬁve employees to develop movies for Universal Studios. She called it Type A Films. “I had no idea what I was doing,” she says. “In four years I produced one ﬁlm, Penelope, with Christina Ricci. It was beautiful, and I loved it, but it was clear to me that I wasn’t ready to tell stories—because I didn’t know what stories I wanted to tell.” As she aged, substantial roles became harder to come by. “It was getting laughable how bad the parts were, particularly for women over 35,” says Witherspoon. “And that, of course, is when you become really interesting as a woman.” Suddenly, there were stories she wanted to tell. Witherspoon thought about partnering again with a studio to develop ﬁlms. Her husband, Jim Toth, dissuaded her. Toth is a motion picture talent agent at Creative Artists Agency, and it was apparent to him that his wife was good at reading the zeitgeist and spotting promising authors. Toth told her, “ ‘Babe, do it yourself,’ ” Witherspoon recalls. “ ‘You read more books than anyone I know.

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You know what works as well as anyone.’ ” She also wanted to “further the evolution of women’s roles,” she says, and they both knew that partnering with a studio would mean satisfying a corporate mandate. “I’d be making products they like,” she says. Witherspoon joined forces in 2012 with another producer, Bruna Papandrea. They created a company called Paciﬁc Standard, which went on to adapt two of that year’s hottest book properties, Crown Publishing Group’s Gone Girl and Alfred A. Knopf’s Wild (Strayed had personally sent an advance copy directly to Witherspoon in November 2011). Around the time that they were developing Big Little Lies, in 2014, Witherspoon began noting changes in consumer behavior. “Women weren’t going to movies,” she says. “They were streaming shows. They were on Instagram and Facebook. Digital was winning. The only way was to go where women are, instead of expecting them to come to us in theaters.” The digital imperative was underscored by her three children—Ava, 18, and Deacon, 14 (with ﬁrst husband, actor Ryan Phillippe), and 5-year-old Tennessee (with Toth, whom she married in March 2011). For them, YouTube and streaming had replaced watching network TV and going to the movies.

Rather than moaning like so many in the industry about the tyranny of tiny screens, Witherspoon became excited by the creative potential of digital platforms and the relationships forged on social media. She joined Instagram in 2013 and started to build an audience (12.8 million followers to date). Draper James—which now has four brick-and-mortar stores—allowed her to become involved with consumers in a more intimate way. “I’d never had that before. I was always behind a screen. And I’m an extrovert,” adds Witherspoon, who remains creative director and the face of the retail company. Witherspoon’s second-ever Instagram post, in May 2013, was about J. Courtney Sullivan’s novel The Engagements (“I love this book! Has anyone else read?”).

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It got a big-enough reaction that other book recommendations followed. News she posted about Paciﬁc Standard’s coming adaptations of Gone Girl and Wild gave both novels sales bumps. According to Amazon Books, Gone Girl sales tripled following the release of the ﬁrst movie trailer, then doubled during the opening weekend. Witherspoon learned that she could personally build audiences for movies long before they were released. At the same time, she was also loving the conversations she was having with other women about literature. After starting an informal Instagram-led book club in 2015, Witherspoon grew even more interested in digital community building.

Papandrea preferred to stick with ﬁlm and TV. The pair decided to dissolve Paciﬁc Standard (though they continue to partner on Big Little Lies; season 2 is due in 2019), and Witherspoon began to think about who might help her build a consumer-facing brand. If Witherspoon is the soul of Hello Sunshine, then CEO Sarah Harden, a fast-talking Australian, is the heart of the place, pumping life into the operation daily. I meet her in the company’s second ofﬁce, in Beverly Hills, where the ﬁlm and TV brainstorming happens.

Harden and Witherspoon met through Peter Chernin, who was head of 20th Century Fox when the studio produced 2005’s Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, for which Witherspoon won a Best Actress Oscar. When Chernin left the company, Witherspoon followed his career. “He is very smart,” she says, “and a good prognosticator.”

Chernin had gone on to found his own media company, the Chernin Group, and launch (with AT&T) a subsidiary called Otter Media, dedicated to acquiring and building media brands for niche audiences. One of them, Crunchyroll, is now the largest global distributor of anime. The executive overseeing Otter’s acquisitions was Harden, who helped turn digital media studio Rooster Teeth into an online mecca for gamers. “Sixty thousand people go to [the Rooster Teeth] convention in Austin every summer,” Harden says.

“I said, ‘We’ve got to ﬁnd a female equivalent.’ ” She spent four years looking at existing female-driven brands. Most “were beauty- and fashion-focused, publishing-focused. They weren’t video storytelling at their core. And video is expensive,” she adds. “It takes incisive understanding to build full-scale, proﬁtable businesses around that, and it requires creating a brand people love.” Witherspoon ﬁrst brought her idea for Hello Sunshine to Chernin in the summer of 2016. One of her criteria: “I needed to have a woman run the company,” she says.

Chernin introduced her to Harden, and by November, Otter Media was Hello Sunshine’s only external seed investor (for an amount in the “single-digit millions,” says Harden), joining Witherspoon, Toth, and investor Seth Rodsky, who was Witherspoon’s partner in founding Draper James. The investment “had nothing to do with Reese being a movie star,” says Chernin. “She’s a great entrepreneur because of her willpower. And she had a remarkably clear idea of what she wanted to build.” He also saw a potentially lucrative white space for an underserved audience.

Unlike the millennial- and coastal-focused brands that dominate the digital landscape, Witherspoon is targeting literate women across America, spanning a strikingly wide age range of 20 to 60. Hello Sunshine now has 19 employees, with 20 more likely to join by year’s end—a workforce that, yes, includes men. It’s important, Witherspoon says, that men “feel they have an opportunity to create a new reality for the world too.” Underlying everything, says Harden, is books. Witherspoon’s book club picks—and, yes, she chooses each one (helpfully, she reads fast)—were an easy way to establish the company’s tone. One of Harden’s ﬁrst moves after taking the helm of the company last June was to turn each selection into a monthly event, supported by video interviews with authors (usually conducted by Witherspoon), social posts on, say, a book’s inspiration, and giveaways—all in the service of community building.

Maintaining levity is important, says Harden: “You can go to earnest places very quickly, and Reese will say, ‘This is not funny! Nothing about this is funny!’ ” Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine, which counts upwards of 460,000 followers on Instagram, hasn’t reached Oprah book club heights (more than a million followers), but Hello Sunshine is already considered by the publishing industry to be a powerful marketing force. Two of her selections have been HarperCollins titles

#entreprenuership

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takenews-blog1 · 7 years

Text

Right here’s how Vine alternative v2 will work

New Post has been published on https://takenews.net/right-heres-how-vine-alternative-v2-will-work/

Right here’s how Vine alternative v2 will work

First, don’t name it “Vine Two”. Particulars are beginning to emerge about v2, the forthcoming video app constructed to interchange Vine by its former co-founder Dom Hofmann. TechCrunch has realized that v2 has begun reaching out to former Viners and social media star managers in hopes of building ties with some high content material creators to get suggestions and gasoline the app’s eventual launch.

Twitter acquired Vine earlier than its launch in 2013 however by no means gave the short-form video sharing app the assist it deserved. Ultimately, going through financial struggles, Twitter opted to kill off Vine, leaving customers solely with an archive of outdated movies and a Vine Digital camera app for taking pictures however not sharing new movies. Instagram is targeted on images and longer clips as much as 60-seconds, so there’s nonetheless no viable dwelling for looking punchy 6.5 second movies.

Hofmann determined to step up, and since saying a plan to construct a Vine successor in November, has been slowly trickling out plans for v2 scattered by way of the corporate’s not too long ago launched group boards and on his Twitter. “Some issues will likely be very acquainted to individuals who have used vine, however what we’re planning is equally an homage, follow-up, remake, and model new factor” he writes.

Right here’s what it is advisable to find out about v2, in an inventory we’ll maintain updating as details floor within the run-up to the launch. We final up to date on 1/24 with monetization particulars.

“Please confer with the service solely as v2 or V2” says Hofmann, although he primarily makes use of the lower-case model. He explains that Twitter nonetheless owns Vine and it’s not technically related to v2, so mainly he’s seeking to keep away from being sued. Hofmann tweeted the emblem you see above, which at first look seems very related. However be aware the lighter inexperienced, how the letters are rounded, that they don’t join, and the dearth of a drop shadow. That could possibly be sufficient for v2 to flee trademark infringement, although it’d design one thing extra refined for the launch.

A block of the brilliant inexperienced is the present app icon, http://v2.co is the corporate’s web site that at the moment hosts the boards, and it has arrange the Twitter account @v2app however nothing of benefit has been tweeted. Nonetheless, Hofmann should tread fastidiously, as he in all probability doesn’t need to struggle Twitter in a authorized battle. Even when v2 doesn’t represent infringement, Hofmann’s acquisition and employment deal from Twitter would possibly nonetheless prohibit constructing a copycat.

There’s at the moment “no agency launch date” however Hofmann notes v2 will debut “undoubtedly in 2018, hopefully when it’s heat within the northern hemisphere, so that means a Q2 Spring or Q3 Summer time 2018 launch. The app is at the moment in a “very very very restricted alpha” testing stage, and there’ll finally be each an iOS and Android model. There’s at the moment no open beta or solution to reserve usernames, although Hofmann says that stuff would possibly occur by way of the boards so customers ought to get energetic there if they need first dibs.

Movies will vary from 2 to six.5 seconds, and easily loop time and again. They are often captured along with your cellphone or uploaded out of your digicam roll — allowing clips edited in different apps or skilled software program.

Hofmann says there will likely be no coloration filters, face filters, or geo filters, so that you received’t be capable to create completely manicured selfie movies, don canine ears, or spotlight the place you’re. Prototypes have proven movies captured in vertical full-screen, and customers will be capable to flip to and from selfie mode whereas recording. Not like Vine, v2 will likely be a bit stricter about copyrighted content material and take down movies that embody main document label music or film scene if it receives a DMCA discover. On the plus aspect, whether or not by way of elective watermarks or one other answer, v2 needs to forestall folks from stealing and reposting one another’s movies.

pic.twitter.com/dH8QIWuJIi

— dom hofmann (@dhof) January 18, 2018

In v2, “on the very least, there will likely be a chronological timeline” says Hofmann. Nonetheless, there’s more likely to be an algorithmically filtered feed or ‘Well-liked’/’Discover’ web page to point out you probably the most finest and most related posts as effectively. Hofmann tweeted the thought of including a “A ‘nope’ button that permits you to form your timeline”. Meaning relatively than simply exhibiting extra of what you Like or watch, v2 can steer away from movies or artists that annoy you.

v2 will take a stricter method to moderation than Vine. Hofmann writes “It’s okay to disagree with or be essential of somebody’s work, however identify calling, facetious attitudes, or some other type of oblique harassment received’t be tolerated.” That might give the app a extra constructive vibe, assist retain content material makers, and make it a extra welcoming place to share for folks of all backgrounds over age 13. In reality, v2 will provide the power to pick out your gender pronouns.

Vine’s outdated classes

You’ll be capable to disable feedback on a per-post foundation together with different controls. v2 will likely be considerably lenient about letting your showcase hyperlinks to your different art work or social presences, with Hofmann noting “spam is the primary situation, however I promise we’re going to be so much extra open on this than instagram/fb”. The group continues to be making a call about the place to attract the road on nudity, erotica, and offensive content material. Although Hofmann writes “i personally don’t have an issue with it”, he plans to make use of a mixture of workers moderation and group flagging to maintain the app clear.

And to stoke collaboration between content material creators that v2 calls “artists”, there’s a Workforce characteristic. “A Workforce’s profile web page will record its members, and the members have the power to advertise and repost Workforce posts to their very own timeline (even with alternate captions)” Hofmann explains. The collaboration conduct, the place artists seem in and promote one another’s movies, was popularized on Vine since movies took so little time to create and plenty of artists lived shut to one another in LA. The team-ups led to a few of the app’s most inventive content material, so v2 is hoping to facilitate co-starring.

One massive downside with the unique Vine was there was no means for creators to earn cash instantly from the app. They needed to work with outdoors sponsorship companies or transfer to different apps like YouTube that paid an advert income share. With v2, Hoffman writes “I would like everybody who needs to earn cash on v2 to have that chance. There are many concepts about learn how to finest deal with that, nevertheless it’s not but time to decide.” He additionally confirmed our scoop that he’s been reaching out to content material creators for suggestions and relationships, noting that “Proper now we’re in data gathering mode, and a part of which means speaking to folks. On the boards, on Twitter, on calls, and in individual.”

v2’s Dom Hofmann

Earlier than getting critical about v2, Hofmann was engaged on Interspace, which is making some mysterious and trippy 3D/VR/AR world factor. In response as to whether he’d abandon v2, this week he wrote that “I run one other startup which is actually my ‘day job’, so i’m fairly fulfilled on that entrance. v2 is being constructed out of affection and that i’d like for each the service and my involvement with it to stay on for a very long time.”

That additionally means retaining management, relatively than handing it off to company overlords for a fast pay-day. These excited for a revival of their favourite app will likely be heartened to know Hofmann says “there are not any plans to promote v2. By no means say by no means, nevertheless it’s nowhere near consideration proper now.”

Vine’s shutdown was met with a worldwide outpouring of assist and nostalgia. However the stars that made their names on Vine shortly moved on to YouTube and Instagram, and their audiences adopted. Influencers have grown extra savvy, with a give attention to viewers dimension and monetization the place YouTube guidelines, even regardless of current modifications.

Loads of former customers and smaller Vine stars that by no means made the leap elsewhere are longing for v2. However a social media expertise supervisor advised me they’d relatively see their purchasers add 1 million subscribers on YouTube or Instagram than 5 and even 10 million on v2, as a result of nobody needs to “begin from scratch” and “Instagram and YouTube are right here to remain.” A number of social content material execs advised me that it’s all about how v2 treats creators, and that was what Hofmann and his Vine co-founders have been by no means good at.

v2 might want to recruit nice content material that may’t be discovered elsewhere, stars who ship their followers, and loads of loyal customers to outlive. v2’s rivals are a lot stronger now than when Vine launched. Gaining traction on this social app panorama is like capturing lightning in a bottle, and Hofmann should make lightning strike twice.

The most effective factor about Vine was that there have been no information hyperlinks, few boring selfies, and many creativity. It was a spot to loosen up and be entertained with infinite comedy, artwork, absurdity, and micro-storytelling. In an age the place social media is getting a bit too critical and intense, v2 may carry the enjoyment again to taking part in round in your cellphone.

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gta-5-cheats · 7 years

Text

Here’s how Vine replacement v2 will work

New Post has been published on http://secondcovers.com/heres-how-vine-replacement-v2-will-work/

Here’s how Vine replacement v2 will work

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();

First, don’t call it “Vine Two”. Details are starting to emerge about v2, the forthcoming video app built to replace Vine by its former co-founder Dom Hofmann. TechCrunch has learned that v2 has begun reaching out to former Viners and social media star managers in hopes of establishing ties with some top content creators to get feedback and fuel the app’s eventual launch.

Twitter acquired Vine before its launch in 2013 but never gave the short-form video sharing app the support it deserved. Eventually, facing economic struggles, Twitter opted to kill off Vine, leaving users only with an archive of old videos and a Vine Camera app for shooting but not sharing new videos. Instagram is focused on photos and longer clips up to 60-seconds, so there’s still no viable home for browsing punchy 6.5 second videos.

Hofmann decided to step up, and since announcing a plan to build a Vine successor in November, has been slowly trickling out plans for v2 scattered through the company’s recently launched community forums and on his Twitter. “Some things will be very familiar to people who have used vine, but what we’re planning is equally an homage, follow-up, remake, and brand new thing” he writes.

Here’s what you need to know about v2, in a list we’ll keep updating as facts surface in the run-up to the launch:

The Name

“Please refer to the service only as v2 or V2” says Hofmann, though he mainly uses the lower-case version. He explains that Twitter still owns Vine and it’s not technically associated with v2, so basically he’s looking to avoid being sued. Hofmann tweeted the logo you see above, which at first glance looks very similar. But note the lighter green, how the letters are rounded, that they don’t connect, and the lack of a drop shadow. That could be enough for v2 to escape trademark infringement, though it might design something more refined for the launch.

A block of the bright green is the current app icon, http://v2.co is the company’s website that currently hosts the forums, and it has set up the Twitter account @v2app but nothing of merit has been tweeted. Still, Hofmann will have to tread carefully, as he probably doesn’t want to fight Twitter in a legal battle. Even if v2 doesn’t constitute infringement, Hofmann’s acquisition and employment deal from Twitter might still prohibit building a copycat.

The Launch

There’s currently “no firm release date” but Hofmann notes v2 will debut “definitely in 2018, hopefully when it’s warm in the northern hemisphere, so that implies a Q2 Spring or Q3 Summer 2018 launch. The app is currently in a “very very very limited alpha” testing stage, and there will eventually be both an iOS and Android version. There’s currently no open beta or way to reserve usernames, though Hofmann says that stuff might happen through the forums so users should get active there if they want first dibs.

The Videos

Videos will range from 2 to 6.5 seconds, and smoothly loop over and over. They can be captured with your phone or uploaded from your camera roll — permitting clips edited in other apps or professional software.

Hofmann says there will be no color filters, face filters, or geo filters, so you won’t be able to create perfectly manicured selfie videos, don dog ears, or highlight where you are. Prototypes have shown videos captured in vertical full-screen, and users will be able to flip to and from selfie mode while recording. Unlike Vine, v2 will be a bit stricter about copyrighted content and take down videos that include major record label music or movie scene if it receives a DMCA notice. On the plus side, whether through optional watermarks or another solution, v2 wants to prevent people from stealing and reposting each other’s videos.

In v2, “at the very least, there will be a chronological timeline” says Hofmann. However, there’s likely to be an algorithmically filtered feed or ‘Popular’/’Explore’ page to show you the most best and most relevant posts as well. Hofmann tweeted the idea of adding a “A ‘nope’ button that lets you shape your timeline”. That means rather than just showing more of what you Like or watch, v2 can steer away from videos or artists that annoy you.

The Community

v2 will take a stricter approach to moderation than Vine. Hofmann writes “It’s okay to disagree with or be critical of someone’s work, but name calling, facetious attitudes, or any other form of indirect harassment won’t be tolerated.” That could give the app a more positive vibe, help retain content makers, and make it a more welcoming place to share for people of all backgrounds over age 13. In fact, v2 will offer the ability to select your gender pronouns.

Shop On SecondCovers

Vine’s old categories

You’ll be able to disable comments on a per-post basis along with other controls. v2 will be somewhat lenient about letting your show off links to your other artwork or social presences, with Hofmann noting “spam is the main issue, but I promise we’re going to be a lot more open on this than instagram/fb”. The team is still making a decision about where to draw the line on nudity, erotica, and offensive content. Though Hofmann writes “i personally don’t have a problem with it”, he plans to use a combination of staff moderation and community flagging to keep the app clean.

And to stoke collaboration between content creators that v2 calls “artists”, there’s a Team feature. “A Team’s profile page will list its members, and the members have the ability to promote and repost Team posts to their own timeline (even with alternate captions)” Hofmann explains. The collaboration behavior, where artists appear in and promote each other’s videos, was popularized on Vine since videos took so little time to create and many artists lived close to each other in LA. The team-ups led to some of the app’s most creative content, so v2 is hoping to facilitate co-starring.

The Founder

v2’s Dom Hofmann

Before getting serious about v2, Hofmann was working on Interspace, which is making some mysterious and trippy 3D/VR/AR world thing. In response to whether he’d abandon v2, this week he wrote that “I run another startup which is essentially my ‘day job’, so i’m pretty fulfilled on that front. v2 is being built out of love and i’d like for both the service and my involvement with it to live on for a long time.”

That also means keeping control, rather than handing it off to corporate overlords for a quick pay-day. Those excited for a revival of their favorite app will be heartened to know Hofmann says “there are no plans to sell v2. Never say never, but it’s nowhere close to consideration right now.”

The Reception

Vine’s shutdown was met with a global outpouring of support and nostalgia. But the stars that made their names on Vine quickly moved on to YouTube and Instagram, and their audiences followed. Influencers have grown more savvy, with a focus on audience size and monetization where YouTube rules, even despite recent changes.

Plenty of former users and smaller Vine stars that never made the jump elsewhere are eager for v2. But a social media talent manager told me they’d rather see their clients add 1 million subscribers on YouTube or Instagram than 5 or even 10 million on v2, because no one wants to “start from scratch” and “Instagram and YouTube are here to stay.” Multiple social content execs told me that it’s all about how v2 treats creators, and that was what Hofmann and his Vine co-founders were never good at.

v2 will need to recruit great content that can’t be found elsewhere, stars who deliver their fans, and plenty of loyal users to survive. v2’s competitors are much stronger now than when Vine launched. Gaining traction in this social app landscape is like capturing lightning in a bottle, and Hofmann will have to make lightning strike twice.

The best thing about Vine was that there were no news links, few boring selfies, and lots of creativity. It was a place to relax and be entertained with endless comedy, art, absurdity, and micro-storytelling. In an age where social media is getting a bit too serious and intense, v2 could bring the joy back to playing around on your phone.

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