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louisisalarrie · 9 months

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Hi! Let me start by saying that I am a follower of your blog because I enjoy your take on things. Not because I hate follow you like some people seem to do. With that said, I’m very excited you get to meet Louis on Sunday! How fun for you! But I have an honest question. Not one to argue with you or even question you. But something I’ve wrestled with myself. Since you know all of the lies we’ve been fed about F being his son, and you see the gaslighting that goes on regularly from Louis to his fans. Most recently, the infamous chicken parm tweet, how do you separate that as a fan of his? How do you get so excited to meet him without wanting to look him in the face and say please stop lying. Maybe it’s just me. I’m just having a hard time with him continuing to lie to us and scold us and then out of the other side of his mouth he says he has the most freedom he’s ever had. That just tells me he choosing to lie and use F for his gain. His gain means money and fans. I don’t know… again, not trying to judge you. Just trying to understand and figure out where my brain is. I hope you have a wonderful time at the show!

Hey anon! Thank you for the kind words. It’s perfectly normal to feel this way, and a lot of us have these moments as well! So don’t stress x

I think what’s important here overall is to remember that record labels, managers, everyone involved in Louis’ team make money from Louis’ fame and publicity too. It’s certainly not just louis, and a huuuuuge chunk of it goes towards them, particularly if he’s signed to a Global Deal which I imagine he would be. Remember how in one direction they were worked to the absolute bone? Barely having a break, nonstop touring, recording every second they could (a good example is that one scene from This Is Us where zayn was asleep for 10 minutes before he was woken up to record more vocals) and they were just kids. They signed a contract without a personal lawyer due to X Factor rules, were taken advantage of, and used as a money making machine for S*co and his bunch of monkeys. But I’m sure you’re already very aware of this, so let’s fast forward to 13 years down the track with this in mind…

Louis was roped into a wild stunt contract, also known as bbg, with a half assed promise of more freedom for him, a potential end result of him and harry coming out, and probably a bunch of other promises and opportunities thrown his way if he signed off on it. He received solo PR while still being in a band, meaning he had a bit of a safety blanket if the band broke up and wouldn’t immediately disappear from the public eye (like Liam did). And you know what? BBG was probably meant to go for a much shorter time than it has. I imagine the proposed stunt, and the alterations it’s had over the years, look pretty bloody different. But without going into too much detail on that stunt specifically, Louis is incredibly smart in the way he communicates with us. He does juuuuust enough to meet his contractual obligations. He knows what he can get away with. He knows his fandom is majority larries. He knows what we talk about and what we say.

The consequences if he didn’t sign this contract? Probably pretty dire, if I’m honest. When you have one of the biggest labels in the world (the other two are WME & Universal) throwing you a bone, it’s pretty hard to turn it down. These 3 labels (also known as The Big 3 in the industry) have a monopoly over the music industry and can make or break someone pretty damn quick. So I imagine he would’ve signed to cover his own ass and not lose his whole career, because he’s been manipulated into that. The music industry can be evil and brutal and it’s all about money. All about PR.

Particularly in this day and age where we are oversaturated with celebrities, media, etc., it’s hard to stand out from the crowd. The Big 3 are good at what they do, and that’s why they are The Big 3. They know how to do PR, they know how to write contracts and get artists to sign off on them, they know how to dangle carrots and make deals that benefit themselves greatly (oftentimes more than the artist). So being in louis’ position, it was more like he was coerced into it, if that makes sense?

Sorry, im tired from work and rambling now, but have you heard the phrase “separate the art from the artist”? It’s an interesting take that some people agree with, so they can enjoy that artist’s music while ignoring their faults/bad choices/problematic behaviour, because the music is what’s important. I don’t necessarily agree with that take, and I’m not gonna go down a rabbit hole on it, but I do think some fans do this with louis. And that helps them still enjoy the music, without getting involved in bbg or any other stunts, ya know? It helps to just think about the cutie happy wholesome louis that we know and love, and not his PR image. And that is absolutely fair enough, I just can’t do that because I know too much and I’ve been here for too long and I WILL see this through hahahah.

Okay now to actually answer your question, about me personally, of course I would want to tell him to leave his contract and get a better deal and come out with Harry and trust that his fans will still love him and he’ll still have a career, but that’s not possible. It’s not possible because I’d get throat punched by security, but it’s also not possible because that’s not realistic. He knows what we all say, and what we think of larry. He understands our frustration and can literally see it online every day. His hands are tied, until they’re not. And we can’t do anything about that. So it’s just about appreciating him and his music because we can’t control anything else.

So, just remember that he’s beautiful and sweet and caring, watch some old one direction videos/larry deep dives, and take a breath because we know him, and he’s not this asshole that his image has radically become.

#bbg #answered #anon #feel free to message and clarify anything I said here!#please antis don’t come for me I need a nap

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mattnben-bennmatt · 3 months

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Ben Affleck's interview w/ The Hollywood Reporter (10 October 2012)

Confessions of Ben Affleck

Argo's Oscar-baiting director, newly 40, talks about his career turnaround, how anxiety drives him, what Matt Damon's wife might think when he comes over, and what he emailed J. Lo.

By Stephen Galloway

On Aug. 15, Ben Affleck — Oscar-winning wunderkind of Good Will Hunting, other half of “Bennifer,” skyrocketing superstar who soared, sank and sizzled again thanks to his directing endeavors Gone Baby Gone and The Town — turned 40.

He celebrated with a dinner party thrown by his wife, Jennifer Garner, at their Pacific Palisades home, attended by a handful of close friends on the brink of middle age, including Matt Damon, his WME agent Patrick Whitesell and Disney production president Sean Bailey.

“It was not fun for me,” says Affleck of entering his fifth decade. “It’s this moment of bifurcation between youth and middle age. One wants to think of oneself as young. One does not want to think: ‘Wait a minute! How can I be halfway to death?’ ”

Halfway to death, perhaps, but sitting with him one late September morning at Santa Monica’s Hotel Casa del Mar, this actor-turned-director — the Hollywood embodiment of nine lives — seems anything but as he bristles with nervous energy, words spilling out of him about his roller-coaster past and glittering present.

“He’s gone to the top and then to the bottom and now to the top again,” says Damon, his friend since the two met as children. “He’s gotten the full measure of what this life in Hollywood can offer, and now he is comfortable with it.”

Nearly a decade after Affleck had one of the most ignominious falls in Hollywood history — thanks in part to Gigli and dubious PR stunts like kissing Jennifer Lopez‘s derriere in a music video — he has emerged, unexpectedly and almost suddenly, as one of the best directors of his generation. Warner Bros.’ Argo, an Iranian hostage drama that he helmed, is an early leader in the awards race. Set to open Oct. 12, it was called a “tight and tense political thriller” by THR‘s Todd McCarthy and has earned the kind of raves that once would have seemed impossible for the star of Armageddon.

All this is the hard-earned climax to a deeply considered shift Affleck embarked on eight years ago, when he set out his goals and determined never again to do work he was ashamed of. “I made the decision: ‘I’m never, ever, ever going to do anything where I don’t absolutely kill myself to get it right,’ ” he recalls.

Vanished is the man who dwelt on his deep insecurity when he and this reporter last sat down about five years ago. During that conversation, he admitted the Gone Baby Gone shoot had left him physically sick from stress. “I’m very insecure,” he said. “I’m human, just like anybody else.”

Vanished, too, is the tabloid pinata with his colorful love life, personal drama (including a stint in rehab) and career highs and lows. “I tried to ignore it as much as possible,” he says of the fuss. “There was only one way to handle a situation like that: Go straight through it.”

He addresses all this with an openness and even sweetness that would surprise those used to the more coiled figure onscreen. “I was shocked at how warm he is,” says Alan Arkin, who plays a Hollywood producer in Argo. “He’s got a great deal of warmth, and he’s not afraid to show it. He has a wonderfully open, youthful quality that you don’t see a lot in the characters he plays.”

Sitting by a window overlooking the Pacific, in jeans and a blue-checkered shirt, unshaven and sipping from a plastic cup of soda, with flecks of gray in his beard and a gold tooth he’s never bothered to replace, he has embraced the very doubts that once assailed him. “Anxiety is a kind of fuel that activates the fight-or-flight part of the brain in me,” he says. “It makes sure that a velociraptor isn’t around the corner and that you do as much as you possibly can to survive. Because Hollywood has a lot in common with Jurassic Park and its primeval-dinosaur universe.”

Affleck, the one-time party boy, now gets up at 6, goes to bed at 9 and has been married for seven years with three children (Violet, Seraphina and Samuel) under age 7. As he discusses married life, Garner, about to fly to New York, calls on his cell.

“Hey, love, are you on the plane?” he asks gently. “I’m in an interview right now, but I love you very much.” Then he quips that her trip is doubly traumatic for the actress, “First, ’cause she’s away from the kids, second, ’cause I’m in charge.”

She might have reason to worry, given how consumed Affleck is by work. “There are so many decisions to be made, and it’s more than you can get to each day,” he says. “There is this underlying anxiety not just about getting the movie done but getting it done really well. It keeps my head spinning — even when I am giving the kids a bath. I can be giving them a bath or feeding them, and sometimes they say, ‘Dad, pay attention!’ ”

When he’s not with his family, he’s at home working in a “sort of little office hut” or developing material through Pearl Street Productions, the Warners-based company he runs with Damon, who has remained a lodestar throughout the ups and downs and who now lives down the street from him. “We see each other almost too often,” laughs Affleck. “I wonder if his wife is thinking, ‘Is he really going to come over every night?’ “

When he’s on his own, he reads and consumes films avidly. He has just finished Laurence Gonzales‘ nonfiction book Surviving Survival, about how individuals cope with horrific incidents like being attacked by sharks; he also has been reading novelist Gillian Flynn‘s suspense drama Gone Girl and David Mitchell‘s Cloud Atlas.

Rather than watch television, he recently has immersed himself in a trip through some of the greatest films ever made — from the 2011 Mexican movie Miss Bala to director Victor Fleming‘s The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind, which he viewed back-to-back — as if he wants to quench a raging thirst for the knowledge that will allow him to seize the ring within his grasp. He is intrigued to hear about Memo From David O. Selznick, a collection of the Gone With the Wind producer’s notes, and orders it immediately by phone after his interview.

He also spends time at a coastal getaway near Savannah, Ga., and in his New York apartment, where he expects to move with Garner when their kids have grown up. He plays poker on a regular basis with actor Hank Azaria and his Argo producer Grant Heslov. “It’s very, very psychological,” he explains of his attraction to the game. “It’s about weakness and strength and divining whether the other person is strong or weak.”

He goes skeet shooting and admits to owning several guns — which he has embraced since his wife faced a stalker.

“The stalker had been to our house many times and ultimately came to my children’s school and was arrested,” notes Affleck of Steven Burky, who was deemed insane in 2010 then placed in a mental ward and ordered to stay away from the Affleck family for 10 years. “It gave me a stronger sense of feeling protective about my family. There’s a lot of crazy, weird people out there. It’s an ugly world.”

Affleck has given up any notion of reforming it. After once being rumored to want a career in public office, he now says, “I loathe politics.” He supports President Obama but has not actively campaigned — partly because of his workload, partly because of his political disillusionment and partly because he is convinced the president will win the election despite the Oct. 3 debate. “I watched it backstage at Jimmy Kimmel,” he says. “It wasn’t his best performance. But I am still going to vote for him, and I am very, very confident he will win.”

As to his other interests: “Kids eat up that kind of hobby time,” he admits. “I used to ride motorcycles. I used to play basketball. And now basically I’m at home with them, or I work.”

The work itself will have its greatest test with Argo. Affleck was fresh off 2010’s The Town and in talks to helm another movie at Sony when Warners showed him Chris Terrio‘s script about real-life CIA operative Tony Mendez and his little-known plan to free six men and women who had fled the U.S. embassy in Tehran when it was seized in 1979. The escapees took refuge with two Canadian diplomats, and Mendez set about creating a phony Hollywood film, Argo (that title derives from a CIA in-joke — “Ah, go f– yourself” — though it is not presented that way in the movie), as a front to squirrel them out of the country.

The moment he read it, Affleck called Heslov and George Clooney, who had been developing the project through their Smoke House production company, “and I just launched into what my take was and didn’t stop talking for 45 minutes.”

Heslov and Clooney were sold.

“This film tonally is a very tricky piece, and he had very intelligent things to say about that,” recalls Heslov, describing the movie’s tightrope balance of comedy and suspense. “His idea was to push the thriller aspect a little more than we’d originally talked about. And he was right.”

Initially, Affleck had envisioned reworking the script himself, but the draft was so impressive and his relationship with Terrio so good that he allowed Terrio to make the changes. Together, they added a new opening that succinctly explains the Iranian revolution and how it led to the capture of more than 50 Americans, who would remain captive for 444 days within the embassy.

They also worked on redefining Affleck’s character, based on Mendez. “He was a little bit more broken in the draft that we got,” notes Affleck. “He was older, an alcoholic. And I changed that and made his personal stuff revolve more around his family and losing his marriage.” Ultimately, he says, that was “the wrong choice because I ended up cutting most of it out. I cut out six or seven minutes from the final film, which is a lot.”

Other characters were merged, and some situations simplified, which later would lead to complaints from former Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor that his country hadn’t been given its due. Affleck addressed those concerns with a card at the end of the film that explains how the CIA plot complemented Canadian efforts, which he expands on in a long interview planned for the DVD.

In preparation for the movie, he flew to Maryland and met with Mendez, who took him to a bar that turned out to be a CIA hangout — the very hangout where agent-turned-spy Aldrich Ames had met some of his Soviet contacts. He was surprised how taciturn Mendez was. “He was extremely withdrawn and very unassuming,” says Affleck, adding that he only came to understand this when he saw the 2001 Errol Morris documentary about the operative, The Little Gray Man, showing how blandness was crucial to his work, allowing him to blend into alien environments.

With Mendez on board (joined by John Goodman as real-life Hollywood makeup man John Chambers, Bryan Cranston as a CIA staffer and Arkin as a fictionalized producer), the CIA opened its doors beyond anything Affleck had experienced when he’d worked with the agency on 2002’s Tom Clancy thriller The Sum of All Fears.

Invited to visit, he was astonished that “every hallway had a pretty elaborate lock on it, and every door had a lock, and there were no windows to see in any of the rooms, so everything was secure. Some of the offices had two computers at every desk, one with huge stickers that said: ‘This is connected to the Internet. No classified information.’ I wanted to use that, except there were no computers in 1979.”

He also was surprised how low-key the place seemed, even when he stepped into its holy of holies, the futuristic Operations Center, where supersecret material and personnel were whisked away before he arrived. His impression of inactivity changed two weeks later, “when they killed Osama bin Laden.”

Thanks to the CIA’s reverence for Mendez, Affleck received permission to shoot several sequences at the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Va. — though “that meant having the trucks show up at 2 in the morning, so they could all be searched down to the screw. I’ve shot in a prison, and the search they put you through was nothing like this.”

Most of the film, remarkably, was filmed in and around Los Angeles, with a Hancock Park mansion standing in for the Canadian ambassador’s residence, where the escapees hid out. (In reality, they were kept in two separate places in Tehran.) Zsa Zsa Gabor‘s home was used for the Hollywood producer’s (she was upstairs during shooting, but too sick to come down), and the Ontario International Airport, 35 miles east of L.A., substituted for Tehran’s.

A 65-day shoot began in California then relocated to Istanbul, Turkey, for a month. Affleck had hoped to use real-life Iranian immigrants in Turkey for all the crowd sequences but well into filming found that “we couldn’t get one person of Iranian descent who speaks Farsi to be in the movie because they’re all so terrified of what that would mean for their family back home. We were completely f–ed.”

(Some of those scenes later were re-staged in Los Angeles, where there are about a half-million Farsi speakers, says Affleck. They and the CGI shots that transformed signs in English gave the film a rare authenticity and allowed it to be made for a modest $44.5 million.)

Shooting in Istanbul had its challenges, especially when Affleck came down with the flu while still acting and directing. “He was really, really sick, with a fever, the whole thing, and he didn’t take a day off,” says Heslov. “At the worst point, he left a bit early, and he had to be feeling really terrible to do that.”

His enthusiasm was matched by the extras, who often numbered around 2,500 and occasionally got out of hand, especially once when Affleck was in his car. “People were yelling and chanting and throwing stuff and having fun — and it all sort of bled over,” he explains. “I was a little scared, although I tried to summon up that director’s arrogance. All the great directors, I think, are arrogant; so I thought, ‘This is the time when I get out the bullhorn and say, ‘Back off!’ ”

He didn’t, alas. “I must not be doing something right,” he jokes.

Contrary to his image as a working-class “Southie” in Good Will Hunting, and later in The Town, Affleck, the elder of two sons (his brother Casey also is an actor), grew up in relative comfort in Cambridge, Mass. His mother, Chris, had been one of the original freedom riders who went into the Deep South during the 1960s to fight for civil rights. Both she and his father, Tim, were intellectuals who gave their son the middle name Geza after a Holocaust survivor they admired. (Affleck comes from Protestant stock but is agnostic.)

Damon — who was 10 when he met his 8-year-old near-neighbor Ben — remembers the cut-and-thrust of discussions in the Affleck home. “That dinner table was one of the funnest places to be growing up because of all the debates that went on — on any subject. You had to craft an argument and a good one to survive. Ben really honed his debating skills there. He’s not a guy you want to get in a debate with.”

Adds Affleck: “My mother taught public school, went to Harvard and then got her master’s there and taught fifth and sixth grade in a public school. My dad had a more working-class lifestyle. He didn’t go to college. He was an auto mechanic and a bartender and a janitor at Harvard.”

He also was an alcoholic, a predisposition Affleck inherited. “His life sort of hit the skids when I was in my teens,” he says. “It was difficult. When one’s parent is an alcoholic, it’s hard. It was a little scary and trying, but then he got sober when I was twentysomething, and he’s been sober ever since.”

The two maintain a cordial relationship, though they don’t see each other much, says Affleck. “My father has positional vertigo, and if he flies he gets really dizzy, so he has to drive out to California, which he does a couple times a year. We talk, but we e-mail mostly.”

The problems at home peaked when Affleck’s parents split before his teens and filtered into his life at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, where he sought refuge in plays, appearing as Damon’s son in Friedrich Durrenmatt‘s The Visit before both started auditioning for professional roles.

“I was a bit of a f–up,” he says. “I got really good grades until the last two years, and then I didn’t. I was having issues around my dad and my mom, and things just weren’t that stable — though that puts the responsibility on them, when really I just lost focus and stopped caring.”

While Damon went to Harvard, Affleck attended the University of Vermont, where he majored in Middle Eastern Affairs before switching to Los Angeles’ Occidental College, embarking on an acting career while he and Damon were roommates in Eagle Rock, an East Los Angeles neighborhood.

He found minor success with such films as 1992’s School Ties and 1993’s Dazed and Confused. But it was Good Will Hunting — the script Affleck and Damon sold to Castle Rock Entertainment for $600,000, which went to Miramax in turnaround — that made them stars. At the Oscars, they brought their moms and soon were double-dating with Gwyneth Paltrow (Affleck) and Winona Ryder (Damon). America was enchanted. With an Academy Award for best original screenplay, Affleck was a mere 25 years old and as hot as they get.

Then something went wrong. Instead of following Hunting with equally impressive material, Affleck chose roles in such action pictures as 1998’s Armageddon and 2001’s Pearl Harbor, while Damon starred in Saving Private Ryan. Partly, says Damon, this was because these were big breaks for a relative newcomer and partly because Affleck thought he could fix scripts that didn’t work — only to discover the director is the fixer.

His movie choices solidified a lightweight image that, combined with romantic escapades, made him perfect fodder for an exploding celebrity press. When he went from dating Paltrow to media-magnet Lopez (buying her a multicarat pink diamond ring, to boot), he no longer was just an actor — he was part of a phenomenon known as Bennifer (version one). Their Bentley rides, engagements, breakups-and-makeups were chronicled almost in real time. Affleck, who had risen to earn a reported $10 million to $15 million per picture, now was more infamous than famous.

“To watch the entire world have the totally wrong idea about somebody you care about and admire was painful, just as his friend,” says Damon. “I can’t imagine what it felt like to him. I remember Ben calling and saying: ‘I can sell magazines and not movies. I’m in the worst possible place I can be.’ “

Over the next few years, everything he had built came crashing down. He already had gone into rehab for unspecified causes in 2001; then came the disappointment of his superhero-in-tights spectacle Daredevil and the disaster of Gigli, the 2003 picture in which he starred with Lopez before their relationship collapsed.

“I went to rehab for being 29 and partying too much and not having a lot of boundaries and to clear my head and try to get some idea of who I wanted to be,” explains Affleck, declining to go into further detail. “It was more a ‘let me get myself straight,’ before it became a rite of passage.”

He stays in touch with Lopez, just as he does Paltrow and his high school girlfriend, Cheyenne Rothman. “We don’t have the kind of relationship where she relies on me for advice,” he says of J.Lo, “but we do have the kind of relationship where there’ll be an e-mail saying, ‘Oh, your movie looks great.’ I remember when she got American Idol. I said: ‘This was really smart. Good luck.’ I touch base. I respect her. I like her. She’s put up with some stuff that was unfair in her life, and I’m really pleased to see her successful.”

Despite the media onslaught, Affleck’s closest friends remained convinced his talent was supreme.

“What always struck me was how smart he is,” says his longtime agent Whitesell. “He had the biggest disconnect of anybody between the way the world saw him and the way he really is. We talked to each other and said, ‘It’s going to be a long road back, but we will get there.’ “

When Affleck took the risk of going behind the cameras with Gone — a mystery about two investigators tracking a missing 4-year-old girl, released by Miramax in the post-Harvey Weinstein era — Hollywood insiders were stunned that this apparent featherweight had such depth. But the movie still was perceived either as a fluke or too dark to make Affleck a candidate for bigger films. Only Warners executive Jeff Robinov pursued him with absolute conviction.

“Gone Baby Gone was not at all financially successful,” notes Affleck. “But Robinov brought me into his office and said: ‘I think you’re a hell of a filmmaker, actor. What do you want to do? Tell us, and we’ll do it.’ And I wasn’t having those meetings with every studio.”

Affleck opted for The Town, a $37 million drama that earned $92 million domestically. Its success shocked even cynics. The flameout, who had become a byword for has-been, was now one of Hollywood’s most promising directors.

Getting there was a direct result of the decision Affleck made around 2004.

“I was frustrated with the movies that I had done,” he explains. “I knew that I had something to offer. I said: ‘Here are the things I’d like to do: I want to direct movies, and I want to be in a movie that I’m enormously proud of. I want to have kids.’ I set out goals. It was a bold thing because when one is accustomed to falling short, as I had been, one becomes fearful of making predictions. But I did.”

Garner, whom he met on Daredevil, contributed to this thinking. “Jennifer played such a profound role in making me a better person,” says Affleck. “We don’t have a perfect marriage, but she inspired me; and finding myself in that marriage and having a child dovetailed with getting to be a little more mature.”

Asked what drew him to his wife, he considers. “She truly is kind,” he says. “She means no one any harm. She doesn’t have ill will for any person. She’s not competitive with other people. She’s not spiteful.” He laughs. “It’s one of those things where it becomes almost aggravating at times. Every time I go, ‘F– him!’ I see in her face that she just thinks that’s petty and small.”

Now Affleck is concentrating on the meaningful and large. He is developing a movie adaptation of Stephen King‘s The Stand and plans to reteam with Damon on Whitey, the story of James Joseph “Whitey” Bulger Jr., a Boston crime figure who went on the run for 16 years before being captured outside his Santa Monica apartment in 2011. Affleck will direct, and Damon will star.

But other matters are beginning to weigh on him just as much as film. “One gets older,” he reflects, “and the things that you didn’t realize were absences in your life now feel like real vacancies.”

In November, he will make his seventh visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where bloody civil war has lasted 14 years (despite peace accords signed in 2003) and cost 5.4 million lives. It has become his abiding concern ever since “I came across this passage about how 10 times as many people have died in Congo in the wars since 1997 [as in Darfur] and was stunned that I didn’t know.”

The filmmaker first went there in 2007. “I saw terrible things,” he says. “You know: the amount of sexual-based violence against women; people suffering from preventable disease; child soldiers who needed to be integrated into society; children without schooling at all. So we started to get involved in those areas.”

Two years ago, he helped form the Eastern Congo Initiative, which provides developmental aid for local communities, working with farmers who grow cacao, among other activities.

Affleck’s commitment to Congo has not been risk-free. On one occasion, he was in a single-engine plane caught in a hailstorm, with a pilot who didn’t know his way. “We were flying through Sudan, and the hail was really banging up the plane. The pilot was saying he didn’t have enough fuel to fly back to Juba. I was terrified. It was the only time in my life where I really thought, deep in my heart, I might die.”

It’s a flash of the old insecurity that still remains, buried deep inside. He’s older, wiser, glowing in the gleam of his new film, but the fears and anxieties still have to be held at bay. Even in his work.

“Sometimes I get insecure about being a real director because I look at the great directors, and they have such command,” he says. “But maybe that keeps me critical of myself. Maybe it keeps me moving forward.”

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mostlysignssomeportents · 4 years

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Meet the new music boss, same as the old music boss

In his 2020 book MONOPOLIZED, David Dayen describes a curious and brutal dynamic of monopolies: they breed monopolies.

"Consumer welfare," the dominant strain of antitrust for the past 40 years, has treated monopolies as innocent until proven guilty.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/29/fractal-bullshit/#dayenu

Companies are allowed to merge with competitors and create vertical silos, so long as no one can prove that doing so has raised prices. The only acceptable proof are the mathematical models invented by pro-monopoly economists, who are the foremost builders of these models.

Strangely enough, these models always prove that the monopoly is good, actually: not harming "consumer welfare." All potential mergers will provably not result in increased prices. All post-merger price-increases are provably not due to the merger.

Anyone who challenges these interpretations is derided for their ignorance of how these models work. Modern antitrust is a priesthood, and whenever a monopoly question arises, they slaughter an ox and read the future in its guts, which only they can interpret.

And strangely enough, the ox guts always favor monopoly.

Now, not *all* price-fixing can be waved away as unrelated to market concentration. In some cases, different companies in a sector will literally conspire to set prices, putting it down on paper.

When that happens, you don't need to make a model to show that price rises can be attributed to market power: you have the receipts.

This happens all the time. The record labels documented their CD price-rigging in the 90s, leading to a $67.3m settlement in 2002.

In 2012, the Big Six publishers colluded with Apple to raise ebook prices. They also put it in writing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Apple_Inc.

In most of these cases, the price-fixing is only part of the story. What's actually going on is more complicated: a cartel of manufacturers are conspiring not merely to raise prices, but to fight the predatory practices of a monopolist somewhere else in the supply-chain.

With the labels, it was big box retailers like Walmart. With the publishers, it was Amazon. These monopolists had cornered significant customer-bases for the cartels' products, and the monopolists were squeezing their suppliers for all they were worth - literally.

Here's where it gets funky. Remember that monopolies are innocent until proven guilty, and it's impossible to prove them guilty. If six publishers' CEOs conspire to raise ebook prices, that's illegal. It's collusion.

If one of those six buys two of the others - if Random House buys Penguin and Simon & Schuster - then the former CEOs of those companies (now heads of divisions in a single company) can do *exactly* the same thing with little fear of legal reprisals.

Antitrust law rewards monopolies and punishes cartels, so members of cartels merge until they have monopolies.

Which brings me back to David Dayen and his book MONOPOLIZED. The industry Dayen analyzes to demonstrate this phenomenon is US health care.

In Dayen's telling, the first salvo was the mergers-to-monopoly in pharma, producing the Big Pharma giants we have today. These massive, consolidated firm started to lean on their customers, notably hospitals, price-gouging them on medicine.

Individual hospitals were powerless against this pressure: a single hospital that refuses to buy cancer meds at jacked-up prices doesn't get lower prices, it gets dead cancer patients.

But if hospitals teamed up to demand lower prices, that would be illegal price-rigging.

However, if the hospitals all merged into giant chains, they'd be able to push back in two directions. First, they could demand lower prices on drugs from Big Pharma, and second, they could pass on high prices to the insurance sector, which was still decentralized.

Again, the health insurers were not capable of pushing back as individual firms. When all the health care in a single ZIP code is provided by one chain of clinics, hospitals and ERs, an insurer can't declare them all out-of-network - not if it wants to keep its customers.

But once the insurers merged to monopoly, they not only got to push back against hospital price-gouging - they also got to charge higher premiums and deductibles, and they didn't have to worry about losing customers, because there was nowhere to go.

This is really a story of shit flowing downhill - pharma pushes hospitals who push insurers, who push...us. The patients and the front-line health-care workers, from custodians and cafeteria workers to nurses and MDs.

Monopoly breeds monopoly, with each sector of the supply chain concentrating to defend itself against the other sectors, and to exert market power over those sectors that aren't yet monopolized. The only part of the chain that can't organize are workers and customers.

Historically, workers organized in unions to push back against these leveraged assaults on their rights, but the US has all but prohibited unionization.

The public historically organized through politicians who fought for them, but unlimited corporate campaign contributions have made such fights a distant memory.

And so every sector starts to look like health-care: monopolized at every level except for labor and customers.

Writing in Wired today, Ron Knox from the antimonopoly Institue for Local Self-Reliance describes how this dynamic is playing out in music, where the new bosses are all the same as the old bosses.

https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-big-music-needs-to-be-broken-up-to-save-the-industry/

It's not merely the Big Three labels colluding to rip off artists, it's also the tech partners who control distribution, notably Spotify and Youtube.

To the extent that merged-up behemoths like UMG exercise their monopoly power to get more from these digital partners, those excess gains are stolen from the musicians who earned them.

For example, big labels do minimum payout deals with Spotify specifying that millions are owed to them each quarter - but then they accept lower per-stream royalties for their music on Spotify. The result is that massive sums of those guaranteed payouts are "unattributed."

Unattributed revenues are not owed to any artist, so the label gets to keep that money. It's flat-out wage-theft, and it demonstrates the bankruptcy of hoping that a change in monopolists will make lives better for their workforces.

All things being equal, UMG would like to shift as many dollars as possible off of Spotify's balance sheet onto its own. But UMG will not, on its own, hand a single penny of that to the artists whose work generated those dollars

Which is why Knox says we have to break up all these giants - the labels and the digital distribution monopolists, including Youtube and Spotify and Apple and Amazon.

But, Knox points out, that will not be enough.

Because it's not just recording and distribution that are monopolized - it's also performance venues and ticketing (Ticketmaster/Live Nation) and radio (Iheartradio/Liberty Media), whose monopolists are rapacious wage-stealers and fraudsters.

The market can't and won't fix this. Take live performance venues: the vast majority of these are expected to fail thanks to the covid shutdowns. The private sector has a plan to bail them out: former WME exec Marc Geiger raised a vast warchest to buy them for pennies.

He will consolidate them into...a monopolist to push back against the Ticketmaster/Live Nation monopoly. If he pulls it off, he may succeed in shifting many millions from Live Nation's balance-sheet to his own. He will not give any of it to performers if he doesn't have to.

Knox's (correct) conclusion is that we have to have antimonopoly enforcement across the entire supply chain, not just in one or two sectors - from social media to recording to payments to venues to streaming to radio, we have to break them up.

And that might just happen. Two high-profile Biden appointees, Tim Wu and Lina Khan, are on the absolute vanguard of the new antimonopoly movement. Amy Klobuchar's (flawed) antitrust bill goes further than any initiative in years.

And most of all, the musicians aren't alone here. The fight they're fighting is just a part of the fight we're all in: not just every kind of artist, but doctors and patients, cabbies and riders, farmers and eaters.

Our fights have different technical characteristics and different structural remedies particular to those characteristics, but they are, fundamentally, the same fight.

The fight against monopolies.

#pluralistic

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nicolekidman-lies · 3 years

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“Other Hollywood industry leaders Farrow talked to didn't keep quiet about the subject of his investigation — in the case of director-producer Brett Ratner, it may have been because he also had something to hide, Farrow wrote.

When Farrow talked to Ratner, he said Ratner told him that he may know of a woman who had a bad experience with Weinstein, but Farrow noted that he sounded jittery.

Also, despite Ratner saying he wouldn't tell Weinstein about his conversation with Farrow, he reportedly called Weinstein soon after and told him anyways.

Six women later accused Ratner of sexual harassment. A representative for Ratner didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.”

“The list also includes RatPac-Dune producer Brett Ratner, who has also been accused of sexual assault by multiple women in the wake of the Weinstein scandal, causing Warner Bros. to rethink their producing deal with his studio. Ratner has denied all allegations. In Farrow’s second report about Weinstein’s “army of spies,” he describes how agents would contact people targeted by Weinstein, giving false names and recording their conversations in order to get dirt on those they feared might be about to go on the record.”

“Meanwhile, Mnuchin’s former RatPac-Dune principal Ratner announced on Feb. 4 that he has acquired Jaime Rogozinski’s life rights and is developing a film and podcast about the founder of Reddit’s WallStreetBets. The move raised eyebrows around town given that in November 2017, Ratner was accused of sexual misconduct by six women in a Los Angeles Times story, prompting Warners to sever its relationship with him and WME to drop him as a client.

Separately, a woman accused Ratner of rape in a Facebook post, which he denied (he sued the accuser for defamation, and both sides eventually dropped their claims). He also has been accused of facilitating the sexual abuse of Charlotte Kirk in ongoing litigation involving the actress and a group of Hollywood power brokers.

But Ratner has a new publicist, crisis guru Howard Bragman, and has been quietly funding projects and filmmakers he believes in and is working on several documentaries. “Brett never left. He was working all this time,” says Bragman, who wouldn’t name the projects. “He just chose to be low-profile.”

Though Ratner and Mnuchin’s names are surfacing again in Hollywood at the same time, the two have no plans to team in the future. Adds Bragman: “Ratner and Mnuchin remain friendly, but have no business relationship since their Warners funding deal ended.””

#brett ratner #harvey weinstein #steven mnuchin #rupert murdoch #ronan farrow #RatPac-Dune

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electro-kins · 3 years

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∞༺♡ 1,000+ editing contest winners!! ♡༻✧

hii hii cuties!! aa thank you so much to everyone who entered <3 EVERYONE'S EDITS were so amazing, you're all so talented ♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪ it was so hard to decide on the winners ö here they are under the cut!! (i added little notes next to each winner's entri hehe)

1st place - @kin-of-the-sheep

her first and second entry ; THE STIMBOARD OMG?? it's everything i love in one edit... AND it has my vibes exactly!! it made me so happy, especially seeing you included my melody and melogender in the middle :] literally perfect mwah /p DON'T GET wME STARTED ON HOW LOVELY THE ICONS WERE... THANK U FOR ENTERING!! (๑>◡<๑)

2nd place - @primrose-rondo

his first entry ; YOU EDITED SUCH A PRETTY MOODBOARD BESTIE <3 ada x emily x demi has been on my mind all the time recently hehe, it made me so happy seeing you edited them together!! i love the aesthetics you chose for each character + the way you placed them on the moodboards so cool to me!! thank u for entering *\(^o^)/*

3rd place - @wistful-sakura-dreams

their first entry ; the romantic academia and lovecore aesthetic with monika is so perfect!! it fits her so well + the way you edit is gorgeous!! aaahhfsn thank u sm for entering :]

4th place - @dicefloweredits

clouds first ; YOUR LISA STIMBOARD was so lovely!! all the colors went perfectly together + THE MAKEUP STIMS were pretty!! love your edits, tysm for entering (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)

congratulations to the winners!! <33 you can send all your prizes in my inbox or dm me everything, whatever is easier for you ∩^ω^∩ you can find the original post here + my carrd if you need!! thank you all again for entering hehe.

#༻✧ which element would you like to learn about today? ; important #electro1000 #editing contest #electro kins editing contest #editing contest winners

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airasora · 3 years

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Hi! I hope this isn't too much of a bother, but do you have any tutorials tips tricks etc for editing? I want to try my hand at it, but I have no clue where to even begin, and I've only ever edited photos -even that was years and years ago. Any help is super appreciated! Also, if you could send me a message when you have requests open again, it'd be great because I'm likely to miss it and I don't wanna send inopportune requests. You're one of my top 3 favorite editors btw!

First of all, thank you so much for the compliment! It means a lot to me that people enjoy my work as sharing stories and creative content is one of my all time favorite hobbies <3

Second of all, I'm afraid I won't be able to message anyone if I ever "open" requests because I simply wouldn't be able to remember everyone who has ever asked me to do that. I also don't have requests open very often, and I have requests from more than a few years ago still waiting for me... So, I'm sorry, but I won't be able to do that 😅 But I appreciate your considertion so, so much ❤️

Third of all, to answer your actual question. I have always, and will always, suggest any new aspiring editors to learn how their editing programs work before jumping straight into actual editing.

This means figuring out what program you'd prefer

- Sony vegas, premiere cut, etc. are all popular editing programs that are semi-beginner friendly

Adobe After Effects is one of the most common editing programs for any editing community, BUT it's anything but beginner friendly. There is a lot going on, a million effects and possibilities, and that would probably be too overwhelming for someone if they've never done editing before.

When you've figured out what editing program you'd prefer, then it's time to find those tutorials on YouTube, and I really do recommend YouTube for that sort of thing. Reading about editing is much harder than seeing someone doing it. Start by just playing around with your program, get familiar with it and figure out where everything is and just take baby steps first. Jumping straight into advanced editing would just make the process slower.

I've worked with sony vegas for well over a decade, and AAE for about 5 years, so I do have some tutorials about both programs.

This link should direct you to my "Tutorials and WME" playlist, so you can take a look at some of the videos.

But I've actually been planning on doing a sort of "ask me about editing" type of livestream where the participants can ask questions about editing, and if they've seen something they want to learn how to do, I could do my best to show how it's done.

So keep an eye out for when I post a livestream for when I want to do my "editing class" livestream xD

#editing #tips and tricks

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growinstablog · 4 years

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How YouTube and Instagram stars are adapting their businesses as the coronavirus impacts the influencer-marketing industry

Welcome to this week’s Influencer Dashboard newsletter!

This is Amanda Perelli, writing to you from my desk at home, and here’s an update on what’s new in the business of influencers and creators.

First off, I’m lucky enough to be able to work from home, and I hope all of you are healthy and staying safe!

This week, my colleague Dan Whateley and I caught up with several creators across YouTube and Instagram, along with industry experts, on how they are adjusting their businesses to continue to make a living during the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic turmoil.

As many brand deals stall, influencers are starting to switch up their strategies, focusing on long-term bets like direct-to-consumer businesses or alternative revenue streams like consulting, teaching, and coaching.

“Our entire company is at a standstill at the moment and I don’t really know when jobs or campaigns will happen again in the next month,” said Audree Kate Lopez, a fashion stylist, consultant, and influencer with nearly 30,000 followers on Instagram.

Lopez said during this downtime she is focusing on getting organized internally and creating content at home that she normally doesn’t have time to do.

And the influencer-marketing firm Sapphire Apps told Dan that it’s no longer conducting photo shoots with influencers for brand campaigns, instead turning to animation and user-generated content filmed by influencers at home that’s then edited by the Sapphire team afterwards. (.)

You can read most of the articles here . And if this is your first time reading Influencer Dashboard, .

More industry updates on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic:

FaZe Clan is a multimillion-dollar gaming organization focused on esports and video content creation.

Kevin spoke to Vera Salamone, FaZe Clan’s director of talent, and Erik Anderson, FaZe Clan’s head of esports, on what FaZe Clan looks for in new recruits.

Anderson said FaZe is constantly recruiting on a global scale to find the best players to represent the team.

“I don’t want to have to call a guy to wake him up to get him to and play video games as his career,” Anderson said. “I want someone that’s hungry to go and compete at a high level and understands that they’re in a really amazing place to do that.”

For a YouTube creator, joining “Google Preferred” – the company’s top-tier monetization category – means you’ve made it.

Dan spoke to creators like Remi Cruz, a YouTube star who posts DIYs, cooking tutorials, and makeup and fashion videos for her 2.5 million subscribers, and other individuals familiar with how Google Preferred works to learn more about the company’s secretive program.

Google Preferred videos tend to make more money because they command higher CPMs (cost per thousand views) than YouTube’s standard AdSense (biddable pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll) monetization, according to multiple sources who spoke to Business Insider.

“In the beginning with Google Preferred, it definitely boosted [revenue],” Cruz noted. “But since then I think it’s been climbing depending on the quarter that I’m in.”

But how do you get into the program? Dan has the inside details.

TikTok has become one of the most popular apps among Gen Zers and brands are looking to leverage the massive reach its creators have.

I spoke with an influencer talent manager and a digital agent about some of the metrics they see brands paying attention to in 2020 on TikTok.

“On TikTok, it doesn’t matter how many followers you have, that’s not the main metric of success,” said David White, head of influencer management at Whalar Stars. “It’s all about how many views you’re getting.”

From a branding perspective, TikTok is good for its volume of impressions and reach, and Instagram is the place to drive sales, said Alex Devlin from WME.

What else happened on BI Prime this week:

Here’s what else we’re reading:

Thanks for reading! Send me your tips, comments, or questions: [email protected].

https://growinsta.xyz/how-youtube-and-instagram-stars-are-adapting-their-businesses-as-the-coronavirus-impacts-the-influencer-marketing-industry/

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rickhorrow · 5 years

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10 To Watch : Mayor’s Edition 72219

RICK HORROW’S TOP 10 SPORTS/BIZ/TECH/PHILANTHROPY ISSUES FOR THE WEEK OF JULY 22 : MAYOR’S EDITION

with Reed Weber

Shane Lowry pocketed a cool $1.935 million for winning The Open Championship. He also netted thousands of new fans, and helped to unify Ireland through his sport. The affable Lowry, who came oh-so-close to winning the 2016 U.S. Open before blowing a four-shot lead to winner Dustin Johnson, has career earnings of close to $19 million, and his win on Sunday will almost certainly also include a bonus from primary sponsors Immedis and Banc of Ireland. However, the 2019 Open could potentially make an even bigger cultural mark. "This is the beginning of the Open taking its place as the Open and moving around the world…In my lifetime it is possible to see it being played in the Netherlands or maybe Australia," two-time winner of the Claret Jug Padraig Harrington shared with the Irish Times regarding Royal Portrush serving as a catalyst to take the major around the globe. Lowry is certain to be the face of Irish golf in the yearlong run up to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, especially as colleague Rory McIlroy struggles with his big-stage game.

Major League Baseball could allow for sponsorship patches on its teams’ uniforms within three years, the league confirmed to SportsBusiness Journal. The success of the NBA decision to allow jersey branding, which brings in an average $7 million a year per team, has reportedly created “considerable interest” for MLB teams to follow suit. Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment confirmed to SBJ that it had been approached by MLB franchises for evaluations of the potential new inventory. The Excel sports agency, which worked on multiple NBA patch deals, also revealed that it had received inquiries from “curious” teams regarding the marketplace. “We’re examining the patch, but clearly we have things to work through first,” MLB EVP Noah Garden told SBJ. “I’d say it’s inevitable down the road, but certainly not immediate. This is something that requires a fairly long runway.” The new patch sponsorships would require the approval of the MLBPA as part of the next collective bargaining agreement, but MLB’s current uniform deal with Nike reportedly includes provision for uniform patches. Van Wagner estimated that deals could be worth $6-$8 million, with select high-profile teams able to secure more.

A 22% minority stake in the Oklahoma City Thunder has been put up for sale, according to Bloomberg. The team share was previously owned by late oilman Aubrey McClendon, who passed away in a car crash in 2016. McClendon’s 22% ownership stake has reportedly been held by his estate since his death. The Thunder are worth $1.475 billion, according to Forbes, which would value a 22% stake in the team at around $324.5 million. However, Bloomberg’s report added that a value for McClendon’s stake could be discounted because it comes with voting rights but little else. The share does not come with representation on the board or any decision-making authority. The Thunder are controlled by Clay Bennett, whose Professional Basketball Club investment group purchased the Seattle Supersonics in 2006 before moving the franchise to Oklahoma City ahead of the 2008-2009 season. Likely also for sale soon: The multi-million dollar estate former Thunder star Russell Westbrook just completed in Oklahoma City suburb Nichols Hills – although there’s no yard sign up just yet. OKC residents continue to appear supportive of the star point guard even though he left the franchise, as the city is dotted with “Thank You Russell Westbrook” signs.

LeBron James’ agent starts a sports division at major Hollywood firm. United Talent Agency, one of the leading representation firms in Hollywood, has joined with the agent for nearly two dozen NBA stars, Rich Paul, to create a sports division for the entertainment company. Paul, who most famously represents James under his Klutch Sports Group banner, was named the head of UTA Sports. The alliance calls for Klutch, with Paul as chief executive, to operate as United Talent’s sports division while retaining its own branding. Klutch’s deal with UTA was initiated by the investment adviser Paul Wachter, who helped broker Fenway Sports Group’s 2002 purchase of EPL club Liverpool, as well as James’ lifetime deal with Nike. UTA, which restricted itself to off-the-field sports business until now, said it needs Paul’s muscle as it moves into direct competition with the established sports divisions at its primary rivals in Hollywood: CAA and WME. For years, Paul’s achievements were often dismissed as a natural by-product of his close relationship with James, who was still a teenager when they became friends. Today he is a force to be reckoned with, not just in sports, but now in entertainment.

MLS’ Fire to pay $65.5 million to move matches. According to JohnWallStreet, MLS’ Chicago Fire Soccer Club, ranked last in home attendance (averaging 11,417 per game), will amend their SeatGeek Stadium lease to allow for future home games to be played “in other Chicagoland sports venues.” Majority owner Andrew Hauptman believes moving games from the Village of Bridgeview to downtown Chicago will give the club “the opportunity to play [in front of] more fans than ever.” The Fire reportedly plan to play home games at Soldier Field next season. Chicago Fire SC is paying $65.5 million to get out of their existing lease. The organization will pay the Village $10 million upfront and make an additional $5 million donation to upgrade sporting facilities around the stadium. The $50.5 million balance will be paid in $3.5 million annual increments through 2036. Hauptman is paying $30 million more to move the team's home matches than he paid to acquire the club in 2007. But with expansion franchises now selling for $200 million, even with the buyout – and the $70+ million he’s lost over the last seven years – he will likely come out ahead.

X Games Minneapolis 2019 is set for August 1-4 at U.S. Bank Stadium, and ESPN is putting the finishing touches on its sponsor roster. This year, Wendy’s is joining returning sponsors Hotels.com, Monster Energy, Nexcar First Aid Products, Pacifico, SoFi, The Real Cost, and Harley-Davidson. Geico will once again serve as the official music stage sponsor. The sponsorship packages include a media presence within the 18 hours of coverage scheduled on ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, and the ESPN App, as well as content creation and on-site activation at the event. The Tokyo Olympics are now one year out, and those Games will feature more extreme sports than ever before, including new entrants sport climbing and surfing joining skateboarding, BMX racing, and other X Games staples. With that in mind, it is highly likely that the upcoming X Games Minneapolis will see a bigger viewing audience as well as the expanded sponsor roster.

REI looks to bolster environmental and outdoor journalism. According to PR Newswire, REI Co-op will debut its own print magazine this fall, as well as a new partnership to channel matching funds directly to local, nonprofit newsrooms covering crucial issues facing the outdoors. The 81-year-old retailer will retire its full-price mail-order catalog in favor of their print magazine, Uncommon Path, published by Hearst Magazines in collaboration with an in-house team of journalists and editors at REI. Uncommon Path will be available at all 155 REI stores and in select newsstands nationwide starting this fall. The purpose of the switch to magazines is to inspire a life outdoors by supporting compelling storytelling – both REI’s own channels and by supporting independent nonprofit journalists in communities across the country. The retailer is also announcing a new partnership with NewsMatch, a nationwide campaign to strengthen local journalism to help bolster climate change coverage and make people more conscious of life outdoors.

Yahoo! Sports starts NFL short-form series “Play It Forward.” According to Deadline, “Play It Forward” has two 11-minute episodes each week on Mondays and Thursdays for eight weeks across the off-season and feature the likes of Antonio Brown, Adrian Peterson, and Desean Jackson. The show will give viewers a glimpse into the players’ rise to the top and the ways they give back to the people who have supported them along the way. “Play it Forward” is produced by Bright Bay Creative, the nascent production company run by former Ice Road Truckers producer Brandon Killion and his wife Jill, in association with Complex Networks. The philanthropy isn’t necessarily on a non-profit level, but it shows the difference players can make in individual’s lives off the field.

Texas Rangers slugger Joey Gallo discovers his off-field power to help dogs find homes. According to the MLBPA’s Infield Chatter on Twitter, Joey Gallo has overcome his childhood fear of dogs and teamed up with Operation Kindness to find homes for the original no-kill animal shelter in North Texas. By harnessing his image and posing next to animals from the shelter, Gallo posted photos of some of the shelter’s dogs on social media and saw an immediate response. Within an hour of posting photos with the adoptable dogs, Operation Kindness had found homes for the animals. Gallo has also owned his own Labrador Retriever named Ranger for four years and plans to continue his philanthropic efforts as he says the best part about being an athlete is the stage to “promote good in the world.”

The fifth annual Mixed Doubles Charity Classic is ready to fight opioid abuse. According to the York Dispatch, the Charity Classic at the Country Club of York has the goal of raising money to fight drug abuse that has plagued the USA and specifically New York. In previous years, the event has raised more than $100,000 for charity, including $65,000 raised last year for the York Opioid Collaborative. The fifth annual tournament is sponsored by UPMC Health Plan and will again benefit that same cause which “seeks to reduce opioid deaths in York County,” according to the non-profit’s website. The tournament features high quality tennis players including Jenni Goodling and has a total purse of $5,000 for the winners. A total of 16 teams are lined up to compete. New York saw 172 overdose deaths from opioids in 2018 and has seen a reduction to just 36 so far in 2019 thanks to the awareness around the crisis which has been aided by charities and media events such as the Mixed Doubles Charity Classic.

#10 #10towatch

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bapakharyoso · 5 years

Link

A six-month-old hair brand called Insert Name Here [1] — which vends wigs, extensions, and hair pieces on the web — has clinched a seven-figure annual run-rate after being founded in November. Social influencers, its three founders say, have been formative to the startup’s success. And the three founders know a thing or two about social influencers.

Insert Name Here (INH) is looking to follow in the footsteps of socially savvy stalwarts like clothing retailer Fashion Nova [2] and ColourPop Cosmetics [3] , where two of INH’s co-founders — Jordynn Wynn and Sharon Pak — were the first two employees.

A six-month-old hair brand called Insert Name Here [1]— which vends wigs, extensions, and hair pieces on the web — has clinched a seven-figure annual run-rate after being founded in November. Social influencers, its three founders say, have been formative to the startup’s success. And the three founders know a thing or two about social influencers.

Insert Name Here (INH) is looking to follow in the footsteps of socially savvy stalwarts like clothing retailer Fashion Nova[2] and ColourPop Cosmetics[3], where two of INH’s co-founders — Jordynn Wynn and Sharon Pak — were the first two employees.

Wynn and Pak helped ColourPop become a major player in today’s beauty industry[4] — thanks in no small part to its mastery of Instagram. Early on, for instance, ColourPop latched onto viral hashtags to amass hordes of followers, sponsored influencer posts, and eventually forged full-fledged product collabs with the likes of Bretman Rock[5], Amanda Steele[6], Zoe Sugg, Eva Gutowski[7][8], and Kathleen Lights.

Today, Wynn and Pak — alongside INH’s third founder, Kevin Gould, a serial entrepreneur and digital vet in his own right — are hoping to trod a similar path in the hair category. Despite the fact that there has been some momentum in the space — twin YouTube stars Niki and Gabi DeMartino[9] and trans beauty vlogger Nikita Dragun have all launched hair extension collabs with a competitor called Bellami — the trio still saw a vast opportunity.

“We thought it was an incredibly stagnant industry that lacked a strong digital presence and social community,” Gould tells Tubefilter. While color cosmetics may be somewhat saturated, Gould says hair is still a wide open lane.

The company’s name is a nod to the fact that hair accessories have a transformative ability to turn wearers into whoever they want to be. And thus far it’s self-funded. Gould says that there are no current plans to take on outside funding, and the fact that INH is built on their own capital and time commitments forces them to be more disciplined.

While Wynn and Pak ascended at ColourPop, Gould got his start 10 years ago in the mailroom at talent agency WME. He then went on to become an early investor and founding partner at Beautycon[10] – which hosts festivals for beauty influencers across the globe – before becoming an angel investor with a handful of other startups, including Jukin Media and Draft Kings. Today, he is the founder of Kombo Ventures[11] — another digital media startup that operates separately from INH.

For its part, Kombo serves as a talent management company for YouTube stars like SSSniperWolf[12] and Alex Lange[13]; furnishes a digital strategy agency for Fortune 500 companies; and is also working to incubate its own influencer-led brands (the first of which, Gould says will debut later this summer with a big name in the digital space).

Gould isn’t the only one moonlighting with another venture: Wynn is still employed by ColourPop, while Pak serves as the marketing director at another beauty brand called Il Makiage.

An Approachable Ethos

INH officially launched last November after the trio remarked that Gen Z and millennial shoppers were becoming increasingly interested in extensions and wigs, though prices for hair accessories were traditionally sky-high. INH’s best seller, on the other hand, is the Miya Ponytail[14] — an attachable piece priced at $45 that’s made from Japanese fibers and can be heat-styled and washed (but not dyed). The company also vends 100% human hair extensions[15], ranging in price from $195 to $220 per set, depending on their length.

On top of an accessible pricing model, INH is also seeking to hone an approachable ethos by sharing hair tutorials and inspiration for those who are unfamiliar with fake hair use.

The company has nabbed 29,000 followers on Instagram[16], where its account shares user-generated tutorials and other eye-catching looks — many of which are sourced from the #INHBabe hashtag[17]. INH also shares video tutorials[18] on its website as well as other how-to content on a dedicated blog[19].

Kathleen Lights wearing the company’s ‘Zooey’ bangs, $79.

During their time at ColourPop, Pak[20] and Wynn[21] built substantial Instagram followings on their personal accounts — to the tune of 74,300 and 73,300 followers, respectively. And in addition to using their channels[22]to promote INH[23], they are also amplifying INH’s own presence with their proclivity for snackable posts and keen ability to weed through the influencer space, carefully selecting partners that align with its values.

“We did not attach one big influencer to launch INH,” Gould says. “Instead, we are leveraging support across the board.”

To date, the brand’s Instagram account has featured names like YouTube star Kathleen Lights[24] (who counts 2.1 million followers on Instagram and is pictured above), model-entrepreneur Arianny Celeste[25] (3.1 million followers), and Twitch star Hailie Barber[26] (337,000 Instagram followers). The next step, Gould says, will be to team with a major influencer on an INH product collab — though the nascent company is still exploring options, with no names firmly in play.

At the end of the day, however, Gould says that having a masterful Instagram strategy isn’t the only factor in launching a consumer brand, given the saturation of social platforms today.

“Instagram is still an incredibly important part of the template, but now, more than ever before, founders need to understand data on the back-end as well as all of the other elements of the marketing mix, including email acquisition, text messaging, and targeted advertising,” Gould says. “It was only because of our collective backgrounds and experiences that we were able to launch and scale so quickly.”

References

^Insert Name Here (inhhair.com)

^Fashion Nova (www.instagram.com)

^ColourPop Cosmetics (www.instagram.com)

^major player in today’s beauty industry (fashionista.com)

^Bretman Rock (www.tubefilter.com)

^Amanda Steele (www.tubefilter.com)

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homedevises · 6 years

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25 Common Misconceptions About The True Story Of The Garden Of Eden | the true story of the garden of eden

EXCLUSIVE: DeVon Franklin, the ambassador abaft faith-based films like Miracles from Heaven, The Star, and the forthcoming Breakthrough, has teamed with Fox Ancestors for a live-action/ CGI agreeable aberration on the adventure of the Garden of Eden, the biblical paradise alien in the book of Genesis. The Garden will chase how the aboriginal animals and bodies ascertain the acceptation of friendship, community, and accord in a apple that is absolutely new.

The blur is based on a angle by Michael Weiss and Greg Ostrin.

“Most of us apperceive a adaptation of the adventure of the Garden of Eden, but never afore has this adventure been told in such a different way and it’s the aboriginal time we accept the technology to see this adventure appear to activity like never before,” said Franklin, who holds an all-embracing accord at Fox via his Franklin Entertainment bank forth with blur and television ambassador Karen A. Hamilton.

Zahra Phillips is authoritative the activity for Franklin Entertainment, while Vanessa Morrison and Nate Hopper are administering assembly on the studio’s behalf.

Franklin, who additionally is a preacher, author, and motivational speaker, is repped by Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, and WME.

Weiss and Ostrin are both repped by Avenue 220, Original Artists, and Hung Entertainment Group. The due wrote the pilot for Zombie VS. Gladiators for Amazon Studios as able-bodied as the amalgam ancestors blur Hip Hop for Sony Pictures Animation.

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ramialkarmi · 7 years

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After her investor bailed during shooting, a 20-year-old filmmaker spent her entire college fund finishing her award-winning directorial debut

Actress-turned-director Quinn Shephard was 20 when she made her debut feature film "Blame" in 2015.

The movie went on to win the best actress prize at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and later found theatrical distribution.

Shephard had to cash in her college fund to self-finance the movie after her sole investor disappeared a week into shooting.

“It’s a really crazy story!”

That’s how 22-year-old actress-turned-director Quinn Shephard began when she sat down at a coffee shop in Manhattan’s East Village to talk with Business Insider about her feature directing debut, “Blame” (opening Friday in theaters and On Demand).

Shephard has acted professionally since she was five years old, and has the personality and looks that could easily get her on an upcoming series made by The CW, but these days she's more interested in music rights and color correction. That’s because for the last two years, she has dedicated her life to making a feature-length movie that’s been developing in her mind since she was 15.

A storyteller since birth

Growing up in Metuchen, New Jersey, Shephard’s teenage years were filled with telling stories. When she was 12 she hand wrote a 300-page novel. It’s currently in a binder somewhere in the basement of her parents’ house. Also around that time, she began to make short films after taking a filmmaking class at school. Then at 15, after reading “The Crucible,” she decided she would do a feature-length modern retelling of Arthur Miller’s classic play.

“I’ve always loved writing,” Shephard said. “This movie is me making something that I really wanted to do since I was a teenager.”

Shephard’s script for “Blame” went through numerous phases in the years before shooting began, but the basic story was always there — a girl (played by Shephard) is fixated on her high school drama teacher, and that leads a jealous classmate to concoct a witch hunt-like investigation to reveal the alleged taboo relationship.

To get the script from an unmakable 130 pages to a point where she was able to cast “The Mindy Project” star Chris Messina in the teacher role, and Nadia Alexander (USA series “The Sinner”) as the jealous classmate (Melissa), Shephard honed her storytelling technique by writing more feature scripts. She also made short films, including “Till Dark” in 2015, about a boy’s obsession with his childhood friend.

“Till Dark” was an exciting moment in the process for Shephard. Many of the crew on the short would make “Blame” with her the summer of that year. There was finally a light at the end of the tunnel.

Looking back, Shephard said making “Till Dark” was a great calling card to land Messina and other key crew members, but in getting ready for the rigors of feature filmmaking, “it doesn’t prepare you at all” she said.

When everything that could go wrong, does

Shephard produced “Blame” with her mother, Laurie. The only career experience they had making movies was their time on set as actresses — Laurie's main highlight was being on a few episodes of “Days of Our Lives” in 1993; Quinn has been in numerous TV series and movies since she was five, her biggest being a regular on CBS’ “Hostages” in 2013.

Despite their efforts to land an experienced producer to come on the movie, it never materialized. This left the Shephards to learn on the fly what producers do behind the scenes.

“Everything that possibly could go wrong did go wrong,” Shephard said, recalling her mom constantly reading the book “Producer to Producer: A Step-By-Step Guide to Low-Budget Independent Film Producing” for guidance.

“That was her go-to,” Shephard said. “It was that level of ignorance on how to produce.”

Then the movie was hit with what all producers fear the most — its sole investor suddenly disappeared.

It happened the first week of shooting “Blame.” With cast and crew flown to Metuchen, where the movie would be shot, a wire transfer of money that was promised to the Shephards never appeared.

“It was literally, ‘Wire transfer coming on Tuesday,’ and never heard from him again,” Shephard said (she would not give the investor’s name, only saying he was a filmmaker that she and her family had known for a long time).

“We never got an explanation, he just ghosted one day,” Shephard continued. “I never heard from him again.”

Shephard then had to make a vital decision: pull the plug or continue on with the movie.

“We felt we couldn’t turn back,” she said. “This was something we had spent so many years trying to get off the ground, if we had to bail on it when we were right there it would have been the most heartbreaking thing.”

Shephard decided to cash in her college fund and take the money she had from being on “Hostages” to self-finance her movie.

“I felt, I would rather be totally broke than have a broken spirit,” said Shephard, who would not give a specific budget for “Blame,” only saying it is under $250,000.

Finishing the movie at any cost

The money got Shephard through the 19-day shoot — which was mostly shot in her old high school in Metuchen — but it pretty much left no funds for post production.

So Shephard edited the movie herself.

Thanks to discounts and in-kind support from a post-production house in Montreal, and the kindness of a few crew members, Shephard took two trips to Montreal to edit, score, and do other post-production elements (sound mix and color correction).

For her first trip, Shephard stayed in the studio of composer Pierre-Philippe Côté as they created the score. She then lived with his aunt while editing at the post-production house. On the second trip, she stayed in the basement of Ilan Bemaman, her sound mixer.

“The second trip I couldn’t afford a plane ticket so I took the Megabus to Montreal,” Shephard said. “I did this thing at any cost.”

The post-production hustle paid off. When Shephard began to show the movie around people were shocked by its look, which to someone who doesn’t know the backstory looks like it was made for the high six-figures to $1 million.

“Blame” got its world premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, where Alexander won the best actress award for the Melissa role. Soon after the festival, Samuel Goldwyn Films bought the North American rights to the movie.

Telling teen stories with adult topics

Alexander told Business Insider she believed it was the comfort of being directed by someone the same age as her that led to her acclaimed performance.

“It gives you your own unique power that you wouldn’t necessarily get on a set with a 45-year-old director and producers running around,” Alexander said of working with a peer. “Making Melissa a lot more crass with the boys was my suggestion to Quinn, so I had a comfort to come forward and say to her, ‘I want to do this with the character.’”

Actress Sara Mezzanotte, who plays Melissa’s friend Sophie, said she could feel the movie’s authenticity right from the pages she read for her audition.

“I knew immediately that it was written by a young female,” she said. “You can tell when something isn’t written authentically. I could tell this was by someone who understands what it’s like to be a young woman struggling with identity and fitting in.”

Shephard is now preparing to tell her stories on a larger scale.

Following Tribeca, she landed an agent at WME and plans to cut down her acting considerably to focus on writing and directing. She said she’s close to landing a feature directing project at a studio as well as a TV project.

“‘Blame’ is a proof of concept,” Shephard said. “It has shown that there's a place for me to do my genre, which is teens dealing with adult topics. Giving three-dimensional plotlines to young women in a way that I don't think is represented right now. Many of my favorite shows and movies are these complex stories about middle-aged men. I think it's time to tell complex stories focused on teenage girls.”

Shephard is at that moment in a career when being in the same room with movie stars, and taking meetings with executives, can lead to getting too caught up in the glossy side of Hollywood. But she said she’s stayed grounded. She only recently created an Instagram account, and it was because she wanted to better connect with teens who are searching for inspiration.

“I've gotten emails from girls who are 15, 16 years old, who said they read about me and now have signed up for a filmmaking course or started working on a script with their friends,” Shephard said. “They said, ‘I didn't think there was any point for me trying to do this at this age because I thought I would have to go to college or film school.’ It's important that we have young women in the media. I’m not trying to say I'm a role model, but it's important if you have an opportunity to reach young women you make them see that they can be businesswomen and run the show. So if my story makes them feel that in any way then it was worth it.”

SEE ALSO: Movie attendance his a 25-year low in the US in 2017, as viewers "flock to streaming in droves"

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: It's been 25 years since the band Hanson was formed — here's what they're up to now

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valeriebielbooks · 7 years

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July Writers’ Forum

In my journey through the steps of independent publishing, refining my writing skills, and most recently completing a successful agent search, I’ve come across some excellent information, tips, tools, and shortcuts that I think would be beneficial to any writer. Once a month, I’ll share the “best of” information and news from the publishing industry as well as feature other authors and writing instructors with tips to share. I am incredibly thankful for the assistance and advice given to me from writing and publishing professionals and am happy pay that forward. On a professional level, I also use my publicity and editorial skills to aid other authors through my company Lost Lake Press.

Happy 100th Blogiversary to me! This is my 100th blog post since beginning the Three Rs: Reading, wRiting, and Roaming in 2014.

Book Events

I am not sure if Sherman Alexie had any upcoming book tour stops here in Wisconsin. I know he was here for the Untitled Town Book Fest in Green Bay this spring. Please take a moment to read his note about the heartbreaking reasons he has decided to stop his book tour.

He was promoting You Don't Have to Say You Love Me -- a memoir mostly about his relationship with his late mother, Lillian Alexie. It's available in both hardcover and Kindle or wherever you prefer to shop for books. (Alexie is best known for his middle-grade novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.)

Bookish Happenings for August

Books & Company at 1039 Summit Avenue in Oconomowoc is getting creative with a Return to Hogwarts Party on August 24 from 6:30 to 8:00 pm . . . trivia, refreshments, games etc… Looks like fun! Learn more at: http://www.booksco.com/event/back-hogwarts-party-thursday-august-24-630-pm

Mystery to Me Bookstore at 1863 Monroe Street in Madison has a great schedule of events for August:

Wednesday, August 9 at 6 pm Lesley Kagen will be speaking at the Sun Prairie Public Library. Kagen is a bestselling and award-winning Wisconsin author who will discuss her career as a writer, actress, and voice talent followed by a book signing. (Books sold by Mystery to Me.) Free and open to the public.

Thursday, August 10 at 7 pm at the store Allyson K. Abbott and Vickie Fee will be talking about their new installments in their cozy mystery series: A Toast to Murder by Allyson K. Abbott and One Fete in the Grave by Vickie Fee. (RSVP via the Eventbrite link on the store’s website below.)

Sunday, August 13 at 6:30 pm Craig Johnson (of Longmire fame) will visit the store. He’ll discuss his new book, The Western Star, to be released September 5. (Special bookplates are available for those who preorder the book for the author to sign that evening.)

Friday, August 25 at 7 pm William Kent Krueger will discuss his latest pulse-pounding thriller, Sulfur Springs. This event also has a rsvp set up on Eventbrite at the store’s website.

https://www.mysterytomebooks.com/events

Please let me know of any upcoming book releases or events that you’d like featured in the Writers’ Forum!

Featured Subject

Don’t Miss Out on Affiliate Marketing

If you have ever felt like there’s no way you’re ever going to learn everything you ought to know about the publishing world, join the crowd. I had one such moment a few weeks ago when I learned about affiliate link marketing. (Some of you I am sure are shaking your heads at this and asking, “How did she not know about this?” Trust me. I asked myself the same thing.)

So, for those of you who need a quick tutorial, I am here to save the day!

Here’s how Wikipedia defines Affiliate Marketing: . . . (It) is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts.

What does this mean?

If you have links to your own products (or other products) on your blog or website you should be using an affiliate link which gives you a small fee for each purchase made by clicking through that link from your page or blog. You don’t get paid much, but if you already have purchase links to your books on your website, what do you have to lose by making sure these are affiliate links that pay you a small percentage on top of your book royalty. And you don’t have to stop there, many products are available for affiliate linkage. There’s a nice article about how this works on a blog by Melissa Culbertson.

At the moment, I’ve only created Amazon affiliate links—so that’s what I’ve focused on here. For the step-by-step process in how to become an Amazon Associate (the first step in being able to create these links), read this “Savvy Book Marketer” post. Once Amazon sends you your Associate acceptance email, this article from “Untethered Income” will help you successfully build (and test) product links.

This is a good start, but all of your book links ought to be affiliate links. Nearly every online retailer has a program, you just need the diligence to set them up.

Pre-Publication Information

Best Book Covers of 2016

The Design Observer released its winners of the 50 Best Book Covers of 2016. This may be especially helpful for reference if you are at the beginning of your cover design process. The only downside to this list is that the genre is not listed. Some are obvious, but others would require some research. There are a number of great contests out there to see which book covers are considered the best of the best. Definitely do some genre-specific internet searches to see what’s working best for the type of book you write BEFORE you finalize your cover.

The Pro-Bono Marketing Staff Every Self-Published Author Has at Their Fingertips

I have to admit that the reason I clicked on this Book Designer article by Eva Lesko Natiello was my reaction that I had somehow missed out on something. What the heck??

I knew better, of course, but it got me to click. This article is a witty take on how elements of book design and promotion can serve as the hardest-working parts of a successful publishing venture. For instance, she lists your Book Cover as the Senior V.P. of Sales and your Meta Data/Book Description as your Senior V.P. of Marketing. Read the full article here.

Using Keywords to your Advantage in your Book Description

As you set up your book description (particularly on KPD/Kindle) you get to pick two book categories and then seven keywords. If you are savvy when choosing those keywords, you can leverage them to give you access to more than your two main book categories. But you have to know the right words to choose for other categories where your book might fit! A 2013 article from Jennifer Bresnick served as my original guide to this and a new article from Melinda Clayton at Indies Unlimited addresses this same topic.

Using my first novel as an example, I chose these two main categories for my young adult fantasy novel based on Celtic mythology:

· Juvenile Fiction > Fantasy & Magic

· Juvenile Fiction > Legends, Myths, Fables > Other

Then I added these keywords: Teen & Young Adult, Paranormal, Celtic, Coming of Age, Historical, Ireland, Romance

Those keywords have allowed my book to not only be ranked and searchable under the two main categories but the book has also been listed under Coming of Age and Paranormal & Urban Fantasy even though those aren’t either of the two main categories. The articles take a deeper look at this subject.

When to Publish Your Book

And just when you think your book should come out in time for Christmas sales, think again . . . The BookBaby blog walks through the best months for release, depending on your topic.

Agents Tell It Like They See It!

If you want to listen in on agents being extremely candid about the book industry, check out this discussionfeaturing Jodi Reamer (Writers House), Kim Witherspoon (Inkwell Management), Robert Gottlieb (Trident Media), Sloan Harris (ICM), Eric Simonoff (WME), and Christy Fletcher (Fletcher & Company) on the “Publishing . . . And Other Forms of Insanity” blog.

Post-Publication

My Failed WATTPAD Experiment

I had hoped that the free reader platform, Wattpad, would be a springboard to more fans and more sales. Unfortunately, the Wattpad Success Story proved elusive for me. I detail my experience and what I did right and wrong here.

Promoting your YA Novel

Another article from Book Baby this month gives tips on promoting your young adult novel through different types of social media . . . there’s some expected advice about Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Pinterest, but what was new to me were the tips about promoting via Reddit. I have one more thing on my list now--which might be good after my Wattpad fail.

Audio Books

Anne R. Allen has an excellent interview with an Audible/ACX narrator that gives inside info on getting your book recorded, so you don’t miss out on the fastest growing book market.

BUT I’M SO TIRED

I’ve thrown a lot at you today from a lot of different directions. Even if you’re not ready to use all of this advice immediately, you might be thinking, “I’m so tired!” or “There’s too much to do!” We all feel that way at least some of the time. Book writing is hard, but I think book marketing is even more difficult. Judith Briles on The Book Designer website recognizes this and talks us through our “marketing fatigue”. She acknowledges the hard work that is required to be successful and gives encouragements to keep us moving in the right direction!

Happy Reading & Writing, Valerie

#writing #writers #indieauthors #indiepublishing #indiepublish #writingtips #writing tips #writing problems #writing probz #author #authoradvice #author advice

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