issue 204
Hello! I’m back on the mainland. It feels good to be home, though I’m still wrecked from jet lag (and not knowing when I’ll see my wife next as she’s stuck in NZ with visa issues — someone needs to make that system more efficient). Starting to plan a few LA strike missions. Always feel free to reach out if you want to buy me lunch :)
I’ll draft off last week’s note about public perception: company, project, person, and the general industry’s online presence, or lack thereof. The sales device, devised.
Things are not always as they appear.
Fully integrated. Many companies (I think everywhere) are glued together by some spreadsheets (grids), a group chat, and duct tape. That’s what I call a proprietary software and intelligence stack. In entertainment, everyone relies heavily on Studio System, IMDB Pro, and/or Variety Insight to track projects, find emails, and see who reps who. Operational lifeblood.
Information gathered, organized, centralized, and sold. Database. In public.
Streamline processes. If you’re looking to break-in or ladder-up in the business, I think providing an expense-able service targeting the group of people you want to work with should get you fast tracked. And in the act, you become familiarized with the major players.
A student of industry, with everybody’s portfolio, credits, and/or clientele memorized. Better yet, know their interests and desires (the why) and navigate it (the how). Demonstrating value builds rapport and reputation. You can’t put a price on being top of mind. A go-to information hub. Brain, trust.
Be resourceful, take initiative. Anticipate. Bring the bird in-hand. Bear fruit.
Open sourced. Maintain living lists categorized by craft and demographics. I said the same last November in issue 162. That’s more than half the job of being a creative executive. They’re master list jockeys.
If you want to get buck-wild, blast out hot specs and/or open writing/directing assignments. Dealflow. That’s literally The Black List. Breakdown Services. Eventize the offering and you’ve got a marketplace. A film festival. I know that’s what Imagine Impact is building toward, taking a page from YC in the startup world. CrunchBase and AngelList (ProductHunt) also serve the tech industry similarly. Entertainment is super cagey though, and vice-grips secrets thinking loose lips sink ships. That’s not always the case. Be helpful. Additive.
Let’s give some glowing examples to friends who do just this. Christine Dirkes has her writer fellowship grid (to be updated soon) and extensive female director’s grid. Maxime Eyraud has his media-tech investments AirTable and year-in-review reports. And Eric Peckham has his media investors grid and SPAC list. Some may or may not scrape this newsletter. Thank them, follow them, buy them gifts. Whatever.
Some other goodies. Here’s a film/tv executive salary spreadsheet that was making the rounds this time last year on a few tracking groups (Slacks), and a recent TV facts on pacts. Do with it what you will.
And do the work itself, yourself. Or take credit for your assistant or analyst’s work. At some point, it becomes pretty obvious who has no idea what they’re doing. Plenty in the industry have a seriously inflated sense of self-import. It redlines. Charlatans macho posture. I’ve maybe put people on blast for this sort of thing, like in Feb’s issue 174. Activity mischaracterized.
Sell the coverage. So many responsibilities boil down to just doing that which should be done on the other side of the table. Buyer psyche. Ego. The lead better be more warm than cold or you’re spinning wheels for no reason. Busying yourself with nonsense is productivity lost. Get to the point.
Asks and refusals. Most monthly investor letters contain requests, usually for talent, capital, and/or customer intros. That’s “the what” now figure the rest. Work for the project. I find it silly that many small-fry production companies dismiss unsolicited (unqualified) inbound. Yes I know that’s for legal reasons, but you’re probably not going to be fleeced as a nobody. I think this’ll open up more with open calls and typeforms. A few of my favorite projects and relationships were born from cold emails.
The hardest part about this racket is just getting big-dogs to return your call. Sort that out and you’re golden.
To wrap it up, this all kinda harkens back to the whole “building in public” argument. Are you doing it for yourself or others? What’s the motiv? Pretty funny coming a guy with a weekly newsletter. It’s for altruistic reasons… so I say
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. See, sea changes. À la semaine prochaine.
Tech
WhatNot, live shopping app, raising at $1.5b val Info
Recur, NFTs and games, raised $50m (and Steve Cohen started a metaverse fund Digital) Med
Jam City acq games studio Ludia for $165m (Amblin/Uni games) and raised $350m JCblog
Microsoft acq ClipChamp for in-browser video editing Msftblog
Sony Interactive acq Firesprite, vr and games maker BW
Twitter to roll out invite-only groups Verge
FWB, the cool DAO on twtr, raised at $100m val BI
Toya, games studio focused on Roblox games, raised $4m GIB
Consumer livestreaming apps to be a $17b market in 3 years TC
SpotOn raised $300m acq Appetize for in-venue pos software TC
FB can do expressive speech from raw audio FBblog
Vowel, virtual mtg platform, raised $13m TC
Dispo testing waters on NFT product TC
Roblox testing spatial voice app Verge
DuoLingo embracing AI to teach peopl languages VB
Multiscription, free to play games but with subscriptions (?), raised $800k PG
Roar Studios launches for music metaverse (backing from Galaxy) Roar
Novi, hopes to make sustainable b2b marketplaces, raised $103m Forbes
PolyAI, conversational ai for customer service raised $14m TC
Epic Games to shutdown Houseparty TC
Headout, same day tourist booking marketplace, raised $12m TC
ShopUp, digitizes local stores across SEA, raised $75m TC
Smart toilets are coming WSJ
Media
HBO Max preps Euro launch (Scandis) next month THR
Apple must allow other forms of in-app payment Verge
Super Bowl commercials at $6.5m nearly sold out Var
ByteDance in talks to borrow $5b for overseas expansion Info
Agami, targeted adverts tech for connected TVs, raised $100m TC
Live Nation acq LatAm concert promoter Ocesa for $450m WSJ
*Backstage acq Film Freeway Cision
Amazon preps a tv line Bberg
AMC $25m Oscar heavy ad campaign to get ppl into theaters (and cooking up something with GME) Var
LaLiga partners w SoRare for NFTs Decrypt
ESPN acq social media accounts focused on high school sports like BallerVisions Var
Buzzfeed to get Spac’d in $1.5b deal, some data Dead
Fox buys TMZ for just under $50m THR
Vista Outdoor acq Foresight Sports for golf apparel and more $475m Cision
Enthusiast Gaming acq Addicting Games, casino games, for $35m GN
FB to buy $100m of invoices for minority owned businesses CNBC
JP Morgan acq The Infatuation BW
TX forbids social media censorship NYT
Entertainment
Venice winners IW
Creative Arts Emmy winners Var
Mayer/Staggs kicking the tires on the Smith’s Westbrook THR
Chris Nolan shopping his next film based on Oppenheimer in WWII Coll
Samuel Goldwyn takes US rights to Tribeca winner Blind Ambition Var
Legendary plans some Dune NFTs BW
Oyelowo signs ViacomCBS overall deal Var
SxSW doc We are Gods trying to use NFTs to distrib film ($3m goal??) Mirror
Sinphony is a horror anthology series taking place on Clubhouse THR
Brian Robbins to lead Paramount (woah) WSJ
HBO Max starts Scene in Black, celebrates black stories Var
Substack paying comic writers (they didn’t earmark $30m per CEO lol) THR
TikToker Addison Rae signs Netflix deal Var
Paramount Players picks up Orphan First Kill from eOne THR
Outlier Society to producer Victories Greater than Death for Amzn Var
Mattel preps He-Man universe, nods to diversity NYT
MRC to fully absorb Dick Clark Prods (Valence name phased out) Dead
Swank to star in Tom McCarthy ABC pilot Var
Punchdrunk plans dystopian future noir in immersive theater piece Guard
Netflix preps anime creators lounge in Tokyo Var
Specialty exhibitors turned into digital platforms during pandemic (Shift72) BO
Collaborative
Matrix Resurrections trailer YT
Decision making at Netflix Med
The CIA and social media Politico
MS report on sports and investing PDF
Alex Heath on FB’s Ray Ban smart glasses Verge
Punk clothing and the counterfeit markets NYT
VMA winners NYP
Ben Thompson on the Epic and Apple suit Stratech
Apple TV+ revitalized, no longer a punchline Info
McKay’s Don’t Look Up trailer with a bunch of no name cast YT
Nour Haridy on multiplayer game design with NFTs Med
How AI music recommendation systems work Cyanite
Last Night in Soho trailer YT
Margery Meyer of Scholastic says speech recog for kids is good (it’s not, call me if you want to discuss and are a philanthropist) TC
Mike Mills Cmon Cmon trailer YT
Spotify playlists as they relate to financial markets Convo
Naomi Ackie and Thandiwe Newton Interview
Profile on Andrew Garfield (Tammy Faye) Var
Musicians and more might soon start Discord servers for fans AmplifyYou
Tiffany Haddish on working with Shrader (Card Counter), mtg with PTA IW
Games and climate change Fastco
Scientists create artificial cells that can mimic cell’s processes w material NYU
Fashion exec guide to the metaverse Vogue
Researchers discover northernmost island due to gps error Vice
Watchdogs eyeing celebs shilling shitcoins WSJ
AI rejecting resumes, even though cos need more workers (ah yes, love this future) WSJ
Robots patrolling Singapore in search of undesirable behavior (uhhhh) USA
Crispr could help with hereditary disease (oh thank god, a redeeming one) Tele
Tailored content strategies based on demo Nielsen
Dylan Field on Loot Project and NFTs DFtwtr
Alfred Ng on what it means when cos say they don’t sell your data Markup
Lena Dunham and Jon Bernthal Interview
Moonfall trailer (oh Roland) YT
Bernadette Peters and Lin Manuel Miranda Interview
Pod w/ Alison Eakle, EVP at Shondaland Spot
Mark Suster on the changing of the venture landscape BSOT
Kevin from ‘The Office’ did over 1m on Cameo last yr THR
Transformations of our food groups and systems NeoLife
Interview with John Skipper and his new digs, focused on pods Bberg
AI that infers activity from staring at blank wall (?) PDF
A look at Cumberbatch’s prod co, StudioCanal deal focused on female films THR
Russian politics where ppl change their names to confuse voters Slate
Caffeine could be good for bumblebees Massci
Press freedoms crumble under authoritarianism Axios
Jonah Hill and Michael Gandolfini Interview