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    Simple Solutions For Complicated Times

    By SHOOT StaffUpdated:No Comments1314 Views

    By Joseph DeFilipps

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    We are always looking for ways to break into agencies, meet new creatives, do that "A" work—but how? Reps? Marketing? Branding? How do you get a buzz for tried and true editors?

    Or has New York City lost its edge? Is the talent here and across the country unable to compete with our global brothers and sisters? Has the U.S. eye lost sight, insight, innovation? Are the best creatives at the best agencies tired of flat Midwest tones, Brooklyn "deze and doze," a hard Upstate "A"? Is an NYU Film School degree the road to the poor farm? Should all of us take graphic courses in London, Tokyo or Paris, and have it printed on our business cards?

    I don’t know about you, but I have been on a search more public than Google’s IPO to find the answer. I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I think I’ve found IT! His name is Vlad Wellington. Currently, we are in negotiations, so hands off!

    Vlad has a great reel. He was able to leverage his L.A. pool boy career into a Final Cut Pro lesson and a hot reel of director’s cuts and spec spots (at Muscle Beach, he is known by the nickname "Beef" Wellington). He speaks five languages and has the cutest British accent (his dad was the Transylvanian ambassador to England). His hair is perfect, his piercings top drawer and he wears red cowboy boots and no underwear (oh my God!).

    I’ve asked my partner editors to move out of their rooms and share an Avid so that Vlad and his collection of erotic Hummels can be accommodated. Vlad is available for editing 11 a.m. through 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday (weekend = 2 party days + 1 rest day). His most famous quote (and it’s sooo Zen): "I am an artist—there are no revisions, there are no delivery dates, I dooo have a life!"

    Creatives, don’t get caught without that attitude that takes your project to new heights. Pay now and pay later. From across a country and an ocean, Vlad is my salvation and possibly a new house in the Hamptons. Now that I have my new marketing plan, I’m available "to do" lunch or "take" a meeting. Vlad won’t be there. He’s in London, Prague—wherever you’d like him to be from. I’m turning on the fax machine, I’m about to check e-mail.

    Thank you, Vlad.

    Category:POV (Perspective)



    Conan O’Brien To Receive The Mark Twain Prize For Life Achievement In Comedy

    Thursday, January 16, 2025

    Comedian and host Conan O'Brien was named the newest recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for lifetime achievement in comedy on Thursday.

    O'Brien, 61, has carved out an improbable decadeslong career arc, moving from goofy television interloper to comedic elder statesman. Along the way, he survived one of the most public failures in the history of television on "The Tonight Show" — only to launch a successful, and sustained, next act.

    His travel series "Conan O'Brien Must Go" sparked popular and critical acclaim, with a second season coming. In March, O'Brien will host the Academy Awards three weeks before his own Mark Twain ceremony in Washington.

    Deborah Rutter, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in a statement called O'Brien "a master of invention and reinvention, consistently pushing the envelope in search of new comedic heights."

    O'Brien offered his own tongue-in-cheek assessment, saying in the Kennedy Center statement that he would be "the first winner of the Mark Twain Prize recognized not for humor, but for my work as a riverboat pilot." He will be honored on March 23 in a special ceremony in which he will receive a bronze bust of Twain, the iconic American writer and satirist whose real name was Samuel Clemens.

    Mark Twain recipients are honored with a night of testimonials and video tributes, often featuring previous award winners. The ceremony will stream on Netflix at a later date yet to be announced.

    O'Brien leaped into the spotlight from near-total obscurity in 1993, when he was chosen to replace the legendary David Letterman as host of "Late Night" despite no significant on-camera experience. The former Harvard Lampoon editor had spent the previous years as a writer for "Saturday... Read More

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