What’s the impact of the pandemic on you, your company, your approach to doing business in the future? What practices emerged that you will continue even as restrictions are loosening?
The past year and a half have been completely transformative for us all, both professionally and personally. We have learned to collaborate in new ways. We have built a new kind of confidence that we can overcome any challenge put in front of us and continue making work we are proud of. I don’t think we will ever go back to working the way we did.
For example, we may continue to limit travel to shoots. Having the opportunity to participate remotely has actually given us a chance to be better teachers and mentors. Junior producers, creatives and account teams can now be part of a shoot, which has brought such value to the process.
Producers thrive on being faced with a challenge that seems impossible. I couldn’t be more proud of our team and the way they have responded to the pandemic.
How has the call for equity, racial and social justice affected, honed or influenced your sense of responsibility as a company in terms of the content you create and/or your commitment to opening up opportunities for filmmaking talent from underrepresented backgrounds?
We have made a strong commitment to ensure there are real opportunities for creative people from underrepresented and marginalized communities to contribute to storytelling that is authentic and inclusive. We are utilizing as many resources as possible to expand our knowledge and encourage new thinking. We have a responsibility to make a change.
What’s the biggest takeaway or lessons learned from work (please identify the project) you were involved in that was or is in the running for current awards season consideration (i.e., Emmys, Cannes Lions, etc.)?
It is of course incredibly rewarding to work on projects attached to causes, knowing that we are able to get a message out that can change lives. We have been working with Change the Ref for many years in an effort to create work that gets talked about. Shamecards proved that when teams feel passionately about a brief and have the trust and support of great client partners like Manny and Patricia Oliver, the possibilities are endless.
While gazing into the crystal ball is a tricky proposition, we nonetheless ask you for any forecast you have relative to content creation and/or the creative and/or business climate for the second half of 2021 and beyond.
While we were fortunate to not see a significant slow down of production during quarantine, we have seen an even bigger increase in our clients activity this summer. I find comfort in knowing that all the COVID safety guidelines continue to stay in place to protect everyone participating in making content, and I don’t anticipate these regulations will change any time soon. The production community has truly banded together, with priorities in the right place. We have proven we don’t have to compromise and while change has taken time to adjust to, we have proven we can still have access to all the resources we need to make breakout content.
What are your goals, creatively speaking and/or from a business standpoint, for your company, division, studio or network in 2021?
We always strive to do effective and award winning work, it’s what fuels us all. As creative producers, we continue to hope to see ideas that give us that spark of excitement. Production has really evolved and has given us the opportunity to be challenged with new types of content on a daily basis. Our hope is that this continues well into this year and next.
What trends, developments or issues would you point to thus far in 2021 as being most significant, perhaps carrying implications for the rest of the year and beyond?
Our biggest challenge is figuring out how to work together in the most effective way moving forward. We have learned so much and will be changed forever. How can we maximize our output and be smart about finding the work/life balance that is so critical to success. We all find our creative inspiration in different ways so how do we prioritize and give our teams rooms to find that inspiration? No one has navigated a pandemic before so I look forward to continuing to experiment, communicate and undoubtedly pivot. It’s a constant state of evolution.
What work (advertising, entertainment)–your own or others–struck a responsive chord with you and/or was the most effective creatively and/or strategically so far this year? Does any work stand out to you in terms of meshing advertising and entertainment?
I have been incredibly moved by the progress we have made in creating advertising is made by women for women.
“Womb Stories” was a powerful campaign that brought together strategy and craft in such a brilliant way. As a woman in a male centric industry, it’s always inspiring to see such honest work that so many can connect with.
Being in the industry, I was also particularly drawn to LOLA MullenLowe’s Dove Real Beauty work. As we are challenged with finding better ways to be inclusive in this industry, this extension of the original execution spoke directly to me and reminded me about the responsibility I have to better represent real women in our communications.
