Margarita Mix Santa Monica, a long-time provider of high def mixing, sound design, ISDNs and other audio services for commercials, has diversified to provide those same services for long format media via the launch of an Entertainment Division. The new venture will service TV networks, film studios and reality production companies, as well as interactive and long-form branded entertainment media produced by advertising agencies.
Heading up the division is producer and sales rep Whitney Warren, a Southern California native who joined the company four years ago and has stewarded notable projects for such clients as Coca-Cola and Sony PlayStation3.
Margarita Mix has also brought on board audio artist Michael Jesmer, whose creative experience as a mixer for television and film, especially in the realm of reality TV, include E! Entertainment’s Party Monster, FX’s Operation MySpace and MTV Network’s Big in Japan. Jesmer will work in a 5.1 surround sound mixing studio equipped with a state-of-the-art ProTools system.
“Long format is a natural extension for Margarita Mix,” noted general manager Michele Millard. “The growth in independent TV and film production on the Westside creates a great opportunity for us. Additionally, many of our advertising clients have begun to produce entertainment-style products for their clients, and this allows them to have their audio needs enhanced by a company they know…There is increasing crossover between the advertising and entertainment worlds and in the audio zone, we are the link.”
Margarita Mix has just wrapped up its first project under the new Entertainment Division, a video documentary series for insurance giant Liberty Mutual, engineered and mixed by Jesmer and Margarita Mix veteran Jimmy Hite, who has been with the company since its inception in 1991.
Jesmer’s arrival at Margarita Mix (part of The LA Studios audio post company) is actually a return, as he began his career at the shop as an assistant mixer in 2002. For the past two years, he has been on staff at reality TV specialist Bennett Productions, where he worked on series for ABC, HDNET, ION and others. In addition to mixing the shows, Jesmer was involved in production sound for several series including The 25th Miss Hawaiian Tropic International Model Search and the ION lifestyle series Men7. He recently recorded Tori Spelling for her new book MommyWood and is currently working on a new series for the 2009 CBS TV season.
TikTok Creators Left In Limbo As Supreme Court Considers Potential Platform Ban
Will TikTok be banned this month?
That's the pressing question keeping creators and small business owners in anxious limbo as they await a decision that could upend their livelihoods. The fate of the popular app will be decided by the Supreme Court, which will hear arguments on Jan. 10 over a law requiring TikTok to break ties with its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, or face a U.S. ban.
At the heart of the case is whether the law violates the First Amendment with TikTok and its creator allies arguing that it does. The U.S. government, which sees the platform as a national security risk, says it does not.
For creators, the TikTok doomsday scenarios are nothing new since President-elect Donald Trump first tried to ban the platform through executive order during his first term. But despite Trump's recent statements indicating he now wants TikTok to stick around, the prospect of a ban has never been as immediate as it is now with the Supreme Court serving as the final arbiter.
If the government prevails as it did in a lower court, TikTok says it would shut down its U.S. platform by Jan. 19, leaving creators scrambling to redefine their futures.
"A lot of my other creative friends, we're all like freaking out. But I'm staying calm," said Gillian Johnson, who benefited financially from TikTok's live feature and rewards program, which helped creators generate higher revenue potential by posting high-quality original content. The 22-year-old filmmaker and recent college graduate uses her TikTok earnings to help fund her equipment for projects such as camera lens and editing software for her short films "Gambit" and "Awaken! My Neighbor."
Johnson said the idea of TikTok going away is "hard to accept."
Many creators... Read More