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    May 2017 Producer’s Survey — Joshua Blum

    By Mike MorgeraUpdated:No Comments1792 Views
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    1) Create work that reflects who you are, and expresses what you want to say. Be selective. [Today it’s technically and financially so easy to produce content, I find people are directing simply because they can, and we end up with a glut of well-produced, nothing.] Take your time, develop your voice and carefully consider the stories you want to tell. 

    2) Advising producers is trickier, because there are so many different jobs that use the title Producer. If you want to be close to the line – learn the mechanics – If you want to be an EP, cultivate your aesthetic and develop relationships with directors and industry people. If your dream is to create your own stories, then follow the same advise I gave for directors, but whatever type of producer you want to be make sure you know what the job really means and are driven by inspiration. 

    3) The lesson I have learned over and over is don’t let the technology drive the creative. I can’t tell you how many VR projects I have seen where I wished there was a director deciding where I should look. VR, AR and AI can be great tools, but the lesson is fit the technology to the story, not the other way around.

    4) I’m very proud of the diversity the range of work we did this year. We had several features, and on the commercial front I’m excited about a job we just did with Christopher Gruse for Acura and a comedy campaign for Ram Trucks by Spielbergs. Alison Klayman did some very powerful work for Brawny, I love Michael McCourt’s spots for Maine Tourism, Lance Edmands did a great short film for Cadillac, and Ben & Dave seem to top themselves every time out.

    Joshua Blum
    President/executive producer
    Washington Square Films



    Lucy Walker Made A Searing Documentary About Wildfires In 2021; Now, People May Be More Inclined To Listen

    Tuesday, January 14, 2025

    When Lucy Walker debuted her harrowing documentary about California wildfires, "Bring Your Own Brigade," at Sundance in 2021, it was during peak COVID. Not the best time for a film on a wholly different scourge.

    "It was really hard," the Oscar-nominated filmmaker says now. "I didn't blame people for not wanting to watch a film about the fires in the middle of the pandemic, because it was just too much horror."

    And so the film, though acclaimed — it was named one of the 10 best films of the year by the New York Times – didn't reach an audience as large as Walker had hoped, with its urgent display of the human cost of wildfires and its tough, crucial questions for the future.

    That could change. Walker thinks people may now be more receptive to her message, given the devastating wildfires that have wrought havoc on Los Angeles itself the past week. Firefighters were preparing on Tuesday to attack new blazes amid warnings that winds combined with severely dry conditions created a " particularly dangerous situation."

    "This is probably the moment where it becomes undeniable," she said in an interview.

    She added: "It does feel like people are now asking the question that I was asking a few years ago, like, 'Is it safe to live in Los Angeles? And why is this happening, and what can we do about it? And the good news is that there are some things we can do about it. What's tricky is that they're really hard to accomplish."

    Documenting the human cost, confronting complacency
    In "Bring Your Own Brigade" (available on Paramount+), Walker portrays in sometimes terrifying detail the devastation caused by two wildfires on the same day in 2018, products of the same wind event — the Camp Fire that engulfed the... Read More

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