Mediabrands Content Studio (MBCS) and Vice Media Group (VMG) have formalized a global production partnership. Effective immediately, VMG will make its entire suite of global production content capabilities and creator teams available to Mediabrands agencies and clients worldwide.
The new arrangement is the logical next step for the two companies which already have a rich, extensive working relationship and share similar approaches to content. For the first time ever, Mediabrands and its clients will gain access to all the production teams, creators, and talent that powers all of VMG’s brands including VICE, i-D, Noisey, Refinery29, VICE News, VICE Studios, and Pulse Films, globally–focusing the partnership on creative solutions without committing to any media spend, ad buy or content placement on VMG’s media properties. As well, Mediabrands and its clients will now have access to a full turnkey global production infrastructure that can develop, facilitate, and create a diverse array of brand-owned and controlled content, which can then be placed on clients’ O&O and desired media channels. Likewise, VMG will now have direct access to Mediabrands comprehensive portfolio of clients around the globe, as the preferred production partner, through which it can directly develop content, support, and engage on production deals.
“The VMG partnership will allow us to deliver consistent content capabilities across our top markets at the highest level regardless of media commitment,” said Brendan Gaul, Mediabrands global chief content officer. “The unbundling of media and content is a gamechanger in the way we can quickly respond to a client’s content need anywhere, for any use with exceptional creativity.”
Co-brokered by Brett Henenberg, MBCS’s global head of production, and VMG’s SVP of global production Dan Bowen, the partnership marks the first deal from Interpublic’s newest creative practice since launching in November 2020. “The power of this partnership is that it allows us to deliver high quality, low cost, fast and agile production. The old saying ‘you can only choose two between good, fast and cheap’ no longer applies as the global scale of this deal allows us to truly deliver all three anywhere in the world,” added Henenberg.
Mediabrands emerging film and television development practice, TRAVERSE32, will also benefit from the MBCS/VMG deal. Through the partnership Pulse Films will co-develop a slate of original entertainment properties with TRAVERSE32, founded by Gaul and Henenberg last December.
Bowen said, “The IPG Mediabrands team understands the best way to tap into our extensive offering at VMG and will bring VMG a level of first person brand access media companies rarely get. With production across the full spectrum leading and media supporting, together we are positioned for some exciting work and creative collaboration.”
Davud Karbassioun, global president of commercials & branded, Pulse Films, said, “Brendan & Brett have a unique track record for guiding their diverse portfolio of brands to properly create and own entertainment IP in a truly innovative, meaningful and rewarding way. There is a big opportunity for brands at the heart of this partnership that we are excited to dive into with TRAVERSE32.”
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More