Partner
Odysseus Arms
1) Two major developments have occurred this year. First, our zip code has finally embraced the power of what we do. Previously, the SF computer engineering world has regarded the need for branding and advertising as a sign of a fault in their concept. But Jonathon Mendenhall is leading the pack with Airbnb (see Cannes and every other award show) in a pronounced and deliberate manner showing advertising can deepen the emotional tie people have with code in the modern media landscape (Just ask VRBO). When you live and work in the world epicenter of innovation, and they’re digging your chili, that’s everything.
The other major thing happening in the agency world is the sudden rise of women in leadership roles. Keep in mind, all white male agency teams makes zero sense when you consider women influence the purchase of 80% of everything bought. At any rate, if the glass ceiling can be shattered for women, more diverse ethnicity is bound to be next. Good times.
2) I got to direct Sean Penn for the Global Causes Day 2016 campaign we developed for Facebook. You’ll never see the film unless you work at Facebook, thanks to an MSA clause. While my writers went back and forth with his writer on the script, someone came up with the idea that he’d be extremely difficult to work with. He was the opposite. It was an important job designed to generate a genuine response and he took it very seriously.
Actually, he said he’d stay as long as it took to get it perfect. Which was one take. The film worked—Facebook employees responded and they arguably have the world’s most charitable workforce.
3) I know the backstory of how it really happened, but the revival on the Colonel for KFC and the subsequent meta-Colonel or “cameo Colonel” appearances demonstrated both mastery of icon-smithing as well as multi-media screen choreography, in my opinion. Fast food is tough to do well. Also, barrettSF produced an amazing “Rap Alphabet” film with Gentleman Scholar for BleacherReport.com which is a stunning thing to watch.
4) A tidal wave of VR work is about to wash through the industry; anyone can see that. And it’s going to be a lot of fun experimenting and learning to use the medium to its greatest effect. We’ve got one in the early stages of production and I have to say, it’s pretty stunning. We’re lucky to get to work now.
Plus CMOs are finally allowed to spend money on broadcast buys after many years of alternative, often-exotic media forays. Really well filmed ads are re-emerging as a first choice message channel and with this comes a whole new batch of amazing young talent to work with. Right on.
5) The way you “read” an article will change drastically in the coming months, as indicated by the VR work for The New York Times which was awarded the AICP Next Award. It will become very common to teleport yourself to distant places and experience a story, supported by printed word and voiceover.
6) We produce content with the highest engagement on all of Facebook, shot on iPhone 6 (See Carlo Rossi on Facebook). Beyond that, we leave video and film production to the experts at production companies, as God intended.
Keaton and Kunis Play Father and Daughter In Writer-Director Meyers-Shyer’s “Goodrich”
Michael Keaton and Mila Kunis went from strangers to father and daughter in short order for the new film "Goodrich."
Before cameras started rolling, they were essentially only able to meet once. It was a dinner with their writer-director Hallie Meyers-Shyer, who just had a feeling they'd be great together.
And before they knew it they were off to the races, embodying two people with a lifetime of hurt behind them, wondering if a real relationship is even possible at this point: He's attempting to reconcile his absence in her youth and find a place in her life now, while parenting young twins from his second marriage; She's preparing to have a child of her own and wondering if she can trust her dad to be there this time.
But neither were particularly worried. The script, they said, was just that good.
"Hallie's writing was so honest and genuine and never felt forced," Kunis said. "It never felt fake and never felt anything other than the story of these people. Everything made sense. The dynamic was real. The relationships felt real."
Meyers-Shyer is the daughter of filmmakers Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer, who not only got a film education at home, but also frequented her mother's sets and even appeared in several films as an extra. She made her directorial debut in 2017 with the Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy "Home Again" and started writing "Goodrich" soon after. She'd been thinking about a lot of things, about parenting in different decades and what that's like for an older father with young and adult kids, and about a complicated father-daughter relationship.
"In my personal life, my father remarried and had a second set of kids. And that was complicated for me," Meyers-Shyer said. "I felt like if that was something... Read More