19 2024 September
How the Black List Changed Hollywood, and Might Change Publishing Too
Nearly twenty years ago, Franklin Leonard started publishing his Black List which collected “an annual survey of Hollywood’s best unproduced screenplays.” The goal was to help undiscovered...
Read Now
20 2024 May
Should All Celebrities Be Advocates?
Earlier this month, a campaign on TikTok known as Blockout 2024 was launched as a response to tone-deaf social media posts from celebrities and online...
Read Now
14 2024 May
Imagining the Future of Hip Hop and Art in 50 Years
The day after the Met Gala, the Internet was flooded with deep fakes of celebrities who weren’t there, wearing things they never wore. Some of them...
Read Now
09 2024 May
How Netflix Solves Content Overload with the Entertainment Industry’s Best User Interface Design
How does a company that offers more than a billion hours of programming make it less intimidating to find something to watch? This is a...
Read Now
07 2024 May
Lessons From Daniel Radcliffe’s Journey to Leave Harry Potter Behind and Reinvent Himself
If you were cast into the role of a lifetime at the age of 11 and went on to play one of the most beloved...
Read Now
23 2024 February
The African Media Streaming Brand That Just Turned Down $1.7B
One of the most famous streaming media brands in the world is one that you may not have ever heard of. It’s called MultiChoice and...
Read Now22 2024 January
Mean Girls Fans Outraged to Discover the Movie Is a Musical
There was a time in my life when I would experience a movie in a theater without ever having seen a trailer for it. I...
Read Now11 2024 January
Mickey Mouse Enters the Public Domain … Here’s What It Means
The first big meme of the year is Mickey Mouse finally entering the public domain, which means creators can use the iconic Disney character to...
Read Now19 2023 December
Behind Netflix’s First-Ever Big Data Release and What We Watched In 2023
The Night Agent was the most popular show globally on Netflix over the past year and 30% of all viewing was non-English programming. 55% of...
Read Now14 2023 October
SXSW Sydney and a Sneak Peek at the Non-Obvious Podcast
Next week I'll be back in Australia speaking at the international edition of SXSW in Sydney. In addition to doing a Featured Session, I'll be recording two episodes LIVE from the stage for my upcoming Non-Obvious Show podcast (launching later this year).
Read Now14 2023 August
New Reality Show Deep Fake Love May Unleash a Lot of New Problems into The World
Netflix’s latest reality show Deep Fake Love is portraying a dark potential future. The concept is simple and diabolical: a bunch of couples go on a reality show where they...
Read Now24 2023 July
Why Barbie Isn’t the Biggest Movie Marketing Story This Week
This week every marketing publication is talking about the movie marketing for Barbie, celebrating their “dizzying array of partnerships” and all the memes, parodies and brand...
Read Now06 2022 October
Why Are Stories That Glorify Murderers So Popular?
An increasingly popular narrative arc in storytelling is to take a classic bad guy and humanize him to flip the story. The bad guy isn't intrinsically bad - but becomes that way through some sort of trauma.
Read Now