Art vs. Commerce

Walter Partos is the owner of Partos Company which represents cinematographers, costume designers, production designers, producers and editors. Their artists have won virtually every award in the entertainment industry including Oscars, Spirits Awards, Cannes Gold Lions, Emmys, BAFTAs and MTV Music Video Awards.

Walter started his career as a literary agent and his clients included Quentin Tarantino, Mardik Martin (Raging Bull, Mean Streets), Chris DeVore (Elephant Man), Rolf De Heir (Bad Boy Bubby).

After literary representation, the next step in his career was representing visual artists. One of the first visual artists he represented was cinematographer Jordan Croenenweth who taught him the importance of listening. Now the company represents a large number of cinematographers including a former podcast guest Oren Soffer.

This episode is unique in that instead of a more chronological discussion of Walter's career we dive deep into the intricacies of being an agent with the hour long discussion taking on a more Q&A form about the craft with Walter extolling advice about a number of topics including: how to get an agent, what an agent can do for you, common misconceptions about agents, how to be a professional artist…

We recorded this conversation over the course of a few discussions due to technical reasons. With that in mind, the conversation touches upon the same topics in a few different ways but it all felt helpful so the various conversations have been combined into one episode.

Joel Edwards is a filmmaker that has spent all of his adult life in the industry. Originally from Pasadena, CA Joel and his 4 brothers had moved 7 times, lived and traveled across the US as children. By the time he was in his early twenties he had started a film production business with his brother Jesse. This has grown and turned into a company that is now known as Evolve. For the past 7 years they've owned & operated the boutique content studio which is a strategic creative partner for many networks, production companies & agencies.

Their work is hand crafted, as the duo prefer to play all projects very close to the chest and are deeply immersed in every facet of creative, production & post, design, VFX, sound & score. Joel and Jesse work as a traditional directing team in larger scale sets, but also work individually as directors; or director/DP's in smaller crew roles when called upon in docu-style cinematography.

They have crafted content for Disney, National Geographic, ESPN, FOX, NBC Universal, Discovery, History, ABC, SyFy, Animal Planet, Samsung, Gatorade, Nike and many other networks & brands. Recognized with numerous industry awards. Just in the past 5 years alone, they have been nominated for 34 National Emmy Awards, winning 5 of them in Best Promo Campaign, Outstanding Cinematography, Best Sports Show & Journalism categories.

Matty Brown is a film director that specializes in his own highly unique style of visual storytelling. Starting from modest beginnings growing up poor, and at times homeless, Matty has become one of the most successful filmmakers on Vimeo garnering 16 staff picks.

Through his incredible success online he has been thrust into the commercial world directing spots for large corporations such as Chevron and Lincoln. He is currently repped by Workhouse Creative.

In addition to his art and commercial pieces, Matty is stepping into the world of narrative with his first short film Thump. Still in post production, the trailer is online and a feature script is currently in development.

Adam J. Kurtz is a designer, artist and the author of 1 Page at a Time and Pick Me Up, which have been translated into over a dozen languages. In addition to his “very personal” personal work, he’s collaborated with brands and cultural institutions like Urban Outfitters, the Brooklyn Public Library, Fishs Eddy and Strand Bookstore. His design and illustration embraces the world with optimism… and a dark sense of humor. He’s truly interested in the ephemera of daily life and creating honest, accessible work. Adam has previously held creative positions at Barton F. Graf, BuzzFeed, Houpla and others.

Ethan Goldman is a media consultant working in creative development with twenty years of experience working in television, film and digital. Currently he is consulting for Big Fish Entertainment, Anchor and Viacom. Prior to his move into freelance consulting Ethan served as Head of Development at Morgan Spurlock’s Warrior Poets. Before that he was Senior Vice President of Ish Entertainment, where he developed projects for cable tv. Ethan landed that job after working as a creative consultant for various cable networks developing show ideas and original programming for AMC, truTV, and Fuse. His start in the business began at VH1, working for Lauren Zalaznick, contributing to projects like 100 Greatest, Vogue/VH1 Fashion Awards, Pop Up Video and Vh1 Movies of the Week. In this episode we discuss the journey he has been on and dive into how a creative mind like his ends up creating on the development side of the business.

Jay Wadley is a musician and film composer with credits that include the hit series The OA on Netflix and feature films such as Indignation. His score for James Schamus' Indignation was listed in IndieWire's "10 Best Scores of 2016". Indignation premiered with critical acclaim at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival where it was acquired by Lionsgate. Recent projects include The OA (Netflix) and Anu Valia's Lucia, Before & After, winner of the 2017 Sundance Jury Prize: U.S. Short Fiction. Other TV credits include Lie to Me (FOX), Crazy Sexy Cool: The TLC Story (VH1), The Nine Lives of Chloe King (ABC Family) and orchestrations for Doctor Who (BBC). A graduate of the Yale School of Music (MM, AD), Jay has won two Charles Ives awards from the Academy of Arts and Letters as well as an ASCAP/SCI Student Composer Award. He's been commissioned by Carnegie Hall's Ensemble ACJW, the Yale and Williams College among others. His films have been featured at Sundance, Berlin, BFI London, Rotterdam, Tribeca and Montreal film festivals. His arrangements and orchestrations for Rufus Wainwright, Mark Ronson and Calexico have been performed by The San Francisco Symphony, New York City Opera, The Royal Ballet and the Louisville Symphony Orchestra, among others.

James Burns is a film director with a career that includes multiple short films in Tribeca film festival and has been working with Vice directing content for over a year. James has a unique story having been in and out of the prison system since he was 6 years old. He has spent time in solitary confinement which has shaped his perspective and current drive to bring to light issues within the prison system. After turning his situation around, his life’s story was written and produced into a Hollywood movie titled “Jamesy Boy.” Following the film James worked to create a career in film as a writer and director. Now with years of success under his belt, James focuses a lot of his storytelling on the underprivileged and marginalized trying to give a voice to the voiceless. Using his unique vantage-point, James gains access to subcultures shining a light on society’s problems in an attempt to start conversations on ways to improve these issues.

Ricky Staub is a film and commercial director as well as the founder of the production company Neighborhood Film Co. His most recent work, The Cage, was the first in a new series of works from Film Supply called Film Supply Originals. The project served as Ricky’s first narrative film that he wrote, directed and edited. In the episode we discuss this project at length going into the details behind how it came to fruition and the challenges faced from ideation to completion. Neighborhood Film Co. is unique in that it works with the formerly incarcerated through a paid apprenticeship program that teaches the ins and outs of the film business and offers real responsibilities and opportunities to those involved. With three apprentices per year in an eight month program, Ricky’s company helps create a new foundation for the participants.

Shal Ngo is a director and writer splitting his time between narrative and commercial work. He is on the directing roster at Acres having been there from its inception as the company’s first director. One of Shal’s notable projects for Acres was his work on the Bill DeBlasio for Mayor campaign. The campaign has been credited for a significant boost in DeBlasio’s polling and was viewed as a beneficial factor in his election win. Narratively Shal has been working on an ongoing short film series called Tangents. This podcast episode takes on a special approach as we recorded it on-location in Vietnam where Shal and I were filming his latest sci-fi short film. Having just wrapped production the day prior, we sat down to discuss the project, our collaboration between director and cinematographer as well as the usual podcast journey of chronology and discussion about moments throughout Shal’s life.

Oren Soffer is a cinematographer primarily working on narrative in addition to commercials and documentaries. After growing up in Israel, Oren studied at NYU’s film school where he spent time working under Reed Morano ASC. Upon graduating it has been a constant stream of narrative and commercial work building his chops and aesthetic. Some commercial clients include Discovery Channel, Bloomberg News, Time Inc, Refinery 29, Target, MTV, Nickelodeon, L’Oreal and Skype. In the podcast we take a deep dive into the craft of cinematography. Not just the technical aspects but the mental ones as well both in the micro view of being on set and the macro view of how to shape a career as a director of photography.