Logan Gruidl is Senior Producer at Picture Head and the founder of The Trailer Brief, a bi-weekly newsletter covering trailer craft, industry news, and the campaigns shaping entertainment advertising. After coming up as an AE at Outpost and Grandson, Logan built his finishing expertise at Picturehead while quietly becoming one of the industry's most thoughtful new voices.

Key Takeaways:

1. The finishing side of the industry is poorly understood even by people in it. Logan breaks down how color, mix, versioning, and delivery work at a post house like Picture Head.
2. The Trailer Brief was born from a need to stay engaged with the creative side of the industry while doing finishing work full-time. The journalism background helped.
3. AI as editorial tool, not ghostwriter. Logan uses ChatGPT to round up trades and Claude to pressure-test his drafts, not write them.
4. The Uncut Gems trailer was the piece that made him want to work in this industry. Grandson had it on their homepage when he was interviewing.
5. Building community matters. Between Behind the Trailer, TWMT, Jules Levy's Tuesday roundups, and now The Trailer Brief, a real ecosystem of industry education and documentation is taking shape.

Standout Quotes:

• "We're in a cool place right now where the people who founded the industry are still working, but there's also a whole new slate of editors who came up wanting to be trailer editors — and now they're working next to the people who cut the things that inspired them."
• "I felt like the way to keep accountable was to write about them."
• "If I can distill it down to four bullet points for someone who just got off a 12-hour shift, and they feel better about their knowledge of the industry — that's a win."
• "I don't think anyone my age really wants to be a finisher, aside from me."
• "I was like, okay, time to go to Picturehead — be a smaller fish in a bigger pond."

Links:

• The Trailer Brief: the-trailer-brief.beehiiv.com
• Logan on LinkedIn: @Logan-Gruidl

Thanks to our sponsor:

• The Golden Trailer Awards: goldentrailer.com

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Monica Brady has spent 26 years doing something that didn't exist when she started: honoring the people who make movie trailers. Co-founded with her sister Evelyn on a boat to Fort Sumter in 1999, the Golden Trailer Awards grew from a scrappy DGA screening room show (running on two Avids, fingers crossed) into the industry's premier celebration of trailer craft. In this episode, Monica traces the full arc of the GTAs, from a pre-broadband era when trailer editors were essentially invisible, to a show that now spans dozens of categories and serves as a genuine career launchpad for aspiring creatives.

5 Key Takeaways

The GTAs were born out of necessity, not ambition. Monica and Evelyn weren't trying to build an institution. They were trying to find a trailer editor for their student film and couldn't. No directory, no resource, no awards show existed. So they created one. What was meant to "run on autopilot" is now 26 years in.

The show evolves as the industry evolves. From 23 categories in 1999 (including one they couldn't even explain) to dedicated tracks for streaming series, video games, and social trailer bites, the GTAs have always followed the craft. Categories don't get added by committee — they get added when the industry shows up and says "we cut these like theatrical trailers."

Music is the most powerful recall tool in the trailer editor's kit. Monica keeps coming back to music as the thread connecting memory, emotion, and ticket sales. Editors who also play instruments aren't a coincidence — music is math, and the pattern recognition required for both is the same muscle.

The trailer industry is uniquely positioned for the AI era. Most industries are bracing for an onslaught of AI-generated content. Monica's case: who better to make sense of a flood of footage than people who have spent decades being handed raw material with no script, no direction, and a tight deadline? The trailer editor's core skill is exactly what the moment will demand.

Standout Quotes

"We sent out some applications, and the rest will run on autopilot. And 26 years later, you're looking at the autopilots."

"Who but the trailer industry have had a decades-long start at taking nonsensical footage about a topic they know nothing about — no script, no direction — and crafting a story together?"

"These trailer editors are artists. And that is one of the things that sets the human being apart from whatever's coming at us right now."

"Everybody help each other. We're here a very short amount of time on this planet. Let's just make the most of it."

Links & Resources

• Golden Trailer Awards: goldentrailer.com
• GTA 26 — May 28, 2026 | Saban Theatre, Beverly Hills

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• Leave a rating and review
• Share the episode with a friend in the industry
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Kris McDonald is a Creative Director and Senior Editor at XAV, and the founder of Behind the Trailer — a free educational platform dedicated to helping aspiring trailer editors break into the business and level up their craft. He came up through Open Road and Trailer Park before landing at XAV (which was Project X at the time), where he's built a career cutting campaigns for major studio and streaming titles including The Chosen, The Big Cigar, and Deepwater Horizon.

In this episode, Kris traces his path from runner to creative director, reflects on the mentors and moments that shaped him, and pulls back the curtain on what it actually takes to cut a trailer that makes an audience stop breathing.

Key Takeaways

Say yes to everything — even the soccer video. Early in his career, Kris was asked to cut a highlight reel for a client's daughter's graduation party. He treated it like a studio campaign, stayed late, and poured everything into it. The client loved it, sat him down in the bay, and introduced him to the work of Nick Temple. The lesson: every cut is an audition.

Set a goal, then chase it down. After learning that his mentor Adrian finished his first trailer at 25, Kris made it a personal mission to hit that same milestone. He cut constantly, studied obsessively, and hit the mark — finishing his first trailer on The Blind Side right around his 25th birthday.

Emotion, story, rhythm — in that order. Kris breaks down the three pillars he builds every cut around, drawn from Walter Murch's In the Blink of an Eye. A trailer can be slick and fast and technically impressive, but without emotion, it doesn't land.

Trial and error is the process. When asked about a gut-punch moment of silence in the Deepwater Horizon trailer, Kris was refreshingly honest: he knew what he wanted the audience to feel, but finding the right technique was pure experimentation. Knowing the destination and figuring out the route are two different skills.

Behind the Trailer exists to pay it forward. Everything Kris knows, he learned because someone in a bay was willing to show him their sequences and give him notes. Behind the Trailer is his way of making that kind of mentorship available to anyone who wants it — for free.

Standout Quotes

"I want you to feel like you can't breathe. I know that this is the moment of the trailer where your breath is taken away. Now, how do I do that?"

"I cut a lot of bad trailers. I got good at creating an open, but then it would just drag."

"Any sort of information I can give back to people wanting to get into this industry — that's the number one goal."

"This is my dream job. I'll never stop cutting."

Find Kris & Behind the Trailer

• behindthetrailer.com
• Instagram: @behindthetrailer
• YouTube: @behindthetrailer
• Behind the Trailer Community Discord (free) — discord.gg/wRdGTFwhh2
  • For aspiring editors looking to break in, industry pros who want to give back, and anyone who just loves trailers

Connect

• Corey Nathan – @coreysnathan

Brought to you by...

• The Golden Trailer Awards – goldentrailer.com

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• Leave a rating and review
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Enjoying the show? Rate and review wherever you listen. It helps more people find us. Now go do some inspired work.

Before founding Rubber Sole Creative, Stav Ozdoba came to the U.S. with one goal: become a filmmaker. Within months, he was in meetings to direct a feature. Not long after, he learned just how brutal that path could be.

What followed wasn't a straight line. It was a pivot.

From indie films to editing weddings. From teaching himself Final Cut to landing at Sony. From cutting sizzles and promos to leading teams and eventually building his own creative shop from the ground up.

In this episode, Corey and Stav trace that journey and get into what actually sustains a career in this business. Not just passion, but craft. Not just ambition, but clarity around what you're truly good at.

They also dig into how storytelling changes across platforms, why "added value" creative matters more than ever, and what it really takes to carve out space as an independent in a crowded, evolving industry.

Calls to Action

• Follow Stav Ozdoba and Rubber Sole Creative on LinkedIn
• Visit: rubbersoleav.com
• Like what you hear? Leave a rating and review
• Follow Corey: @coreysnathan across platforms
• Subscribe for weekly conversations with the people behind the work

Key Takeaways

The path isn't linear, and that's the point Stav arrived in LA aiming to direct films, but the reality of the industry forced a pivot. Editing became the lane where his instincts and abilities aligned and ultimately opened more doors than chasing directing ever did.

Follow what you're good at, not just what you love Passion alone isn't enough. Stav makes a clear distinction between what you enjoy and what you can consistently execute at a high level. The sweet spot is where skill and interest meet.

The edit bay is the real classroom Early on, Stav learned by proximity. Watching other editors. Asking questions. Absorbing instincts. Not formal training, but immersion in the craft.

Story is the constant, format is the variable Whether it's a trailer, a sizzle, or a social cut, the job is still storytelling. The platforms change. The audience behavior changes. The need to connect emotionally does not.

Underserved work is often the biggest opportunity Rubber Sole was built around doing the work others overlook. Behind the scenes, sizzles, added value pieces. Done right, those pieces don't just support campaigns, they drive audience interest.

Relationships still matter more than tools Even in an era of AI and rapid change, the business still runs on trust. When stakes are high, people call collaborators they know can deliver.

Creative ownership requires risk tolerance Leaving Sony to start Rubber Sole wasn't a calculated leap with guarantees. It was a bet on craft, relationships, and the belief that great work would create opportunity.

Standout Quotes

• "I stopped following my passion and started following what I'm good at."
• "You're always telling a story, no matter the platform."
• "If the work is undeniable, the room will open."
• "We're not competing on price. We're competing against average."
• "Sometimes if you don't get your dream job, you have to create it."

Connect

• Stav Ozdoba – rubbersoleav.com
• Corey Nathan – @coreysnathan

Sponsors

• The Golden Trailer Awards – goldentrailer.com
• Mesa Wealth Management – mezawealth.com

Join the Community

• Leave a rating and review
• Share the episode with a friend in the industry
• Subscribe for new episodes every week

Enjoying the show? Rate and review wherever you listen. It helps more people find us. Now go do some inspired work.

Before Benj Thall was cutting trailers at some of the most influential shops in the business, he was a working child actor starring in Disney's Homeward Bound films alongside legends like Leslie Nielsen and Ned Beatty. That early life on film sets didn't just give him screen credits — it gave him a love for every corner of the craft that eventually led him behind the camera, through film school at USC, and into the edit bay.

In this episode, Corey and Benj trace a career that spans Global Doghouse, Harley's House/Ignition, Mojo, and Monster, and dig into what it means to carry a trailer editor's sensibility into feature film cutting. Benj also shares the story behind Monument, the political thriller starring Jon Voight and Joe Mazzello that he edited — a deeply personal project that connects his love of storytelling, his actor's instincts, and his late father's memory.

Key Takeaways

1. The edit bay as classroom. Benj's early days at Global Doghouse meant literally knocking on Kevin Childress or Doug Brandt's door to make dubs — and using every excuse to watch them cut. Proximity to great editors, not formal training, was the real education.
2. Emotional truth is the through line. Whether cutting a two-minute trailer or a two-hour feature, Benj is always hunting the same thing: the moment an audience doesn't know what comes next. That instinct, sharpened over decades of trailer work, is exactly what he argues trailer editors bring to features that classically trained film editors often don't.
3. Shops shape artists. Global Doghouse and Harley's House weren't just workplaces — they were creative environments that challenged editors to push against convention. Benj credits the culture at both shops, as much as any individual mentor, for forming his aesthetic.
4. Knowing when you're too close. On Monument, Benj cut his own trailer for the film he edited — then pressed the producers to bring in a second editor because he recognized he was too close to the material. That kind of self-awareness is rare, and he makes the case for why it matters.
5. Trailer skills are transferable — and increasingly valued. From working with stems and sculpting music in the rough cut to getting creative out of under-covered scenes, Benj sees a real and growing appetite for trailer editors in feature post. The hustle is different, but the toolkit is more relevant than ever.

Standout Quotes

• "It's gotta be those quick moments of emotional impact for me."
• "Different parts of a movie are gonna speak differently to everyone. You're looking for those universal moments that speak to all of our humanity."
• "I've fallen in love with cutting features. If you've got a two-actor scene, the third actor is the editor."
• "I pressed the production — we need to get another look. I am too close to the material."
• "To probably my financial detriment, I've never been locked down. But for a creative, it's about staying open to opportunities that might come."

Connect

• Benj Thall — www.benjthalldirector.com
• MONUMENT, the movie — www.monument.film
• Corey Nathan — @coreysnathan on all platforms

Sponsors

• Meza Wealth Management — mezawealth.com
• The Golden Trailer Awards — goldentrailer.com

Join the Community

• Like what you hear? Leave us a rating and review!
• Connect with Corey on all platforms @coreysnathan
• Subscribe for new episodes every week and keep up with the world's best trailer creatives!

Enjoying the show? Rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. It really does help people find us. Now go do some inspired work.

Jordan Hayman has sat in almost every seat in this industry. Jumbotron editor for the Lakers during their championship run. Creative executive at Alkemi, working indie theatrical. Client-side at Lifetime under the legendary Bob and Lew. Broadcast division builder at AV Squad. And now, founder of The Shop, the boutique he always knew he'd build from the moment he was running packages around town for Tony Seiniger as a high schooler.

This one goes deep on the career, the grind, and the decisions that don't have clean answers. Jordan talks about what it took to start a broadcast division from scratch, why building relationships from day one at Fox Sports in 1996 was the most important business strategy he never consciously planned, and how working both sides of the table made him a better vendor. We also get into The Last Dance and what it was like to cut over a hundred trailers for the most anticipated sports documentary in years, the Tyson-Paul Countdown for Netflix, and the theatrical sensibility that separates The Shop from most broadcast-focused competitors.

Key Takeaways

The Relationship Is the Portfolio From his first internship to founding The Shop, Jordan's career has run on relationships built with patience and maintained with consistent delivery. Creativity matters, but so does customer service, speed, and knowing what it feels like to be on the other side of the table.

Working Both Sides Changes Everything Spending time as a network executive at Lifetime gave Jordan something most agency-side people don't have: a first-hand understanding of what clients actually need. When he went back to the agency side, he knew exactly what a room like Bob and Lew's expected to see.

Build a Division Like You're Proving It's Possible Starting AV Squad's broadcast arm from nothing was terrifying. Jordan spent months with almost no work and nearly convinced himself he'd be fired. Scott Edwards told him to enjoy the calm before the storm. He was right.

Theatrical Sensibility Is Non-Negotiable Now The line between broadcast, streaming, and theatrical has effectively collapsed. Jordan and his partner Nick Shakarian brought theatrical DNA into every network campaign they touched, and that cross-pollination is now the price of admission for anyone doing serious streaming work.

Surround Yourself with All-Stars The hardest part of starting a company isn't the creative. It's everything else. Jordan's solution was simple: find the best people for every role and get out of their way.

Notable Quotes

"From day one, from Fox Sports, from 1996 — everybody I came in contact with, I tried to be good to them."

"When I was done working for Bob and Lew, I thought to myself, I can do anything. Not everybody made it out of there alive."

"That was definitely my master's degree."

"I am not a business person. I'm a creative person."

"My dad told me not to do it. But I wouldn't want to do anything else, man."

Connect

• The Shop — theshoptrailers.com
• Corey Nathan — @coreysnathan on all platforms

Sponsors

• Meza Wealth Management — mezawealth.com
• The Golden Trailer Awards — goldentrailer.com

Join the Community

• Like what you hear? Leave us a rating and review!
• Connect with Corey on all platforms @coreysnathan
• Subscribe for new episodes every week and keep up with the world's best trailer creatives!

Enjoying the show? Rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. It really does help people find us. Now go do some inspired work.

What does it sound like when a trailer editor thinks in rhythm, builds in silence, and treats every scene break like a musical beat?

Lead editor Lauren Zoller of X/AV traces her path from a Chapman BFA to a Lionsgate internship, through Ignition (where she shadowed some of the greats) and nearly nine years at Mocean before landing at X/AV in 2021. She's become one of the most versatile editors in streaming, cutting The Punisher and Tulsa King alongside Peaky Blinders, DTF: St. Louis, and Poker Face — sometimes in the same week.

The conversation digs into the sound design on the Peaky Blinders: The Mortal Man teaser, how a Crystal Method track set the structural DNA of the DTF trailer, and why a prominent commercial song changes how she shapes a piece. Lauren also talks about the industry's culture shift, mentorship in a remote-work world, and her role on the Soapbox advisory board.

Key Takeaways

Editing Is Solving a Puzzle Without the Picture Assembling pieces into a story without a finished image to guide you — it's what drew Lauren to the craft over directing or writing, and it still drives how she approaches every project.

Rhythm Is Felt Before It's Measured Growing up playing drums gave Lauren a timing instinct that lives in her body as much as on the timeline. On the Peaky teaser, quiet and loud sections landed within four to six frames of each other in length — not because she mathd it out, but because she could feel it.

Sound Design Is Storytelling Reverb, silence, a spinning coin — every sound element in the Peaky teaser was a narrative choice. On-camera dialogue got less reverb because that's the character's present-tense reality. Off-screen thoughts got more, because we're inside his head.

Range Is Developed, Not Given Lauren's versatility is something she built at X/AV out of necessity. At larger shops, editors sometimes get typecast. At a smaller shop, you have to be able to do it all — and she's found she loves it.

Soft Skills Are the Core of the Job The most durable skill in this industry is adaptive problem-solving: understanding what someone's asking for when the words don't quite match, being easy to work with under pressure, and knowing when to kill your darlings.

Notable Quotes

"It's like solving a puzzle without the picture."

"We contain multitudes."

"You can still do really good work and not get yelled at."

"I just wanna keep making cool shit."

Connect

• Lauren Zoller — www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-mckeithan-zoller-3b020016/
• Corey Nathan — @coreysnathan on all platforms

Our Sponsors

• Meza Wealth Management — mezawealth.com
• The Golden Trailer Awards — goldentrailer.com

Join the Community

• Like what you hear? Leave us a rating and review!
• Connect with Corey on all platforms @coreysnathan
• Subscribe for new episodes every week and keep up with the world's best trailer creatives!

What happens when a technology-minded New Yorker stumbles into Hollywood and ends up reshaping how the industry makes trailers, title sequences, and motion graphics for the next three decades?

This week, Eric Ladd joins the show to talk about his winding path from floppy disk drives and Bank of America to running Novocom, building Pittard Sullivan into a global powerhouse, and founding Picture Mill, one of the most influential design and motion graphics companies in entertainment marketing history. Now he's doing it again with Ignite XR, creating AR and social content tools contracted by TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram.

Along the way, the conversation covers how Picture Mill got its name (in a single impulsive moment at a lunch meeting), the deal that fell apart and sent half of Pittard's leadership out the door to start their own companies, and how Eric pioneered digital before the industry even had a name for it. He also shares what it was like to shoot the Mandalay tiger in Hawaii, fly to Edwards Air Force Base with a first-time solo pilot to blow up a quarter-scale hotel, and pitch George Lucas on a Star Wars re-release trailer using a clip of Apocalypse Now on VHS.

Key Takeaways

Confidence Is a Skill Before leaving Pittard, Eric had already grown Novocom from two people to sixty. That track record gave him the credibility to walk into Aspect Ratio's Citrus lunch meeting with an $8.5M business plan he'd written in two hours — and walk out with a credit line and the name Picture Mill.

The People You Work With Are the Real Portfolio When asked about favorite campaigns, Eric sidestepped the question entirely: "I have favorite people." The relationships formed in those early years, including editors, designers, producers, directors, are what he actually carries forward.

Know When to Leave, and Who Should Replace You At Pittard, Eric not only knew when his time was up, he named Anne Epstein as the person who should take the job. Succession thinking and generosity with credit have been constants throughout his career.

Bleeding Edge Requires a Tolerance for Uncertainty Whether it was scanning and comping an entire Spike Lee trailer in the early days of digital, pioneering AR filters on Snapchat before the platforms knew what to do with them, or landing a contract with ByteDance by simply delivering a working product without being asked, Eric's approach has always been to figure it out first and explain it later.

AI Is a Tool, Not a Threat... If You Have Ideas The conversation about AI cuts to the heart of what this show is about. Eric's view: "It all comes down to ideas." AI can execute, but someone still has to direct it. The people who will struggle are those who were already functioning as tools themselves.

Notable Quotes

"I went over there at five o'clock and Ed and I were there till ten. We just clicked."

"I said, 'You can't afford me.' He said, 'How much do you want?' Six months later my paycheck just went WHOOSH."

"When we came back from lunch, we'd hired every one of those people in the waiting room."

"It all comes down to ideas. AI can give you ideas, but it lacks what humans can do with them."

"A lot of being successful has to do with wherewithal. If you can hang in there long enough, you can be successful doing anything."

"When we're gone, those stories are gonna be gone with us." "Not anymore. They're on the record!"

Connect

• Eric Ladd — ignitexr.com
• Corey Nathan — @coreysnathan on all platforms

Our Sponsors

• Meza Wealth Management – mezawealth.com

• The Golden Trailer Awards – goldentrailer.com

Join the Community

• Like what you hear? Leave us a rating and review!
• Connect with Corey on all platforms @coreysnathan
• Subscribe for new episodes every week and keep up with the world's best trailer creatives!

What does it take to break into the trailer business, survive the agency grind, and help shape campaigns for some of the biggest films of the last two decades?

This week on Trailer Geeks and Teaser Gods, we sit down with Creative Director, Producer and Creative Executive Kazadi Katambwa to discuss craft, career, and creative instinct. Kazadi walks through his journey from film-loving college student in the Midwest to runner at Wiser Post, to assistant editor at Intralink, and eventually to cutting and producing major theatrical campaigns for films like The Dark Knight, Inception, Dunkirk, Mad Max: Fury Road, and many more.

Along the way, the conversation explores the realities of Hollywood career paths, the importance of mentorship, and the delicate art of marketing great movies without getting in their way. Kazadi shares behind-the-scenes stories about working with Christopher Nolan, the challenge of distilling high-concept films into thirty seconds, and the creative leap from editor to producer to studio executive.

From humble beginnings with a Thomas Guide in the passenger seat to shaping global campaigns at Amazon Studios, this episode is packed with insight, humor, and hard-earned wisdom for anyone who loves trailers or dreams of making them.

Key Takeaways

From Runner to Creative Voice Kazadi reflects on starting at the very bottom of post-production and learning the craft by watching great editors work. Patience, curiosity, and a willingness to say yes opened doors that formal plans never could.

Reverse Engineering Great Trailers Early on, Kazadi studied timelines and cuts to understand how trailers were built. That hands-on education became the foundation of his editorial instincts.

Working on The Dark Knight and Inception Marketing films of that caliber brought unique pressures. Great movies can be harder to market because the campaign must rise to the same level of excellence.

Quiet Can Be Louder Than Loud On campaigns like Dunkirk, restraint and confidence became creative tools. Sometimes a simple heartbeat and the right image communicate more than any barrage of sound.

The Power of Relationships Career moves from Intralink to Seismic to Buddha Jones happened through trust and collaboration. In trailer marketing, reputation and relationships remain everything.

Evolving From Editor to Executive Moving from the editing chair to creative leadership required a new mindset. Protecting the creative while guiding teams became the next chapter of the journey.

Understanding Filmmakers Working with directors like Christopher Nolan reinforced a crucial lesson. Great campaigns respect the filmmaker's vision and find ways to amplify it rather than replace it.

Notable Quotes

"Sometimes marketing a bad movie is hard. But marketing a great movie can be even harder."

"Loud is not always the best thing. Quiet can be just as powerful."

"Study the timeline. That's where the education really happens."

"The best trailers feel confident. You can sense when a campaign is trying too hard."

"Relationships are what move careers forward in this town."

Connect

• Kazadi Katambwa – linkedin.com/in/kazadi-katambwa-819921123

• Corey Nathan – @coreysnathan on all platforms

Our Sponsors

• Meza Wealth Management – mezawealth.com

• The Golden Trailer Awards – goldentrailer.com

Join the Community

• Like what you hear? Leave us a rating and review!
• Connect with Corey on all platforms @coreysnathan
• Subscribe for new episodes every week and keep up with the world's best trailer creatives!

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What do trailers, legendary movie posters, streaming era strategy, and a deep love for theatrical storytelling have in common?

This week on Trailer Geeks & Teaser Gods, Corey is joined by Debi Struzan and Dana Flowers-Mitchell for a deeply personal conversation about careers shaped by creativity, collaboration, and conviction. From Debi's early days at Seiniger Advertising and her connection to the iconic Drew Struzan legacy, to Dana's journey from agency producer to studio and streaming executive, the conversation traces how great entertainment marketing is built at the intersection of story, trust, and human connection.

Together, Debi and Dana reflect on mentorship, studio versus agency life, the evolution of theatrical and streaming windows, and what still matters most when crafting campaigns that resonate. Along the way, the discussion touches on everything from horror trailers and prestige dramas to boxing workouts, late night calls, and why picking up the phone still matters.

Key Takeaways

From Agency to Studio and Back Again Both guests share how starting on the agency side shaped the way they later partnered with creative teams once they moved into studio and streaming roles, fostering deeper empathy and stronger collaboration.

The Legacy of Drew Struzan Debi reflects on the influence of her father-in-law, legendary illustrator Drew Struzan, and the enduring impact of handcrafted movie poster art in a rapidly changing industry.

Why Relationships Still Win Dana and Debi emphasize that despite new tools, platforms, and pressures, strong relationships and direct communication remain essential to solving creative problems and building trust.

Theatrical Is Not Dead The conversation challenges the idea that movie theaters are fading, pointing instead to evolving audience behaviors and the continued power of shared cinematic experiences.

Creativity in an Era of Change From AI anxiety to shrinking budgets, the discussion explores how agencies and creatives can adapt while protecting the core value of original ideas and emotional storytelling.

Notable Quotes

"People still want to be moved together in a room. Theatrical is not dying. It's evolving."

"You can solve a lot of problems just by picking up the phone."

"The big idea still matters. Tools can change, but concept is everything."

Connect

• Debi Struzan - www.linkedin.com/in/debistruzan
• Dana Flowers-Mitchell: www.linkedin.com/in/dana-flowers
• Corey Nathan – @coreysnathan on all platforms

Our Sponsors

• Meza Wealth Management – mezawealth.com

• The Golden Trailer Awards – goldentrailer.com

Join the Community

• Like what you hear? Leave us a rating and review!
• Connect with Corey on all platforms @coreysnathan
• Subscribe for new episodes every week and keep up with the world's best trailer creatives!