Hi everyone! Welcome to this week’s installment of Tom’s Top 3 Tuesdays, where I highlight three pieces of content (Podcasts/Shows/Songs/Articles/etc.) that I found interesting or noteworthy from the prior week.
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[Article] The New Yorker - A24’s Empire of Auteurs
Alex Barasch chronicles the history of A24 and its rapid rise in Hollywood. By providing concrete examples from famous A24 films and quotes from its loyal filmmakers, he highlights the three defining factors that have led to A24’s success.
Trusting filmmakers to make the creative decisions, aiming for cultural resonance rather than four-quadrant appeal
“I talk to Sacco and Fenkel about this all the time—there is, in the film industry, a missing middle class,” [Celine] Song told me. “There are either movies that have no expectation to make money, or there are movies that have nothing but expectations of making money.”
An intense focus on provocative marketing, promotion, and merchandise
Examples include The Satanic Temple publicly endorsing Robert Eggers’ The Witch, and A24 selling a ceramic bong on its website shaped like the demonic embalmed hand from Talk to Me
Growing alongside its filmmakers
A24’s founding employees have largely stuck around, and partnerships with talent tend to be lasting, too: when the company backs a movie or a series—it also has a TV division—the implicit intent is to keep working with the creator. Executives are in constant conversation with their roster, and pride themselves on the intimacy of the operation. Decisions on new filmmakers are made democratically by a core group: Katz, Fenkel, Sacco, and Nicolette Aizenberg, the head of distribution.
[YouTube] gabi bell - How One Hat Drove A Fandom Insane
Just like Indy in The Last Crusade, superfans have searched for a Holy Grail of their own, an exact replica of the iconic hat. Not just any hat, but the Raiders of the Lost Ark version, which is apparently distinct from the other movies’.
Best part is, a fan created a movie-accurate facsimile in his spare time. After founding a hat company, his version was eventually used as the signature hat in the last two Indiana Jones films.
[YouTube] Marques Brownlee - AirPods Pro 3 Review
I am so excited for these newly-released AirPods Pro. Brownlee doesn’t even go in depth on what I think is the coolest new feature: live language translation.
That wraps up this edition of Tom’s Top 3 Tuesdays. If you made it to this point, please drop a 1️⃣, 2️⃣, or 3️⃣ in the comments to let me know what you found most interesting/useful. And as always, please like and consider sharing with a friend who you think would enjoy! I’ll be back next week. ✌️
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