Blog

The Real Work Behind TBWA\Chiat\Day’s Fake News Stand

The video opens on an unremarkable kiosk on the edge of New York’s Bryant Park. The kiosk is stocked with newspapers and magazines, and a stoic, silent proprietor perches behind its cramped counter, ready to do business. As background music plays over a sped-up shot of crowds passing by, the camera zooms in on a rack of publications with headlines that are, um, surprising.

“Dems Want Christians to Wear Badges”

“Texas Now Recognized as Mexican State”

“Hollywood Elites Are Using Baby Blood to Get High!”

Puzzling? Sure. Far-fetched? You bet. But that’s the point. Everything is made up, and it’s all gibberish — but it’s gibberish drawn from 100 of the most heavily shared “news” stories on social media in 2018.

Viewers are meant to be deeply skeptical of what they see in The Fake News Stand, an award-winning production from TBWAChiatDay made in collaboration with pro bono client Columbia Journalism Review, a nonprofit publication tracking the state of U.S. journalism through the startling upheavals of the digital news era. Its mission is especially challenging under the administration of President Donald Trump, who favors the term “fake news” to describe unflattering coverage of him or his policies and who calls the media the “enemy of the American people,” a variation on similar sentiments from totalitarian leaders such as Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, and Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

Working with the agency on its second project to counter the postfactual environment of the Trump years, CJR and the agency set the project date just ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. Throughout the day, they engaged passers-by who idly leafed through the roster of fake titles: The Informationalist, The Manhattan Daily, Hussle, New York Paper, and The Weekly Journal. Every one of the slickly plausible covers, vivid visual echoes of TIME, The Economist, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and People, was bogus. But inside, each made-up publication contained a thoughtful, direct insert full of tips on recognizing misinformation, complete with tips on taking a skeptical, fact-based approach to news found on social media.

A public mission, an agency challenge

For Alex Lumain and K.S. Shanti, who spearheaded the 27-person TBWAChiatDay team that produced the 2-minute spot chronicling the late October 2018 day when the real stand was taken over by fake news, the project was a dam erected against the flood of gibberish, lies, and clickbait often mistaken for reliable information just because it’s easily found on the Internet.

“The plan was to bring fake news into the real world,” says Shanti, a TBWA creative who discussed the ad at a reception for one of about two dozen advertising industry awards the spot has garnered. It’s also been the subject of 300 news stories across 103 countries and seen by roughly 2 billion people, according to the agency’s count.

The one-day exercise in “making people take responsibility for what they read” was an adept, pointed response to a postfactual environment where the term “fake news” has become a weapon in a deeply polarized political environment, says Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR.

“The term ‘fake news’ had become largely useless, because it meant so many different things to so many different people. It ranges from disinformation from Russia to — depending on your politics — the front page of The New York Times,” he says.

The project went on to win awards for industry excellence, branded experience, typography, and design, including a Clio and multiple Cannes Lions honors. While its production costs are unknown, the video followed up on CJR and TBWA’s “Real Journalism Matters” June 2018 print campaign. That effort featured photos of readers perusing magazine and newspapers with similarly fictive headlines: “Dad’s Facebook Posts,” “Some Guy’s Blog,” and “Retweets From Strangers.”

The successor newsstand project “took two minutes to come up with, but the execution took weeks to months,” TBWA/Chiat/Day New York chief creative officer Chris Beresford-Hill told AdAge the day after it appeared. “It felt like a natural extension — taking what people widely consider fake news offline was powerful — but how do we scale that and make it a bigger deal with the midterms approaching?”

Firing back when words are weaponized

Pope, who said the campaign and its print predecessor received an enthusiastic response from its parent publisher, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, after the idea of turning “fake news” back on itself was explained to seasoned journalists and academics whose mission is to teach students entering a profession where truth matters.

“The way people read the news on Facebook and Twitter means there’s almost no differentiation between what’s garbage and what’s not,” Pope says. “Distrust of all institutions is up sharply, whether that’s Congress, the police, the church, or the press. We’re in a time where the president is trying to weaponize this distrust against the press, and we’re trying to help people see what’s real and what’s not.”

The public service dimension cemented the agency-client relationship, with abundant mutual admiration.

“The way people read the news on Facebook and Twitter means there’s almost no differentiation between what’s garbage and what’s not”

“We get to work with amazing clients every day,” says Shanti. “And it was no different with CJR. They believed in the concept and were very collaborative and ambitious. In whatever we’re working on, we’re always striving to find a way to involve our brands within culture, and with The Fake News Stand, we hope it would strike a chord with people and the media, and it did.”

The partnership came about when the agency reached out to CJR. For Pope, who has testified before congressional committees on the threat Trump poses to press freedom, it was a novel, rewarding experience.

“This was a new thing for us,” he says. “They said, ‘We’ve seen what CJR is doing,’ and they were super-enthusiastic about it. They were really committed to it. I can’t speak highly enough about them.”

TBWA and CJR are currently working on a third collaboration focused on climate change, which Shanti calls a natural outgrowth of the enthusiasm spawned by The Fake News Stand. There were many reasons why the entire team and agency were really excited about the campaign, from the timing — just ahead of the midterms — and the nuanced, inventive layers it required from design and concept to helping spread the dangers that fake news poses, he says.

“We all felt that strongly about getting this message out there,” Shanti concludes. “We’ll see how we did when the next election comes.”

It happened during a very Lifetime channel moment on the series UnREAL, a searing satire of behind-the-scenes reality TV machinations. The showrunner of the fictional TV hit Everlasting had just proven she was actually the show’s creator by slamming her original pitch document in front of her slimy boss, who’d taken all the credit himself. The scene should have been high drama, but I was too focused on the document’s design. It resembled a self-published volume of inspirational poetry laid out in PageMaker and spiral bound at Kinko’s. It cracked me up.

That’s because my day job is creating those exact documents, the pitch treatments directors rely on to spell out their vision for a project as completely and clearly as possible. I know how high the bar is on these things — they’re seen by investors, network development teams, studio heads, ad agencies, and the agency’s clients.

I also know they have a life past the pitch, frequently becoming invaluable crew guides well into production. Treatments these days are nothing less than glossy mini-magazines, replete with lush visuals, clever layouts, illustrative GIFs, germane reference videos. They’re also often made entirely within a 24–72-hour timeline.

In ye olden times

It wasn’t always this way. According to Megan Kelly, founder of New York City-based production company Honor Society, the treatment on UnREAL was probably accurate — maybe even fancy — for when Everlasting, which was based on The Bachelor, would have been pitched. “About fifteen years ago,” recalls Kelly, “I remember pitching on a [commercial] job, and the director was shocked he was being asked to write up a couple paragraphs in a Word doc about his idea.”

Within a few years, however, written pitches became the norm, penned by the directors themselves or occasionally by a production company employee, who might work off a template. Soon visuals were added into the mix, and the writing began to evolve. Then, as Kelly says, “it eventually grew into what we have now: coffee table books.”

The birth of an industry

This great leap forward is undoubtedly linked to the rise in services specifically dedicated to creating treatments. At some point in the early 2010s, companies like The Betterment Society, Content Muse, and The Moon Unit responded to the industry’s growing need for well-written and well-designed treatments by assembling stables of writers, flexible in both style and schedule, and designers who were adept at researching and laying out images tailored to whatever project they’d been hired for.

“The more our writers and designers create treatments,” says Jason Bitner, who started The Betterment Society in 2011 with his wife Danielle, “the better they get. With each treatment, our staff improves, treatments get better, and the industry as a whole is pushed forward.”

Sandra Newman regards the service her company Content Muse provides as a smart investment for directors and production companies: “If you book the job, it pays back. But even if you don’t, you’re still left with a solid treatment” — one that the client can keep as a representative calling card for future opportunities.

The companies offer help for all kinds of pitches — television, film, live events, VR experiences — but they tend to work most frequently with commercial directors, whose production timelines are much shorter. “It’s not unusual to write treatments based on 80-page briefs that are needed in two to three days,” says Katniss, a mononymic writer and spokesperson for The Moon Unit. “That can be daunting to someone who’s just returned from shooting another job overseas.”

When to reach out to a treatment company

Production companies might opt to outsource treatments for several reasons. Occasionally it’s a language issue; the director might be a non-native speaker or simply a visual thinker whose talents lie in expressing concepts through pictures instead of words. Sometimes it’s experiential — maybe an editor transitioning into directing needs help understanding the scope of what the bidding process entails. More often than not, though, it simply allows directors to maximize their time.

“It enables us to do more pitches,” says a director I’ll call Rees. [Note: Rees didn’t want to be identified because the industry expects directors to be the sole creators of their treatments. More on that later.] “Sometimes you’ll be in the middle of production, and a pitch comes up. You can only do so much.”

“Sometimes you’ll be in the middle of production, and a pitch comes up. You can only do so much.”

Let’s say Rees is two days into shooting a cereal commercial when he’s approached to bid on a light, comedic campaign for an aftershave. He and his producer will then get on the phone with the agency to be briefed. During this call, they’ll learn how soon the treatment is needed — this can range from several weeks to several hours but, on average, is about three to four days.

According to Newman, agencies “used to ask two or three directors to bid on a job, but now it can be four or five.” Bitner believes this uptick in competitiveness has led to the treatments themselves being seen as emblematic of a director’s vision and competency. “The better you can make this thing in three days,” he says, “the better you can do a full shoot in three days.”

It’s at this point in the process that Rees’s production company will reach out to a treatment service like Content Muse or The Betterment Society, which will in turn assemble a writer/designer team based on availability and compatibility. The writer will be brought up to speed by reading campaign documents and listening to a recording of the call Rees had with the agency. Typically, writers will then embark on a first draft by working off an outline Rees may have scribbled down between takes on the cereal commercial, but just as often, the writer will simply speak directly with Rees so the two can hash out how he wants to present his ideas on anything from camera angles and casting to visual effects and sound design.

“People are often worried that [outsourcing] takes away from the director’s voice,” says Katniss. “But treatments are always written in the director’s voice. Some people digress, some people are short, some are funny. My job is to reflect that and make sure it comes across and honors the idea.”

Chameleons wanted

I agree with Katniss: A treatment writer’s strength lies in shape shifting. However, it’s a tricky balance. According to Dave Gregg of Community Films, a Los Angeles-based production company, “When directors don’t respond to certain writers, it’s because they’ve done something too general. Some directors have a strong point of view and it’s easy to pick up on their voice, but some don’t and it’s more of a challenge. I like when writers bring an element of themselves into the process because, as I’m finding more and more, treatment writing needs to feel personal.”

Before the first draft is even done, the designer will typically collaborate with Rees on finding images that fit the tone of the aftershave’s campaign. (In general, designers and writers collaborate individually with the director rather than with each other.) Since treatments aren’t public facing, getting permission for images is never an issue, allowing designers free rein to use all kinds of copyrighted photos, screen captures, or reference videos. Once the writer finishes a draft, the designer can begin the layout process. Rees will then go back and forth with both of them to hone the final draft.

“When I do my own treatments,” says Rees, “I spend a lot of time trying to make them funny. I get too caught up trying to do jokes rather than crafting well-designed ideas. Looking at someone else’s draft and just getting to be an editor gets me out of that headspace.”

“I’m finding more and more, treatment writing needs to feel personal.”

After Rees and his producers sign off on the final draft, the treatment is sent out, typically as a PDF. Since the documents themselves are usually packed with links and videos, agencies and their clients view them digitally on desktops or projected onto screens in conference rooms. However, according to Megan Kelly, the documents are increasingly being used to inform production, winding up in pre-production books or getting printed out on sets to aid production designers and cinematographers.

Each of the treatment companies said they were constantly exploring new ways for clients to present their final drafts. “Getting your ideas across in this era, you’re constantly fighting for attention,” says Gregg. “If you can keep the surprises coming, that’s great.” Advances in software are beginning to clear the way for building pitch websites or creating project-specific GIFs — ambitious new developments, especially considering treatment writing is a service that isn’t officially acknowledged.

The silent treatment

“When we first started,” says Danielle Bitner, co-founder of The Betterment Society, “it was a big secret that treatment companies even existed. Even now, I’m not sure. Are agencies more aware of us, or are we still on the hush-hush?” This anonymity is a big part of The Moon Unit’s identity— all their employees use science-fiction-based pseudonyms. Part of the secrecy comes from the fact that there’s a misconception within the industry that directors aren’t presenting their own work if they outsource their writing.

“I’ve always made a big point to do my own treatments,” says Rees. “It’s where I hammer out ideas and make them better. And this remains true. But at some point four or five years ago, I got really busy and brought in help. It’s just a different process, helpful in its own way.”

The fact remains that outsourcing pitch documents isn’t cheap. As Newman pointed out, it’s an investment — one that might give some directors an unfair advantage. “We’ve won and lost jobs based solely on treatments,” says Kelly, a consideration that may not have even been in the cards in the Everlasting days. However, as treatments continue to be held to higher standards, it seems clear that how ideas are presented will continue to grow and evolve out of necessity, someday nailing the look of today’s “coffee table book” pitch documents to a specific era in the late 2010s that we can all laugh about in the future.

Egg Music, a musician-staffed creative house, uses Wiredrive to manage tight review and approval deadlines, pitch new business, and make their mark in a rapidly evolving industry. They specialize in composing original scores and songs for films, television shows, commercials and web videos, and their music has appeared in some of the best-known campaigns of recent years for brands such as Nike, Target, Microsoft and Chevrolet.

Nailing every deadline

Egg Music works with clients who are constantly on the go and expect to view media on their mobile devices without having to download files. The team relies on Wiredrive to deliver multiple audio tracks that are often attached to large video files. These deliverables must undergo several rounds of revision within a very short timeframe. “Since we started using Wiredrive we’ve never experienced an issue that prevented us from making a delivery on time,” explains Eric Fawcett, founder and executive producer. “There have been many times where a client told us they appreciated our well-organized deliveries. How we deliver our media is as important as what we deliver, and Wiredrive helps us to do that consistently.”

“We win and retain business not just by doing great work, but by maintaining seamless workflow habits that our clients never question. Wiredrive plays a central role in that.”

Winning new business

Wiredrive also plays a critical role in pitching business for Egg Music. Since competition in the music industry is fierce, Egg Music relies on Wiredrive Library to build custom branded reels tailored to decision makers at the target company. They can present work through an Egg Music branded system, and know that the interaction is going to be seamless and easy to use.

Interface design for business success

Egg Music has been using Wiredrive since 2008. They were previously using file share tools to manage their workflow and media. Since making the switch, Egg Music has experienced improved functionality and aesthetics. “Wiredrive is elegant, flexible, and works consistently—that means everything in the industries we play in,” says Eric.

To learn more about Egg Music, visit their site: www.egg-music.com

Digital Asset Management (or DAM) isn’t new. DAM solutions have been in play for years at the larger corporate level, but it is becoming more and more prevalent in smaller businesses due to the sheer volume of files being created by today’s content producers. And, with that content explosion comes a new problem facing these organizations – how do we capture and reuse all of this great stuff we’re making?Here are a few items to consider:

Not every DAM is the same

Some DAMs products provide industry specific solutions where as others focus on more generic universal capture and storage. It’s a good place to start by thinking about the particular best practices and norms in your particular industry.

Not every file is the same

It beginning your evaluation of the right DAM, start with the types of files that are most critical to your every day. For example, while you might need to store all kinds of files, certain playback or preview functionalities might be imperative, like reviewing large videos or images. This alone might limit certain DAM products and focus your choices. Even then, files like video have additional criteria that need to be considered like quality, resolution, performance, and compatibility. Some product support video, but might support high-quality ProRes playback.

How do you value your collection?

How do you place monetary value of your asset collection? Can you distill that to a value per asset? While there isn’t a magic calculator for determining this, it’s good to think about at least conceptually. One reason is that DAMs (good and bad) often come at a considerable upfront costs including the core software, setup, integrations, training, etc. Understanding how the size of your asset catalog and it’s potential growth will help you understand how one solution or the other will provide adequate scale and ultimately long-term sustainability.

Metadata requires flexibility

Flexibility is the key here, plain and simple. As I’ve already said, not every file is the same and how files are described is even more unique. Let’s look at two file types: Videos and Spreadsheets. While videos might require a meta-tag for director, spreadsheets would never. Moreover even within a single file type like video, it might need to be described with different tags and in different orders. Here is an example:

‍Video #1 = broadcast commercial
Director: John Doe
Agency: MyAgency
Editor: Jane Doe
Runtime: 0:30

‍Video #2 = digital billboard
Category: Out of Home:
Type: Digital signage
Placement: Outdoor
Agency: MyAgency

‍Two things of note: the first is that video #1 has a director, while video #2 does not and has it’s own specific tag needs. The second is that while both have “Agency”, it is less important based on it’s prioritized order. Sounds simple enough but not many DAMs solution require this kind of flexibility.

Where do you need reach?

Part of good DAM is not being left on a prison island. Thus, integrating with the greater media and workflow ecosystem is imperative. It’s one thing that capture and store, but make sure that you can push/pull assets from other places for easy research and reuse. In addition check to see whether the DAM solution has out-of-the-box connectivity to the applications most used in your most common workflows.

Who can do what?

While consolidation and accessibility are key, not everyone needs access to everything. In many cases some assets are more sensitive in nature, thus require strong security measures to be met and enforced.

Will your people use it?

While this might sound a bit odd, culture, as I have written, might be the most crucial part of selecting the right DAM. Many people looking to bring DAM into their organization don’t even realize they are using something already. Every company has a baked-in culture for organizing, searching, and trafficking, even if their version is an unmitigated free-for-all. Trust me when I say that preferences exist in your business, and if ignored, whatever you do is doomed before it gets off the ground.

A well-thought-out metadata structure can mean the difference between landing that big job and aimlessly searching for the right spots to send. Just like a book needs chapters, media files need metadata to help you find exactly what you need, when you need it.Here is a quick guide on how to get your files organized:

1. There is no such thing as too much data

Don’t be afraid to go overboard with categories and tags. Yes, it’s more work in the beginning, but in the long run, you are going to save yourself a lot of time and headache.Setting up a good metadata structure from the start ensures that all your files will be in the right place before you even start adding media. This helps prevent the frustrating task of editing and re-editing files over and over when you later realize that there aren’t enough data points to find what you are looking for, when you need it most.

2. Visualize how you would search for assets

Imagine a giant vault filled with all of your media. Then, think about all the different ways that you organize that media and ask yourself, how do you find exactly what you are looking for?Is it organized by director or year? Do you search by the agency that the job was for? Is it organized by genre? Do you identify media by specificities, like “Cannes 2015 winner” or even, “Talking dog on a jet ski?”How do you, as a media manager, keep tabs on all your work so that you are able to stay on top of things? How would you look for things in a pinch? Spend some time working through this exercise and make note of what people ask for when archives or reels are requested.

3. Map things out

After you have visualized your search process, create a document to organize this information:

• Create a spreadsheet and title the far left column, “category,” and label the column to its immediate right as “tags.”
• Below the category column, write down all of the top level values that you thought of in tip no. 2. This would include categories such as director, editor, production company, year, genre, job code, and so on.
• Under the tags column, start adding the unique values that correspond to the categories to the left.  For example, tags for “director” could include Ang Lee, while tags for “genre” could include comedy.
• Create a “Keyword” column for any data points that do not fit under the main categories that you defined. (More details in the next tip).
• Once this data is structured, you can go into your system, and add the values ahead of time so that everything is in place when you start uploading your files.

4. Use keywords

Keywords are your friend. Think of categories to tags as a parent-to-child or one-to-many relationship. For every bit of identifying data that does not fit under a parent category, (e.g. Cannes Winner, CGI Water Shot, Best of 2015, etc.), you should create as a keyword. This is where you will want to also include the odd identifiers that help you find things when you need them (e.g. summer sales reel, job winner, do not use, or “for reference only”)You’ll be surprised by how often a single, critical asset is identified with a word or phrase that doesn’t fall under a traditional category definition. Keywords are your tool to keep track of these outlier pieces of metadata.

5. Audit when needed

Your data will change over time and chances are, you will think of new and better ways to organize things in your system. Don’t be afraid to try something different, revise or start over. A good metadata structure should make it easy to find and keep track of your work. The process is a journey. Have fun, and try and learn something new along the way!

Want to learn more tips about how to organize your media library? Contact Wiredrive support.

If you’re a freelancer in the creative industries, having an online portfolio is critical. Most designers, art directors, copywriters, and cinematographers — just a few job titles in the creative fields — maintain their own up-to-the-last-good-project site because they know it plays a huge part in getting more work. 

But I’d argue everyone in our industry should have one — from the greenest production assistant all the way up to the A-list editor or commercial director who lets their editorial or production company website do the talking for them.

Here’s why: A website should show the work you’ve been part of creating.

That’s probably obvious. But people interested in hiring you also want to know what you’re like to work with, and your website is your best chance to let them know that — but in your own words.

“People interested in hiring you also want to know what you’re like to work with, and your website is your best chance to let them know that — but in your own words.”

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. 

My old employer Wieden+Kennedy had a screening series where accomplished filmmakers who straddled the line between the film and commercial worlds would come to Portland and give a sneak peek of their latest feature film to a roomful of the agency’s producers and creatives. The hope was that they’d get commercial work down the road based on that screening.

After Yann Damange screened his film ‘71, which won him a British Independent Film Award for Best Director in 2014, a creative director asked how he’d found such great kid actors. Simple, he replied, I go to boxing gyms. The kids are confident, and they’re used to taking direction, Damange explained. 

A few weeks later, W+K sold a Nike football (the non-American kind) commercial that featured a cast of kid actors. They thought of Damange immediately and hired him specifically because of his answer earlier.

This is exactly the kind of outcome a production company roster-style website would never communicate, but a site created by a creative person could and should. Believe me — I reviewed hundreds upon hundreds of portfolio websites every year while I was a co-director of Wieden+Kennedy’s in-house ad school WK12.

So, I’m going to share some key pieces of advice for making a great portfolio site that’ll make clients and recruiters keep looking versus turning away.
‍

1. Don’t overthink it 

All too often I hear people talk about building their website like they’re building the pyramids, but unless you’re trying to get jobs making websites, don’t build one from scratch. Use any of the easy-to-use, off-the-shelf portfolio site products like Cargo Collective or Squarespace that have tons of well-designed templates to choose from.

I highly recommend a style that has project thumbnail images on the homepage, any one of which you can click on to see the full project. It’s easy on the eyes and the industry standard.

Pick your best projects, choose a homepage image, post a video or still assets of each project, and a write-up that explains it. Then finish it off with an About Me page and your social media links and there you go. 

You should be able to go from no website to a website you can show to friends for feedback in a day. 
‍

2. Curate it 

Don’t put everything you’ve ever done on your website.

When I was looking at WK12 applicants sites’, I’d look at the first, second, and fifth projects (just to see how deep their experience went). If I liked what I saw, I kept clicking. If I didn’t see anything compelling that made me think or laugh or lean in, I’d move on. If I was on the fence, I’d click on something near the bottom of the homepage that looked intriguing.

Most creative directors, potential clients, and recruiters similarly take a quick scan before deciding if a person is worth a closer look, so show the good stuff. You need at least six good projects but probably no more than fifteen. You can share more, especially if you’re so good you have, like, fans. But if you’re mostly using the site to get work, no one is looking at more than fifteen projects.
‍

3. Make it personal 

Freelancers tend to lead with their biggest, most corporate work because it makes them seem legit and hirable. 

But here’s the thing: Most corporate work is pretty boring.

And very rarely are you truly able to showcase your voice and creative talents within the confines of a client’s project.

Share the stuff you made because you wanted to make it. The projects that show your true voice and talents. The “personal projects” that you’d show your parents or an old friend from high school are the same ones that are going to interest or excite anyone.

Sure, you need to include some paying work to show you get paid to do what you do. But the only client looking to hire a copywriter who showcases dull corporate blogs they’ve written is a client who wants their corporate blog to stay boring.
‍

4. Tell the story of each project 

Don’t just say you worked on a project, although being super clear about your role is important. Over the course of a few paragraphs, tell us the story of the project from your perspective. What did you learn? What was your A-ha! moment of inspiration? What particularly thorny problem did you think your way out of? Share a great anecdote or humblebrag about how wildly successful it was.

This is that chance I was talking about to give clients a peek into how you think and work so they feel more confident about hiring you. 

If you cast kids out of boxing gyms because they’re confident and used to taking direction, tell us! If you were the production assistant and your primary contribution to a project was charging walkie talkies and going on coffee runs, be honest about that.

But also talk about the experience in a way that tells producers that you’d make a great production assistant to hire and groom into being a production coordinator on the fast track to producing.
‍

5. Sharpen your About Me page

All too often people use the About Me section of their website to showcase how hilarious they are or to show off their third-person writing skills.

That’s okay but not at the expense of clarity. Be sure to tell people exactly what you do, what makes you great at it, and the kinds of projects you want to take on.

Anyone looking to hire you — even on a really big, important job — doesn’t have lots of time. The quicker you can communicate these things, the faster they can decide if you’re a potential fit for the job.

So there you go.

If you have already have a site, great. Make sure you’re not making any of the mistakes above. 

If you don’t, and you’re still reading, go for it. If you start right now, I bet you can come up with something to share with friends, your parents, or that old college buddy by tomorrow afternoon.

New Mac, an award-winning, Australian-based video production company, uses Wiredrive to produce branded videos, training, and educational content in order to create meaningful connections with audiences. Helmed by founder and managing director James McPherson, New Mac is more than a production company—it’s a think tank for creativity; a resource that brands trust to tell their stories. We sat down with James to hear why they chose Wiredrive to produce high-quality video for corporate Australian brands.

What makes Wiredrive different than the tools you are currently using today?

Wiredrive is a tremendous resource for us when it comes to business development opportunities because we’re able to review, approve, and pitch work in one single platform. We have an entirely cloud-based workflow (except for offline editing work), and Wiredrive is the final piece of the puzzle for us to work in a single system. It’s very exciting when you find a tool you like and it’s easy to use.

What was previously lacking in your workflow that you are now able to achieve with Wiredrive?

We have never had the ability to archive our work before in a way that’s quick and simple. Our previous archive was a dreadful experience, and was a tedious task if you didn’t have all the right info. It is very easy for us to search and find things in Wiredrive Library thanks to the metadata, tags, and keywords we use to categorize our work. As a company that produces as much as 3,000 deliverables per year, it is extremely powerful and valuable for us to see all the work we’ve produced over the years.

“Wiredrive makes us extremely efficient in how we’re able to quickly respond to business opportunities, as well as how we present ourselves to those opportunities.”

How does Wiredrive perform with the current state of Internet bandwidth and speed in Australia?

Wiredrive’s speed has worked great for us; it’s efficient compared to other U.S. services we’ve used in the past—and that is critical. It’s important for our clients to have a great viewing experience so that’s why speed, performance, and upload functionality are the top three reasons why we chose Wiredrive over other tools we were evaluating.

How is Wiredrive going to help your sales team?

It’s a healthy platform that really simplifies communication between our sales team and clients. We’ve significantly cut down the turnaround time for creating and pitching reels. As a result, we’re now able to work faster and this is huge for us.

To learn more about New Mac, visit their site: www.newmac.co

We’ve all faced it – late night edit sessions, final cut-downs, revisions, revisions and even more revisions. The video spot is almost done, it’s uploaded to your online media-sharing software, and time to deliver a version to your various audiences so they can make decisions and provide feedback (post, VFX, review, approval).

You have the master ProRes file but you need to deliver in various formats to three or more distinct audiences. You need to send the master version to the editor so they can work with the source. You need to send a web-friendly version to the client so they can view it in a specific browser, and you also need to send a version to the producer who only views media on their phone. What to do? Time is of essence and you need to deliver the right version to each person to meet your deadline.

Playing a video on any device is imperative to collaborate effectively and save time

One solution can be to transcode in-house all audio and video files before you upload it for storage to make sure it plays back right on every OS and browser. That’s time-consuming for a couple of reasons.

First: Transcoding is more of an art than a science. Every video is different. Some have fast action scenes. Some have flat dialogue around a dinner table. Each video requires different specifications to make it look as good as possible and to ensure that the file will play on most browsers and devices.

Second: Transcoding is very computer processor intensive and can be complicated. It is possible to make multiple transcoded versions of a file using basic software and a Mac, but this will take time, processing power and available storage on your in-house and cloud systems. Even if you managed to do it, you would create dozens of files, using up precious processing power and memory space on your own system.

Third: Time. Over a week, transcode/upload activity can cost you hours if you don’t have a tool like Wiredrive to automatically transcode files for you so that your audience can view them– time you can’t afford to lose.

Selective transcoding and fast uploads with Wiredrive

Why spend extra time, processing power, and storage when it’s not needed. Wiredrive’s media sharing and production collaboration tool is specifically designed to make it faster and easier for you to share and collaborate with teams, clients and prospects. All you need to do is upload your audio or video files to Wiredrive in their original format – and get on with other creative, exciting work.

Our system scans every video and audio source file to check if it plays back smoothly. Nine out of ten files are generally fine. For files that won’t play in their original format, we create a transcoded version of the file. Our transcoding process is both faster and smoother as we use ‘selective transcoding’ – which means we only transcode the parts that need it. For example, if the video is fine but the audio needs to change, then the video stream remains untouched. This keeps the transcoded version as close to the original version as possible while enabling it to play in a browser without problems.

Let’s say you have a 1GB ProRes file that you want to share from your London office. Transcoding and uploading can take you from 50 minutes to a couple of hours. With Wiredrive you could have it transcoded and ready for playback in under six minutes. From LA, you need just four minutes. The Wiredrive system takes under a minute to transcode a 1GB ProRes file, and just 40 seconds for an H.264 file.

Compare this to how long it takes to transcode a file on your own. What’s more, the transcoding takes place on our processors and is stored on our servers – leaving your in-house systems available for more important tasks. Even very large, high-resolution files like ProRes, will play back with the highest possible resolution (even with high bitrates!).

We also keep your original files so that your team can easily share them, track them, and always download the source file that was uploaded, leading to a collaborative workflow. This is especially important when you are all working from different locations and timezones.

Postproduction is tricky business. With all of the codecs, software options and workflows available to us, it’s hard to know if we’re being as efficient as we can be and any solution that eliminates unproductive tedious tasks for your team is a good thing.

The media and entertainment industries have long been popular targets for piracy and intellectual property theft. In today’s technology-centric environment, where video streaming and cloud sharing are essential parts of day-to-day life, securing video assets throughout production, post-production, and beyond has become more important than ever.

When content is leaked before it has reached its final, release-ready form, not only does the content owner lose out on revenue and future ROI, but your organization risks damage to its reputation from the release of a low-quality product and not prioritizing client security.

Why Watermark Tech is Important in the Media and Entertainment Industries

Video piracy and leaked content cost the entertainment industry billions of dollars every year. In fact, in some countries, pirated content accounts for almost half of all the video content being viewed in those regions.

To help prevent theft and leaks, post-production teams rely on a core group of security tools and cyber hygiene protocols, including security certifications, role-based provisioning, identity and access management, and digital watermarking.

Watermarking is a highly effective way to prevent the unauthorized release and distribution of video content and track who is actually viewing and sharing the content.

In addition to protecting and securing content during the post-production process, watermarking has the added benefit of increasing brand awareness with your centrally placed logo and business name on every video and link.

Why Choose MediaSilo’s SafeStream Watermark Tech for Post-Production

One of MediaSilo’s many enterprise-grade security features is SafeStream, a highly effective, tamper-resistant watermarking tool. SafeStream provides additional layers of protection against asset theft and misuse with two different types of watermarking tech:

1. Visible Watermarking

Visible watermarks are the most overt type of watermarking. These watermarks are placed clearly in a video to provide a traceable, visual deterrent intended to make potential bad actors rethink sharing confidential, proprietary content.

Visual watermarks can be customized to include the authorized viewer’s full name, email address, or custom text.

2. Forensic Watermarking

Forensic watermarks are digitally embedded into a video, so the unique characters that identify the video’s origin are invisible to the viewer. If a video is later leaked, forensic watermarks allow security teams to trace back the source of the leaked footage.

Used alone, forensic watermarks protect content while creating an uninterrupted user experience for viewers. However, many administrators choose to use forensic watermarking in conjunction with visual watermarks for a double layer of security.

Benefits of Securing Your Video Content with SafeStream

In addition to visible and forensic watermarks, SafeStream provides MediaSilo users with several other features and capabilities that make it easy to watermark video content for secure viewing and sharing throughout the post-production workflow:

• SafeStream watermarking can be mandated at the project or admin level by enforcing an embedded watermark template across the organization.
• The watermark template is set as a default by an administrator and cannot be turned off by users.
• SafeStream provides the option to allow both administrator and project owner roles to manage watermarking or limit permissions to just admins to enforce full compliance.
• Authorized users can apply default watermarking templates or create their own custom template using viewer names, emails, or custom text
• Administrators can track who views watermarked videos at any time, which makes it easier to find the source of leaked assets and the unauthorized users who download them.

The MediaSilo cloud collaboration platform is designed to streamline and secure your video management workflow with one integrated solution. SafeStream watermark tech is just one way we achieve this.

Download MediaSilo’s Guide to Post-Production Workflows to learn more about how post-production is evolving in the era of remote work and how you can increase efficiency, productivity, and security no matter where your team is located.

According to Akamai’s report, State of the Internet/Security: Pirates in the Outfield, between January and September 2021, global piracy demand reached 3.7 billion unlicensed streams and downloads.

Leaked and stolen content comes at a huge cost to the owners. By some estimates, the entertainment industry loses upward of $71 billion each year to media piracy. And with our increasing reliance on streaming media for both professional and personal use, there is no reason to think that the demand and subsequent financial impact will decrease anytime soon.

Unlike other types of theft, once a video asset is leaked, there is no real way to get that content back. Since it is almost impossible to stop others from copying, sharing, downloading, and distributing a pirated copy, the best plan of action is to prevent the leak in the first place.

So, from post-production to pre-screening, how do you secure your pre-release environment and prevent assets from being leaked?

After the last piece of footage is shot, a video still has a long way to go before it’s officially ready for distribution. Along the journey from post-production through pre-screening, there are a lot of potential leak points.

Fortunately, with the right technology, policies, and practices in place, your team can mitigate the risk of leaked assets.

1. Access Management

Poor password protocol, including weak, shared, and reused passwords, is a common vulnerability across every organization. In fact, a 2021 study from IBM and the Ponemon Institute found that compromised credentials were the leading cause of data breaches among study participants.

With so much at stake during post-production and pre-screening, it is essential for video management teams to enforce strong identity and access management policies.

To ensure assets are protected from theft and unauthorized viewing, the traditional username/password combo has to go. Instead, organizations need to implement secure access technology, such as multifactor authentication, single sign-on, and passwordless login.

Additionally, enforcing strategies such as controlling user privileges to limit who has access and lifecycle policies that regularly review access and permissions to prevent privilege creep will help prevent data loss and breaches.

2. Role-Based Permissions

Along the same lines as managing how users are granted access, role-based provisioning lets the administrator ensure only the right people have access to the right assets at the right time.

Throughout a project, different users need to have access to certain files and resources in order to do their jobs. However, not every user needs the same level of permissions, and they most likely won’t need the same level of permissions for the entirety of the project.

For example, the marketing team doesn’t need the same access to a video file as the sound editor needs, and the client doesn’t need permission to download and edit the original video file.

By assigning project-based permissions for standard and customized roles on an as-needed basis, the admin has more flexibility and control over what a user can do on a given project.

It’s also important to remember that role-based permissions are project-dependent. That is, a user’s role may be different on each project they are working on. While they may need almost unfettered access to change and share files for one project, they may simply need view-only permissions on another.

Paired with the access management policies above, role-based permissions can stop a hacker from penetrating too deeply into the system where the most valuable content and data are stored.

3. Leak-Tracing Technology

It’s always preferable to prevent a leak from occurring than to clean up after one, but humans make mistakes and, leaks happen.

Watermarking is an effective tool that can both help deter asset leaks and provide traceability back to who is viewing and sharing an asset. This capability helps secure and streamline workflows from post-production to pre-screening by ensuring reviewers have a current, authorized, and secure version of the asset available.

MediaSilo’s watermarking technology, SafeStream, creates multilayer protection against theft and unauthorized sharing with:

Visible Watermarks

As the name implies, visible watermarks are placed clearly within each frame of a video. These watermarks are intended to provide a traceable, visual deterrent against unauthorized sharing and public distribution of confidential, proprietary content.

Visual watermarks can be customized to include the authorized viewer’s full name, email address, or custom text or even used for branding purposes by including the company name or logo.

Forensic Watermarks

Forensic watermarks are digitally embedded into a video, so they are invisible to the viewer. Forensic watermarks contain unique characters that identify the video’s origin, so it is difficult for unauthorized users to pass the asset off as their own.

SafeStream is highly customizable, allowing admins to create watermarking standards for specific projects or for entire workspaces. SafeStream also streamlines and unifies your security efforts with shareable watermark templates for specific teams or user groups.

4. Security Certifications

One way that MediaSilo is keeping assets and workflows secure is by obtaining SOC 2 Type II certification. This high-level certification ensures that our infrastructure, software, personnel, procedures, and data have met rigorous third-party-verified standards for security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.

In other words, we have official verification that our internal operations at MediaSilo are as secure as yours.

Download MediaSilo’s Guide to Post-Production Workflows to learn more about how post-production is evolving in the era of remote work and how you can increase efficiency, productivity, and security no matter where your team is located.