Radical Media is Paving the Way for Premium Non-fiction Storytelling
Scrolling through Radical Media’s Featured Work section on their website, one can’t help but be amazed at the sheer number of projects they have worked on, and not to mention how many of their projects have had a lasting impact on the advertising and media world.
My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, Concert for George (in honor of George Harrison), and The Most Interesting Man in the World ad campaign for Dos Equis, are just a small sample of their work.
However, when we sat down in their conference room and watched their showreel, the true scope of Radical Media’s storytelling mastery became apparent.
As the reel continued to pick up the pace, an idea that really stood out came from the great Michael Jordan, who featured in Radical Media’s Netflix documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design. While talking about working with Tinker Hatfield, the famous shoe designer for Nike, Jordan said:
“I still can’t visualize it until you put it in my hand.”
That was exactly what we were able to experience during our visit.
Key Lessons
Getting to meet several key individuals who had brought these projects to life gave us an invaluable perspective to Radical Media’s work.
The first person we met was the Chairman and CEO Jon Kamen. Even though Kamen was quick to point out that he does not view Radical Media as a journalism agency, he did note that film makers have become more like journalists over time.
“Premium, non-fiction story telling is coming of age,” Kamen said.
“We want people to walk away understanding [an idea, concept or piece of history] after watching our work, so we have to learn as much as possible about a project to tell the story,” he said.
The origins of a good story comes from good research, and Radical Media doesn’t let up on either. This, Kamen hopes, creates an immersive media experience for viewers.
Radical has demonstrated this in many of their works, especially their recent Netflix series Bobby Kennedy For President, which was originally intended to be a two-part series. As the team dug deeper into Kennedy’s story they agreed with Netflix to double this to a four-part series.
We also had the opportunity to chat with directors Paul Bozymowski and Michael Bonfiglio about some of the projects they have worked on and the process they took to bring their works to life.
Bozymowski, who has produced Miley: The Movement and Toyota Tundra, An Astronaut Story for Radical, had many strong pieces of advice to offer, but it was his advance around long form video that stuck.
“Prepare to throw away what you’ve prepared to follow the story,” he said.
Although you always need to go in with a plan, you can’t stick rigidly to it. This is something that video producers and journalists a like should always keep in mind.
Bonfiglio, who was a big player in David Letterman’s show as well as the documentary From The Ashes talked about how important a crew is when filming a long-form video.
“Always try to surround yourself with people who are smarter and more talented than you,” Bonfiglio said.
This quote would stick with us throughout our time in New York City.
Takeaways
Meeting with Radical Media also illuminated a big pillar of the journalism world that most students are not thinking much about: branded content.
As we continue to see the advertising model in news media take big hits, subscription models are becoming the norm, but branded content is also making its way into more places.
Seeing how a company like Radical Media who — as part of their business model — chooses not to specialize in any single specific thing, but produces advertisements and other pieces of branded content, we can begin to see not only how well made these types of works can be, but how successful they are in maintaining a successful business.
As the branded content business model continues to evolve, it will become important to create the content responsibly, as Radical Media does.
For us to learn this — and get exposure to this world — as students is extremely valuable and will help us be ready to tackle this emerging content field in the near future.
