1.) What trends, developments or issues would you point to thus far in 2019 as being most significant, perhaps carrying implications for the rest of the year and beyond?

2.) What work (advertising or entertainment)--your own or others--struck a responsive chord with you and/or was the most effective creatively and/or strategically so far this year? Does any work stand out to you in terms of meshing advertising and entertainment?

3.) What’s the biggest takeaway or lessons learned from work (please identify the project) you were involved in this year that was or is in the running for current awards season consideration (i.e., Emmys, Cannes Lions)?

4.) Though gazing into the crystal ball is a tricky proposition, we nonetheless ask you for any forecast you have relative to content creation and/or the creative and/or business climate for the second half of 2019 and beyond.

5.) What do recent honors on the awards show circuit (Producers Guild Awards, DGA Awards, Cannes Lions, AICP Show, Emmy nominations) tell us in terms of themes and trends in the industry at large?

6.) What efforts are you making to increase diversity and inclusion in terms of women and ethnic minority filmmakers? How do you go about mentoring new talent?

Ellese Shell
Executive Producer
Cut+Run

3) I think the biggest lesson I learned this year was how important communication and relationships are at every stage of the production and post process. We worked with Townhouse and Tool of NA’s Floyd Russ on the Gillette “Nothing Comes Easy” campaign. The work centered around Shaquem Griffin and showed his progression from growing up as a boy with an amputated hand to being drafted into the NFL. It was really important to the whole team that the final spots were both authentic in story and appearance. I believe the initial and ongoing conversations between Floyd, the agency creatives, our editor Stacy Peterson and our VFX team at Jogger really set the shoot, edit, and VFX up for success and gave us room to really explore the story. And how the entire team worked through the process together really paid off with the reception the work has received and the people it has inspired, including the award show judges.

5) Cause marketing has gone from a one-off category at award shows to permeating advertising as a whole. Award winners like Nat Geo’s “Nujeen” and the AICP Next honoree McDonald’s inverted arches for International Woman’s Day both speak to the fact that award show committees are taking notice of work that activates their audience and pushes the conversation forward.

6) Cut+Run’s management team is majority female and we were early supporters of Free The Bid. On a personal note, Cut+Run has a deep tradition of mentorship and I am a direct product of that. Having learned the craft and business of advertising and specifically editing right here as EP, I am now in the position of doing the same - nurturing and guiding the next generation of female editors and producers.

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