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This talk by conductor, orchestrator, and composer Geoffrey Pope took place at the 83rd FWD:labs Salon.

About the Speaker

Geoffrey Pope is an award-winning conductor, orchestrator, and composer. Balancing dual careers in concert music and scoring for film and other media, he believes that creativity and synergy come from lifelong curiosity and a commitment to working well with others.

Pope received his undergraduate degree in composition from USC, masters degrees in composition and conducting from the Eastman School of Music, and a doctorate in conducting from UCLA. This combination and level of formal training is unusual in today’s commercial music industry, and Pope applies these skills to his work in the studio and concert hall with efficiency, sensitivity, and receptivity.

He has scored numerous shorts, commercials, logo cues, and PSAs appearing on broadcast television and online, as well as the feature film “Palo Alto, CA” (2007) starring Ben Savage and Tom Arnold. He has conducted sessions for independent short and feature films in Los Angeles and Rochester, New York, and provided music preparation and mixing services. He is employed as an orchestrator for several upcoming Netflix releases.

In addition to his creative endeavors, he works as a forensic musicologist in music copyright infringement matters, as an associate with Judith Finell MusicServices, whose clients have included Sony, Disney, Bob Dylan, Lady Gaga, and Warner Bros. He is an advocate of composers whose work is pushed to resemble a temp track too closely, working to reduce the risk of copyright infringement while honoring a production?s musical requirements.

For more information, please visit geoffreypopemusic.com.

This talk by filmmaker W. Alex Reeves took place at the 82nd FWD:labs Salon.

About the Speaker

Alex is an award-winning director, producer, and sound designer based in Los Angeles. Born in New York City and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Alex moved to Los Angeles in 2006 where he began a career as a television editor working on such modern classics as Supernanny, The Real Housewives of New York, and BBQ Pitmasters. In 2011, Alex opened Point of Blue Studios, a production company based in North Hollywood where he has since produced and directed multiple award-winning documentaries, short films, music videos, and commercials. He was the resident recording engineer for RocketJump Studios podcast network from 2013-2015, and his sound design work can be heard on Comedy Central, Hulu, and Disney XD. Alex is the other half of Hollywood power couple “Nicolex” and lives with his talented wife (Nicole Wyland) and two cats (Milo and Winnie) in West Hollywood.

This talk by DreamWorks animator David Badgerow took place at the 81st FWD:labs Salon.

About the Speaker

David Badgerow has been active in the animation industry for over a decade, working in multiple disciplines ranging from Layout Artist to Motion Graphics Designer to Character Animator. Having started on the popular television series South Park, he’s gone on to several major studios including Sony ImageWorks, Blue Sky, and DreamWorks Animation, and has been credited on over 10 feature animated films. He’s currently an Animator at DreamWorks Animation in Glendale.

“Why I Design With A Story In Mind” by Andrew Linderman, founder and head storyteller at The Story Source, as seen at the most recent FWD:labs Salon.

About the Speaker

Andrew Linderman is a writer, storyteller, and business coach based in New York City. He teaches storytelling at General Assembly and New York University, and is the founder of The Story Source, a consultancy that helps artists, business people and entrepreneurs tell compelling stories. His former clients include Google, American Express, Penguin Random House Publishing, and dozens of small businesses and startups around the world.

Prior to founding The Story Source, Andrew worked as a story coach with The Moth, a MacArthur award-winning non-profit dedicated to the craft of storytelling, and trained as an actor and improviser at the Upright Citizens Brigade and the Atlantic Theater Company in New York City.

Andrew is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and has worked as a city planner, a radio DJ and an economist. He has lots of stories to tell, but promises never to tell them in the third person.

Filmmaker Jason Zada, who often experiments with interactive and non-linear storytelling, has a great write-up on Netflix’s Bandersnatch. Part retrospective on his experiences with such stories since the 70’s, and part “tree maps” showcasing the scenarios available with the new film, his review ends with some sage advice:

“Not every type of story is right for this platform but with an engaging story, a competent filmmaker and some magic we haven’t seen before, I bet you this will something that only grows from here. I’ve said it many times in the past but will say it one more time… this is the most exciting time in history to be a storyteller.”

Basecamp CEO Jason Fried, who started the popular project management platform 15 years ago, spoke with the Recode Decode podcast about how venture capital kills businesses. Fried often brings up how his company has made it on its own without traditional investors, which may be one reason it has scaled successfully.

“Lots of businesses could be great $10 million, $20 million businesses, but they’re not allowed to be. [They’ve] got to be $200 million or $500 million or a billion.”

Director Guillermo del Toro shares a thread on Twitter about his 10 “personal musings” about the film Roma, directed and lensed by his colleague Alfonso Cuarón. Many touch upon the camera placements that pair the ground and the sky, while others provide some jaw-dropping trivia:

It seems to me that the fact that Cuaron and Eugenio Caballero BUILT several blocks (!) of Mexico City in a giant backlot (sidewalk, lampposts, stores, asphalted streets, etc) is not well-known. This is a titanic achievement.

This year we started up our Salon series again with 8 events, and published 11 articles on film, web, and design, in addition to sharing a handful of posts on Facebook and Twitter. Here are our favorite subjects covered this last year.

10. 
    Patrick Daniel
    In May, we did a modular, responsive website as well as a postcard (design thru printing) for this actor
9. 
   “Finding the Perfect Audio for Your Project”
   In January, our Salon talk was by music composer Tim Hare — the first of our speaker series and 72nd event to date
8. 
   National Union of Healthcare Workers “Why I Joined”
   In July, we shot a bunch of spots for this union, and built their microsite
7. 
   Susan Holcomb
   In February, we designed and developed a WordPress site for this painter
6. 
   “Web Design Accessibility, Performance and Aesthetics”
   In September, our Salon talk was by designer | developer Scott Gruber
5. 
   “Getting Out of the Zone with My First Feature Film”
   In July, our Salon talk was by writer/director William Lu
4. 
   “Producing a Non-Union Commercial”
   In May, our Salon talk was by producer Brooke Dooley
3. 
   National Union of Healthcare Workers “Kaiser Don’t Deny”
   In December, we did another photo shoot and microsite for the union
2. 
   LOUIZA
   In September, we shot two very different music videos for this artist out of Oakland over a full weekend — those videos drop in 2019
1. 
   “How Being More Proactive Has Helped My Acting Career”
   In March, our Salon talk was by actor Eric Satterberg, and had the largest attendance as well as overall viewership

Got a favorite that’s not here? Browse the archive and comment below.

For the last 10 years of top 10 posts, be sure to take a look at 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008.

Fisk Studio is behind the Smithsonian’s latest re-branding, which made subtle changes to their logo and dropped “Institution” from their name. The creative agency, which also did the official identity guidelines site, has a great case study about it on their website.

The ride-sharing service recently re-branded, pivoting away from their recent “U” logo and using the shape instead as a sort of mask element for a variety of on-point layouts. It’s certainly a great technique for keeping the “U” without having to use just the single letter as the logo mark.

Titles designer Pablo Ferro passed away earlier in November. He was best known for the title sequences for Dr. Strangelove and Bullitt. Art of the Title has a multi-part write-up on him, and also was fortunate enough to interview him. It was uncanny at the time for full-screen text titles, plus a production that would embrace thin handwriting to boot.

“Why I Design With A Story In Mind” by creative director Joseph Gilbert, from the most recent FWD:labs Salon at Kleverdog Coworking.

About the Speaker

Joseph Gilbert is an award-winning visual communicator and image-maker based in Los Angeles, California. As a creative director, designer and illustrator, his projects and experiences have been as diverse as his clientele.

His projects have spanned from branding and identities, fine art books, annual reports, advertising, packaging, apps and websites for start-up companies to billion dollar industries, both domestically and internationally. His expertise includes collaborations with other creative professionals: Oscar-winning celebrities, Emmy-winning directors and costume designers, acclaimed fashion designers, internationally recognized photographers, visual and performance artists.

Joseph’s work has landed on desks of CEOs, in hands of celebrities, on residential coffee tables, prime shelves of retail stores, walls above brilliant minds and on laptops everywhere. His work has been published in Communication Arts, Print magazine, AR100 Black Book, Photo District News and has received numerous awards for design excellence.

Color contrast ratios and WCAG standards. Pages with load budgets and no “jumbotron” carousels. CSS grid and the future of magazine-like layouts. Designer | developer Scott Gruber‘s talk at FWD:labs Salon #78 shared a crash course in his top three ethical decisions for crafting websites: accessibility, performance and aesthetics.

About the Speaker

Scott Gruber is a designer and developer building an ethical design practice grounded in accessibility, performance and aesthetics. He has twenty-years experience using digital tools to create across a wide-range of media. He works at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.

To celebrate 100 years in film, ARRI has a series of interviews called Filmmaker’s View, pairing promotional content for their camera/lighting gear with intimate testimonials from filmmakers. Embedded above is one not to be missed with cinematographer Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, CBE.

Chris Thilk writes Cinematic Slant (previously Movie Marketing Madness), where he reviews a film’s posters, trailers, online / social, advertising / cross-promotional, and overall marketing / publicity, always alongside a critical eye. He also has an incredible work ethic to writing so much original, thorough content. (Chris is also available for freelance writing.)

Here’s one favorite visual from his round-up on The Last Jedi:

The web user experience blog, UX Collective, has a great write up by Theo Strauss on how the ride sharing app for Lyft gets a lot right about placement. Whether you use your phone one handed or two, it’s now right by your thumb, not way up at the top out of reach.

“[Contrary to Uber and Google,] Lyft took a different approach with their search bar. Instead of a floating field up top, they added it to an overlay towards the bottom-mid section of the screen. This simple change made it more accessible for almost 100% of users.”

Writer/director William Lu gave the guest talk at the 77nd FWD:labs Salon. “Getting Out of the Zone with My First Feature Film” covers picking the creative team, crafting a solid distribution strategy, and figuring out your end game from the start.

About the Speaker

William Lu attended the graduate film conservatory at Florida State University where he received his MFA in Film and Television Production. He spent three years at Herzog & Company where he produced content for clients like Disney, Paramount, Dreamworks and Sony Pictures. In 2005, he was the recipient of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Armed with a Camera Fellowship.

A year later, he wrote and directed Asian Task Force, a half-hour mock pilot that paid homage to many of his favorite 80’s television series. In 2009, William made the transition to new media, working as post supervisor at Machinima on their Terminator: Salvation original web series.

He was subsequently hired at Maker Studios, where he produced content for their gaming vertical. In 2012, he switched to freelance producing, serving as a co-producer for Rosanna Pansino’s “Nerdy Nummies” blockbuster YouTube series while simultaneously developing feature content that he could later direct.

Personal finance writer Jackie Lam’s talk entitled “Finance Hacks for Freelancers” has tips on keeping cash flowing, building wealth, and making it easy.

This talk happened at FWD:labs Salon #76 last Friday.

About the Speaker

Jackie Lam is an L.A.-based money writer who is passionate about helping creatives with their finances and to cultivate community among entrepreneurs. Her clients include Fortune 500 companies and FinTech startups, and her work has appeared in Forbes, Business Insider, GOOD, and Mental Floss.

She blogs at heyfreelancer.com and is a city organizer for the Freelancer’s Union Spark events and Freelance Friday, a monthly global co-working meetup.