Lana Kim

i am your density....

[Daniel D'Addario @DPD_]

“‘Zootopia,’ ‘Bugonia.’ ‘Bugonia,’ ‘Zootopia.’ You two met ‘Atropia’?”

[Lana Kim @LanaDelKim_]

ATROPIA Trailer is out!!!

[Variety @Variety]

Alia Shawkat and Callum Turner star in #Atropia, the directorial debut of Hailey Benton Gates and the winner of the 2025 Sundance Grand Jury Prize.

The film will open in select theaters Dec. 12 from Vertical. Watch the trailer here.

[Sebastian Pardo @sbpardo]

Perhaps an overlooked element in the development of new filmmaking voices, lies in the step before film festivals. Before there is even anything to submit, there is a sorting of sensibilities, taste, influences, and talent that happens methodologically via institutions or organically through a kind of invisible hand of shared interests. In recent history we’ve sat back and trusted film schools and other established institutions to do that work via a process of applications, resumes, and quantifiable metrics that result in a series of programs, workshops, grants, and summits. And this very well might work for some, but I wonder if we’ve perhaps allowed the existence of these institutions to obviate the self directed curation of peers, or — maybe responsibility is too strong a word — but the responsibility of culturally powerful companies to help this process along.

In my experience the real value of these institutions historically is the peer group they curate “for you”, more so than the equipment they provide or the teachers placed in front of you. However, these institutions are not the only place your peers can be found.

I find myself thinking of this after a reunion of sorts with my fellow “alumni’s” not of USC, or Chapman — but of The Directors Bureau, a music video and commercial production company in Hollywood, CA founded by Roman Coppola. It produced some of the best, most innovative music videos and commercials of its era, and that is notable enough, however “The Bureau” should get credit for something even greater and more rare: it consciously created a space for young talent to gather.

With its cultural power acting like a great magnet, The Bureau attracted a group of like-minded, talented (and at times competitive) polymathic filmmakers, who were given the space to get experience in the field, with a little bit of wax-on, wax-off ordering of lunch in between. (A lunch everyone in the office would share at a communal table no less!)

What started for me as an paid internship, grew into a loosely defined roll within a division of the company called “Special Projects”, which I try to explain succinctly as a real life Nathan For You, before Nathan For You. In retrospect this was a holding place for young creatives, who did work tangentially and speculatively, but rarely connected to the company’s main mission of producing music videos, or commercials. There was no economic value to the business — quite the opposite!— but it provided a great cultural value, and birthed a notable “coaching tree” within the film industry. In just the 4 or so years I was there from 2009-2013, I overlapped with artist Kahlil Joseph (BLKNWS), DP Matthew J. Lloyd (Spiderman: Far From Home), Best Picture winner Jonathan Wang (Everything Everywhere All At Once), as well as future founders of Los Angeles Image Hall Now Instant, and the founders of boutique music video commercial production company Ways & Means. Nearly every young person while I was there has gone on to contribute in meaningful ways to visual cultural - as directors, editors, designers, founders and heads of other production companies. (And I’m sure there’s people before me and after, I’m not aware of.)

This is a total aberration, perhaps a fluke of history. Right time, right place. But I use it as an example of an respected production company using its financial and cultural power to create a space for young creatives, with no hook hidden in the bait to reel in this talent and tie it down. It was an alternative space, outside of traditional institutions that cultivated talent. I might just be ignorant of other places that work this way — there is always a natural version of this — but I think The Directors Bureau/Roman Coppola deserves a lot of credit for consciously and somewhat selflessly incubating young talent in a way that seeded more of the kind of work it championed. Memory certainly would not exist without the Bureau. I would not have met Gia Coppola and produced Palo Alto, nor met my co-founder Riel Roch-Decter, nor had the infrastructure to learn how to produce, and its very likely my career would be entirely different — or perhaps wouldn’t exist at all!

It was here that I found my peer group.

I know that 10-15 years ago the medium is not in the same financial place it is now, but I wonder if it really just comes down to financial will alone. There is no place on the ledger for culture, and thus only b.c the Bureau was “small” enough — actually lead by a person, and not a committee or series of spreadsheets — it was possible. Is this still possible? Is it just that the margins are just too narrow now? Do so few companies exist that have this kind allure to young talent? Are the incentives too abstract? Too selfless?

—

So you’re reading this and you’re not the head of some production company or film division — let the take away be that you have to find your peer group. An option that doesn’t depend on waiting for your favorite film company to post a creative and silly intern application on their website where they ask you to draw a dog? To you I say: “Baltimore.”
“Baltimore, you say?”
“Yes Baltimore.”

Not that you need to move to Baltimore, but its an example of self sorting into a community and finding your peers who have similar values, and creative ambitions. In Baltimore, you find people who prioritize being able to create on nights and weekends, pay cheap rent, and generally can get by making their work as a hobby. And as such, they’ve created a network of highly creative, output oriented artists who have produced some of the most interesting music, comedy, film festivals and films of the 21st century.

So, really its about diagnosing yourself and saying where would I find someone who wants to make the kind of stuff I want to make, and values it in ways similar to me, etc. And for many maybe that is an A.F.I., USC or Sundance program, I think those definitely work for people who want to make a certain type of film, but I’m of the opinion that we have plenty of those type of films. And relying on that kind of systematized stewardship leads to a more narrow film ecosystem than one made outside of those institutions, one that is a bit more self selecting, organic, flat, and open to possibility.

#another1000words

[IndieWire @IndieWire]

#Sundance: See the full list of competition and Audience winners out of the 2025 festival: https://t.co/QAi0QxkQwT

[Sundance Film Festival @sundancefest]

🏆 The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic goes to “Atropia.”

[Cincinnati Zoo @CincinnatiZoo]

It’s pumpkin-crushing season! Also known as Fiona, Fritz, Bibi and Tucker’s favorite time of year! 🎃 Brought to you by Frisch’s Big Boy! 🎃

[Ways & Means @wysmns]

We chatted with our pals @WhitmerThomas and @claytatum about the movies that inspired The Civil Dead which comes out this weekend via @utopiamovies! 👻 Interview by @joceydotcom https://t.co/8NCcwm7IJO

[Lana Kim @LanaDelKim_]

What’s up with toddlers refusing to eat crust on bread 🍞 but will only eat the crust on pizza 🍕?

[theLoopCollector @loopcollector]

Helloo! Todays recomendation for a smooth morning and/or evening too.

"Attitude" by @DBlodorn
on @ourZORA

Also full album here https://t.co/TOvpMVGQt7

https://t.co/UPlBVTT30w

#music #web3 #nft #eth #synth

[Ways & Means @wysmns]

Really excited to team up with @mubi on The African Desperate! In theaters September 16 😎

[Zora @zora]

::: Team Spotlight :::

Meet Dain @DBlodorn Product Engineer

↳Avid gardener
↳Prefers making music with semi-broken old electronic instruments
↳Got my first concussion at Powell Peralta’s warehouse skatepark Skate Zone

One of his creations:
https://t.co/52DsEVdOFY

[Ways & Means @wysmns]

We’re on @letterboxd 🤓 https://t.co/609skQ4pYn

[Ways & Means @wysmns]

Breaking: Ways & Means hires notable ‘film Twitter’ scamp @handsome_pal as Head of Development

[Letterboxd @letterboxd]

ya’ll not ready for this

[Ways & Means @wysmns]

The films that influenced The Nowhere Inn on @letterboxd ❤️

[Mac Arthur @DoctorMacArthur]

Just putting the final touches on my rental unit

[The Onion @TheOnion]

Man Who Thought He'd Lost All Hope Loses Last Additional Bit Of Hope He Didn't Even Know He Still Had https://t.co/YBpF37SLZ2

[Daren Rabinovitch @darabin]

This full 3d scan of the graffiti covered Robert E. Lee monument was uploaded to Sketchfab, a week before it is removed https://t.co/2vDwTCCFHY

[OneZero @ozm]

.@OpenAI recently released Jukebox, an algorithmic system able to generate music — complete with lyrics — in the style of famous musicians like Elvis and Frank Sinatra. https://t.co/bp3ECu3hjI