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Music News

• 📱Spotify sheds 1,500 jobs (17% of their staff) in their 3rd round of layoffs this year (2,300 jobs cut in 2023)

  • This comes on the heels of massive spending in the podcasting and audiobooks space, as the streaming giant has found it difficult to turn a profit.

• 🎟️ TikTok has expanded its in-app partnership with Ticketmaster

  • TikTok users in 20 additional countries can now purchase tickets directly within the app.

Entertainment News

• 🏆 Taylor Swift has been named TIME’s 2023 Person of the Year, besting a rather strange list of finalists.

• 📺 With increased competition and an oversaturated market, streaming services may look to bundles with rival services and offer wholesale discounts to survive.

  • Verizon has announced a $10/month ad tier bundle of Netflix & Max. (Netflix has famously not offered any discounts or wholesale prices on its service for years.)

  • Apple TV+ & Paramount have also reportedly held talks regarding a proposed bundle of their services.

Interview with Film Director Drew Kirsch

Originally from Nevada, Drew Kirsch is a self-taught film director, photographer, and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. Dropping out of college at age 21, he has quickly climbed his way up the ladder in the music video world, eventually winning MTV’s Video of the Year award with Taylor Swift for his work on ‘You Need To Calm Down.’ He also co-directed the music video for Swift’s ‘Lover.’

To date, he has 11 MTV VMA nominations and 2 wins, and has recently dove into the worlds of feature film and commercials.

Drew has brought his effervescent, retro-inspired aesthetic to music videos and ad campaigns for Jungkook, Taylor Swift, John Legend, Machine Gun Kelly, Orville Peck, Imagine Dragons, Spotify, Sony, Lowe’s Hardware, and Petsmart.

Check his 2022 recap reel to get an idea of just how unique his style is.

Our conversation is below:

AvA: How did you get your start in filmmaking? 

Drew Kirsch: My initial introduction to filmmaking was early on in Reno, Nevada, where I was using my mom's old VHS camera to make skate videos with my friends. I would edit the clips and would make 10 to 15 minute skate videos. When high school came around, I pushed that interest aside because it just didn't seem like the “cool thing” to do at the time, so I focused on other things. 

When I went to school at Cuesta College, I had a bit of a quarter life crisis at the time. I didn't really know what I was going to do with my life. I had an English teacher named Kimber Bartley, who expanded my view on a bunch of different things including critical thinking. Given it’s a junior college, you get to try a bunch of different things, take different classes and see what sticks. She showed me the book Fight Club, and broke the whole book down in ways I hadn't thought about before, and it opened my mind to wanting to be creative and write something or do something that has an impact like this book has had on me. So I took a film class and that really stuck. 

I was good at it initially because I had roots in it from growing up. and I became obsessed with it. I couldn't believe that it could be a career. So I applied to film school at UCLA, moved to LA and took an internship. After about a month I found out I didn’t get in [to UCLA], and so I took matters in my own hands. I said to myself “I'm gonna do this on my own, figure it out and get my hands dirty.” 

AvA: Did you get into music videos right away?

Kirsch: That happened accidentally. When I started out, I wanted to do short films and commercials and things I had seen. Music videos to me felt like a dying medium. When I was younger in the late 90s and early 2000s,  I used to watch music videos all the time, but I just didn’t see them around anymore. 

This kid had seen a wedding video I had done, and asked me to do a rap video for his buddy. At the time, I was like “you know what? I'm not saying no to anything right now… tell me when and where and I’ll show up with my camera.”

I shot a music video that took a few hours, which is crazy to think about now, and I really enjoyed it. I went home that night and edited it, and the next day, I started watching other music videos to see what I could copy and do. I took that video to them and they were ecstatic about it. I ended up connecting with all the different people in their circle from producers to other rappers, and my work was cut out for me throughout the next year. 

AvA: What type of work? 

Kirsch: I did constant rap videos. I guess it was my own version of film school, because I wouldn't say no to anything.. even if most of them were unpaid. I was hustling and  motivated to try and find what my voice and style was going to be. I didn't know what that was at the time, and I was throwing stuff on the wall and seeing what would stick.

AvA: How would you define your voice and style?

Kirsch: I want every frame I make to look like it could be an album cover or a live painting. I've always loved color and the use of food and weird or different elements that are taking something and putting it where it's not supposed to be. I like bold, whimsical, quirky and magical, but want to balance it with a little bit of reality. So I try to blend of all these things together to create my own unique style. You want people to see your work and be like “that looks like something Drew did, you know?” So that's how I think about it, and it happened because I was just throwing stuff at the wall. 

I did a video that was super bright, colorful, sunny and warm, and someone else reached out after they saw it asking to do a video exactly like that but for their song. So I did that one, and another and another. By the third guy, I just knew this thing was working, and people really liked it. And I really like it. So then I started going deep on what that style was going to be, and developing that. I'm still developing i 

AvA: Walk us through your creative process when working with artists on their music videos?

Kirsch: I'll usually receive a track from a record label, manager or artist, and they want me to pitch a concept, or what we call a treatment. A treatment is a PDF that includes pages of different images to showcase the overall direction. I pull images from other videos, movies, commercials or hand drawings. Whatever way I want to portray the direction with a ton of different inspirations from various places. 

I’ll take one listen to the song and see if anything comes to mind right away. Everyone listens to music differently, and I try to pay attention to the rhythm and tone of the beat versus the lyrics. I ask myself “what am I feeling that goes with this tone?” One listen and see if anything comes. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. I really try to figure out the message of the song. Then I'll ask the artist: what's the message? What's the meaning of the song? What does it mean to you? And I try to blend those two worlds together.  

Sometimes the idea strikes right away, and then there are times it can take me days to figure out what this is going to be a word. Sometimes it doesn't come at all. It's just different every time and so is the process of working with the artists. Some Artists are very involved, and some just show up to set and want to know what to do. 

I enjoy artists that are really involved because I'm a collaborator. I love collaborating. It's their baby and song, and they've come to me to execute their vision. I think they should have as much input as possible. 

AvA: How did you end up working with Taylor Swift? 

Kirsch: I was very fortunate to work with her. She's an absolutely incredible Artist and a dream collaborator. She stumbled upon my work from a previous video and found me. The rest was history. To work together was just such an awesome experience.

AvA: What did it mean to you to win the MTV VMA Video of the Year award for “You Need To Calm Down?”

Kirsch: Surreal. Especially going on stage to accept it with Taylor. I grew up watching the VMA’s and I couldn’t help but keep saying to myself “how is this real?” To win an award won by so many directors I’ve looked up to is incredibly special to me. 

AvA: What’s next for you? 

Kirsch: My focus has been shifting towards feature films, and I've got a super exciting project coming up. I can’t say too much yet, but it's a full length feature set in Las Vegas, with a company called XYZ films. So keep your eyes open!

That's always been the goal for me: features, TVs, a few commercials, music videos, kind of a little bit of everything. Features are those long-form stories you get to tell with a wide audience. I’ll still be doing music videos and commercials, but this is a new challenge that I'm excited to conquer. I had to break my way into music videos, then commercials, and now I'm going to break my way into feature films. It's a completely different process, but I’m very excited about it. 

AvA: What is one piece of advice you have for aspiring filmmakers?

Kirsch: Shoot everything you can, because you never know what video or connection you might make that will snowball into the next opportunity. Early on I would have shot a ballet recital for someone’s kid if they asked me, because you never know who the other parents are going to be at that ballet recital. They could see you shooting that video and then need something or want to introduce you to someone or just like you as a person. There are so many opportunities that can come from different places other than just the video itself. 

For someone a bit later in their career pitching a concept, I’d tell them to focus on the idea and how your approach is going to be different from all of the other pitches. Don't get too caught up in making the treatment so visually stunning. It's more about the concepts, uniqueness, and the feasibility that is going to set you apart from the other directors.

Week of December 4^th Open Jobs and Internships

💼 = Job | 🎒 = Internship

💼 Social Media Specialist, Sports - Roc Nation - New York City - Apply here.

💼 Event and Program Manager - ent! Marketing - Hybrid (Los Angeles, CA) -Apply here.

💼 Participant Service & Research Associate - American Federation of Musicians and Employers' Pension Fund - New York City - Apply here.

💼 Stagehand - TelevisaUnivision - Miami, FL - Apply here.

💼 Audio Editor, Sports - SiriusXM - Washington DC - Apply here.

💼 Coordinator, Film and TV Music Licensing - Universal Music Group - Los Angeles, CA - Apply here.

💼 Artist Support Associate - Sony Music - Hybrid (New York City) - Apply here.

💼 VIP Will Call Assistant - BSE Global - New York City - Apply here.

💼 Production Assistant, Amanpour & co. - The WNET Group - Hybrid (New York City) - Apply here.

💼 Production Coordinator - iHeartMedia - Hybrid (New York City) - Apply here.

💼 Production Assistant, Brand Creative/Production Management - Warner Bros. - New York City - Apply here.

🎒 Marketing Intern - Planet LA Records - Hybrid (Los Angeles/New York City) - Apply here.

🎒 Spring 2024 Marketing Intern - Insomniac - Calabasas, CA - Apply here.

🎒 Spring 2024 Interns - Girls Who Listen - Remote - To apply, Email [email protected] with a resume, portfolio (where applicable), and the position of interest.

🎒 Music Management Intern - Contact Management - Remote (Los Angeles, CA) - Apply here.

🎒 Summer 2024 Production & Editorial Internships - NBC News - New York City - Apply here.

👋 Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter and see you next week!

This newsletter is written by Warner Bailey (connect with me here). Edited by Malik Figaro. 

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