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For today's #tbt I'm highlighting the delightful Tanya who faced a number of barriers, starting with the NICU nurses who fed her son formula against her wishes to the indignity of pumping in a closet at work. BUT she made it! https://youtu.be/RCuA487KwQM #Filmmaking #2016 #Breastfed #Perseverance #PumpingAtWork #Documentary #HealthDisparities #BlackFilmmaker #WomanDirector #BlackBirthMatters #BlackBreastfeeding #ChangeTheNarrative #Breastfeeding #BlkBfing #BlkBfingJoy

#perseverance #blkbfingjoy #healthdisparities #tbt #2016 #blackfilmmaker #pumpingatwork #changethenarrative #documentary #breastfed #filmmaking #breastfeeding #womandirector #blkbfing #blackbirthmatters #blackbreastfeeding

Dead flower pole. #LosFeliz #LosAngeles #floralarrangement

#floralarrangement #losangeles #losfeliz

Another #tbt Kawani's babies back in 2015. She had nearly every nipple issue imaginable at the start but went on to nurse her daughter for 3 years. https://youtu.be/D_k4BMhdc1w #Filmmaking #2015 #Breastfed #Documentary #HealthDisparities #BlackFilmmaker #WomanDirector #BlackBirthMatters #BlackBreastfeeding #ChangeTheNarrative #Breastfeeding #BlkBfing #blkbfingsupport

#tbt #filmmaking #blackfilmmaker #healthdisparities #breastfed #blackbirthmatters #blkbfingsupport #2015 #womandirector #breastfeeding #blkbfing #blackbreastfeeding #changethenarrative #documentary

Cambreisha's baby from our promo shoot in 2015. Would love to see what this cutie looks like today! #Filming #2015 #Breastfed #Documentary #HealthDisparities #BlackFilmmaker #WomanDirector #BlackBirthMatters #BlackBreastfeeding #ChangeTheNarrative #Breastfeeding #BlkBfing

#womandirector #blackbreastfeeding #changethenarrative #breastfed #blackfilmmaker #healthdisparities #breastfeeding #blackbirthmatters #blkbfing #filming #documentary #2015

The most incredible first day of filming with @crimson_fig the second subject of my doc @chocolatemilkdoc much love to @sandravalde our DP

Shea Moisture ad technically the right move, but tone deaf

(photo source: Shea Moisture via Blavity)

On paper, Shea Moisture’s game was by the corporate playbook. When you’re in your startup phase, you identify an underutilized niche market with high spending potential. Black women were the perfect customer base. We spend an unprecedented amount on beauty products every year, yet we’re often ignored by the marketplace and have long been frustrated with the lack of hair products designed for our varying textures and curls. In steps Shea Moisture with a line of products that seemed tailor made for our hair and a suitable back story that made us feel proud to make a purchase.

Our initial support provided Shea Moisture with the steady revenue to scale up and make their products available on the shelves of local retailers like Target, Rite Aid, etc. Next, Shea Moisture’s shelves got more colorful as they added new product lines to address a varying range of needs. But a growing business is always looking for more customers and investors want to see exponential growth. This is common and often necessary in the business world, but Shea Moisture’s move was a disaster. So what went wrong?

For any startup, part of your appeal to investors is your ability to scale up to expand past your initial consumer base and grow exponentially. Often this comes in the form of moving from a small but dedicated niche of costumers to target the larger mainstream market. Founder Richelieu Dennis sited the need to expand in an interview in 2015 after taking Bain Capital, LLC on as an investor. (Note in the article the reaction of customers to an early social media ad featuring only white children which should have foreshadowed this week’s backlash.) This is the growth model for most industries and many brands have successfully made the transition.

For instance, Marvel and DC Universe were once the exclusive destination for a niche audience of adult comic nerds. When they scaled up with tentpole summer films that catered to a mainstream audience, the nerds were not thrilled with the watered-down-for-mainstream consumption versions of their favorite superheroes. They were actually quite vocal with their opposition just as the internet was opening new avenues to publicly air your grievances on chat rooms and forums. Through some heavy PR strategy, the studios were able to appease the nerds and the comic film franchises have gone on to earn billions.

A more sobering example is Mod Cloth which began as a destination for plus sized women to find fun fashionable funky designs in sizes that flattered their figures. But as Mod Cloth grew (and was purchased by Walmart) and found success based off this initial group of consumers their idea of scaling up meant abandoning the plus-sized models on their homepage for skinnier more mainstream models. Their original base felt betrayed and Mod Cloth took a dive in popularity.

The problem with Shea Moisture is that the customer base they built their foundation on was not a body size or chosen field of interest, it was a racial demographic. And while the shift in audiences made by Marvel, DC and Mod Cloth can be criticized as “selling out” or simply “going mainstream,” there’s a much stronger term when race is involved - “whitewashing.” The film industry has taken a lot of flack for this with recent films like Ghost in the Shell, Aloha, the new miniseries Guerrilla and that unfortunate Nina Simone biopic that shall not be named. Apparently the leaders at Shea Moisture have not been paying attention, and they walked head first into a perfect storm in which black women have become increasingly vocal online, Americans have become increasingly sensitive to whitewashing, and Beyonce came out with Lemonade’s Formation last year - not a good time to come out with an ad excluding the black women who made your brand successful.

It was a definite misstep on Shea Moisture’s part. While it was technically sound from a coprorate perspective, it was tone deaf in every other way. It's important to remember that when working from the corporate playbook, if your original niche is based on a racial demographic, suddenly abandoning them for a "general" audience has an unsavory undertone. And social media will put you on blast. Companies beware.

Packaging Design for a Cause

Last year, I was commissioned by the National Medical Association to create DVDs of my web series CHOCOLATE MILK for their breastfeeding tool kit. It was an amazing opportunity to showcase graybayne film/media's design and production capacity. The DVDs feature the bold color palette and illustrations that make up the project's brand identity. This is the second time CHOCOLATE MILK has been included in their outreach and we are very proud of the final product. The tool kit will be distributed to Ob-Gyn offices around the country to help providers communicate the benefits of breastfeeding to their patients.

But you don't have to wait for a DVD to learn more about the project! Visit our CHOCOLATE MILK page for background on the project or our YouTube Channel to watch CHOCOLATE MILK: The Documentary Series online.

The Lego Batman Movie - Hollywood may have finally gotten it right!

I just sat down with audience full of young children and their parents to watch a matinee of The Lego Batman Movie. And I'm pleased to say it hit on so many levels. Both personal and academic.

Academically, because I've been reading "The Caped Crusade" by Glen Weldon about the history of the Batman franchise. I caught every reference in the barrage of inside jokes aimed at the adult nerds sitting in the audience with their kids. With the many homages to the previous incarnations of Batman, the extended Bat-family and assorted Gotham villains, it's clear the writers and artists over at WB did their homework. The Batman and Joker rivalry as romantic relationship was especially hilarious, since it both satirizes the traditional Hollywood romcom while acknowledging their historic symbiotic existence. "One can't exist without the other."

Personally, the writers' interpretation of Batman's perpetual loner status as an avoidant attachment style born of the pain from losing his parents was a nice departure from previous treatments of Batman as just cray cray. The issue Batman has with letting anyone in hit an emotional note for me, as it parallels issues I've experienced in my own relationships. And while these dynamics are quite grown up, at a pivotal point in the plot, even the kids knew the words that Batman needed to, but couldn't bring himself to say. Imagine my delight at hearing an audience full of kids shout to the screen unprompted and in unison, "Say I'm sorry!" Wish a certain someone had been there to hear it. It was quite remarkable.

The Lego Batman Movie is a great animated film that hits all the notes that the Pixar classics set as the new bar for children's films over two decades ago with Toy Story. I laughed, I cried, I learned something about friendship and family, and I nerded out with all the Batman backstory references. It was fast paced, it was edgy and it was very funny. From what I understand, aficionados are very particular about depictions of the Bat, with Batman: The Animated Series being their most approved of on-screen version. With that in mind, The Lego Batman Movie strikes gold. I think Glen Weldon would be proud!

Over and out.

And Now...Graphic Design!

Over the next few weeks, I will be updating the website to reflect graybayne film/media's design capabilities. Ever the perfectionist, I was reluctant to include graphic design as an official service. But after several years of freelance and pro bono work honing my craft, not to mention a three year stint at the Art Center College of Design, where I availed myself of every design course I could pack into a course load, I am now comfortable adding graphic designer to my list of titles. If you have any design needs, problems, or branding issues that you'd like me to address, don't be afraid to reach out!

Over and out.

#Service Update