Producer Jon Kamen, founder of @radical.media, is his company's harshest critic.
The sign above the front door of the New York City office reads, "@radical.media, Never Established." Embracing change has been something of a mantra for Jon Kamen since he founded @radical.media in 1993 with Frank Scherma. The partners, who had long produced television commercials, wanted to explore new forms of media. Today, @radical.media's staff of 140 -- a group that includes producers, editors, and Web designers -- produces TV ads, Web-based advertorials, music videos, documentaries, feature-length films, and television series, including Iconoclasts, about to enter its fifth season on the Sundance Channel. The company has won an Oscar (for the documentary Fog of War) and a Grammy (for the George Harrison memorial concert), as well as Emmys and Clios.
Kamen spends his days meeting with clients, brainstorming with directors, wandering around the office to review projects in various stages of completion, and checking in with @radical.media's offices in Los Angeles, Berlin, Sydney, and Shanghai. In the evenings, after attending an industry event or a dinner with clients, Kamen usually slips back into the office and works late into the night.
I wake up most mornings at 6 a.m. I live in Bedford, New York, about an hour north of Manhattan. The first thing I see in the morning is the sunrise over the reservoir.
As soon as I get up, I go to my computer and scan my e-mail to see if there have been any crazy disasters at work since I last closed my eyes. At any given time, we're usually shooting something somewhere in the world. If there's a problem or a question, I'll respond. Then I do my workout.
A trainer comes to my house three mornings a week at 6:45. We do cardio and weights for an hour. She keeps me honest. I'm not really that good about exercising on the road, so it's one reason I try to spend more time at home. Another is to spend time with my wife, although she'll dispute that, because I usually don't get home from work until midnight.
I have my breakfast -- usually cereal with fruit and a cup of coffee -- and read for a bit. I usually scan The New York Times on my Kindle first. We also get it delivered, so after my wife gets it from the driveway, I reread articles in their printed form. I like the photos. I also read The Wall Street Journal, Adweek, Advertising Age, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter. I look for trends that could affect my day: the success or failure of a new movie, a story about Microsoft's new mobile platform, or anything iPad-related. We want to provide content for all of those platforms, so I am always thinking about how best to do that.
To avoid rush hour, I usually don't leave my house until 9. Depending on the weather conditions, I take either my environmentally friendly electric Mini or, hypocritically, my gas-guzzling four-wheel-drive SUV. My commute is sort of my time to get focused for the day. I listen to the news -- staying current is key to my work -- or use the time to strategize. I may check in with the Berlin office or call to see what's going on with a project happening in a different time zone. Otherwise, I like this time to be fairly quiet.
I usually get to the office at about a quarter after 10. I have two assistants. My primary assistant keeps my schedule, which she shares with a few key people, such as my partner Frank Scherma and our president of media and entertainment. Basically, my primary assistant is my gatekeeper. She squeezes people in to see me if need be, whether that's an executive producer or my creative director. She also can pull me out of a meeting for an emergency phone call.
I also have a special-project assistant -- usually someone I have promoted from the primary assistant position. She manages my project involvement, and she's copied on all my communications with the people on those projects. Having worked with me already for a few years helps enormously. I'm not a CrackBerry kind of guy. I don't watch the e-mails or texts coming in at real time. But my assistant does, and can help fill in gaps and make sure I am where I need to be, when I need to be. She also helps me keep track of all of the calls I need to make during the day. I make an effort to keep that list short, and make sure to place not just reactive calls but also proactive calls that generate new opportunities and push the company forward.
On any given day, we're working on dozens of projects. We have six television shows in production right now, and another six in development that are ready to be pitched. We also produce television commercials, music videos, feature-length documentaries, and films as well as online projects, like an interactive website to promote a new album of Johnny Cash's music.
The spectrum of our work is vast, but the unified thread is creative thinking. Most advertising and media companies come up with ideas and then hire other companies, like us, to produce them. We do it all -- we'll work with Wieden + Kennedy to transform their marketing and advertising ideas for Nike into a sponsored series for MTV. We'll work with Grey Goose and Sundance to produce the Iconoclasts series. And we'll work with Jon Bon Jovi to come up with a way to promote his band's 25th anniversary -- for that we did a tour documentary, produced a concert film, and published a book that coincided with the release of his new album.
My job involves quite a bit of brainstorming. Many of these projects start with an RFP -- request for proposal. For instance, we got one from NASA when it was looking for a way to promote its five-year mission to Jupiter. I had a brainstorming meeting with my creative director and our digital and design teams. We came up with an idea to do a digital documentary and create a narrative Web experience that chronicled the mission. Once we win a job, we go into serious production mode -- a production schedule is set, more meetings happen, and the real work begins.
