Lunch at Michael’s with Van Toffler of Gunpowder & Sky

amp8220Louis Armstrong met Richard Nixon when he was Vice President in a Russian airportamp8221 Toffler told Jack Myers and me over a recent lunch at Michaelamp8217s restaurant in New York City amp8220Nixon goes over to Louis and says amp8216Mr Armstrong Iamp8217m a huge fan Iamp8217m an amateur piano player Iamp8217m not really good but I love your work Youamp8217re a really great artist If thereamp8217s anything I can ever do for you let me know Later theyamp8217re landing in the States and Louis goes over to him and says amp8216At my advanced age I have trouble carrying my trumpet case If you could carry that through customs that would be greatamp8217 Louis was a huge pothead and smuggled his weed in his trumpet case so Nixon smuggled Louisamp8217 weed into the Statesamp8221Toffler pictured top left with Jack Myersamp160described that story as one of the amp8220great snapshot fables in music that you can tell in three minutes and theyamp8217ll be passed aroundamp8221 which is the driving concept behind his new company The corporate strategy for Gunpowder ampamp Sky is a perfect blend for Toffler bringing together his lifelong love of music which figures heavily in his upcoming plans for the company his career in cutting edge entertainment and decades in the executive ranks of the network group credited with redefining the parameters of video contentamp8220It felt like there was a moment to create more premium content that lives on all platformsamp8221 Toffler said of his decision earlier this year to launch Gunpowder ampamp Sky amp8220You can tell a great story in seven minutes Music videos were threefour minutesamp160 They told great storiesamp8220Think about the attention span of young peopleamp8221 he continued amp8220I look at my own attention span Itamp8217s hard for me to sit through entire movies now Even the movies that Iamp8217m going to make for TVOD or SVOD will be episodic You can watch all 90 minutes or you can watch seven minute episodesamp8221Toffler laughed amp8220Seven minutes may be too long for meamp8221One of the great challenges he faces Toffler told us is how to rise above the everincreasing noise of burgeoning content and distribution The answer he said is to distribute his own content amp8220At a place like Netflix no piece of content will ever rise above their apparatus and their algorithmsamp8221 he explained amp8220Itamp8217s all about the choice Gunpowder ampamp Sky is only fourfive months old and weamp8217ve gone out with three projects and sold them all The issue is that as a lot of these tech distribution companies amass eyeballs they sell at higher CPMS so they need content beyond cats playing the piano They need people to stay with them for more than three four five minutes maybe 10 minutes or 60 minutesamp8221Through his partnership with Otter Media amp8211 the investment venture between Chernin Group and ATampampT amp8211 Toffler intends for Gunpowder ampamp Sky to produce content along the lines of five minute talk shows three minute animated histories of music like the Armstrong and Nixon amp8220fableamp8221 recalled above and two minute micromovies for mobile amp8220Thatamp8217s the way this stuff is being consumedamp8221 he saidEveryone wants in on the shortform phenomenon One of the first buyers of content from Gunpowder ampamp Sky was Spotify which is getting into the video business Toffler said Other media giants in the market for such content he continued are Netflix HBO Comcast YouTube Red and many more that are amp8220looking for movies under a certain budgetamp8221By his own admission Toffler is a leader in this area amp8220Iamp8217m not talking about films with a 50 million negative costamp8221 he laughed amp8220Iamp8217m the king of Jackass and Napoleon Dynamite Itamp8217s not like I went to the Oscars every time upamp8221Reflecting on the previous few months Toffler said amp8220Hereamp8217s what weamp8217re learning in our few short months of existence We have a preponderance of content around scifi Itamp8217s difficult to sell all of that stuff a la carte Sometimes itamp8217s better to package all of that up sort of like what go90 is doingamp160 We will probably create offshoot consumer brands that maybe will become part of a skinny bundle down the road where people pay 399 for the contentamp160 But initially weamp8217ll build the brands as consumerfacing around genres That would be horror scifi music animation comedyamp8220We will make an announcement soon about distributionamp8221 he continued amp8220In our effort to be a genuine 21stcentury studio weamp8217re not tethered to a certain platform or format Weamp8217re going to try to get bestinclass distribution around the world that knows how to sell stuff that may be 10 minutes long or movies that are produced for digital first that cost a million and a half Thereamp8217s the TVOD window then the SVOD window then the global window Unlike studios that donamp8217t turn the switch on unless it is a transformative franchise this will be a place that sells a bunch of stuff around the worldamp8221Toffler has been largely defined through the years by his love of music amp8211 in fact prior to joining MTV Networks when he was working as a lawyer he was famously involved in Michael Jacksonamp8217s purchase of ATV the company that included the Beatles catalogueamp8220I remember Paul McCartney and his people thought 40 million was an insane amount of money to pay for that catalogueamp8221 Toffler recalled amp8220But it wasnamp8217t just the Beatles There was a lot of stuff in there Old Buddy Holly stuff Basically it saved Michaelamp8217s estate to get all those songs amp160Michael surrounded himself with people who didnamp8217t necessarily question him and say no But he was a pretty savvy guy It was a shame to see him deteriorate Those songs were invaluableamp160 The investment was a good return for Michael and his familyamp8221Toffler would eventually serve as executive producer of countless musicfocused award shows across MTV Networks including the MTV Video Music Awards and the CMT Music Awards which over the years have featured hundreds of performances by the top stars of multiple musical genresHe was quick to identify the VMAs as his favorite of the countless shows he produced while in various capacities at the company amp8220about 28 in totalamp8221 he said amp8220I love chaos and I love live television amp160Musicians are uncontrollable Theyamp8217re not like actors You can look a musician in the eye and say amp8216I need you to be at this spot in the middle of the songamp8217 and theyamp8217ll say amp8216Uhhuhamp8217 and then do whatever they want People would say to me amp8216Why would you keep having Kanye West backamp8217 Iamp8217d say amp8216Because I have no idea what heamp8217s gonna doamp8217amp8221Another show from his past that remains top of mind is MTVamp8217s The Real World amp8220That one happened unintentionally because we couldnamp8217t afford writers and that was just such a wonderful experience The birth of reality television was because of budget reasons Someone told us how much writers cost and that was the amount we had for the whole showamp8221 he exclaimedNot surprisingly the fondly remembered acoustic music show amp8220Unpluggedamp8221 was also one of Toffleramp8217s personal favorites amp8220It really brought out the great craftsmanship around musicamp8221 he saidInterestingly his lifelong interest in and mastery of music did not extend to performing amp8220Growing up I was a horrible musician but that didnamp8217t stop meamp8221 Toffler laughed amp8220Oh and I was a poet too amp8230 and when I put that horrible poetry to music amp8230amp8221 Toffler stopped himself before completing that sentenceHe played guitar and piano and was briefly in a band but eventually realized the he amp8220didnamp8217t have itamp8221 That didnamp8217t dim his love of music overall amp8220To this day I see two live concerts a weekamp8221 he told us amp8220There is nothing as fulfilling to me as the serendipity of live music when it worksamp8221As for his thoughts about the early years of MTV when the brand largely ruled the media world bringing about unprecedented change in both entertainment and advertising Toffler recalled amp8220We could have an idea on Tuesday and put it on the air by Friday Most of the ideas were horrible But doing that made me better and I learned from it We didnamp8217t get ratings in the beginning We got quarterly reports We had no idea if anyone was watching this crapamp8220We were fearless and that is what Iamp8217m trying to replicate at my new companyamp8221 he continuedamp160 amp8220A small fearless creative organizationamp8221Reflecting on his departure from Viacom after almost 30 years Toffler mused amp8220The thing that I noticed when I was leaving is the road is not littered with fatcat corporate executives who lived inside a system that have transformed into successful entrepreneurs Peter Chernin may be one of the few that have done it It requires a healthy sense of humility and not thinking that you were amp8216the chairamp8217 The chair was there and you had a checkbook It is quite humbling at times when there is someone in the other chairamp8220I like to think I was an outsider living inside the system pushing the boundariesamp8221 he concluded amp8220But I had the tailwind of all those resources the brand the accessamp160 It takes a different mindset to go and push stuffamp160 For me we as humans suck at many more things than weamp8217re good at and if you surround yourself with people who complement your skill set amp8230 thatamp8217s what Peter did and David Geffen and Clive Davis and all these guys who jumped around I talked with them and asked amp8216What did you doamp8217 Thatamp8217s part of the secretamp8221The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet management or associated bloggersamp160

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Lunch at Michael’s with Van Toffler of Gunpowder & Sky

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