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Home » Approach and Experience Brings Hiccup Media Success with Top Music Acts

Approach and Experience Brings Hiccup Media Success with Top Music Acts

Not too long ago, to have a personal connection to your favorite rock star you needed to go see them perform live. All that’s changed thanks to YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Vine and the myriad of ways fans stay connected to the artists that matter most to them. Creating a large chunk of this oft-viewed feature content is Hiccup Media, the full service creative studio led by Rob Simone and Michael Cruz.

Working closely with major record labels such as RCA and Epic, Hiccup Media has become an indispensable creative resource for crafting engaging, conceptually driven video content, graphics packages and more for music’s biggest stars.

“There’s such a high demand for content today, not just music videos, but content that takes fans where most can’t go – backstage, into the recording studio or on the set of their latest music video,” Nicholas Robespierre, Vice President, Video Production at RCA Records says. “It’s the kind of content that demands a creative studio that is nimble and able do a lot of things well. Sometimes we need a live action production, sometimes we need an animation or graphics package, sometimes an edit. That’s why we’ve worked with Hiccup for nearly 7 years – they can do it all.”

Recent Hiccup music work includes a 30-minute documentary about the making of Michael Jackson’s latest posthumous release “Xscape” that recently aired on BET; a behind the scenes look at guitarist Santana’s latest music video that ties into World Cup 2014; the iconic music video “Goldie” for hip hop artist A$AP Rocky; and an array 2-3 minute promotional pieces for Gavin DeGraw, Cage The Elephant and Sleeper Agent, to name a few.

Additionally, Hiccup director John Poliquin’s work on Universal Music artist Hedley’s video “Anything” has been nominated for 4 MuchMusic Video Awards, including Best Director. The show airs June 15th on Canada’s MuchMusic channel.

Agency Mindset
For Hiccup Creative Director Rob Simone, the primary reason for Hiccup’s success in the music industry centers on a creative agency mindset that emphasizes a conceptual approach in sync with the artists’ image, music, website, photos, etc.

“We are first and foremost a creative agency,” Simone says. “While we do amazing production and post work, we don’t come to these projects with a post or production mindset. We think like an agency, and for our music work that means looking closely at the artist as a whole and coming up with a conceptual approach that works for them.”

For Chief Creative Officer Michael Cruz, the challenge for the company’s music projects centers on tight deadlines (sometimes as little as a few days), and volume (as many as 10 different projects in the pipelinin a given month). The secret, Cruz notes, is the Hiccup workflow and a creative team that’s been refined over the years like a finely tuned instrument.

“We’ve really perfected the process,” Cruz says. “It’s not easy to work on as many music projects as we do and give each of them their own unique look and feel, especially given the deadlines and budgets, but we’ve managed to make it work, and in the process become a major player in this competitive arena.”

About Hiccup Media
In 2006, we believed that brands were developing a need for a different type of agency. With the growing demands for video, mobile and content in general, a secondary more nimble firm was becoming more of a necessity. Hiccup Media was founded to meet that demand. We believe that broadcast work and non-broadcast work are equally important and dually essential pieces of a brand’s strategy. Therefore, we develop creative timing and cost solutions that make sense in today’s industry and we never sacrifice quality. For more info go to http://www.hiccupmedia.com on Facebook here.

Click here to check out Hiccup Media’s recent music work:
http://vimeopro.com/hiccupmedia/music-work

Community & Partner Links

How Sony’s New Virtual Sound Technology Can Change How We Hear Films

Kami Asgar and Jessica Parks are post-production heavyweights who work with major studios, namely Sony. As a sound designer (Asgar) and as a post executive (Parks), their collective resume touches on everything from Apocalypto to Grandma’s Boy to Venom.

Parks has recently shifted her focus from supervisor to hands-on sound design, and we talk about how it’s never too late to pivot on your career path and find the thing you love doing wherever you are in life.

Click on this link to read the rest of the article on No Film School’s site.

NJ – Governor Murphy signs $14B Incentive Program Bill – the NJ Economic Recovery Act of 2020

 Film tax credits — amending existing programs to include provisions for so-called New Jersey film partners and New Jersey film-lease partners and allowing an additional $200 million of tax credits annually over 13 years.

Click this link if you want to read the full article on the Lexology site. http://bit.ly/35NtDx6

Film Commish announces date for production restart

In her December 18, 2020 news update, MOME Commissioner Anne del Castillo announced that the Film Office is now accepting permit applications for production activity that begins on July 27th.

She also announced awards now (Awkwafina) and more. To read all of the Film Commish’s bloggy sort of news column, click here.

Stimulus Offers $15 Billion in Relief for Struggling Arts Venues

The coronavirus relief package that Congressional leaders agreed to this week includes grant money that many small proprietors described as a last hope for survival.

For the music venue owners, theater producers and cultural institutions that have suffered through the pandemic with no business, the coronavirus relief package that Congress passed on Monday night offers the prospect of aid at last.

To read the full article on The New York Times’ site, click here.

If you want to start production, here’s the latest news from the Mayor’s Office

Phase 4 production guidance is available on the Film Permit website. All production activity, whether it requires a Film Permit or not, must comply with New York Forward Industry Guidance.

For more information see, please refer to the State Department of Health’s Interim Guidance for Media Production During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Please review the guidelines and FAQ before submitting permit applications. The Film Office is operating remotely, so please allow additional time for Film Permit processing.

The above paragraphs contain links to the various FAQ – just mouse over the relevant words.

Nikon to Stop Making Cameras in Japan

Nikon has fallen on hard times as of late as its camera sales have cratered, and now there’s a new indicator of how dire its financial situation is: the company is reportedly pulling the plug on making cameras in Japan after over 70 years of doing so.

To read the full article on Petapixel’s site, click here.

NVIDIA Uses AI to Slash Bandwidth on Video Calls

NVIDIA Research has invented a way to use AI to dramatically reduce video call bandwidth while simultaneously improving quality

What the researchers have achieved has remarkable results: by replacing the traditional h.264 video codec with a neural network, they have managed to reduce the required bandwidth for a video call by an order of magnitude. In one example, the required data rate fell from 97.28 KB/frame to a measly 0.1165 KB/frame – a reduction to 0.1% of required bandwidth.

To read the rest of this article on Petapixel, click this link.

 

 

 

Union Health Plan Dodges Film Workers’ Suit Over Virus Relief

Law360 (October 9, 2020, 5:22 PM EDT) — The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan’s board can’t be sued under ERISA for allegedly flouting its duties when it relaxed plan rules in response to COVID-19, a California federal judge has ruled, nixing a proposed class action filed by two cinematographers who still couldn’t qualify for benefits.

In an order entered Thursday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted the board of directors’ motion to dismiss Greg Endries and Dee Nichols’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit accusing board members of breaching their duty to treat all plan participants fairly.

Endries and Nichols, members of Local 600 of the International Cinematographers Guild, said in July that the board left them and others “out in the cold” in its attempts to address the problems COVID-19 caused for plan participants.

But Judge Klausner agreed with the board’s contention that the case, which alleged a fiduciary breach, should be tossed because plan administrators don’t act as fiduciaries when they amend health care plans.

Read the full article on the Law360 site by clicking here.

Russo Brothers Received Close to $50 Million From Saudi Bank

Anthony Russo and Joseph Russo photographed at the PMC Studio in Los Angeles for the Variety Playback Podcast.

The Russo brothers, directors of the all-time top grossing film “Avengers: Endgame,” quietly secured a roughly $50 million cash infusion for their production company AGBO from Saudi Arabia earlier this year, multiple sources tell Variety.

In a deal brokered and closed at the beginning of the pandemic, the Russos received the investment from an undisclosed Saudi bank in exchange for a minority stake in the brothers’ Los Angeles-based shop.

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