ACM’s Distraction In Action #16
Mourning trees, mums on skis, and the world's toughest transcription job: five links that are dominating our chat
Your new Distraction In Action email from All Conditions Media is here. Scroll away to get a look at the latest links and talking points from our team chat, so they can successfully distract you from work just as much as they did us…
1. MEET OUTSIDER INSIDER #3
Vehicular video calls have featured in more than a few of ACM’s recent key cultural moments: Creative Director, Mark, conducted one of his job-landing interviews from a van in the Scottish Highlands; Senior Creative & Copy Editor, Chris, had his pre-contract culture check-in while our Senior AD, Lynds, beamed in from one of Leeds’ finest car parks; and new Account Executive, Eleanor, used some (albeit quite stringy) 3G signal to meet the ACM team for the very first time while sat in a Transit van at Secret Garden Party.
So, when the latest addition to our growing Outsider Insider series suggested we call while her 1976 Volkswagen T2 was parked up in The Middle Of Absolutely Nowhere, France, we thought it’d be a nice little angle. Perfectly on brand. Nooo problemo. Turns out, it was a nice little angle. It was perfectly on brand. And it waaas a problemo. Despite a glitchy, patchy, splotchy video call (and the most excruciating transcription job in the history of journalism), last week we released a revealing interview about mental health, van life real talk, and creativity with one of our favourite content creators, Amelia Le Brun. Check it here.
We learned: Photographers talk. Let that be a warning to any brands that still chance the stinky “But it’ll be great exposure!” approach to content sharing.
2. TRY NOT TO LOSE ALL FAITH IN HUMANITY
Well, this is utterly depressing.
We learned: Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves really doesn’t hold up.
3. MAKE TIME FOR KEEPSAKE
We remember where we were when Vans dropped CREDITS – somewhere between the BBC News channel and climbing the walls mid-lockdown #1. Three-and-a-bit years on, and it’s still baffling that it took until 2020 for a major skate brand to release an edit with women on both sides of the camera – for CREDITS, the likes of Beatrice Domond, Una Farrar, Breana Geering, and Helena Long provided the action, while Shari White used her full creative control to make it all happen. The result was epic and shared far and wide by everyone from Thrasher to Vague Skate Mag, High Snobiety to The Nine Club. If you’ve not seen it, see it. Then, see Shari’s latest edit, Keepsake. She’s bundled her Vans pals – led by Dustin Henry and Nelly Morville, and supported by Rowan Zorilla, Gilbert Crockett, a little bit of Ray Barbee, and more – into the Vans van and run to the US east coast for a trip that really rips. If you’re feeling sour that summer is on its way out, this should help.
We learned: Vans liquored up the guests at the film’s Toronto premiere with the assistance of some very ace Sk8-Hi-shaped beer koozies. Want.
4. GET WEIRD ON SKIS
As you’ll have gathered from this newsletter, we’ve sort of given up on keeping our Distraction In Action word counts in check. Maybe, maybe, today will be different. Do we really need to cough up 500 superlatives to convince you that Here, Hold My Kid is going to be the best/bonkersest ski movie on this year’s festival circuit? Or should we let the trailer for Adam Gendle, Johno Verity, and Hersha Patel’s comedy-documentary do it for us? Hit play, get excited/confused, and help this over-caffeinated copywriter keep his total word count under 2000 for once. Cheers.
We learned: Toddlers walking in full ski gear > puppies doing dumb stuff.
5. READ NEXT CHAPTER OF THE BIG SEA CHAT
Our very own Matt Barr has been banging The Big Sea’s drum for months now – something you’ll know if you’ve heard his Looking Sideways podcast with its director and writer Lewis Arnold and Chris Nelson, or been caught at the bar with him at a pub recently. Despite our pal Ben Mondy’s first column inches about the short film’s seismic story dropping all the way back in February for Wavelength, it’s taken this long for international surf media big dogs to march into the party, all cymbals and snares. Industry behemoths Stab and Beach Grit are now across a narrative that is as much about environmental racism and how the surf industry handles issues that are bigger than, er, surfing, as it is about chloroprene rubber, Denka, and their links to increased risks of cancer. Kudos to Stab for dropping the paywall to their story on it, too.
We learned: It’s impossible to even read the words “Sex Wax” without getting a phantom waft of coconut up your sniffing pipes.
CREW TO-DO LIST
Every fortnight, one ACMer reveals the tasks that’ve been getting their head cogs whirring, so we can all make sure they’re working hard enough introduce our super talented crew and showcase what they bring to our creative process. This week it’s the turn of ACM’s Fontainebleau regular and outerwear obsessive, Josty…
You made it all the way down here? Here’s a gift for your troubles:
END OF THE ROADER’S BONUS NUGGET
How was that newsletter for you? Let us know in a comment below
So excited for Here, Hold my Kid!