Ari Kuschnir, m ss ng p eces | Sundance Film Festival
Channel: SiliconANGLE theCUBE
Date: 2018-01-21

Ari Kuschnir, Founder & Managing Partner, m ss ng p eces, sits down with John Furrier at Intel's Tech Lounge at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival

#SundanceFilmFestival #theCUBE 

https://siliconangle.com/2018/01/30/m-ss-ng-p-eces-fills-in-the-gaps-at-the-intersection-of-storytelling-and-technology-thecube-guestoftheweek-sundance/

Filling the gaps between VR and film, techie studio sees future in sports media

Aside from driving spell checkers (and editors) crazy, the new wave production company m ss ng p eces has positioned itself as an important player in the evolution of creative entertainment using technology.

The company started out developing original video programming for major clients, such as Wired Magazine and TED in the mid-2000s, but its focus soon shifted. Thanks to the double-barreled impact of social media and exploding mobile usage, the firm found itself catering to a new transformation in the entertainment industry that required it to not merely tell new stories, but to actively embrace new technologies as well.

“A new thing comes out, and I want to figure out how to make something really great, but meaningful and powerful, with that,” said Ari Kuschnir (pictured), founder and managing partner of m ss ng p eces. “Virtual reality and augmented reality are parts of it but not the whole. I feel like I’ve ridden the wave of the thing as it’s happened, and the company has too.”

Kuschnir stopped by the set of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, and spoke with host John Furrier. They discussed the evolution of technology tools for media production, projects for professional sports and Google that leveraged new media, and the firm’s potential involvement in the upcoming Winter Olympic Games. (* Disclosure below.)

This week theCUBE features Ari Kuschnir as its Guest of the Week.

Tech opened content to wider audience
As a film school student in the late 1990s, Kuschnir was entering the movie business at a highly significant point. Technology was beginning to catch up with film production, starting with the introduction of Final Cut Pro editing software in 1999. The iPod line of portable media players came out two years later, and by 2005, nascent websites like YouTube offered platforms where film students could showcase their work before a rapidly expanding audience.

“Not only could we make it and edit it on our laptops, we would put it out and millions of people could watch it,” Kuschnir recalled. “That was the first time that was possible, and it was revolutionary.”

Technology has also changed the way that content is marketed for specific audiences. In today’s data-driven world, Kuschnir must deal with some clients who expect content to be driven through television and others who expect a strong push via social media. There are also multiple platform choices to be made, such as whether to promote or distribute on Facebook versus Instagram.

“I never ignore how to optimize the content based on data and what the landscape is looking like,” Kuschnir said. “You get into this really interesting place where the data is driving the story and the feedback is driving the story in real time.”

Project for Google Translate
Founding his own media company gave Kuschnir the opportunity to pursue storytelling projects that flowed from the technology wellspring. When Google LLC approached m ss ng p eces for promotional help with its Translate service in 2016, the firm conceived the idea of an unusual pop-up restaurant in New York City. Handed menus written in different languages, restaurant patrons used Google Translate to bridge the cultural divide (and order what they wanted).

A roving doughnut cart distributed more than 30,000 pastries to passing New Yorkers, generating plenty of social media photos and dialogue, while an acclaimed set of 18 chefs created meals using recipes from all over the globe. The entire experience was documented in a film.

“The future is about having a passionate audience, making things for that audience … and being able to communicate on a daily or weekly basis in a powerful way,” Kuschnir said.

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Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of the Sundance Film Festival. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Sundance Film Festival event. Neither Intel, the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)