Master Class: Creating Branded Content with Stacy Fuller of Refinery 29

Stacy Fuller is the SVP, Head of Integrated Marketing at Refinery29, the leading media and entertainment company focused on young women. In the role she spearheads branded content and strategy, through integrated advertising creative development, execution and client service. She is a veteran marketer with 21 years of experience, having worked at R/GA NY, Translation NY, BrandBuzz NY, Deutsch LA and Rapp Collins Chicago. She was Head of Content at Havas and ran its content agency, Cake. She also served as EVP, Creative Lead at Havas Sports & Entertainment where she oversaw all creative development for multiple offices across the country.

Greg James is the Global Chief Strategy Officer for Havas Media Group overseeing insight and data-informed strategy for clients across the organization. He has a background in creative and content marketing that informs his integrated approach to client consulting.

Aiden is currently the SVP of Production for North America at VICE Media, running the internal production studio, VICE+ Productions. Formed in 2016, the studio has produced some of the most innovative and award winning branded content in the industry. 

Before VICE, Aiden was the VP of Production at ViacomCBS where he ran the production studio within Viacom Digital Studios. VDS was responsible for producing the digital originals and integrated marketing for Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount. Overseeing a production studio which supported an average of 2.5B views a month across all brands and platforms.

Aiden started out at Michel Gondry's Partizan Entertainment and eventually worked as an executive producer at many of the most celebrated commercial production companies in the industry.

Megan Doyle is an Emmy and Clio award-winning producer with over a decade of experience working in television and digital media in New York City. She was part of the production team that launched MLB Network into 50 million homes in 2009. Since 2011, she has honed her passion for storytelling in the digital media space by leading the branded video content team at Refinery29 (Vice Media Group), a global media publisher and a leading voice for next-gen media and entertainment focused on young women. 

Pamela Romanowsky is a screenwriter and director working across film, television and branded content. Her passion is for character led drama with strong, stylish visual storytelling. She believes that her artistic toolbox is richer for her experience in feature, episodic and short form storytelling, and that each mode informs the others. For her, filmmaking is active empathy and its superpower is the ability to transport you into the world and skin of someone else.

Pamela’s feature debut, The Adderall Diaries (starring James Franco, Ed Harris, Amber Heard, Christian Slater and Cynthia Nixon) premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released by her favorite studio A24 in 2016. She developed the film at The Sundance Institute’s Screenwriting, Directing, and Composition/Sound labs, the Creative Producing Summit, the Women at Sundance initiative.

As an episodic director, Pamela is an alumna of the Ryan Murphy Half Foundation and the Warner Bros Television Directing Workshop. She began her television career on the CW’s hit show Riverdale in November 2018 and was invited back for three more episodes. She has gone on to direct nine episodes of television, including NBC’s Blindspot, Fox’s Prodigal Son, Netflix’s Dash & Lily, and CW’s Katy Keene.

As a commercial and branded content director, Pamela focuses on expressive portraits of extraordinary individuals. From non-actors to movie stars, leopards, jet car racers, activists and singers, she has a skill for distilling unique personalities into vivid visuals and candid sound bites. Her short form work includes pieces for Zero motorcycles, NY Marathon, Dove chocolate, Sotheby’s, The Alliance for Lifetime Income, and Refinery29.

Chosen Interviews

1. Filmmaker Magazine

2. Refinery29

Links to Work

1. FEATURE FILM: The Adderall Diaries (available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, iTunes). A24 (2016)

Both my debut film and the project that took me through the Sundance labs, The Adderall Diaries is one of the works I'm proudest of. Making it taught me so much about the industry, the importance of a creative community and my voice and priorities as a filmmaker. 

2. TELEVISION: Riverdale #305: The Great Escape (available on CW.com or the CW app after 11/14/18 (it's airing this week!) CW/Berlanti Prods (2018)

My debut episodic work, which took four years of shadowing and mentorship to get. Working as an episodic director taught me how to protect and care for the showrunner's vision, how to be a good leader within an existing structure, and how to balance and respect the needs of the creatives, producers, network and studio.

3. SHORT FORM/BRANDED CONTENT: Khetiwe and the Leopard. Narrative Short, 19 mins. Refinery29/Dove Chocolate (2017)

https://vimeo.com/216697649

My favorite piece of branded content, which stars non-actor teenagers and two real leopards. This piece was a truly ideal branded content collaboration, where I had the time and freedom to identify a brand's priorities and use those ideas to inspire a narrative film. Writing for a place I'd never seen, directing in a language I don't speak, and working with non-actors (and a wild animal) taught me that versatility and sincerity in communication is the most essential part of directing. You have to find what's universal between you in a very specific moment or behavior and make sure it feels real.

4. COMMERCIAL: Retire Your Risk: Elaine Larsen and Retire Your Risk: James Moskito. Alliance for Lifetime Income (2018). Co-directed with Klaus Obermeyer

https://www.retireyourrisk.org/testimonials/elaine-larsen/

https://www.retireyourrisk.org/testimonials/james-moskito/

This is one of my favorite commercial pieces. I picked it particularly because it is a collaboration with another director and because it so precisely summarizes my passion for candid portraits of extraordinary people, and my belief that style and substance need to have equal weight. Klaus Obermeyer is a veteran commercial director and specializes in aerial, underwater and high-adrenaline content (which is what I want to do more of and is hard for a young woman to break into), and here he shared so much of that experience and skill set with me. In turn, I shared my skillset for interviews and performance. As co-directors, we were able to push and support each other and create something that's both intimate and thrilling. 

Chosen Work

Chances With Wolves: A weekly mixtape that’s my favorite work music. Sometimes I’ll put on a script-specific playlist to write but this is my go-to soundtrack for writing, storyboarding, making overheads and general daydreaming. http://www.chanceswithwolves.com

Tim Ferriss podcast: Tim is an example of a great interviewer and conversationalist. He has an incredibly wide range of interests and his curiosity and empathy makes him fluent in so many different disciplines. This podcast helps me stay in touch with all kinds of knowledge outside of the film world, which protects my sanity and inspires me. https://tim.blog/podcast/ or search on your favorite Podcasts app 

The New Museum: My favorite museum in New York. Because it’s much smaller than MoMA or the Met, you can really immerse in and absorb the whole show. Helps me think about visual storytelling in a really pure way. Standing there looking at a painting or sculpture is like telepathy. You’re transmitting an emotion across time, space, perspective and experience. https://www.newmuseum.org/ 

 Running. Motorcycling. Archery. Vinyl. These are the most important coping mechanisms I have for getting out of my head and facing doubt, writer’s block, anxiety, perfectionism and the general insanity that comes from thinking about fictional people all day. 

The Couch25K app will make a runner out of even the most running-averse among us. There’s a reason so many people tell you this is good for your brain. I have a whole lot of dictated iphone script notes from running. http://www.c25kfree.com/ or search for the Couch25K app 

Gotham Archery for fellow New Yorkers, maybe something in the back yard for those with more space. Focus and precision and breathing lets my mind wander to cool places. Lots of iphone notes from this, too. https://www.got-archery.com/

The Motorcycle Safety Foundation Basic Rider Course will teach you how to ride safely so you can enjoy it for the rest of your life. The phrase “ride for your mind” is a very real thing. I do this when I need to *stop* making obsessive iphone dictation notes and just be a person. You can't think about anything else while you ride. It takes both hands, both feet, and all of your attention. https://www.msf-usa.org/BRC.aspx

Rough Trade, eBay or whatever your favorite vinyl source is. Getting up to flip a record every twenty minutes is, for me, exactly enough leg stretching without losing my train of thought. Helps me do long hauls for writing, prep, etc. https://www.roughtrade.com/us

Patty West is a producer and educator based in California. She led the Directing Workshop for Women and the Thesis Program at the American Film Institute prior to joining the Sundance Institute. She came to Sundance Collab in December of 2019 and now serves as its Director. 

West is a Chicago native and holds a B.S. from Northwestern University, an M.F.A. from the AFI Conservatory and an Executive M.B.A. from Quantic School of Business & Technology. She is a member of the Producer's Council of the Producers Guild of America.