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Responding to ever-changing client needs, photographer and director Matthew Rolston has established a new production unit he calls R-ROLL. (The name’s a twist on the industry term b-roll; the ‘R’ is for Rolston.) R-ROLL’s mission is to provide Matthew’s mix of editorial, advertising, and entertainment clients with behind-the-scenes documentaries of his photo and film assignments. “We’re now entering an era where the ‘making of’ is just as important as the ‘of,’” he notes. “Maybe more important.”
He adds, “This is not me acting as a photographer or a director, but as a producer, working with a group of very talented young filmmakers. Being a filmmaker myself, I have an innate understanding of how to produce this type of content in a modern style consistent with the print and film assets we normally create.”
Since its inception earlier this year, R-ROLL has already produced more than a dozen projects for prominent clients such as Time Inc. and A&E/Lifetime Networks. “It is clear to me that there’s an overwhelming demand for filmed content, as clients expand their reach beyond traditional media—for example, for use on their websites as well as on diverse social network platforms…even for broadcast,” he says.
A recent case in point: Amazon.com commissioned Matthew to photograph a big kickoff campaign to promote its growing fashion brand, Amazon.com/Fashion. The ads have appeared in Vogue, InStyle, and WWD, and if you live in New York City, you’ve seen the campaign up close and larger than life—Matthew’s ads and other print images have graced everything from bus shelters and phone kiosks to a billboard in Times Square.
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R-ROLL also produced a behind-the-scenes film for Amazon.com/Fashion, and the client was so impressed that it decided to go into limited broadcast with it. An R-ROLL Amazon.com doc has been on view on Taxi TV screens all over New York City, a breezy, appealing video counterpart to Matthew’s Amazon.com/Fashion print and outdoor campaign. The film also appears on Amazon’s fashion website and its dedicated YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, Facebook, and other social-media platforms.
Though R-ROLL is still a relatively new endeavor, it has already produced films for a dozen clients and counting. They see the opportunity in Matthew’s clever integration of media services, not to mention the value of a unified creative vision across promotions. “Everyone seems to love these new documentary pieces,” says Matthew. “They’re fun, casual, and stylish, and hopefully, a little more engaging than is typical for this kind of media product. It’s a fresh take.”
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Lauren Greenfield’s award-winning film “The Queen of Versailles” opens today
Now’s your chance to see the movie that everyone’s talking about—The Queen of Versailles, the award-winning feature-length documentary directed by Lauren Greenfield, opens today.
Here’s the capsule description from Magnolia Pictures, which purchased the distribution rights to the film when Queen premiered at Sundance this past January:
“With the epic dimensions of a Shakespearean tragedy, The Queen of Versailles follows billionaires Jackie and David’s rags-to-riches story to uncover the innate virtues and flaws of the American dream. We open on the triumphant construction of the biggest house in America, a sprawling, 90,000-square-foot mansion inspired by Versailles. Since a booming time-share business built on the real-estate bubble is financing it, the economic crisis brings progress to a halt and seals the fate of its owners. We witness the impact of this turn of fortune over the next two years in a riveting film fraught with delusion, denial, and self-effacing humor.”
The film’s official website: magpictures.com/thequeenofversailles
And official trailer:
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Also, some of the great reviews that the film—for which Lauren won the U.S. Directing Award for Documentary at Sundance—has gotten so far:
“Masterful. A wickedly funny allegory about the American dream.” —The Huffington Post
“A brilliant metaphor for everything screwed up about the U.S. economy and the culture that shaped it.” —David Edelstein, New York magazine
“Hilarious and upsetting. It’s often laugh-out-loud funny, but also has elements of profound tragedy and allegory.” —Andrew O’Hehir, Salon
“A gaudy guilty pleasure that is also a piece of trenchant social criticism.” —A.O. Scott, The New York Times
“A succulently entertaining movie.” —Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
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