Home- _experience + education
- _work_samples
- _twitter
- _publications
- _music
- _films
- contact
bajir cannon
digital.media.storyteller
strategy+creative
london school of economics, m.sc.
wesleyan university, b.a.
-
Info
- Summary
I am an experienced digital media strategist and producer who still gets giddy-as-a-school-kid about all the new ways to tell stories and engage audiences online.
Whether working with Fortune 500 companies, NGOs, or indie bands, I help my clients craft and share their unique stories across the mediasphere.
At the London School of Economics, I researched how social media, digitization, and open innovation are reshaping distribution flows and audience engagement. At Wesleyan University, I studied film theory, computer animation, theater, drawing, traditional and experimental performance and storytelling.
I have the experience, understanding, and imagination to create and implement innovative digital media production and distribution strategies.
Specialties: digital media distribution strategy, social media outreach, film and video production, videography, video editing, research and development, open innovation, community outreach and communications, writing and editing, scriptwriting, media education, media rightsExperience- May 2011 - PresentConsultant - Branding and community engagement / Sky Bridge Club
• Develop and manage social media strategy, content production, and audience engagement initiatives.
• Research and plan user accessibility goals.
• Work directly with company founders in strategizing and implementing re-branding campaign and future product development - 2008 - PresentSegment Producer / DailyCandy
• Direct, shoot, and edit video content distributed by Comcast/NBC via online, mobile, and broadcast.
- 2008 - PresentEthographic Videographer, Editor / Bassett & Partners Inc.
• Research, film, and edit brand strategy, product development, and consumer research profiles for Nike, Comcast Sports Network, and Dell.
• Incorporate and analyze market research, focus groups, and in-home ethnographies. - 2005 - PresentDigital Media Consultant / www.bajircannon.com
Working in collaboration with clients and partner companies to produce and distribute creative, stylish, and cutting-edge cinema, marketing, and online TV.
Clients include: Monocle, DailyCandy, NYLON, Bassett & Partners, Matador, Rough Trade, 4AD, XL Recordings, Nike, PAX Streamline, and Thanda. Projects have featured Milla Jovovich, Courtney Love, Betsey Johnson, AC Newman, Elvis Perkins, Paul Smith, F---ed Up, Shaun White, Samantha Ronson, Department of Eagles, Terry Richardson, The Concretes, The Horrors, The Hives, Nicole Richie, Tommy Hilfiger and others.
Films include: "The Distance Between the Apple and the Tree," which won a number of Best Film awards on the film festival circuit; "The Better Half," which premiered at SXSW; and "Kumano Kodo," a documentary about pilgrimage currently in post-production.
- 2007 - 2011Producer, Director / Beggars Group: Matador, XL Recordings, 4AD, Rough Trade
• Produced/directed videos for British Sea Power, Elvis Perkins, F---ed Up, Department of Eagles, A.C. Newman, others. Seen on MTV, AOL, NME, and BBC, 2008-2011.
- 2007 - 2009Co-founder / Montgomery Gardens
• Built and managed office and studio space dedicated to supporting (15-20) local artists in Brooklyn, NY.
- 2006 - 2009Producer, Editor / NYLON TV
• Covered international fashion and culture in videos featuring Milla Jovovich, Betsey Johnson, Shaun White, The Horrors, The Hives, Nicole Richie, and Tommy Hilfiger. Episodes attracted over 100K hits online.
- 2002 - 2005Teacher / Grace Church School
• Founded and taught movie-making program. Produced screenings of finished films for the local communities. Taught acting, writing, non-linear editing, and cinematography.
• Kindergarten Head Teacher: developed and taught curriculum, worked closely with teachers, parents, and specialists to create integrated curriculum.
Education-
2009 - 2010London School of Economics and Political ScienceM.Sc. in Media and Communications
-
1998 - 2002Wesleyan UniversityB.A. in Film Studies, Theater
Additional Information-
Websites:
-
Honors:Best Film - Philadelphia Filmathon 2009 Stella Artois Best Film by a New Filmmaker, DBFF 2009 Former Foursquare Mayor of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
-
Interests:Copyright policy, learning how to play bridge, unlicensed public art, remix culture, puppetry
-
Videos
-
Tweets
- John Cage on network TV, performing 'Water Walk" on the show "I've Got a Secret" in 1960: http://t.co/Akm2zd9j7kMay 20, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Teresa Forcades, the radical Catalan nun on a mission - video http://t.co/06usosflYs via @guardian
- RT @BuycottApp: Sorry, we can't add new servers fast enough!! The app #3 in the App Store's free utilities... way more users than we can h…May 15, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- I feel dizzy. http://t.co/67Da0sSi4jMay 15, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Brooklyn Public Library could face a 36% cut to city funding - https://t.co/e64RmIgrsr
- RT @TheOnion: BREAKING: Still Nothing http://t.co/axVqxmzoDV
- RT @TedHope: Jean-Luc Godard, John Milius, Werner Herzog, Martin Scorsese & Tom Luddy gather to welcome Kurosawa in NYC http://t.co/ ...
- I broke free 2 months ago. Will never sign a phone contract again. Breaking Free of the Cellphone Carrier Conspiracy http://t.co/qmSQUBCtmb
- Julia Gillard apologises to Australian mothers for forced adoptions http://t.co/Kz6VDyCeD7
- Amos Lee covers John Denver's "Some Days Are Diamonds" - http://t.co/F08jmxrnfd via @TheKeyXPN:
- Just perfect. "Tonight You Belong To Me" - from The Jerk with Steve Martin & Bernadette Peters: http://t.co/ef8RkgWTHW
- Criminal checks on domestic abuse victims? Another reason to be disgusted with the NYPD's behavior. RT @ArshadGC http://t.co/rNlPLVE7Li
- RT @Fascinatingpics: For anyone feeling a bit sad, here's a picture from a woman who makes Teddy Bears for her pet mouse. http://t.co/dW ...
- Part 1 - Training Video for Bell Labs' Holmdel Computing Center: http://t.co/FD7LLJLdRf
- “I will speak until the president says he won't kill you at a café.” - Rand Paul filibuster gains strength in Senate http://t.co/YHLE8gJG4v
- This should be shocking. It is terrifying that it isn't: Pentagon directly linked to Iraqi torture centres http://t.co/w48I9GLc48
- Waiting for Godot in Crown Heights. http://t.co/muay3UJtay
- Input Wanted on Central Brooklyn Children's Zone http://t.co/gulz3Gxe
- Marco Rubio Takes A Drink During Republican Response: http://t.co/JejVe9ts via @youtube
-
_publications
- The united states of unscreened cinema: The political economy of the self-distribution of cinema in the United States.
ABSTRACT
With the hope of contributing to the political economic analysis of the film industries, this dissertation investigates the practice of self-distribution of cinema in the U.S. Self- distribution—the management and implementation of a film’s distribution by the producing filmmakers—is directly related to broader questions of media equity, access, and ownership. Popular discourse within filmmaker circles finds much debate regarding how new technologies and changes in the industries are promoting and restricting opportunity for self- distributing filmmakers. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the significant majority of U.S. films are self-distributed, there is a dearth of academic research into this changing field. To help fill this research gap, this study asks how practices of film self-distribution reflect and contribute to changes in the film industries.Recognizing self-distributing filmmakers to be well positioned to report on how the practice is evolving, research is implemented through eleven in-depth interviews with twelve U.S.- based filmmakers who have self-distributed films in the last three years. Treating these filmmakers as experts within their particular sub-field, a realist approach is used in analysis to identify shared and contrasting experiences and insights. These are thematically organized according to key concepts for the political economy of the film industries: ownership and rights, recognition and legitimation, changes in the industries, and expenses and revenues. Acknowledging a tension between the macro-orientation of industry analysis and the micro-focus of filmmaker interviews, the paper utilizes the concepts of structure and agency both to theoretically contextualize the research findings as well as to lobby for greater acknowledgement of individual agency within the legacy of political economic analysis.
The study finds the interviewed filmmakers to have been both helped and hindered by new technologies and recent changes in the industries. While online distribution indeed enables some films to reach wider audiences, it does not tend to lead to direct financial profitability. The decline of the home-video market is seen as having a devastating effect on self- distributing filmmakers’ ability to earn revenue. At the same time, there is evidence of filmmakers using innovative strategies to distribute their films outside the traditional routes, providing some support for claims that new social processes enable the disruption of established power relations within the media industries.
In conclusion, this dissertation calls for increased academic attention to and public support of the self-distribution of film. Understanding cinema to be not only an economic but also a cultural product, a plea is made for aiding sustainable development of the independent distribution of cinema in the U.S.
-
Albums
- 10 tracks
Buy
-
_films
- The Distance Between the Apple and the Tree
