Posted June 1st, 2017 in Stories.

I’m Not Worried About How People Are Going to Respond

Not everyone is going to like the work that you produce and that’s ok. It’s about connecting with your audience, creating emotions they didn’t know were there until they saw what you created and maybe even shaking things up a little bit. Ripple Marketing is all about creating ripples along the way.

“I’m Not Worried About How People Are Going To Respond”

BY J.J. MCCORVEY04.17.17 | 4:00 AM

Fast Company: You’ve had great success in movies. How did you end up going all in on television?

John Ridley: I’ll tell you something, before winning the Academy Award I was reaching a place in my career where I was not very happy with the types of projects coming to me. It’s not as though the things I do generate an enormous box office. But I’d done interesting things—like U Turn, Undercover Brother, Three Kings—that have cult followings. Then around 2007, the industry went off the financial cliff and Hollywood cut back on deals. It was all about the franchises. Studios weren’t betting on the more issue-oriented films.

At that point, I asked myself: If this is going to be the last thing I can write or try to get made, what should it be? At that time I was really, really passionate about telling a Jimi Hendrix story, but a particular story, in a particular way, about a very particular moment in his life. That became All Is by My Side, with Outkast’s André Benjamin. And even though it wasn’t widely viewed, the folks at ABC network saw the film and said it was one of the most interesting things they’d seen. They asked, “Can you take that style of storytelling and bring it to television?” And that was the beginning of American Crime.

Continue Reading: Fast Company