The Beggar Kings Manifesto

3 TOUCHSTONES

There are 3 touchstones that guide our work at Beggar Kings:

• The Non-Negotiables

• Reality Wins

• Lead with Beauty

1 - The Non-Negotiables:

Professionalism, Diversity & ExcellenceWe take Professionalism, Diversity, and Excellence very seriously.  That means that everyone from the Boss’s Boss to the Part-Time Cleaning Crew is treated exactly the same: as a Person.  Sounds a bit boring, doesn’t it?  A bit obvious?  Sometimes the obvious needs to be said.  For example, it is a rare and beautiful thing when a call is returned promptly, when a “quick no” is given instead of an endless “maybe,” and when an invoice is paid on time.  SHOCK AND AWE, I know.  Simple PROFESSIONALISM goes a long way.  Furthermore, we held ourselves to a high standard of DIVERSITY (the standard referred to in the Inclusion Rider even before it had a name) because we believe that diversity is not only valuable—it doesn’t take a PhD in Anthropology to tell you that—but essential.  We make a point, on all of our projects, to have our cast and crew reflect the simple reality and beautiful diversity of the real world around us.  This applies to our Directors, Cinematographers, Actors, Editors, VFX Artists, the very projects we take on and more. We believe that Creativity is a communal experience that flourishes best when all humans are included and respected. Lastly: Excellence. As I see it, excellence is simply doing the best one can with what one has been given. For us, that means striving to produce content of the highest caliber: Oscar, Emmy, and Cannes Lions. A commitment to excellence is non-negotiable. Professionalism, Diversity & Excellence are non-negotiable.

2 - Reality Wins

REALITY WINS is our way of saying that we choose to reflect reality in every aspect of our work. We’re not afraid to tell stories about the hard truths of life: Human Dignity and our broken criminal justice system (American Skin, The Restoration Series) radical hunger (Generation Hope), societal stereotypes (Terminal 3, René Girard on Mimetic Desire), drug addition (Promises), the challenges of the modern education system (Little Things, Detroit Drone Drop), and more.  Rather, we look for the light in those dark places.  Another way we reflect reality is our use of tools. We’re fascinated by technology, by the fact that we carry super-computers in our pockets that have more computing power than NASA used to send someone to the Moon and back.  Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not a tool of tomorrow. It is decidedly ingrained in our workflows. It saves time and money and it puts creativity on hyperspeed. Yes many discussions need to happen surrounding the right time and place. But wat a time to be alive! As evidenced in this decidedly low-tech letter that I am writing to you—we embrace both the old and the new and we think the magic happens especially in combining the two: the old method of letter writing that is bounced off of satellites in space until it reaches your eyes. We fully embrace the radical power that technology gives us. We are deeply active in Immersive Storytelling. Sometimes that’s called bundled up with Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Virtual Production, or Location Based Entertainment (LBE). No matter what you call it, we know that technology is a means not an end. Just like throwing money at a project will not solve all of its problems, so, too, tech upon tech will not help the story reach its audience’s heart, or the client reach the consumer in a more meaningful way. Rather: human-centered storytelling, human-centered design, human-centered campaigns. Make us feel. Make us think. Teach us something about the world, about each other—about ourselves. That—that fleeting moment of floating in raw reality—is what gets our hearts pounding. And makes us come back for more. We create compelling content that does exactly that. In other words: when Reality Wins, Everyone Wins.

3 - Lead With Beauty

LEAD WITH BEAUTY is the flower that blooms on the top of our best of days.Beauty is like love: hard to define, but easy to recognize.  We take great care in partnering with true artists, especially those who are responsible for the creation of the image.  We hold ourselves to the highest standards of beauty and we expect our Writers, our Directors, our Cinematographers, our Production Designers, our Costume Designers, our Actors who bring it to life, our Programmers, our Designers, our Developers, and so many others to deliver at this high level or don’t come at all.  This includes our partners who are not “artists” in the traditional sense but are nevertheless still creatives: account executives, brand ambassadors, analytically-focused people, the “Client” and more.  Creativity doesn’t always require an artist’s brush.  It can be expressed in problem solving, in the ease with which one can manage everyone’s expectations, in the efficient management of finances, and so many more ways.  Beauty is everywhere.  It’s a unique joy to discover that beauty with our partners and to bring that beauty to the world.

WE ARE IDEALISTIC REALISTS

We believe in the inherent goodness of human beings. We are optimists. We believe the best is yet to come for this strange creature called Human.And yet we don’t live with our head in the clouds. Tough decisions need to be made and dirty diapers have to be changed. Such is life. We’re all BEGGARS and we’re all KINGS. We just don’t know it yet.We’re not afraid of telling tough stories—whether those challenges come from content, logistics, timeline, or otherwise—because we believe that the most compelling stories acknowledge the rain, even enjoy the rain, but don’t stop searching for the rainbow.

THE BEGINNING

At Beggar Kings, we’re immersed in the modern world of storytelling.  And in that world, we live at the intersection of story, business, and technology.  At that intersection stands humanity.  We tell stories to that human because in many ways and on the best of days, we are able to tell the stories we want to hear.  At our core, Beggar Kings Entertainment is about Storytelling.  It’s about telling stories that communicate, connect, and inspire.  It’s about listening to our muses and marshaling every single major art form: the written word (scripts, plays, creative briefs), the spoken word (poetry, performing, acting), the sung word (music), the visualized word (Cinematography, Animation, Production Design), the augmented word (Virtual Production & VR/AR/XR/MR)—and bringing the art and the artists together in a compelling, cohesive, and harmonious whole.  This sometimes-crazy and often-absurd thing is called by many names. We call it Show Business. We call it “work.” What a joy to do work like this for a living.

Looking for Partners

We’ve had the privilege of partnering with truly passionate, committed, professional and deeply human humans. We’re actively looking for more.