On My Radar: TJ Martin and Dan Lindsay

Above: The trailer for Martin and Lindsay's documentary, LA 92.

What’s the best ad campaign you’ve seen recently?

TJ: The most recent campaign that really resonated with me is The New York Times Truth is Hard to Find campaign by Droga5 and directed by Darren Aronofsky. Its stripped down approach felt like the antithesis of advertising. It saw value and strength in intimate storytelling and gave breathing room to absorb powerful visuals. It de-cluttered very big, nuanced, political and emotional subject matters with a very deft, delicate and smart touch. 

Dan: Same here.

What website(s) do you use most regularly and why?

TJ: Right now I probably frequent The New York Times, Fader, Pitchfork and Nowness the most. Intellect, style, music and art. Things I like. 

Dan: I pretty much start my day on Twitter and branch off from there. I don’t engage much in conversation on Twitter but instead just use it as an aggregator of news and content. I also have a Slack group with about 10 friends that we use to share articles and privately complain about the state of our country and world.

What’s the most recent piece of tech that you’ve bought and why?

TJ: I’m not sure if this counts as tech but I just recently bought the Fuji x-100f [below] to encourage myself to be more disciplined about taking photos. I spend a considerable amount of time sitting behind a computer editing, so to a certain degree I’ve gifted myself a toy that persuades me to venture outside. 

Dan: Apple TV 4k so I could stream movies via Filmstruck.

What’s your favoured social media platform?

TJ: Right now I would say Instagram. I like having immediate access to seeing what other people are creating. 

Dan: I certainly spend more time on Twitter, but I don’t really use it for social. So I would probably also say Instagram.

What’s your favourite app on your phone?

TJ: Instagram, Spotify, Twitter, NYTimes and Podcasts if you consider Podcasts to be an app. It’s just the usual suspects. It’s so boring when I put it on paper. 

Dan: Same here; Instagram, Twitter, Slack, etc. I use my Podcast app a lot. I probably consume 10-to-15 podcast episodes a week while driving around LA. I also use something called myLightMeter quite a bit.  I have an old Yashica Mat-124 medium format camera and the light meter was broken when I bought it. I have found that app does a pretty great job of metering.

What’s your favourite TV show and why?

TJ: The Wire. There’s simply no competition. 

Dan: Currently I have been watching David Fincher’s Mindhunter. I have enjoyed the fact that it isn’t trying to rely on the tropes of a 'who done it?' and it seems to be more interested in character and process. But in terms of favourite TV show of all time, it would be a tie between The Wire and Mad Men.

What film do you think everyone should have seen and why?

TJ: Powaqquatsi. It’s the second film in the Quatsi trilogy by Godfrey Reggio. The first being Koyaanisqatsi, which roughly translates to Life Out of Balance. Powaqqatsi, Life in Transition, focuses more on the beauty, fragility, nuance and innovation of the third world as well as the contrasting ways of life between big city and rural communities. Without a single bit of dialogue this film took me into a deeper exploration of who we are as a global community more than any other visual piece that I’ve ever seen. Also, Philip Glass did the score. So there’s that, too.

Dan: The one that comes to mind is Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson. The film had a profound effect on me and I would encourage people to see it in the hopes that it may inspire the same reaction in them. It is a very simple film, but it is just full of so much humanity. Small, observed moments that say more about our existence than any speech could. After watching the film I texted TJ and said I thought every person who has aspirations to lead people or organise our communities, should be required to watch that film. Simply to be reminded of who we are as people.

Where were you when inspiration last struck?

TJ: The last time inspiration struck I guess would have been last week while sitting in a cafe talking to a friend about racial and systemic depression. The inspiration part could have simply been the coffee. 

Dan: This morning when I was cleaning up the kitchen. Invariably my ideas come when I am doing something else. If I try to sit down to 'get inspired' it is always a lost cause. My mind has to either wander while doing mundane tasks or I have to be engaged in conversation in some way to get my brain going.

What’s the most significant change you’ve witnessed in the industry since you started working in it?

TJ: I’m not sure that I’ve been in the industry long enough to recognise major shifts. Having said that, I guess it could be the overwhelming desire for brands and other entities to find value in long form content. I think this interest in long form story-telling or art pieces is a positive thing and drastically opens up the creative space. 

"I tried a strawberry on my honeymoon and it tasted just as gross as I expected it to."

If there was one thing you could change about the advertising industry, what would it be?

TJ: Align everyone’s incentives. The desires of the client, agency and director often feel disjointed. This always seems to be lurking in the subtext of a shoot. Seems like if there was a more honest assessment of the goal then everyone could align their intentions and have a more successful shoot and as a result potentially a stronger product. 

Dan: SAME!

What or who has most influenced your career and why?

TJ: I guess music has probably influenced my career the most. It’s where I find most of my inspiration and it helps me find an emotional alignment with each project. More practically speaking, as someone who didn’t go to film school, I taught myself how to shoot and cut primarily starting with music videos and music performances that I filmed. 

Needless to say, the work was not good but it helped create an editorial foundation. Eventually this helped lead to my first real job when I moved to LA, editing background visuals and music videos for bigger Top 40 acts. Working on those purely visual pieces without a doubt helped to shape my editorial style. 

Dan: If I really think about it, it would be TJ. Our partnership has been the single most influential and significant aspect of my life in the last 10 years. We both came to this partnership with our own fully-formed lives and ideas, but when I think about the growth and challenges we have gone through together, I don’t think there is any way my outlook on art and creation would be the same had I been doing it alone. 

Tell us one thing about yourself that most people won’t know.

TJ: I had a mohawk at one point in my life. 

Dan: I don’t eat fruit. Ever. I ate apples a little bit when I was a kid but that is it. Oh and I tried a strawberry on my honeymoon and it tasted just as gross as I expected it to.