Today we’d like to introduce you to Cody Whitman and Tara Hallarman.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Tara and I (Cody) met at the creative agency M&C Saatchi where I was the Creative Director and Tara was coming in to fill in for our agency producer who was out on paternity leave. I was in the process of building out an internal content studio to fill the gap between social content and larger productions for our clients and hopefully bring in some new ones. We quickly found out that we both lived in the same neighborhood, both were from Ohio and shared a passion for making stuff. So often in the agency world, you are doing a lot of thinking and are removed somewhat from the making. We wanted to change that.
In addition to servicing existing clients like the San Diego Zoo and Vizio, we ended up bringing in Amazon Music as a client and helping them launch their mini-documentary program with the Webby and Clio award-winning piece, Still Ill, for the 25th anniversary of the Beastie Boy’s legendary album Ill Communication. We’d talked openly with the agency about setting up a separate business entity and when the head office in London decided to close M&C Saatchi LA for good in April of 2020, it was the kick in the butt that we needed to start our own company.
We launched Pizza Night as a branded content and documentary-focused creative shop then.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I don’t think it’s been a smooth road for anyone these past few years and it certainly wasn’t for us. Launching a company in the middle of a pandemic is tough, but we don’t think our struggle is especially unique. The first year we did a number of smaller projects and then right as we were about to officially launch our brand and website we got asked to do a feature-length documentary for Amazon Music about Black artists in country music and the inherent racism in that industry. It was a dream job but it meant that we were head down working on that project for over a year immediately after launching. We couldn’t rely on the buzz and inertia that projects can bring. A lot of our friends and associates were asking if we were still alive as a business because we were radio silent for such a long time. It was worth it when we released “For Love & Country” on Amazon Prime earlier this year but it was an exercise in patience.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Pizza Night?
Pizza Night is a creative shop specializing in branded content and documentary storytelling started by Tara Hallarman, Executive Producer, and Cody Whitman, Creative Director. We are new, but in our brief existence as a business, we’ve had the opportunity to work with clients like Apple and Amazon and have a number of Clio and Webby Awards under our belt. We work with brands and agencies providing strategy, creative, production services and post-production, all with an eye toward makings things. It’s essentially collapsing the agency and production company model. There are two things that set us apart from other content studios and production companies. First, because of our agency background, we like to get involved early and can serve our clients from strategy to concept to execution and delivery. And we have what we like to call a “roster-less roster” which allows us to work with a broad range of creative talent and tailor-make teams, especially for the task at hand, which makes things more efficient and cost-effective.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I think taking the leap of faith and starting a business during the pandemic is risky, so in a lot of ways taking risks is built into our DNA. From a creative standpoint I don’t think we think about it in terms of risk but instead, take a humanistic approach to storytelling. We believe that regardless of topic or subject, there are core emotions that if we can tap into authentically, we’ll create a connection with the audience. It’s a really simple idea that is extremely difficult to execute but it’s what gets us out of bed in the morning. Connecting people through story.
Contact Info:
- Website: pizzanight.la
- Instagram: instagram.com/pizzanight.la
Image Credits
Mathew Scott
