ORLANDO, Fla. – This week on “Black Men Sundays,” host Corie Murray interviews Atlanta-based entrepreneur and TV/film producer Tiffany Y-esha Griffin.
Griffin is owner and founder of The ACE Network, a platform she says is meant to provide visibility to talented emerging artists and creatives. She told Corie about the path that led to The ACE Network, what began in the Midwest with her background in electronic media production at Missouri State University and the launch of REEL Point of View Media, her first production company.
“I went to Missouri State University to really learn the behind-the-scenes of the music business. I just felt like that’s so important because a lot of people get into the game and they really don’t know the business end or the behind-the-scenes and I didn’t want anybody telling me it was gonna cost $15,000 to shoot this video when I know you can shoot this video for a lot less than that, so I really wanted to educate myself on it,” Griffin said.
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So, Griffin sought out education in electronic media production, TV production, audio engineering and even 3D animation. In moving from St. Louis to Atlanta however, she told Corie about how she had to find new ways to adapt and succeed.
“I came down here running and thinking that I could run the same way in St. Louis, which is a much smaller city. Then I was in Atlanta and I quickly found out it’s a different type of race here. So, I had to think of an avenue of what can I offer, right? Because a lot of times when you come as an artist, it’s always, ‘We need something, can you help me get a deal? Can you help me get here?’ What can I bring to the table and offer as a service that can also help leverage my music career?” Griffin said. “That’s when I developed REEL Point of View Media. I had a lot of connections here before I moved (…) so a lot of my business connections was here and I was like, ‘Well, I already work with a lot of people that’s in that field and they’re looking for video and film work and press work,’ so that’s how REEL Point of View Media developed from there. The name itself; I really want to try to keep genuine content, right? Content that’s real, content that’s authentic, and that’s my main goal with everything that I’ve produced.”
Before launching The ACE Network, Griffin got some more experience in the corporate world as a Cox Communications media consultant, what she said was yet another motivator in her pursuit to spotlight authentic work and help smaller artists thrive.
“I sat in a lot of rooms with a lot of executives, a lot of major networks, because we did a lot of the negotiations on what’s gonna go on the Cox platform. Cox is a big enterprise, right? It wasn’t a lot of us sitting in those rooms. You know, it wasn’t a lot of us that had a voice to bring to the table to say, ‘Hey, this is great content, this is not great content,’ or, ‘We want to pick this up,’ and I just seen a void for that, and an avenue that was needed,” Griffin said. “Everything is based off of profit, right? When you come into the media world, how many clicks can you get? How many views can you get? And even though sometimes the road of positivity and uplifting may not bring as many clicks as fighting or violence or things of that nature, they will still steer toward things that would just bring in more profit instead of the authenticity of what’s going on around us. So that’s where I seen the niche that I felt like I could fill that void and help direct media into a different way, right? Because when we look at media now, what’s out there, it’s all driven by a lot of violence. It’s driven by a lot of things that downplay our culture and I think that to see the change we have to be the change, right? And that’s why I went to that room and said, ‘I can develop this and push this narrative forward.’”
Hear the full interview in Season 4, Episode 22 of “Black Men Sundays.”
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