#26 | Julia Silverton | Africa's Tech Revolution

Producer and director Julia Silverton on speechwriting, nearly becoming a war correspondent, and her documentary on Kenyan teenagers driving Africa's tech revolution. A former speech writer, and nearly a war correspondent, Julia is a producer and director that helms successful productions of all scales for ad agencies, brands and television production companies; but documentaries is still her passion, and her EMERGENT tells the story of Africa's technology revolution through a handful of brilliant Kenyan teenagers, and it's coming soon. To learn more about Julia: https://www.juliasilverton.com Chapters 0:00 Welcome Julia Silverton 2:30 Story and sales in development 5:03 Why she moved into buying and selling 7:39 When sponsors block a show 10:16 Escaping the network buckets 12:51 Culture shock and American advertising 15:22 Nobody takes risks anymore 17:53 Small teams making their own work 20:29 Ownership and international sales agents 23:01 London and the family farm in Suffolk 25:35 Speechwriting in Australia 28:06 Filming across Africa 30:36 Turned back on the road to Goma 33:11 Why she chose film over news 35:44 Doing everything every day 38:19 No spark for competition reality 40:51 Driving overnight to the war memorial 43:27 Small towns across America 45:58 Unlocking emotion after 9/11 48:30 Directing reality versus documentary 51:04 Has the death wish passed? 53:37 Photographing grief 56:14 Authentic stories from war zones 58:51 Skepticism after years in China 1:01:22 Film cameras and cutting a first doc 1:03:53 From war journalism to brand work 1:06:27 Faking it till you make it 1:09:01 A network job as a PhD 1:11:40 Sports, music and crime docs 1:14:15 The call from MTV 1:16:49 Fast turnarounds for Meta 1:19:21 Rough cuts across time zones 1:21:54 Making for someone else's audience 1:24:29 Into branded content 1:27:01 Ryan's watch ambassador role 1:29:36 Speaking at the Explorers Club and beyond 1:32:08 Talks from coast to coast 1:34:40 Consolidation after Covid 1:37:17 Talent leaving the industry 1:39:55 Freedom to tell the story 1:42:28 Music videos with survivors 1:45:03 Driving through Saudi Arabia 1:47:38 Linear TV or streaming for brands? 1:50:10 Distributing through Filmhub 1:52:47 We all want the same things 1:55:19 Wrapping up The Ryan Pyle Podcast is ad-free by choice. If you enjoy these conversations, you can buy me a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ryanpyle Ryan's TV series are streaming around the world. Follow the Podcast X: https://x.com/RyanPylePodcast Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpylepodcast Follow Ryan Pyle YouTube: https://youtube.com/@ryanjpyle Instagram: https://instagram.com/ryanpyle X: https://x.com/RyanPyle Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpyle https://www.ryanpyle.com