Trey Terpeluk, Founder of Yo Productions on Filmmaking through Pop Culture’s Lens
People tend to think of pop culture as having a finite shelf life. However, much like the times it mirrors, pop culture is constantly evolving and reinventing itself. After a marquee event like Art Basel, it’s clear pop culture continues to change our perceptions and paradigms of art and entertainment. Whether it is DaVinci’s David, Keith Haring’s subway drawings, or timeless documentaries like Summer of Soul – people want to see reflections of the world around them in different mediums. Yo Productions was founded to create a platform for documentaries, scripted films, and short-form projects to create and capture iconic cultural moments at the intersection between art and commerce.
There is a massive global appetite for cinematic content on streamers and social media platforms. People want to see entertaining features and short-form films that take them somewhere new and explore diverse aspects of pop culture. But while others are chasing the trend, Yo Productions is at the forefront of crafting stories that define pop culture for years to come. Our team is tapped into everything from art and literature, to new media and knows how to bring fellow pop culture junkies together to create something extraordinary – either in content creation or as an experiential event. Every project is unique; Yo carefully considers each one to decide where the best opportunity is to find the widest audience.
Lear
Finding projects that define culture is Yo’s guiding mission. Trey and his team are committed to curating and creating this content and sharing it with massive audiences across multiple mediums. Their target is elevated commercial material that is always at the forefront of entertainment for consumers.
Yo works with an array of prominent and amazingly artistic directors that know how to bring these stories to life. Their scripted and doc slate focuses on subjects that range the cultural spectrum. They include an exploration into art icon Keith Haring, to how The White House evolves to reflect society’s cultural and political evolution every four years, to a deep dive into the life of remarkable female climber Wasfia Nazreen, a human rights activist. Yo is also adapting popular IP that has driven conversations about social change with projects such as Edward Abbeys’ iconic “The Monkey Wrench Gang.” Activism itself is a crucial component of culture.
Culture transcends categories and interests, with connective tissue through generations – it has the common threads of both rebellion and establishment while being a voice of the times. To share that voice, we’re developing productions that can cross multiple distribution channels through theatrical, broadcast, cable, and streaming services to reach consumers across the globe. Culture isn’t the only thing about entertainment that matters, but if we can capture this emotional connection in film, the hearts and minds of audiences will follow.
