Theater Commericals

The National Guard has just officially launched their ad campaign for theaters (click here for story). Their first short feature entitled "Citizen Soldier" has already appeared in theaters around the country but starting next month will be seen in about 65% of all theaters. Those are really good odds that you are going to be seeing this.



The feature is directed by Antoine Fuqua, the director of the Academy Award-winning film, “Training Day.” And it has an original song by 3 Doors Down with the same name. It is not just a dinky commercial that you could see on tv. As a person that loves to get to the movies early so that I make sure I see the trailers, I am OK with this type of advertising before a movie.

I can't stand a 30-second spot before my movie! Nothing bothers me more than a coke commercial that I saw on TV a few days ago. I really like trailers because they are entertaining. Yes, they are trying to sell the movie to me, but they are also trying to prove that it is going to be an entertaining movie and therefore make the trailer entertaining. So I like the fact that the National Guard is not shlopping together a 30-second spot to get recruits. They put together a pretty cool highlight real of the Guard and all its glory to not only recruit the men and women looking to serve their country through military service, but to also entertain those that are paying ten bucks just to be there. That is extra entertainment, so National Guard, keep the cool videos coming, I'll watch 'em.

Bee Movie's tagline not so sweet

Jerry Seinfeld's new movie "Bee Movie" is facing some legal trouble as the studio is being sued for using the slogan, "Give Bees a Chance," in their marketing campaign. Beeceuticals is an organic cosmetics company that makes its products from honey and other bee byproducts. They are suing Dreamworks and Paramount Pictures, claiming that they have had the slogan trademarked since October 2006 and have lost business due to Bee Movie using it.

Two things here that I have to say:
1. Giving Bees a Chance?? Is it really that good of a slogan. I can see why Paramount did not look very far into whether or not this line was trademarked. it is not very good, for either business. I haven't dissected Beeceuticals yet but I don't think that "giving bees a chance," is using their honey that worked so hard for. And it is not even a play on words or anything.

And Bee Movie has a lot more better stuff than that. The only thing that slogan does is give a little glimpse at the plot. But I don't think that is really Bee Movies style. Which brings me to number two.

2. I love how Bee Movie has been advertising itself. Jerry Seinfeld is at a very key point in his career after his show has ended and enough time has elapsed that it is not odd for him to be doing other things. So I love how the trailers show him struggling to do a movie. The trailers make it look like he is trying to put the movie together like he would a show. And it is not working out.



The campaign gives a good look into the idea of the film and doesn't try to sell you on the plot. The trailer tells me that this is going to be a funny movie because there is going to be a lot of Jerry Seinfeld comedy. I like that. I watched all the trailers a few times to see the story unfold until Spielberg finally tells Seinfeld to animate it. So Bee Movie, I love what you are doing, tough break with the crapy slogan lawsuit.

Too many movies??

Well this weekend was yet another awesome weekend for movies. Elizabeth: The Golden Age; We Own the Night; Lars and the Real Girl; Sleuth; and Across the Universe all opened around the country this weekend. These are just a few of the movies that came out. I am not even going to go into the tons of indy films that came out too.

Professionals are saying that now more than ever, there are a lot of movies. Chalk it up to more indy studios like Fow Searchlight and Warner Bros Indepent, or chalk it up to studios trying to release their films at the same time of year in order to set up their films for a better chance at producing a good Oscar buzz, but whatever you chalk it up to, know that it is harder than ever to get your movie noticed.

And with so many movies, it doesn't have more than two weeks in a theater to work its magic. Theaters are getting movies in and out as fast as they can.

This weekend I went to see Across the Universe, the new tripy Beatles movie. Wow was it amazing. But I will admit, if it wasn't for my friends being crazy about the Beatles, and getting high, I probably wouldn't have chosen that movie. So the moral of the story is that you have to get a few people fired up about your movie. If you can appeal to someone so strongly that it cuts through the clutter for them, then they will get their friends to go to. There are so many choices, people will gladly take a little guidance from someone that garuntees a good movie experience.

Assassinating Movies

Did you know that "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" is coming out this Friday? Neither did I. There are lots of others that didn't know either. It turns out that the distributor, Warner Brothers Studios has just released the movie all willie-nillie-like. Little advertising and almost no promotion.

The trouble with deciding to release a movie quietly and neglecting to announce it until a few days before it is released is that there cannot be press screenings for the movie. And in the places where the theater scrambles to put together a press screening, they have to do it after many of the writers miss their deadlines.

Perhaps Warner Bros. did not think that Jesse James would do very well and decided to just wash their hands of it and let it go. But come on WB! The least you can do is release it in a normal way to encourage the usual publicity a movie gets. They didn't even get Brad Pitt to go on Conan to promote it.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but critics are giving it pretty good reviews. This might be robing people of a good movie experience. That doesn't bother me very much though, its not there is a noble cause promoted in the movie. But what does make me mad is the fact that it is someone's art being treated like a piece of crap. WB, I am disappointed in you.

"Thanks Blockbuster," says Netflix

There are three categories of movies in my life. I'll see it in theaters, I don't even want to talk about it, and of course I'll rent it. But that used to mean a lot more than it does now. My system was developed during the ice age when you had to walk down the streets of Reynoldsville, PA to go to video store, pick it out and tote it home. Then you had to worry about taking it back.

Now-a-days we are accustomed to just adding a movie to our Netflix list and wait for it to show up at our door. That's how Good Luck Chuck made it onto my list of renters seeing that I wouldn't have to actually exert effort to see it.

But it is not just Netflix's system that caters to lazy couch potatoes that has boosted its stock to about $22. Blockbuster is helping out. Noticing the new trend to buy and rent movies online, blockbuster started its Total Access campaign to tap into the online market. This proved to not be profitable at all. The only thing that happened was it took away business from the walk in store buyers. Now enter the genius move. Blockbuster saw the non-value of advertising for its Total Access, and oops more online business goes to Netflix. The old bait and switch. Only not on purpose.

So if you are looking to invest in the movie renting industry, may I suggest the $22-a-share netflix as opposed to the $5 Blockbuster.

Convenient Advertising!

Well we have all heard of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Well Leonardo DiCaprio is hosting the next installment in the the-world-is-going-to-hell-unless-we-do-something-to-stop-it series. The new movie, "The 11th hour" picks up where Gore left off and talks about global warning thanks to the industrial age. But wait, there's more! The 11th hour goes on to talk about what we can all do as individuals in order to turn our worst hour, into our finest. That is some good stuff.

And they are teaching us to fight g-warming with style. The marketing plan for 11th hour is making it easy to spread the word about the movie, about the issues it talks about, and get involved in the solution. AdWeek.com reports that the great organization behind the film, along with this cool widget, is revolutionary for a movie like this.

This little widget features the trailer, links to environmental sites like its sponsor Gaiam, the option to mail to a friend, and even the embedded code to make it supper easy to place in a blog or social networking site. If you care about green issues, you can spread the word like hot butter on toast!



The widget technology also allowed non-profit websites to post it on their sites with their logo instead of the trailer's. This makes them look better while spreading word. Basically, the trailer can be distributed by individuals AND organizations. I love the cause, I love the fact that the marketing reflects the cause, and I love the environment.

And in honor of World Vegetarian Day, and National Vegetarian Month, I want to remind everyone that eating vegetarian conserves energy and helps turn the 11th hour into our finest.

And here is a funny video about veggies.

"I'm as mad as hell"

ShadowCatcher Entertainment is breaking all the rules with how they will market their new indy film "Outsourced." Fed up with the middle man distributing his films, owner and manager David Skinner has decided to do all his own marketing and distribution for his new film "Outsourced." After talking with Miramax/Disney, he decided that it makes much more sense to do it this way (check seatlepi.com for the whole story) and it is looking like others will follow.

"The studio had a lucrative cable deal in place, but we wouldn't see any of those profits. Meanwhile, they would invest nothing in the ad campaign." Skinner says. "We would have to raise that capital ourselves. Welcome to the wonderful world of independent film distribution." Skinner thinks it was just like when Peter Finch screamed "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" in "Network."

Skinner is taking the power and profits away from the big distribution companies and putting them back into the hands of independent film makers. I like this for two big reasons, Number one is that this should breed more creative marketing strategies. When the same company does all the marketing campaigns for every movie, they all start looking the same. Just like how every movie trailer sounds the same cause the same guy writes all the scripts.

The second reason I like it is because this is going to mean more money going back into the pockets of indy film makers. With most of Skinners advertising based on word of mouth, his movie has to be good in order for more people to go see it. Indy film makers do not have the money to a lot of advertising, but the well done films will get noticed and the profits will go straight back to the creator. This means good movies will be rewarded, which hopefully means movies getting better and better.

So thanks ShadowCatcher Entertainment, I'm not as mad now.