Product Placement

It always works. Oliver Stone recently admitted to an audience at an Advertising Week event that the film was too big for the NYC film tax credits and that received $60 Million from Fox. That is actually a small budget for an appetite of any filmmaker nowadays. In order to help boost the platform, the film drops notes for Dunkin Donuts and Ducati, in addition to a slew of other companies willing and wanting to be mentioned. Producers need to do anything they can and lets face it, a feature film can be essentially a 2 hour commercial for any product. Granted the film may not always be focusing on that particular "thing" that is being subconsciously sold to us. Most anyone knows that Vince from "Entourage" drives in a Maserati or Aston Martin and often takes sip breaks at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. The human mind remembers, and we want what the stars have.

Catch Them If You Can

The MPAA and RIAA are cheering potential legislation looking to shut down foreign and domestic web-pages that effectively promote and stream pirated film and television. It's called the 'Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act' and would let the justice department close down these kind of web-sites. The bill of course is hopeful to protect creative content and brands that come along with them in order to keep the financial function of the entertainment industry stable. Downloading illegal movies has for too long crippled potential box office growth and in turn possibly assisted in the lack of consumer benefits in purchasing content.

South of the Venture.

Lions Gate is looking to joint venture with Mexican media conglomerate Televisia as reported by the New York Times. They are calling it Pantelion Films, which looks to release about ten films a year over the next five years, targeting the hispanic and latino demographics. This could possibly be one of the best moves by LGF to go after a growing arena of audience members. I wouldn't be surprised if other companies didn't follow suite. The easier part for LGF is that it still isn't a super giant company on it's own yet, so it can take bigger risks. This risk sounds like it could prove to be wealthy.

Location

The great thing about all the movie abuzz in Michigan is the fact that one day we'll all get to sit inside a theatre and see all our great landmarks and hangouts on screen. Though not always as our hometown. Detroit doubles Seattle in 'Red DawN' yet we all know American Coney Island when we see it. 'Vamp' is filming Detroit for New York, yet we all know Hart Plaza when we see it. The amazing thing is all the money these companies are spending to dress the locations as though it is really someplace else. About an hour into 'The Island' press pause and you may see the downtown Detroit skyline with street signs for Los Angeles. My question is, when is someone going to film Detroit for Detroit? Well better not, the more they need it to be something else, the more vendors are financially benefitting to dress it up like anything the company wants it to be.

i-Downloads' New Bidding

Steve Jobs has come up with a new plan: To offer television shows at 99 cents (already lower than the prices offered by i-Tunes). Although studio's are naturally squeamish - The reason? Ever since the downloading of music for such a low price, the great days of the early 90's were gone, when a CD could be priced tagged to actually make the studio money. Granted the legit but cheap downloads of today were a reaction to pirating. So granted that it was a a relatively good idea, the point is that DVD box set sales that are planned for release nearly half a year after the show's respective season ends, many now suffer a marketing plan. Also, many people may no longer be psychologically willing to buy a whole season of a particular show because of the cheaper price online, and the ability to perhaps buy only the episodes they want like songs. Most people of course if they like a show are willing to fork out for every episode because they have to have it. The point here is, can we as an audience and customer agree to placing a price for our harsh economic times but also be willing to look down on illegal downloads. Many people may not realize that downloading TV Shows like music hurts people involved. I did a post about SAG the Screen Actors Guild earlier. One of the ways these actors make bread is through the residual sales of DVD's. So I wonder what their take on this is? My last post was about the decline of physical video rental outlets, and taking it in, is this just a sign of the times, or a way for some people to make easy money on other people's hard work or perhaps a negotiated response to illegal downloaders in the same way it worked for music? Download and stream television, who would have thunk it?