I wrote another guest post this week for BrandStorytelling - check out the full article there, but here's a teaser:
As more brands move into long form branded content – meaning feature length documentary or narrative films around 90 minutes – brands increasingly have the same plan - to premiere at Sundance or another top festival and then “get onto Netflix”. These are worthy goals to be sure, and I’ve sold multiple brand client films to Netflix and other distributors. But this is just one strategy for distribution, and I keep hoping more brands will wake up to the reality that maybe they don’t need to follow “the rules” and go down this path to distribute their films. Perhaps it could be better to break the rules of the old-school film world and forge their own paths.
This might seem counterintuitive, but if part of the goal of premiering at Sundance/SXSW and then landing on Netflix is to show prestige and break through the noise, you might be picking the most crowded path of all.
Read the Full Post here. And in case you're wondering - yes, this applies to indie filmmakers as well, but brands are better capitalized to take control of their distribution. And no, I'm not saying you shouldn't keep in mind the realities of the marketplace, or best practices, but I am saying that a lot of those aren't working anymore, and we can explore new models, especially if you are a brand with a loyal following and marketing know-how.
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Film
The NYT is moving more seriously into feature documentaries - according to Digiday, the NYT will start making more feature docs intended for SVOD and other major release. I worked on a feature doc for the NYT two years ago, so it's good to see them moving forward more aggressively now.
‘Maybe Adam Driver Can Help Set Things Right’: Jenny Holzer on Why She Teamed With Amazon to Promote a New Political Drama. Great to see Amazon Studios working with a great artist, who specializes in word-play, on this campaign.
The Justice Department is getting rid of the Consent Decrees - according to multiple sources, this one being the NYT, the Justice Department is getting rid of the Paramount Consent Decrees, rules from 1949 that stopped the Studios from controlling exhibitors/theaters (contrary to public perception, it didn't actually ban them from owning theaters) as well as from engaging in many bad business practices, such as block booking, where the Studios force theaters to play all their films if they want the good ones. People in the business are very worried about what this means for independent and smaller theaters - studios could force them to show their films instead of arthouse films if they want the latest Star Wars, for example. DOJ argues they will stop block booking for a couple of years and make sure the Studios don't do anything disastrous, and say that with Netflix, etc. we need to allow different business models to flourish. The argument against this move is probably best laid out in Forbes of all places. It seems the main concern at the moment is Disney - they could use their blockbusters to force theaters to play content that might go direct to Disney+ for example, but this could end up happening with all of the major players. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Why the Rich Get Richer as AFM Hits Schlock Bottom - The Hollywood Reporter reports on the latest AFM, where just like the rest of the business, only the Top 1% were making sales. But the AFM was built on B-Movies. As noted in the article: ""It feels like MIFED toward the end," notes one veteran buyer, recalling the once-mighty Milan-based film market that shuttered in 2004. "It takes a long time for these things to die. But our business is changing fast, and unless AFM does something to adapt, it won’t be around for much longer."
Streaming was supposed to kill original theatrical movies. Don’t tell ‘Ford v Ferrari.’ - “I think the message is this kind of magic still works,” said Bruce Nash... “For all the talk about the popularity of streaming services and all the talk about [theatrical] reboots, people still want to see big movie stars tell an original story on the screen.”
Netflix board member Ben Weiss writes an op-Ed against Fithians disgrace comments, which I lambasted earlier. I guess we agree.
The Disney+ launch was hacked - ZDNet reports that not only did Disney+ have lots of technical issues at launch, but a lot of accounts were hacked. Russian, and other, hackers were selling account logins, and people reported being frozen out, having their details switched, movies added, and other fun stuff. Disney prepared well by buying BamTech, we all thought, but launching an SVOD is harder than it might seem.
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Branded Content
What brands need to know about Douyin - or looking to China for hints on how to use TikTok - China Film Insider has a great little interview with Arnold Ma of China's Qumin agency about how Douyin differs from TikTok (it's more mature), and how consumers and brands are using it in China. Given that teens are leaving WeChat for Douyin in China, and China is roughly a decade ahead of us in this industry, it's a great thought piece on where things might go here. As Ma says:"We think Douyin is here to stay, and it’s growing at a ridiculous rate. And now is the time for brands to take advantage of it. Imagine if a brand built a WeChat presence six years ago or a Facebook presence 13 years ago — today the brand would have the most powerful channel for its marketing."
‘Ford v Ferrari’ is a two-hour unofficial car ad that Ford’s pretty happy about
Instagram is still the most lucrative platform for branded content deals, even without 'likes.' Here’s why, according to influencer-marketing experts.
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VR/AR/AI
Can Apple make VR mainstream? - The Week argues that Apple's approach to AR should focus less on augmentation and more on ambience: peripheral information that guides or informs.
370 lucky ‘Rick & Morty’ fans can put themselves into their favorite show. How they did it is our future in 5G - "Sliding down a giant Morty barfing slide and then riding a hot dog like a riding bull are not things every festival can offer"
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The New Dot-Com Bubble is here and it's called online advertising - Jesse Frederik and Maurits Martijn, in The Correspondent, delve into the fact that no one knows what's working in online advertising - even the measurements aren't up to snuff, and the more you dig, the worse it gets. You could say this about any advertising, but this article does a great job at looking into the biases that make us want to believe this stuff works.
Bay Area folks - check out Josh-A-Palooza - One of the first films I worked on as a junior programmer at the Atlanta Film Festival was HAIKU TUNNEL by Jake and Josh Kornbluth. Much later, just a couple of years ago, I was happy to get to work with them as producer on their film LOVE & TAXES. And now, Josh has a new theater piece, about Ben Franklin, and there is a full retrospective of Josh's work (alone and with Jake) in December, in Berkeley. Check out the details and go see this new Ben Franklin thing, as these political theater pieces tend to get popular fast.
TheatreFIRST is proud to bring back Bay Area treasure Josh Kornbluth for the first-ever JOSH-A-PALOOZA, a festival of his work in theatre and film. This December, come down to the intimate Waterfront Playhouse to see such theatrical hits as BEN FRANKLIN: UNPLUGGED, LOVE & TAXES, and CITIZEN JOSH, as well as screenings of his films HAIKU TUNNEL, LOVE & TAXES, and THE MATHEMATICS OF CHANGE. Every event is followed by a Q&A with Josh, and benefits the work of TheatreFIRST. Whether you’ve enjoyed Josh’s work before or are coming in fresh, our limited seating promises a unique opportunity to get up close and personal.
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