Media Mania Manipulations

See, this is just what I was talking about in my last blog! There's an article today that I read on reality tv and reality programming, which makes up 20% of the line-up now. Unbelievable! Evidently, all the top 5 shows, according to Nielson's are reality shows. I'm shocked/unshocked simultaneously. But here's the kicker...

This is an exact excerpt from the article by Kedon Willis:

Ad execs are the new producers

Product placement is the big thing in TV advertising, and reality shows are the main vehicle. Leading the way is 'American Idol', whose sponsors spend millions to sew their products into the show -- which is why, for instance, the Coca-Cola brand on the cups at the judges' table faces the camera. "Reality TV is rife with it," says Mark Andrejevic, author of 'Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched.' It's "selling you something without trying, and it works." Advertisers spent $1.5 billion on product placement in 2006, according to PQ Media, a 58% increase from 2005. And double-digit growth is projected over the next five years.

Some advertisers even want to design whole shows around their products. Last fall, for example, MTV premiered 'The Gamekillers,' whose concept was developed by Bartle Bogle Hagarty, the agency that pushes Axe deodorant for Unilever PLC. The basis of the show was to see if male contestants could "keep their cool" under pressure -- while wearing Axe. Don't be surprised if you start seeing more of these ad-minded concepts, says Andrejevic. "This may be the direction marketing starts going."

If it weren't such a suck-ass idea, I probably wouldn't mind.
Regardless, Beware media manipulation... it's more insidious than we know.

And just to clarify, Blog4Reel will never participate in shady practices like what's going on now.. editing disparate clips together to make it seem like something it's not, a technique commonly used in reality tv called "Franken-biting". Nor will we mis-represent ourselves. The scripts we will be writing will be BASED on winning blogs. Obviously just like any movie based on a true story, some things will be changed to protect identities and create the flow of the story. However, I can't promise I won't allow select product placements for personal favorites like Abba Zaba and Sweetleaf Tea. You'll thank me, later! :)

Give me good movies or Give me DEATH!

I was just thinking tonight how film used to really be more of an art form. I don't think that can be said so much anymore. I was flipping channels and paused on a reality show called Life of Ryan... the whole segment I watched was about this 17 year old kid, a professional skater, who already has several businesses in his name but he doesn't know what he's doing, everyone else is doing it for him. I was sitting there watching this kid who doesn't even have an ounce of business sense get richer and richer simply because people like me are pausing to watch this crap. It's kind of crazy. I mean back when I was little - growing up on films like Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind - films seemed so much more monumental - they inspired and stretched the mind and the heart. Nowadays, all films seem to do is deflate our wallets. Every film I've seen this past year has been a disappointment - some more than others. Cloverfield was a wretched disappointment - no suspense, boring character development. It's not even worth writing to complain about... so I'll stop. The only exception I'd have to say was Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth", which was stunning and magical, heart wrenching and thought-provoking. Guillermo is a true artist. I highly recommend watching the extras on the dvd. Even his color palette for the film had a purpose; nothing he did was random. How many of today's writers/directors/producers can say that?
It reminded me why this project - blog4reel - is so important to me. Because, gd!, I miss good stories! I want my movies back! I also briefly watched a few snippets of the SAG Awards and saw that Javier Bardem won for No Country For Old Men, which I feel he rightly deserved. His character was fascinating and the movie is worth watching solely for him; however, I still find there's a lack of purpose or heart even in our finest films these days. I'm not saying I want morality or prepackaged life lessons shoved down my throat but it'd be nice to leave the theater with a sense of having just witnessed something unique, something beautiful, something that made me want to go home and write or debate as opposed to feeling the urge to whack myself over the head until I forget what I saw or finally pass out. I'm just saying, it'd be nice.

Anyway, Blog4Reel should be up and running any day now! Thanks to the Labkids, who are helping us with the marketing, for all your amazingness.

Blog4Reel PROMO

Well, technically there's a few other little things I'm still messing around with but the promo (to your left) is mostly done. I'm pretty happy with it. What do you think? Also, if you have a couple minutes check out the audio that we took of my friend, Frank Rodriguez, for the promo. I loved it so much I had to share! He cracks my shiz up. ;)

Excitement Builds

Boring title but I have a bunch to do today so thought I wouldn't waste time trying to come up with an interesting title. sorry.

Good news is Tony, the web designer, thinks the website will be ready within a week. So the game plan right now is to 'soft launch' asap and officially launch approximately a month from that time. Whoohoo! I am beyond thrilled.

I've been working on a little blog4reel promo that we're intending to use, like on our myspace page, etc. It's almost done although I've been having some 'issues' with the stupid audio. I'm really just learning to use AVID so I hope those who watch the promo will not be too judgmental, as I am an avid baby. If anyone knows how to fade audio on avid, PLEASE let me know. :)

So besides that there's little excitement in this new year so far.. but I feel like we're gaining momentum.

I'll leave you with a quote I ran across today that I've saved and like very much.

"Love is more complicated than our culture categorizes it; Everybody is a universe."
– Ang Lee

Cofa-La in the HAUS

This is the soon-to-be-famous artist, Eric Fonseca, who screened his stop-animation "Funeral March for a Marionette" that evening as well.

By the way, Eric also designed the logo for Blog4Reel. What do you think?

Oh, FYI - Eric is the one on the right. Well to be accurate the one on the left is an Eric also... but alas, not a Fonseca.

TOE Still

This pic includes Susan, Joe, Tom and Dennis. Some of my favorite peeps in the World!

La Cast - TOE Screening

I know I should have added this months ago with the others but I was having trouble with "resizing." So here we go. This one is most of the cast who made it to the screening. Thanks guys!