Hidden Messages, The Creative Process & Branded Content was the focus of yesterday's roller coaster of a screening salon. Thank you so SO much to Featured Guest Jill Demby Guest for joining us and sharing what you conceived and produced for National Treasure and The West Wing. Everyone loved getting a closer look at this somewhat concealed aspect of film and television as well as hearing about your current projects... including your upcoming feature length documentary, And Now Love.
The theme of this series is The Power of Expression. The power of the media is huge and we are the recipients of its messages. With onset of the internet and social media, it has as become "the dog" and definitely not "the tail".
As the media landscape gets more and more sophisticated, so does brand integration. There's no doubt about it that branded content is here to stay. These days, the "brand" can be a product as well as a candidate, a movement or a cause or almost anything else..
From the comments during the salon, in the chat and since then, Jill's branded content did to us exactly what it was intended to do. Both shorts thoroughly entertained us and had us not only wanting to watch or rewatch National Treasure and The West Wing, but also to spread the word. This kind of audience reaction is music to the ears of film distributors and other distribution platforms.
For those that weren't able to be with us, here are some of the brand-related bits that came up in our group discussion and in breakout rooms.
In the late 70's and early 80s, there were unintended situations where products ended up becoming a trend, like the iconic Perrier bottle with a daisy on a bistro table.
Then came much more intentional efforts, with paid product insertions like James Bond's car of choice and Julia Roberts' Runaway Bride FedEx truck/getaway vehicle.
With DVDs and home film viewing, came branded content in the form of those great accompanying shorts like the one on Ciphers, Codebreakers and Codemakers for National Treasure and Countdown to West Wing: The Debate, for The West Wing.
In recent years the brand has assumed a principal role in film and television... the Barbie doll in Toy Story, the trolls in Dreamworks' Trolls films... and the entire frickin' cast of The Lego Movie!
On the music scene, a new Honda product was featured the indie band OK GO's music video and we continue to see more brands aligning with musicians and bands.
Here's the link to the OK GO / Honda video... and 3 other examples, thanks to Airbnb, Orange is the New Black and a "magazine" whose circulation has almost matched VOGUE when it was written.
Ron Gladis, who was with us last night, will be joined by his son, Coleman Gladis, a film & television director & producer. We will see a rough cut excerpt of MARIAH, the story of Mariah Gladis, a 33-year survivor of Lou Gehrig’s Disease and world renowned psychotherapist. You'll see more about all the Featured Guests for this series on the Meet Our Featured Guests page of this site.
* Here's the direct link to book for next week and for the closing salon on March 16th.
Here's to connecting with you here and at our upcoming screening salons,
Christine