The film Audition from 2015 was one of the most interesting experiments ever attempted in Hollywood. Not a film about product placement in a film but rather about a film as a product placed in someone else’s film.
New films might be somewhat act like the great casino in Audition that realizes it can become the protagonist in a film rather than have just one of them. The casino put down a fortune for the short commercial on their new casino. Money seemed no object in this area of China. A prototype for a new type of film today? In our late stage of capitalism?
Telling the stories of corporations and brands using the latest dramatic, storytelling techniques from filmmakers, novelists and storytellers. Telling them in new ways. Using all the latest dramatic methods to tell these stories about founders and brands. It’s stories we don’t often hear.
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The extended commercial Audition was made for the opening of a huge Chinese casino. Starring Robert DeNiro, Matt Damon, Martin Scores and Brad Pitt. All the greatest people in the entertainment industry at the time. They come together for a fourteen-minute film with credits that scroll far into these fourteen minutes.
Made at a cost of $70 with salaries to each four in the film $13 million for approximately two days work. I understand by reading up on things that The Audition did OK and read reviews of many on the YouTube link where all can watch.
The Audition probably stands as the most expensive short film ever made to advertise a product or brand. Here the new start-up brand of a huge Chinese casino. One of the greatest casinos in the world.
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It pulls together four of the biggest names in entertainment for a short fourteen-minute movie.
Some critics swooned a little too much over this combination. Few saw it as I did as a huge waste of money by the casino. I probably would have explored a % of profits from the new casino as payment. A new roll for Hollywood films perhaps was stated somewhat subliminally in The Audition. At least this is the idea that I got out of this most expensive 14-minute film probably in history. With around $52 million for actors’ salaries of the $70 million?
One can read Wikipedia and other sources in the industry about the success or failure of this large media spend of a new Chinese casino.
For me, after watching it a few times, it seemed obvious that a huge message was sent with The Audition by the four actors/directors in it. Four of the top leading men in Hollywood. All together in one short film. Almost unheard of. In an extended ad for the new start-up Chinese casino. I thought it was OK but that I could have done so much better. For far less money. Using unknown actors like the old Twilight Zone series. Using up and coming ones.
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Anyway, I come away after watching this must-see film to understand this new form of marketing – film companies that consider companies and organizations are their target markets rather than customer, consumers who sit in the theater seats or watch their films as a single person rather than a corporation. All of the other movie companies are focused on the puzzle of demographic segments and a lot of other advertising words I used to know.
What about the story creation part of the entertainment industry. Where normal film companies start by asking questions of their “man/woman of the street” questions about their preferences for a type of film. On the other hand, this new type of entertainment company is focused on asking questions of CEOs as their “man/woman in the board rooms” of leading companies and positions of power.
Unlike traditional studios who continually chase their target market in general consumers. The new target market for smart new media companies will not be the millions of consumers out there. Rather, it will be a select group of CEOs of leading corporations. Key marketing objective is to pitch and write a story that makes the corporation the Hero/Heroine in the world. The CEO or Founder has always seen his/her idea as a good idea for the local community. For all of humanity most would tell you.
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With the way things in the world are today, I would not be all that surprised that many companies and entrepreneurs out there would like to tell their story through a leading Hollywood studio with leading actors. Tell their story to perhaps just one CEO. Rather than trying to make half a billion a year in sales to ticket buyers out there. Unlike The Audition, refrain from using the greatest actors in the world today in the short film.
But overall, I don’t feel it successfully promoted the casino for the $70 million they reputedly put into the project.
Landed them as a client in having a commercial in short video form (like The Audition). This is perhaps what innovative young film makers need to seek out like a Conradian character. A totally different path – market – from all the rest out there. A few companies and people rather than worlds of conflicting demographics.
The great change of Hollywood wising up and making more films like The Audition. It wasn’t the greatest film in the world and I’m not sure how well it did from an advertising, marketing, sales point of view. How would a film or series about a corporate brand (much like the streamer Succession).
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The attempt to make more advertising films in Hollywood is sure to stir the ire of New York City’s Madison Avenue. It’s really going to make them angry in no uncertain terms. It will be a very important battle and might wage – somewhat unseen – behind public events these next few years.
Behind this, is an interesting shift in American distraction power. The unseen battle for distraction of Americans has always been between the Entertainment industry in Hollywood and the Advertising industry in of Madison Avenue.
Hollywood films directed at promoting companies and brands and products – like The Audition did for the casino – certainly offer direct confrontation with the advertising industry of Madison Avenue. Hollywood is entertainment.
Stay away from the advertising industry. It is a major message of the various advertising associations. Not advertising. Leave advertising to Madison Avenue is the subliminal message in all of this to me.
Anyway, two of our restaurant reviews below. Written around the mood and character of two restaurants. One in Sonoma County and one in Napa.
Company movies?