And if I tell you that a movie about a book that tells about a movie is going to be shot? It seems a Branduardi’s merry-go-round while it’s the new movie with Matthew Perry, Vincent D’Onofrio, Hugh Dancy, Toby Jones, and Elias Koteas. Down and Dirty Pictures is a great book by Peter Biskind (the same who wrote Easy Rider), and relates that magical period of the American independent cinema between ‘80s and ‘90s, when some great cult directors were discovered such as Steven Sodenbergh, Quentin Tarantino and lots of others. Much of the book and of the movie gets around the Sundance Film Festival by Robert Redford, the first window of the language innovators, such as the brothers Winstein, founders of “Miramax“, that is almost going to close as the negotiations with the Walt Disney for its salvation are not going so well. The movie is produced by Celsius, home English Studio from London specialised in producing and distributing indipendent movies; behind the cameras there will be Kenneth Bowser (the same of Easy Rider and offical voice of Sex & Drugs & Rock’n Roll Generation). The screenplay is by the same Biskind, who has wished to give the story a satirical cut with crazy meteors and misfit genius who go around press conferences, prizes, screenplays, dialogues and other.

It is one of those English word with lots of meanings. For the baseball fans, for example, it represents a bastard pitching loosing rapidity, making the bat of the pinch hitter rotate uselessly. The sport sprinters know it means to change march but more in general it is related to any important change in life. With respect to the Comedy produced by Universal Pictures, the changing is about the body. Two friends decide to exchange their bodies and live the experiences of the other. The point is that they are very different, the first is a very affectionate father, the other is an incredible idler.

The story has been scripted by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, that have already worked together in Little Chicken, The Hangover and Four Crhistmases. The main actors will be Ryan Reinolds (+160% of popularity this week in StarMeter opinion) and Jason Bateman (+32% StarMeter). The shootings will begin in October and the set will be Atlanta, Georgia.

The possibilities of placement are so many and different that the chances of success for such an original, nice product are really great. As this is one of those cases in which there is still time to plan well the things, let’s think about it seriously.

Despite Lollapaloosa being the oldest and most popular rock festival in the world, for sure it is the most dynamic. A few days ago the news about an agreement with GOTV for the distribution of the event even through its syindicate. Go Tv is an intelligent producer of media contents dedicated to electronics (mobiles, iPad, etc), and despite being the most qualified in its sector, for me it represents the future of the entertainment. However the agreement with Lollapaloosa comprehends three options. The first, called “Branded Video Content”, allows the sponsorship of 15 videos by Lollapaloosa in which it is possible to integrate the istitutional video of the brand sponsor. The second option is the “Sponsored Channel Takeover” where it is possible to create a channel dedicated to the sponsor through which distribute 35 videos of the event. The third chance is “Silver Package”, it allows a great visibility “on stage” and more then 50 videos distributed with the brand integration of the sponsor.

If you allow, I would suggest you to take your time to study the website and the GO TV proposal. I speak withou any personal interest (unfortunately!)

Each director will have two main actors (even not German), thus one of the claims is “Ten Directors, Twenty Stars”. Except the curious fact that people have already begun to talk about nominations during a few festivals (maybe just a trustworthy gesture), the main fact is the presence of the sponsors of the project. Brand leaders such as BMW, Hugo Boss, Universal Pictures, Air Berlin, the review Bild and many others. It is obvious that some of them will be used even for product placement, besides being present in the website. However there are still chances to take part in the project. Even if the times are close, the visibility of this movie is promising and it seems to become a cult.

For those interested in keeping updated about the entertainment productions in Hollywood with relation to product placement, Opptrak is something not to lose. Realised by Mark, a friend and colleague from Vancouver, based ont the same reasons as those that have pushed us to realise the Observatory about Product Placement. For sure Opptrak is much more commercial, though in a positive sense; it’s a service to the Companies to help to estimate any new production. It is possible to select them on the base of different principles, buy the details and the addresses. At last any good manager could become manager of himself in relation to brand integration. Watching the video (in English) you well understand its functioning and great potentialities. The observatory instead takes care of European productions (at the beginning Italian) from a commercial, technical (as service to the Companies as well to the Studios) and scientific point of view.

Supervising the dynamics of product placement is in fact the main aim of the Observatory that quarterly produces and publishes investigations about. To open the Observatory an investigation about placement during the FIFA World Cup, we have already dedicated a post before with quite a good success from the national press. Mark with his Opptrak has started a few months before us and is quite proud of it. We are talking about a cooperation and believe we can agree upon as the affinity between the two project is really great.

During the next fall-winter TV season the Americans will watch the first season of “Chase”, the story of a marshall from Texas, specialized in chasing fugitives escaped from prison. Besides the plot (which seems to be interesting), there are other elements that make us understand the quality of the project. For example the producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, the man who more than others has realised one success after the other, such as the “CSI” (Las Vegas, New York, Miami), “Cold Case”, “without any trace” and many others. Another aspect is the distribution. For the first time with this project, Bruckheimer has been able to sell his product to NBC. A logical choice after so many successful serials for just one channel as CBS (“Dark Blue” and “The Whole Truth” for example). Meaningful for the Americans is even the title of the serial: Richard Chase infact was known as “the vampire from Sacramento”, a horrible serial killer that in few months killed 6 persons, drinking their blood and eating their bodies. Thankfully now there will be Jesse Metcalf, the main character, to free us from such concerns.

Do you know that feeling to run away, to go and run somewhere ? Well, the German people have a particular word to express this feeling: “wanderlust”. The Americans, like us, on the contrary have no word like this. But while we have to make quite a panegiric to convey this feeling they have adopted this word… without any effort to invent a new one. Now in Hollywood it has become a comedy about a couple who tries to run away from modern life after their dreams and economic finances have fallen through. Their choice will be quite strange as they will try to enter a hippy community. The main actors are Jennifer Aniston (a sort of icon of brilliant comedies) and Paul Rudd that in 2011 will be out with another comedy (“My Idiot Brother” of which we will talk about in another post). David Wain is the director as well as the playwriter, while the distribution is assigned to the Major Universal Pictures. The shootings will begin in September, probably in Atlanta,Georgia, Mr Coca Cola’s house.

Let’s talk again about next TV season in the States to see what’s news. Let’s start from the first season of Mr Sunshine, with the coming back of Matthew Perry. Even if he has worked a lot after “Friends” (even as producer and playwright), it is quite sure that the sit-com genre is more suitable to the unforgettable Chandler. In the new project, produced by the trustful Greenlighted, he is quite a normal 40-years businessman at the San Diego Stadium that begins to think about his life. At his side the nice and beautiful Andrea Anders (Better of Ted, The Class, Joey…), the quite famous Allison Janney (154 episodes in The West Wing) and Nate Torrence (a young character actor). As other new serials, the mood of this production is light but no trivial, as it proposes a sort of revisitation os some life values, with nice and light spots. The set is New York and the shooting will begin in 3 weeks. You have really a few time.

The great outing of Sex and the City girls is the right occasion to talk about Celebrity Seeding. Let’s explain it’s something between PR ad product placement, with the aim to give the products freely to the Stars of the Show Biz and more in general to the V.I.P. (normally fashion clothes and accessories, but even design products, technological gadgets, furniture, etc.), with the hope they can use them, taken pictures of, noted on the press and obtain visibility. The good sense would like each garment and object to be selected by these people with great attention. Such a category has so much money and such acquaintances to obtain the best of the best. And it’s exactly this logical supposition that is at the base of the efficacy of the Celebrity Seedings. But the truth is different: all the people I know accept with pleasure to have and use different kinds of products free. It will be not very nice to reveal the names but I have personally see people predate some departments stores. Not to talk about those who ask their agent to call the producer or some common friends to obtail products free. In a few cases the free supply is sufficient to obtain the Seedings. In other cases it is asked even a good mediatic proposal. The most frequent example is about the design objects or white goods that become the main characters within a photo session distributed to the most important furniture reviews, very happy to publish articles about famous people and their houses. And at that point the circle gets close with the perfect logic of the win-win. The Star gets the products free, the Producing House obtains good references and visibility on important newspapers with no costs and the review gets a free interesting article. But can it be possible that the Hollywood millionaires can loose their time trying to get free the clothes and accessories even from “Sex and the City II”, as the four main characters of the movie itself are revealing just these days on channel E!. The answer to such a question is unknown, even for a rational person like me, but as it works, and works well… it doesn’t matter.

The product placement as artistic or technical choice is for sure the best, being more credible, effective and often quite unexpensive. The World Cup players in South Africa for example are good testimonials for clothing and sports accessories. Sometimes they have got an agreement and are well paid, sometimes no. Not all the players get money for wearing shoes, legwarmers, gloves, hats, etc. The Companies interested by such an important event have been preparing for long time. Lots of new models have been presented on the market just at the beginning of the World Cup, and they are so visible and evident thanks to strong colors and special shapes, such as orange and gold, even for the soles and the studs, or brilliant yellow with huge brands on it. More or less the same happens with the T-shirts, where the “three stripes” of a famous German brand are present on the shoulders of almost half of the teams present. The lesson we can read is easy. To exploit such a visible and important event, it is necessary to plan in advance the placement, with well-known products, with great esthetical and/or technical content, so to make them essential for the players. Among the players who would not get the last technological shoes, or among the music stars the new guitar with vocal control pick up for his/her performance at the MTV Music Awards?

Just two months to the shooting of “This Means War”, a movie quite unconventional. It is a sort of pink comedy about two great friends who get in love with the same woman…and until here is fine. But the duel between them will become so huge to completely destroy the whole New York City. Interesting the actors, the wonderful Reese Witherspoon and the young but well-appreciated Chris Pine. Be careful that the same director, Mc.G, will create incredible situations. He is already famous for “Charlie’s Angels” the movie, the soundtrack of “The Coyote Ugly Girls”, producer of “The O.C.” and lots of nice videoclips, documentaries and commercials (Coca Cola and GAO for ex.) The production is signed by Will Smith and James Lassiter. The products fit for the product placement or brand integration are those about a comedy, clothing and accessories, cars and motorcycles, furniture, design, technology. This is one of the most interesting chance of the next season for what concerns brilliant comedies.

At last I have got the screenplay of “Horrible Bosses” by Michael Markowitz and the adaptation of Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley. A movie where very good actors will perform such as Jason Bateman, Jamie Foxx, Colin Farrell, Charlie Day and Jennifer Aniston. However it is not the plot, the director or the actors that get the interest of the public; the question is which is the end of the story ?.The plot infact is about three friends who try to kill their bosses being horrible people. Now taking in mind that the same production studio (New Line Cinema) considers this movie as a comedy, the end should be at least predictable. Someone thinks it is not and I cannot tell anything more. For sure this movie has very little of a comedy. I am quite certain that the plot will not change, in Italy it will be for over-14-year-olds only or probably for over 18-year-olds. The very outspoken dialogues will give problems to censureship. But a movie with such a strange though interesting formula is really enriched by such black, red and other colored shades. This movie, already in shooting in Los Angeles since June the 6^th , will provoke lots of rumours. And at this point the end is no more so important as it will be the first of a new kind of movie. And those who want a comedy, a comedy will watch.

Lots of stories go around in the web about Alec Brownstein and many are untrue. But he is real. He has an interesting web site and his ideas, books and movies are really new. One of the best story about such a 30-year-old American copywriter relates about the way he obtained his first job in a big ads Company. With few money he bought a little space on google, pointing his messages on the first five most importat American creatives. Any time one of these wanted to know how it went his web site or if there was something new about him, at once a pop up with this writing appeared:

“Hi,.. (name and surname of the creative) questions google about oneself is really funny, isn’t it ? Well to employ me will be even much better”. With such a genial trick Alec obtained four interviews on five. From them two final job proposals. At last he was employed by the famous Young & Rubicam. It doesn’t matter if this story is true or not… for sure both the marketing and placement borders have lots to learn from such genial heads like Alec Browstein.