Entertainment Branding | The Beauty Of Enchanted

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Like many couples, my wife and I have a deal; we take turns picking which movie we’re going to see next. I usually look for an action-adventure; she typically chooses a romantic comedy. As luck would have it, it was her turn over the holidays, and she dragged me along to see the new Disney film Enchanted.

I’d heard very little about it, other than the fact that it starred that McDreamy character from Grey’s Anatomy. That’s one strike against it already, I thought.

Was I wrong! It turned out that I liked everything about Enchanted, from the gently subversive, stereotype-flipping story (of course), to the clever animation (a fresh homage to the classic Disney tradition we thought was gone forever), to the witty songs (by Alan Menken of The Little Mermaid fame), to the inspired casting (including Susan Sarandon as the villainess, Amy Adams as Giselle, and, yes, Patrick Dempsey as her love interest).

What struck me immediately after the credits had rolled was what a smart branding move Disney had made. What’s been the knock on Disney’s animated films? They’re too saccharine. They’re too cookie-cutter. They’re too “The Hero’s Journey”. The Shrek series has made a killing mocking the Disney way.

Now, for the first time since Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Disney has an answer. It’s the Saturday Night Live strategy: there’s nothing more powerful than a brand having fun with its own image. Nobody can do a better imitation of you than you. A culture that can afford to laugh at itself is a very healthy culture.

Shrek’s going to have to find a new gig.

Movie Language Consulting | Hollywood Linguist

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You might think Blair Rudes has one of the few fail-safe careers in Hollywood. He trains directors and actors in lost, or dying, languages. Having worked on the sets of both The New World and the forthcoming The Ruins, he’s coached actors in Virginia Algonquian and Yukatec Maya. It would seem that when you’re translating dialogue into a moribund tongue, it’s hard to go wrong. First, there’s not much competition. Second, who’s going to fault this kind of detective work?
Believe it or not, somebody will. Rudes didn’t work on Dances with Wolves, but apparently it’s well-known how the native dialogue took a glaring wrong turn in that film.

University of Buffalo

Video Game Branding | Gaming Tournaments Reach The Next Level

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The argument probably began in the 1980s, when frequenters of gaming arcades discovered that it could be more fun to vanquish each other than computer-controlled characters. Now gaming was competitive, had it become a sport? Ever since, there have been regular attempts to declare competitive gaming the Next Big Thing – which the British public has just as regularly ignored.

The latest, however, really does look different. The mega-budget Championship Gaming Series (CGS) launches on Sky television over Christmas with prime-time coverage. It aims to embed competitive videogaming in the national consciousness – and early indications suggest that it may succeed.

Telegraph

Video Game Branding | Crash Bandicoot Gets His Mojo Back

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It’s official — ”jacking” is the next big thing for games. A common skill in the Grand Theft Auto series, it has now become a key addition to the Crash Bandicoot series with Crash of the Titans. This latest platformer from Sierra introduces a new technique where Crash dizzies an enemy, jumps on its back, possesses it with a mojo mask and makes it do his bidding for a short while.

BusinessWeek

Theme Park Branding | Harry Potter And The Matter Of Britain

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If, like me, you’re both a theme park and a Harry Potter fan, you’ve already heard that Universal Orlando, in a major coup, has won the right to recreate the Harry Potter experience. Debuting in 2009, “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” will become the new anchor of Universal’s underrated Islands of Adventure theme park. Watch out, Disney!

I think of even greater interest is the possibility of author J.K. Rowling authorizing the construction of the British version of her world. The possibilities are intriguing, to say the least.

Imagine turning one of London’s many shopping streets (like Leadenhall, which plays the part in the film version) into a genuine Diagon Alley. From that starting point think of boarding the Knight Bus for a trip to the real King’s Cross Station, where an authentic recreation of the famed Hogwarts Express is waiting on Platform 9 and 3/4. While you’re being whisked north to Yorkshire, dream of ending your journey at Hogwarts, where the Sorting Hat will assign you to your “house”, and you’ll be free to explore the many and varied “attractions” of both the castle itself and the surrounding countryside.

Could it be done poorly? Of course. But could it be done extraordinarily well? I think so, and not for an inordinate amount of money.

What would such a development mean for the British tourism industry, particularly the north of England? You only have to consider what (improbably) “The Lord of the Rings” has done for New Zealand to get excited about the prospect.

Movie Marketing | Live Free Or Die Hard

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The New York Times has a strong story on the marketing strategy behind the impending release of Live Free or Die Hard, the fourth installment in the long-running Die Hard series, starring Bruce Willis:

Tom Rothman, a co-chairman of Fox, said the studio consciously took advantage of the summertime action-movie gap in its decision to release its fourth Die Hard on June 27, five days after Universal’s Evan Almighty and a week before Transformers, from Paramount and DreamWorks. A surfeit of fantasy and computer-generated visual effects has left a hunger in the audience for real things, Mr. Rothman added. Over the next few weeks Fox will tease that perceived appetite with a marketing campaign that promotes John McClane with the words: No mask. No cape. No problem.

Of course, the studios invariably “jockey for position” with respect to release date and genre, but this campaign marks a rarer case of more directly positioning a film against its competition. Nicely done.

New York Times

Video Game Branding | Crash Of The Titans Announced

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READING, ENGLAND (18, May 2007) Sierra Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, today announced the upcoming return of everyone’s favorite iconoclastic videogame hero, Crash Bandicoot, in Crash of the Titans – the latest installment of the best-selling Crash Bandicoot videogame franchise. Crash of the Titans is scheduled for release this autumn on the Wii Console, Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system, PlayStation2 computer entertainment system, the Nintendo DS system, the PSP (PlayStation Portable) system, Game Boy Advance and on mobile phones.

In Crash of the Titans, players will fight a nefarious plot hatched by Crash’s arch nemeses Neo and Nina Cortex to mutate the local creatures into titanic abominations. Using Crash’s legendary mix of outrageous antics and daredevil bravado, players will hijack enemies in order to take control of their actions and use their fearsome powers against all manner of enemies.

“Crash Bandicoot‚ one of the most popular videogame characters of all time ‚ is back and his all-new adventure brings with it more irreverent humor, family-friendly action, a wild cast of characters and amazing new titanic enemies to discover,” said Cindy Cook, chief marketing and strategy officer for Vivendi Games. “Featuring advanced acrobatic combat and incredible co-op multiplayer, Crash of the Titans will be a fun and adventurous title for gamers of all ages.”

Key Features in Crash of the Titans include:

“Jack to Attack!” Control. Play and battle as 15 outrageous, original enemies, including titanic creatures such as Scorporilla, Ratcicle, Magamadon and Shellephant. While in control of a monster in “jacked” mode, players can throw toxic stink bombs, call lightning down from the sky, fire laser beams from their eyes or even impale enemies with a massive scorpion tail. It’s up to you to use all of the creatures’ special abilities to defeat Neo and Nina Cortex.

Hyper-Dynamic Combat. For the first time ever, Crash now has a powerful acrobatic fighting system that includes punches and flying kicks, multiple attacks and special counter moves. Players can power-up skills to unlock new attacks and blazing combos.

Exploration and Adventure. With an amazingly expanded move set, Crash can now interact with his world in totally new ways. Players will be able to wall-run, swing from ropes and flip off springboards. Crash can even toss Aku Aku on the ground to surf, skate, grind and shred.

Wacky Co-Op Action. At any point in the game, a second player can join in the fun and play as Carbon-Crash to help unleash total chaos! In a totally innovative twist to co-op action gaming, Crash can even jack Carbon-Crash (or vice versa) for some hysterical Crash-jacked mayhem.

Crash of the Titans is expected to be available this Autumn at retail stores worldwide on the Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 system, Nintendo DS, PSP system, and Game Boy Advance. Vivendi Games Mobile is also making Crash of the Titans available for mobile phones throughout Europe and North America. For more information, please visit www.crashbandicoot.com.

About Sierra Entertainment

Sierra Entertainment (www.sierra.com), a division of Vivendi Games, creates and publishes innovative, high-quality interactive entertainment for personal computers, videogame systems and handheld gaming devices. Sierra features a strong portfolio of titles based on original IP and popular licenses from industry-leading content partners. Sierra has four integrated internal studios providing top-notch creative talents, development capabilities across multiple genres and a global perspective: High Moon Studios in San Diego, CA; Massive Entertainment in Malmo, Sweden; Radical Entertainment in Vancouver, B.C.; and Swordfish Studios in Birmingham and Manchester, England.

Video Game Branding | Interactive Storytelling

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A snippet from Will Wright’s keynote at South by Southwest Interactive:

Stories are really based on lot of properties. Language, imagination, but most important for me is empathy, the ability to put ourselves in the shoes of someone else on screen. Actors are emotional avatars. We can inhabit that person and feel what they’re feeling. Film deals with this rich emotional palate because they have actors. Games tend to appeal more to the reptilian brain, the basic instincts of fear and aggression.

But games have a different emotional palate, not that they don’t have an emotional palate. Pride and accomplishment, guilt, these things are felt in games, but are not felt in watching a movie. I once beat the hell out of my creatures in Black & White, I felt terribly guilty. I’ve never felt guilty watching a film.

The circuit in our brain that makes stories appealing to us is empathy. Whereas in games it’s more agency, the fact that I’m causing what’s going on on the screen. Movie: What’s going to happen next. Games: Can I accomplish this?

I’d definitely recommend you read the whole thing if you’re interested in the future of gaming.

Theme Park Branding | Discovery Kingdom

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Now that the dust settled, I’d like to add my own thoughts to the recent debate over the rebranding of Six Flags Marine World.  I have to confess I’ve only been there once (long ago), and I frankly can’t remember much about the experience. That said (and knowing they’re in a tough spot financially), I believe they’re headed in the wrong direction.

Like many in the theme park industry, Six Flags is breaking the cardinal rule of positioning — don’t try to be all things to all people.  The newly-rebranded park already faces stiff competition from its equally generic cross-town rival, Paramount’s Great America, and it will never “own” the words “discovery” or ”kingdom” in the minds of theme park-goers (SeaWorld and Disney got there first).

What should they do now? My blue sky thinking is to divide the park in two.

The first park (which would keep the “Discovery Kingdom” name until it can be gracefully changed) should focus on the natural and prehistory of California, including the conservation of our many endangered species and habitats, a ride-based exploration of California’s wonderful Ice Age past (lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh my!), and an authentic celebration of our rich Native American heritage.

The second park should focus on being a microcosm of the Bay Area experience, including thrill rides based upon the Barbary Coast, the Gold Rush, the redwood logging empires, Chinatown, North Beach, etc.

Add a shopping street, a live entertainment venue, and potential partnerships with Lucasfilm and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and you’ve got yourself a three-day destination brand that should appeal to visitors and locals alike.

Easy to do? No.  But it’s better than being a perennial me-too, also-ran in an already-crowded industry.

Character Naming | Anthony Horowitz

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I’m a fan of British television (which may not be so surprising given my name). I’ve been using the Netflix account my son brought home (among many other things) from The Tyra Banks Show to catch up on several highly-rated series I’ve managed to miss. The latest of these is Foyle’s War, a truly excellent whodunit set in WWII England.

After I’d enjoyed the first episode (The German Wife), I decided to watch the included interview with the show’s creator, Anthony Horowitz.  I was plased to hear him spend quite a bit of time talking about two of my own specialties, title development and character naming. Here’s the relevant bits (from an unoffical transcript I found on the Web):

Interviewer: So how did you come up with the name Christopher Foyle?

Anthony Horowitz: Ahh, well, that was of course, … that was, … that’s always a difficult thing to do: to get the title right! When we pitched it, it was called “The Blitz Detective”. I’m very glad we dropped that although I knew at the time it was only a working title, ahh, … and I knew it was going to be “somebody’s War” because you talked about “How was your war?”, you know, something one says about the 40’s, you know, “How was your war?”, and it seemed to me that there was a sort of a slight double play there, that Foyle’s war, this person’s war, was his own personal war which in this case is the war against crime as much as anything else. As to the name Foyle himself: I was doing a lot of research, always buying books, and I nearly always buy my books at Foyle’s, the famous book shop in London and it sort of hit me one day that that was the perfect name for the detective as I was getting the job, there it was in front of me! If you’ve ever been to Foyle’s, what’s delightful about the shop, it is a very 1940’s shop and of course it was owned by Christina Foyle (hence Christopher) who is one feels a sort of a Lady of Letters of the 40’s particularly, and it is still. I mean, they’ve now modernized the bottom floor but if you go through and up the stairs you suddenly find yourself back in time, and so it was just a sort of an obvious thing. And then of course there is a little added extra which is that he foils crime. I mean, that’s very subconsciously…, … I mean, it’s not intentional, but that to me was quite a nice little added thing to it, and so Foyle’s War it was!

Interviewer: That’s nice! Are names very important to your characters? I mean, are they an integral part of the character when you’re working out what they’re going to be?

Anthony Horowitz: Yes, I mean, I’ve always belonged to the sort of Charles Dickens school of names which is that the first thing a character …, … first thing that you know about a character is the character’s name. And therefore, giving the character a certain sort of name will tell you something about that character. And you have to be careful about what not to go into like a Dickensian sort of Wackford Squizz (?) type names which wouldn’t work in a modern drama. But even so, yes, names are very important, and in this one, you know, for Christian names obviously one is using a lot of 1940’s names. You’re into sort of, … into sort of Howards and Alans and Stanleys and Arthurs. Those sort of names which are sort of redolent for 1940 immediately. And then you know, I … , …for the curator, … the art curator who was in there, I always quite liked, in the fourth episode, “Austin Carmichael”. Somehow you just know that a guy called Austin Carmichael is going to be a creepy antique dealer! And it’s rather nice that the actor, Anton Lesser doesn’t actually play it too Austin Carmichael-ish, you know? He pulls back and makes the guy real.

You know, Guy Spencer, in the second episode, I think that’s a good name for a fascist character. I don’t quite know why …, …Guy is …, … Guy and Spencer are so English, both of them. And yet somehow both together …! I just know I’m not going to like this guy. So, yes, names are important and I spent a lot of time thinking about them.

When I have a chance, I’ll share my own thoughts on the subject.