I saw Erik Lokkesmoe of Different Drummer at a screening of “Last Days in the Desert,” a moving, gorgeously photographed film with Ewan McGregeor as Jesus. I have been very impressed with his firm’s commitment to quality, inspiring media so I asked him to tell me more about his company and his projects. Here’s what he had to say:
There are three challenges for movie marketing today:
1. The inability to prove that activity leads to sales
2. The growing inefficiency and ineffectiveness of traditional advertising and marketing tactics.
3. The most cluttered marketplace in history.
All of this is causing great confusion and chaos within the industry. Most marketing, from our view, is like a car alarm in a mall parking lot; people hear the noise but ignore it.
Marketing used to be about awareness. But audiences today are not lacking awareness. That is not a motivating factor. There has to be more. What will lead people to action? We’ve always believed that there is a cycle of engagement that begins with personalizing the content, then creates meaningful participation for the audience — more than just being asked to buy a ticket. That is not enough anymore. Fans want to be part of the process.
Copyright Different Drummer 20018
That is one of the key distinctions of Different Drummer. Everything we do is about culminating into a single moment — its more about the mobilizing of people than marketing to people. If audiences don’t tune in or show up at the right moment, everything was a waste of time and resources. It’s the election day model. In political campaigns, as you know, its all about getting millions of people to do that one thing at the right time: vote. In entertainment, it’s the same thing: getting millions of people to do that one at the right time: watch on a screen.
This is especially true when it comes to theatrical. We all are seeing the end of the “middle-class” movie — it’s big or small now. Theatrical has to be about appealing to fans, creating a shared experience in theaters with like-minded people. Think Star Wars on one end of the spectrum and The Great Alone on the other, a small but incredible documentary about the Iditarod Race. Both have fans. Both want to be in the theater together. The films that are in no-mans-land will not work. Those films that don’t have a particular fan base. Sadly, as the world becomes more divided and insecure, people don’t want to be in places with strangers. The theater now is a rally. That is one reason we created TheatriCast — to eventize content in theater for specific fanbases.
So on one hand, Different Drummer is known for a type of marketing and eventizing. On the other hand, we are known for the type of content we work on. Our “brand” means something to the “middle-space audience” — defined as a smart, soulful audience that wants more than just entertainment. They are aspirational in their choices. They believe art creates margins for people to ask big questions and create new conversations. They want to lean forward in their seats, and leave the screen to participate with others around something beyond the screen. We promoted The Tree of Life, Calvary, To the Wonder, Selma, National Geographic Television’s The Story of God, Chasing Ice, Noble, and now are moving into executive producing projects like Last Days In The Desert. There is an audience that exists between “mass and crass” and “teach and preach” — and we serve them better than anyone because that is who we are. We often say we are the Christians Who Drink Beer. That means we see story differently. We want the audience to be haunted by amazing acting, cinematography, storylines, and experiences. If what we do helps films and shows become profitable and popular, then more will be made.
For me, after my time at Walden Media, Different Drummer was the perfect name for what I hoped to build — the famous Thoreau line from his book Walden Pond that describes an audience that is emerging quickly. Smart, globally minded, aspirational, looking for content that is honest, gritty, true to what is not what should be. In the “faith” category, we are seeing a massive film fatigue happening because of the sheer number of projects coming at the target audience. But no one is talking to the “middle space audience” — those who would never go to something like “God’s Not Dead,” as it is a violation of everything they stand for. They are deeply spiritual, connected to the traditions of faith, but are not found in the Christian nonsense. They read Anne Lamott, listen to KCRW, have Alt-J on their playlist, shop on Etsy, and binge watch Breaking Bad. This is where things are headed, and we are the only ones that I know of spending our resources and time with this growing audience.
Conversion: Films/TV designed to reach those OUTSIDE of the faith. It’s a tool. A strategy that uses content for some non-monetary purpose.
Confirmation: Films/TV designed to show the strength/size of the audience. Buying a ticket is sending a message. It’s a posture of fear and retreat, and the audience wants to use the content and the release as a reaffirmation of its power.
Commercialization: Films/TV created by networks and studios designed to secure the butts and eyeballs of the faith audience. Historically, these can prove successful but more likely the project is so large that it creates controversy that satisfies no one.
Causation: Films/TV creating content that has wide aspirations appeal, but draws upon the faith/belief of the main character. These capture a wider aspirational and inspirational audience while allowing the core faith audience to participate in an appropriate way.
Conversation: Films/TV designed to create large margins for smart, soulful audiences that want more than just mere entertainment. The goal is conversation, awards, an audience that is unlikely to watch “teach and preach” content or “mass and crass” entertainment.
Our focus is on the last two, if you had to place us in a category. Causation from belief and conversation around belief. And those will grow over the coming years. Commercialization of belief is not worth the squeeze for a studio. And the conversion and confirmation films (also knows as bumper-sticker content) are going to fade in significance and revenue.
What most people don’t understand is that the audiences for films in the confirmation and conversion category want these “watershed” moments that provide big victories. We all like winning — and so elections, movie releases, and tv ratings become one way to show others that you are winning. Your movie or candidate won! But the future will be what Fox Searchlight and Participant have done so well — the “droplet” strategy. Just a steady drip … drip … drip of creating content that has found an audience, built a trusted brand, and will be a reliable model for the future. Our entire model is about droplets … slow and steady wins the race. As the old proverb says, steady plodding brings wealth — hasty speculation brings ruin.
Of course Audrey Hepburn’s Ascot dress is on the list.
But I had forgotten all about Christina Ricci’s black and white striped dress in “Sleepy Hollow” (it reminded me of Beetlejuice’s outfit in another Tim Burton film). And I’d never seen this one, from the 1997 “Anna Karenina.”
Copyright Warner Brothers 2016
I love what Kendra wrote:
first, you’ve got this AMAZING bodice. Not only do we have stripes, but the combination of narrow and wide stripe makes things more sophisticated than if the two stripes were of equivalent widths. Next, you’ve got that stripe placed in about a million amazing directions: diagonal on the bodice and sleeves, horizontal on the cuffs, and those chevrons in back! I could probably come up with that on my own, but the solid white waistcoat, solid black lapels, and the solid black turnbacks on the cuffs and skirting-in-back? G.E.N.I.U.S.
Taking the genius to astronomical levels is the skirt. I could imagine pairing this with a skirt in the same stripe. I could also see putting it with a skirt in a solid white or black in a similar weight fabric. But the genius (sorry, I can’t stop!) of the sheer ruffled skirt, with all those teeny tiny black edgings? And the black sash tying the train back? That clunk you heard is every right-thinking person in the world falling over dead from fabulosity.
Interview: Marc Abraham, Director of “I Saw the Light”
Posted on April 6, 2016 at 3:30 pm
Marc Abraham wrote and directed “I Saw the Light,” the Hank Williams story starring Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olson. Williams died at age 29 after years of poor health and substance abuse. In an interview, Abraham talked about the moments that meant the most to Williams and what he liked best about working with Hiddleston.
What were Hank Williams’ happiest moments?
Well it’s hard to know about people. It’s impossible to imagine that he wasn’t happy some of the time. He had the birth of a son, he loved his kid, he really loved Bocephus. He used to talk about him on the radio, used to take him inappropriately huge teddy bears from very, very early age. I think he suffered from feeling bad that his father had not around, who wouldn’t. I think he took it but probably he missed out having a dad who wasn’t present and he was determined to make sure that he was present and of course that the irony, the irony of his life, the irony of the title, the irony of the film is that, as hard as he tried he wasn’t there and he died when his son was just three years old.Copyright Sony Pictures Classics 2016
I think he loved his mother but also as he got older there was a sense of rebellion against his mom. There is no question that he and Audrey had a real passion for each other and passion often has happiness involved in it but it also has some pain. He was completely besotted by Billie Jean — he married a 19-year-old woman two months before he died. I think he was happy when he got on the Opry, I think when he saw what was asked of them once he’s was on the Opry and how much work was involved on a continuing basis and he was very much a guy who didn’t like authority, didn’t like being pushed around. So I think once he started thinking he was asked to be an organ-grinder’s monkey a little bit his instincts were like, ‘I’d rather just do it my way.’ He was one of those guys. When you’ve grown up without a father and been playing and performing since he was 13 years old and you know that you’ve got something to say, you can get pretty edgy.
On the EKG graph of his life, not his actual physical EKG, it was was peaks and valleys, peaks and valleys, peaks and valleys. He was a guy didn’t take much to get drunk and then couldn’t stop. He allowed himself to be treated by a doctor who had a degree from a gas station and gave him chloral hydrate. I think that he had real moments of high and he had real moments of low and those ups and downs took their toll on him physically and emotionally and on those around him. Ultimately he caved in, it all caved in on him.
What kind of research did you do on Hank? Who did you talk to?
The thing is, if you’re doing something about a real person and you’re talking to the people in their lives it can be an impediment as much as it can be an asset.
They all kind of have an agenda and also are protective and also everybody has a different viewpoint because if you’re standing on the side of the room somebody looks this way, they are standing on that side of the room they look a different way, every room has different camera angles. What was lovely was that Hank’s daughter who was born four days after he passed away, Jet Williams talked to us. She didn’t even know for 20 or so years of her life. She was passed around from family to family from foster home to foster home. So you can imagine when she finds out she’s Hanks Williams’ daughter, once she did she was passionate about understanding her father as one certainly would be and she has devoted a lot of time to learning about him. She’s a performer in her own right and she had a lot of material. She has one of my favorite photographs of Hank which is something we tried to show in the movie. When he’s on stage we showed him in all the garb that we are used to seeing him in, the suits, the beautiful hats but when Hank wasn’t doing that he could look like a hipster from right out of Brooklyn today, wearing a fedora. And when he walked right out of the door he was really cool. She had a great picture of him at the Alamo with these really great sunglasses on and he literally looked like somebody from right now and that was something we really pushed against. We didn’t really want people to think these are people off of “Hee-Haw.” Holly showed us a sort of soulfulness and told us about some of the relationships, being Junior’s daughter and a really fine musician in her own right. but in the end even though there is very little footage of Hank, there is a lot written about Hank.
Chet Flippo, wrote a really interesting fun book but it was a lot about things that there would be no way to be able to verify. Collin Escott’s book was a very heavily researched piece of material and because he wrote the book first in 1992, a lot of guys who knew Hank were still alive. So he had a lot of interviews with people that I wasn’t even able to reach, very thoroughly documented. And so there’s a lot of interviews and there’s the documentary that Morgan Neville did. And those interviews with musicians. I was able to put together a picture of the man. And people are always protecting someone that has had a great influence on their lives, very protective but they were also willing to say Hank could be a son of a bitch, Hank was a tough guy, Hank was a guy that really wanted to get it right, he wanted to do it his way and if you don’t want to do it his way well you know what, he is going to find somebody who did want to do it his way.
And it’s like one of my favorite quotes of Raymond Chandler: “If you don’t leave, I’ll get somebody who will.” So we put that together and then you bring someone else into the process like Tom, who has his own level of curiosity, his own intellectual curiosity and he takes those things very seriously. You’ve been digging in the same sandbox but then also he goes, ‘Did you notice this rock?’ and I go “Oh man, I didn’t know that rock” And that’s what the real beauty of collaboration is because then we’re talking about things and I kind of read that whole thing but what he took out of it is different because what he was looking for is something I didn’t even think about like “Oh dude that’s a good idea”, yes and that’s what film is a different medium in terms of the creative expression. We do a take and he says, ‘No, no, I can do it better.’ And we do another one and it is better, and then he goes ‘No, no, I can do it better than that.’ He is as committed a performer as Hank Williams.”
Coming Out on The Simpsons — Inspired by the Writer’s Son
Posted on April 3, 2016 at 3:58 pm
Copyright Fox 2016
Tonight’s episode of “The Simpsons” was inspired by writer Rob LaZebnik’s son, who is gay. There have been indications over the years that Waylon Smithers, the loyal assistant to Homer’s boss Mr. Burns, is gay. The New York Post reports that the episode is inspired by the son of the man who wrote it.
When Waylon Smithers Jr. finally comes out Sunday night after 27 years in the closet on “The Simpsons,” he won’t be the only one celebrating.
Longtime show writer Rob LaZebnik tells The Post he penned the episode in support of his own 21-year-old son, Johnny, who is gay.
“I am a Midwestern guy, so I don’t tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve, but I thought, ‘What better way to tell my son I love him than to write a cartoon about it?’ ” says Rob.
Interview: James Younger on the New Series “The Story of God”
Posted on March 29, 2016 at 3:55 pm
James Younger is executive producer of the new Morgan Freeman series, “The Story of God,” which premieres this Sunday, April 3, 2016. It was a pleasure to speak to him about the challenges of taking on such a complicated and sensitive topic.
You really took on quite an ambitious project!
It was a monumental undertaking to try to cover all the faiths of the world and 10,000 years of history and do it all in the space of just nine months from start to finish was a pretty heavy task but we certainly did a pretty good job. I’m very happy with what we did and clearly we could have done an awful lot more.
Where did the idea begin?
Morgan Freeman and his producing partner Lori McCreary had been working together for many years with their own production company and they were in Istanbul about seven years ago at the Hagia Sophia which is a museum, one of the oldest churches in the world and then it became a mosque. And they were looking up at the decoration of the mosaic on the wall and they were like, “This is a mosque and how can there be all these images of Jesus and the virgin birth and miracles?” And there was a tour guide who told them, “Oh no at this time it was accepted and Jesus was a prophet in Islam. So it’s part of the story.” And their reaction to that was, “Well wow, we think of ourselves as fairly educated and enlightened people and we have an interest in religion and faith and the fact that we don’t know that Jesus is a prophet in Islam is shocking. Just imagine what else we don’t know.” I’d been working with them on this series called Through The Wormhole, which is a kind of a scientific exploration of the big questions of existence: why we’re here, where we came from, what happens when we die. We realized we could make a show in a similar vein: let’s ask big questions but not from the point of view of science but from the point of view of faith and see how different faiths answer those questions.
What did you do to try to reach out to the different faith communities to make sure that you were being sensitive to their concerns?
We involved different faith communities from the beginning. We had ideas historically and anthropologically and culturally on how we would try to divide up this series but we had advisors from all the major faiths with us the whole time in the process. So when we would write a script for treatment or shooting plan we made sure we got feedback and if we made a mistake like, “Oh no this is not really how Islam sees the apocalypse” or “This isn’t how Buddhism understands enlightenment,” we would make sure to correct that. And we involved various faiths along the whole process so that they would see rough cuts and give notes so that’s one aspect.
Then the other aspect is we never tried to pit faith and religion against one another like, “Oh, this is how this faith answers life after death, and this is how this does it, which one is the better answer? Which one is more correct?” We never do that. We are just asking questions and showing people the differences between religious viewpoints but at the same time showing people the similarities between them.
What did you find to be the sort of the universal ideas and what were the ones where there was the most disparity?
Certainly there’s a lot of similarities in this idea of the afterlife. That somehow what happens to us after death is important as it relates to life, people who are living now. I would say you look at the ancient Egyptians, you look Aztecs, they all believed that there’s some power that comes from the dead. And when people die there is something left over, like the idea of the soul or something which is connected to something eternal, divine. That’s kind of a universal aspect. So that was really unifying, the idea that there’s something more to life that’s just physical form of life.
In what way are they the most different? I would say probably the most different is and this is not really different between all religions but between some is that this idea of apocalypse and the end of the world. The idea of the apocalypse, this idea of the Day of Judgment, this thunderbolt, lightning, the destruction of the world is really uniquely Abrahamic. It is from this Jewish, Christian, Islamic and actually originally Zoroastrianism, that’s a very much a belief that came out of the Middle East around 2000 years ago. You don’t find that in Hinduism, you don’t find that in Buddhism you don’t find that in not the Navajo religion, you don’t find this idea of like this one mindset like there’s something wrong with the world there is an injustice that can’t be righted but it will be righted a specific day when God will intervene and save the righteous. That’s probably the biggest separation between faiths.
There is also the question of free will, whether everything is predetermined. That is something that ancient Romans believed, that your faith is entirely in the hands of God and everything could be the result of divine intervention, every coin toss that you make is going to be determined by somebody else. In the Christian faith and Western tradition there is more of a sense of free will, that we have a choice in what we do. You may be judged for what you do, but you do have that choice.
What about the visual depictions of God. Of course some religions don’t have any like of the ones that do, what were some of the most interesting?
Copyright 2016 National Geographic
Well the obvious thing to think about there is that Hinduism, there was a religion where there are as many as 330 million gods. That is so different from Western idea of God, God is this kind of divine almost space less energy. In Islam and Judaism God literally has no form, He is invisible, He has no human form. In Christianity there is a human form to God in the person of Jesus but still there is this idea that God is the sun beams coming down from the sky, right? And in Hinduism you have the all the statues of idols of gods and people worship them and you think it is completely different but when you look into it a bit more it’s not. In a way these statues are proxies for God and different aspects of the divine and even Hindus believe that there is behind the different gods that they pray to a universal divine energy which is called Brahman. And Brahman is a kind of divine eternal energy that spreads into all the gods and it becomes a bit like the Saints of Catholicism, you have a God but then you pray to a Saint for specific intervention and so there is similarity even there.
Tell me a little bit about the logistics. You traveled quite a bit to make this series. What were some of the most difficult locations?
We traveled to seven countries. Many cities we had to fly to by helicopter. We went to the middle of the Guatemalan Rainforest to see the remains of this 2000 year old Mayan city called El Mirador. We went to Israel in the middle of a period of violence, so we couldn’t go to the Arab Quarter, and that was very challenging. We also got kicked out of the Church of Holy Sepulchre when we were filming there, in Jerusalem. We got into a little trouble when we went into an area that we weren’t supposed to. But anyway we worked it out and we got back and we finished up the shoot. And India was just challenging, filming on these narrow lanes of Tirupati by the Ganges, a very sacred ancient city in India. Logistically moving with Morgan and our camera crew down these tiny lanes literally five feet wide with cows and mopeds and dead bodies and scores of people going to past you. It was very challenging to film there.
I was a little surprised but really intrigued and interested in the first chapter that you visited with Martine Rothblatt and Bina Aspen to explore the non-religious idea of eternal life via computer.
This idea of life after death is just one idea where all the advances that are happening in computation and neuroscience really actually can change the landscape there and raise the idea: could it be possible to keep the essence of somebody alive after they die? We choose them because they have Bina48 which is a fantastic robot facsimile of Bina with thoughts, emotions, and memory and they wanted to just talk to them about whether they think that life after death might be possible.
And would you say that this program is for believers, non-believers, or those who are seeking answers?
It’s for everybody. It’s for everybody who wants to know more about other people’s faith traditions, for non-believers to understand people’s faith, to people of faith to understand other faiths, to even understand what non-believers think. It’s for anyone who has a open mind and wants to know more.
The Story of God with Morgan Freeman Season 1 on DVD January 10, 2017 and Season 2 premiers on National Geographic, January 16th.
