An Advertiser's New Approach

With less and less people watching live television, advertisers are straining to reach an audience. As long as Netflix is around, we can expect commercials to have diminishing effects on viewers, simply because more and more people are binge watching this commercial-free medium. DVR is also last fault for letting viewers completely skip over commercial breaks. As an avid television viewer, I love the technological advancements that have let me cheat advertisements, but as a future employee of the television world, I know advertisements will keep my job afloat. Our careers run on the finances of advertisers so we have to acknowledge the problem that less people are watching them. So how to fix this issue....

Concepts like product placement and branded entertainment have not been getting the credit they deserve. While not necessarily the most glorious options, these two concepts have found a way to link entertainment with advertising, sometimes without the viewer even noticing. Product placement puts a company's logo or product seamlessly into a scene with an organic touch. Perhaps there is a Coke can sitting in front of Ted Mosby in an episode of How I Met Your Mother. This is great exposure for the brand, and viewers may subconsciously notice it but it doesn't take away from the scene. This could be done during the filming process or even thrown in during post production. Episodes of Friends have been edited to show a box of Oreos on the table while the characters are sitting around it carrying on conversations. This could be much more beneficial for Coke and Oreos rather than a commercial that may never been seen by the viewer. With the reruns of How I Met Your Mother and Friends on Netflix, those are the products you will still see today versus whatever advertisements were played during the commercial break when they aired.


Branded entertainment is a similar concept except that it has much more control than product placement. In branded entertainment, a company will pay a production studio to create the show they desire and will obviously include their brand in a beneficial way. IKEA created a web series, "Easy to Assemble", that generated a lot of buzz and many guest stars, flag shipping this new way of advertising. The main character was an employee for IKEA, so the brand was included but there was a storyline with the characters that was separate from the furniture store. Branded entertainment can be a subtle way to advertise your company while still allowing a lot of creative control with plots and characters, without being overbearing.

If company's can find a way to integrate advertising without distracting the viewers from the content, it could be a win-win for everyone.

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is a hilarious American television sitcom that premiered on FX on August 4, 2005, and moved to FXX beginning with the ninth season. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was created by Rob McElhenney, which he developed with Glenn Howerton, and is executive produced and primarily written by McElhenney, Howerton, and Charlie Day, all of whom star in the show, along with Kaitlin Olson and Danny DeVito. The series follows the exploits of "The Gang", a group of self-centered friends who run Paddy's Pub, a relatively unsuccessful Irish bar in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The series completed airing its tenth season on March 18, 2015, and is renewed for an eleventh and twelfth season, each to consist of 10 episodes.

The comedic series follows "The Gang", a group of five depraved underachievers: twins Dennis Reynolds and Deandra "Sweet Dee" Reynolds; their friends Charlie Kelly, Ronald "Mac" McDonald, and, from season 2 onward, Frank Reynolds, the man who raised Dennis and Dee. The Gang runs the dilapidated Paddy's Pub, an Irish bar in South Philadelphia.  The show runs itself on dry, usually racist, humor.  

Each member of the gang shows varying degrees of dishonesty, egotism, selfishness, greed, pettiness, ignorance, laziness and unethical behavior, and they are often engaged in controversial activities.  The show is hilarious because each situation teaches them absolutely no lessons, and they just go and do stupid activities over and over again.  Episodes usually find them hatching elaborate schemes, conspiring against one another and others for personal gain, vengeance, or simply for the entertainment of watching one another's downfall. It's every man for himself, but in a largely comedic way! They habitually inflict mental, emotional and physical pain. They regularly use blackmail to manipulate one another and others outside of the group.  They never feel any remorse for their actions, and in turn it makes the series funny and cynical.  

Their unity is never solid - any of them would quickly dump any one of the others for quick profit or personal gain regardless of the consequences. Everything they do results in contention among themselves and much of the show's dialogue involves the characters arguing or yelling at one another.  A classic scene is all of them bickering at once, it happens at least twice every episode! Despite their lack of success or achievement, 'The Gang' maintain high opinions of themselves and display an obsessive interest in their own reputations and public images. Despite this high sense of self-worth, 'The Gang' has no sense of shame when attempting to get what they want and often engages in activities which others would find humiliating, disgusting, or even preposterous, such as smoking crack cocaine in order to qualify for welfare, seducing a priest, driving while eating cereal, hiding naked inside a leather couch in order to spy on someone, chicken and airline scams, and even huffing glue and eating cat food.  The show gets so ridiculous, and that is what makes it so addicting to come back to and watch! 

If this show has taught me anything, it's to never take life seriously, and that things will get worse before they get better!  Thanks for always making me laugh It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia!

This show is a must watch and I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I do! 

Sixteen Candles

Sixteen Candles is a 1984 American coming of age comedy starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling and Anthony Michael Hall. It was written and directed by John Hughes.  John Hughes also directed The Breakfast Club and Ferris Buller's Day Off.  With the occasion all but overshadowed by her sister's upcoming wedding, teen angst-ridden Samantha (Molly Ringwald) faces her 16th birthday with typical adolescent dread.  She loathes her body, as it isn't like the popular girls, she loathes life, and is pretty much the typical American teen dealing with high school problems.  Samantha pines for studly older boy Jake (Michael Schoeffling), but worries that her chastity will be a turnoff for the popular senior.  She thinks that she is invisible to him, because to her, he's the definition of a god!  Meanwhile, Samantha must constantly rebuff the affections of nerdy Ted (Anthony Michael Hall), the only boy in the school, unfortunately, who seems to take an interest in her.  Which also does not help with her low-esteem and confidence. 

To our dear main character, Samantha, her life is going downhill fast. The soon to be 16-year-old has an impossible crush on the most popular boy in school, and the geekiest boy in school has a crush on her. Her sister's getting married, and with all the excitement the rest of her family forgets her birthday! This just puts the cherry on top of the sundae for her.  She feels even more invisible and unimportant than before.  Add all this to a pair of horrendously embarrassing grandparents who bring a foreign exchange student named Long Duc Dong to her sister's wedding.  He brings a lot of comic relief at different points of the movie, and experiences first hand fast American love and the party life of high school.  Other funny moments helped to make this movie so popular.  My personal favorite was when Sam gives dorky Ted her underwear to help him win a bet at the school dance. 

She attempts to get through all of these unfortunate events.  In the end, Sam has a heart to heart with her father, and in a twist of events, her crush, Jake, picks her up at the end of her sister's wedding to celebrate her birthday.  The movie concludes as they kiss over a cake with 16 candles.  In the end we get a hilarious movie on the journey of one quirky girl to womanhood! This is just a classic you can't pass up. 

'episodes' is my new favorite show!!!

I recently finished watching the first two seasons of Episodes.  This series stars two British actors Tamsin Greig & Stephen Mangan.  This series also stars Matt LeBlanc! This show is broadcast here in the US on Showtime.  In the United Kingdom this show is broadcast on BBC Two.  It is a British/American sitcom that I am really enjoying!

This Photo described what I thought going into the first episode of Episodes:

This show starts with a married couple Sean Lincoln [Stephen Mangan] & Beverly Lincoln [Tamsin Greig].  In the show they're writers and producers for this show in the United Kingdom called Lyman's Boys. Their show just won another British Academy Televsion Award.  At the award ceremony Merc Lapidus [John Pankow] talks to them about making an American version of Lyman's Boys. He tells them he will get them a house to stay in at while in LA and gives them deals they can't refuse. 

Merc is the head of what shows gets broadcast on a major network.  Merc later gets Matt LeBlanc [Matt LeBlanc] to join the team and star as a head master.  Matt LeBlanc is supposed to be playing himself in this series. 

Being a fan of Friends I love when Matt brings up things from Friends during the show!

Here is a perfect trailer of Episodes:  

My favorite interactions are the ones between Sean and Matt as well as anyone with Merc in it! Sean and Matt develop this bromance that was fun to watch.  Beverly and Matt were not friends at first and never have been in an episode I have seen.  

Merc is the biggest sweet talker ever. He literally tells people whatever they want to hear all the time. He cares more about making money than making a good show.  He is intense and his emotions change so fast, I laugh in almost every scene he is in!

I give this show a 8/10 and I will continue to watch the rest of Episodes soon. 

Friends

Recently, the hit TV series Friends was added to Netflix. This was an amazing thing that seemed to sweep over everyone that I know. This was a TV show I grew up watching, seeing as my parents tuned into this show every week when I was a kid. So, I was right on board with everyone else.

I've spent a week or so binge watching it, now, and there's one aspect that I'm not sure I can get over. That's the idea of the "supercouple" known as Ross and Rachel. Their relationship plays throughout the entire series, starting with Ross pining after Rachel, then Rachel not realizing how good he'd be for her until he has a girlfriend, they date, break up, date, break up, date and break up, again and again, and is hinted at that they get married after the series finale.

The idea of the two of them is good in the beginning, seeing as Ross always had feelings for Rachel and they're both at points in their lives where they can be together. Their relationship goes well at first, but just seems to snowball. It's apparent that they were always supposed to be "endgame" but there just seems to be a point where enough should be enough. How many times can a relationship fail before you call a quits? 

They were probably widely liked at the time, and keeping them together and dangling them on this string of near separation probably did great for the ratings of the show. But, sometimes, it's better for a break to be a break-up. 

Final Project

     The Purple Cobras shot 90% of their footage last week and everything came out amazingly.  Our editor Mike has been working diligently on the film as we are all excited to watch it come together.  We will finish shooting the footage probably next thursday and move into the final steps of post production.
     For my final project I was thinking about doing something military related.  Not using actual people in the military but instead the story of the friends of those who are in the military.  This story comes from my own personally life in that one of my best friends is in the army and could be shipped to duty within the next 2 years.  I have had many talks with him and his family and all of our friends, it is not always easy to know someone who will be going on active duty soon.  I need to develop the idea more but this is the basis for what I might do.

Does Anyone Even Watch This Show?

After recently getting a Showtime account, I was able to explore all of the wonderful TV shows and movies offered online and on the channel.  I have already watched all of Homeland so it was time for me to start another Showtime series that I could become addicted to.  That's when I decided to start watching Episodes.  Episodes stars one of my favorite comedic actors Matt LeBlanc of Friends fame.  The show even won him a Golden Globe last year for best actor in a comedy.  But after watching a few episodes, I realized....I think I might be the only person in the world who watches this show.  I have never heard anyone talk about it, nor have I seen any advertisements for it on other sites like Hulu, or TV Guide.  Could this be a diamond in the rough or is there a reason for its lack of viewership?

Frankly, I love the show.  It's a smart comedy about two British TV writers who move to L.A. and are forced to "Americanize" their show.  Episodes is unique in the fact that it is an American and British comedy, premiering on Showtime as well as on BBC 2.  The show was created by Jeffry Klarik (co-producer of Mad About You, and The Class) and his business and life partner (how cute!!) David Crane (co-creator of Friends).  I think the two have created an extremely witty show with a funny ensemble.  To be frank I probably would not have started watching this show if Matt LeBlanc and David Crane were not involved, because Friends is my all time favorite show.

Episodes follows around a married couple who have won yet another BAFTA award for their TV show about a headmaster at a boys boarding school.  A snobby, pompous LA producer has them come out to LA to produce the show, much to their dismay.  After casting Matt LeBlanc (who plays himself) as the headmaster things go downhill after everyone starts changing their show.  They change the plot of the show, and the cast and characters and chaos ensues.  Episodes has been renewed for a 3rd season, and I can't wait to continue watching the rest of the series on Showtime, hoping that someone else in the world will watch it with me and enjoy the quirky characters and silly plots just as much as I do.  I think one of the reasons I enjoy it so much is because it reminds me of what it's like to produce my own sitcom (Boys of 213 on ICTV check it out!) and I can relate to the producers in many ways.