{"id":233,"date":"2009-04-07T15:28:50","date_gmt":"2009-04-07T15:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp\/?p=233"},"modified":"2009-04-07T15:28:50","modified_gmt":"2009-04-07T15:28:50","slug":"bette_davis_is_probably_lying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/2009\/04\/bette_davis_is_probably_lying\/","title":{"rendered":"Bette Davis is probably lying"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m on a use-me-and-abuse-me kick. I want to be pitched more when I’m inside venues, in case you didn’t get the message here<\/a> and here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

I saw the movie Sunshine Cleaning<\/i> two weekends ago, and for the first time was interested in every single film that was previewed. They were, in order, Sleep Dealer, Brothers Bloom, Cheri, Adventureland, 500 Days of Summer, The Soloist<\/i> (but only because I spotted the back of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s head in the preview and got excited), and The Limits of Control<\/i>. I anticipated that the “Feature Presentation” would be great because the previews were all so intriguing, and I was correct. <\/p>\n

Remember the first time you saw commercials in the movie theater? SO ANNOYING, I remember thinking, but in retrospect (and now that I’m used to it), why not? We’re all sitting there with nothing to do before a movie starts; why wouldn’t you advertise the soda audience members can easily go out and buy right in the lobby? Why wouldn’t you advertise…just about anything? We can’t go into the kitchen and wash dishes while the commercials are on if we’re in a movie theater.  [Particularly disturbing to me are the G.I. Joe-esque Army “music videos” that often appear before action films, but unfortunately, those, too, make a lot of sense in that spot.] Movie previews are certainly advertisements, they’re just entertaining and in the spirit of your afternoon\/evening plans so you don’t notice them as much. You also expect them, just like you expect TV commercials, and no one is terribly bothered. Except when there are circa twenty of them, but that’s another matter entirely. <\/p>\n

Why aren’t there previews at performing arts centers? Depending on the amount of programming, venues could produce a different preview reel each month, or perhaps just one for the fall season and one for the spring season. Video editing, while I realize is an art form in its own right, can be done fairly simply and quickly on most computers, and consequently preview reels could be done in-house at a lot of places. Would it be irritating to watch footage of upcoming performances while waiting for a concert to start? I don’t think so; you can still talk to your friend or read your program, there will just be background noise\/visuals. As Dan Johnson<\/a> commented here<\/a>, the trailers in The Met lobby – and if I may add, the trailers in lobby at New York City Ballet performances – are effective; why can’t those be shown on big screens in the houses?  Additionally, programs advertise upcoming concerts already, so it would be hard for patrons to complain. Sometimes I think that we forget we work in the performing arts, that we’re in the business of genres which are meant to be seen and heard, not printed flat in brochures. <\/p>\n

A huge problem with this idea is that managers and publicists, myself included, often don’t have good video footage of their clients performing. Again, at a time when most computers record video and Flip cameras<\/a> cost $59.99, there’s really no excuse. <\/p>\n

Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but archival footage taken by an orchestra should be usable within the venue with the soloists’ permission, correct? There wouldn’t be union problems with that? If Hilary was playing with an orchestra she’d play with in the past, they could use their footage to preview her next appearance in-house with her permission? Venues with multi-genre programming, like BAM – the Brooklyn Academy of Music – or The Kennedy Center would also be great places for previews using in-house archival footage, because they could showcase theater, opera, dance and music programming to audiences who might not go to that section of their website or those pages in their season brochure. <\/p>\n

And typing of the movies, The Metropolitan Opera has outdone themselves again<\/a> with their new New York<\/i> Times<\/i> banner ad:<\/p>\n

\"Met-rollover.jpg\"<\/span>The video embedded in the ad features both clips from past productions and interviews with audience members in the lobby about their experiences, a la many movie television commercials. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m on a use-me-and-abuse-me kick. I want to be pitched more when I’m inside venues, in case you didn’t get the message here and here. I saw the movie Sunshine Cleaning two weekends ago, and for the first time was interested in every single film that was previewed. They were, in order, Sleep Dealer, Brothers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}