Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 58

6D Monday May 28 2001 I wwwstar letcgiaoLcom VT '-7 4 1 1 1 cf 1 i '1 sl L' l' 1 i4' 4 A- 0 1 4 4 l'1 ti i 4 1' (---: I 4 1 1 'il Li '2 t' LI a 42 1'' it 4 1 fr 4 I' 1 4 2 I- i i I 1 i 1 I xI )' ki 1 -) i I i i- i 1 i i 0- I --4''''''N'' f) '1 4 N''4 i 4 i ii1 1 i I I i i-v- 4 A' rib 1 wmilMillikiNO ii itt No 1 i 4- -i a 11 4 al 1 7 -1 s- i '4 4: 'il -44ek 0 11 04 JdOWN SW 1 111161 I woommtimempospoot i A 4 154411 ittstailos From Page ID AtoniSho waveFord A scene from Little Man on Campus Morgan Law ley is the director the Ford is the star BMW Ford films are hit and miss despite a last-minute twist it's hard to get over the fact that this is just another silly chase movie for free The opportunity to make a movie have it completely financed by Ford and have it seen on the Atom Films site wasvonsidered reward enough Seth Levenson vice president of sales for Atom Shockwave acknowledges that there are concerns about encouraging struggling filmmakers to align themselves with large corporations But he says that when costs of making a film are so high and chances that it will be seen so low the tradeoff is worth it "It's giving independent filmmakers the opportunity to realize their vision" he says Levenson also stresses that Ford's role in all of this was not of the monolithic corporation forcing young creative types to sell their souls to the devil "They didn't want to ask a young filmmaker to create what is essentially a commercial message" he explains "They whnt to be seen as the brand that enables an emerging talent" It seems something of a contradiction to suggest that emerging filmmakers are realizing their personal visions with these projects (unless of course they're really fixated upon Fords) But Roger Cooper chairman of the Department of RadioTelevision Film at Texas Christian University argues that the line between entertainment and commerce has always been blurry and that provided all parties are being upfront about also been on the forefront of using the Internet "They realize that a lot of younger people don't watch TV and they use the Internet more" Of course in an age when product placements within movies are so ubiquitous that the movie Josie and the Pussycats turned them into a running gag none of this should seem particularly new or surprising Except that BMW wants to make one thing clear: They say these short films aren't commercials "Why are we assuming this is a regular advertising campaign?" asks McDowell "This isn't advertising Very few of any of these directors would have carried the conversation further if they thought it was just a commercial" McDowell says that other than making sure both Owen and the BMWs appeared in the film the directors were pretty much given free reign "We really did want good entertainment" he says "And what these directors have done makes them each absolutely new experiences It's like a five-course meal" (McDowell declines however to say how much each filmmaker was paid or what the budget for the project is) Whereas BMW hired established directors for The Hire series the filmmakers involved with the Focus in Film project had to submit treatments to Ford and compete for the chance to make the shorts And they essentially worked So what exactly are these short-film projects all about? The companies say they are enabling a unique and totally new form of artistic expression to take place Watch the films however and it's hard not to see them as ultraglossy extra-long commercials The one thing that is certain: We are witnessing yet another smudge on the ever-blurring line between art and commerce "We were trying to come up with a memorable branding campaign" explains Jim McDowell vice president of marketing for BMW "The thing that became obvious to us was that 85 percent of our customers are on the Web before they buy their BMW" Increasing traffic to its Web site means that BMW can collect information on potential car buyers In relying on the cache of directors like Wong and actors like Owen BMW is also assuming that it will attract the "right" kind of traffic to its Web site In other words people who follow art movies are also usually well-educated sorts with enough disposable income to spend on a brand-new shiny Z3 roadster "BMW has been the envy of the car industry for a long time" says Jean Halliday the Detroit bureau chief for Ad Age the trade magazine that reports on the advertising industry "They've been into movies for a long time they did the James Bond movies" Halliday says that BMW has what they're doing there's no reason to get in a huff "You could say that the commercial influences are corrupting the work" he says "But in another way it's a more honest artistic expression There's always been this kind of myth that the artist is set apart creating what he or she wants to create and there's no business element But that's not true" Indeed what's perhaps most surprising about the BMW and Ford projects is how few eyebrows have been raised The BMW films for one were reviewed much like any other big summer release in Time magazine by its film critic Richard Corliss one of the Ford films Jason Reitman's gulp was included in the official selection at the Sundance Film Festival And just about everyone agrees that love them or hate them these sorts of synergistic projects are here for the long haul "Marketers are looking for alternative media and advertising solutions" says AtomShockwave's Levenson "I think that the advertising message is going to be more and more wrapped into the content rather than what happens in between before and after" So are these BMW and Ford short films any good? Let's cast a critical eye upon them Ratings are on a 1-to-5 scale Ambush directed by John Frankenheimer Clive Owen's driver escorts a bespectacled elderly man A van pulls up alongside them The ski-masked gun-toting men inside claim the passenger is carrying $2 million in stolen diamonds which they want back Frankenheimer who directed Ronin and Grand Prix is regarded as master of the car chase But in Ambush his editing is hap- hazard and confusing and the characters generate little interest Chosen directed by Ang Lee 'This time Owen's pAsenger is a young Tibetan boy who arrives by ship in New York City in possession of a mysterious box Once again bad guys want what he has Lee uses an Eastern musical score and a handsome color palette of silver dark blue and red to strong effect But The Follow directed by Wong Kar-wai This isn't quite in the league of Wong's staggering In the Mood for Love but credit the Hong Kong director for trying to break the chase-movie mold Here Owen is hired by Forest Whitaker to follow and presumably kill a beautiful woman The Follow displays Wong's trademark languid dreaminess though Owen's voiceover musings are tedious Oh and Mickey Rourke has a small part though this being a Wong film it's not so easy to figure out how he relates to the plot gulp directed by Jason Reitman A deft comedy of calamities about a guy who has to find salt water in order to save his goldfish Reitman makes clever use of optical effects (including a fish-eye lens) and the Ford Focus isn't used as garishly as in the BMW films One gripe: The movie runs about a minute too long The Kiss directed by Joe and Anthony Russo 'A A bare-chested hunk (Bernard Zilinskas) smokes cigarettes while lying on the hood of his Ford Focus He starts up a conversation with a blonde (Kiele Sanchezsmokes) sitting on a porch swing Will they kiss? Who cares The actors are neither attractive nor engaging and the directors' sloppy sound recording ruins the punch line Chrislvher Kelly HAVE YOU STOPPED TAKING YOUR Christopher Kelly (817) 390-7032 cmkellystar-telegramcom The jittitre of Pealtilliti cSkin HORMONES? 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