| Date | |
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| Author | DCM |
| Categories | cinema |
The 11th Advertising Week in New York has seen some serious star power at large, with more to come and - with my DCM hat on - the synergy between advertising, Hollywood, film and cinema, is great to see.
This builds on a theme explored at Spikes Asia last week, where creative agency legend, Johnny Hornby, chairman and CEO of The&Partnership and founding partner of CHI&Partners, talked about a move away from traditional advertising talent. He said: "With the new agency model, a modern creative director doesn't necessarily need to come from the advertising industry. We need to be looking at non-traditional ideas. I think the pace of change is so fast that creative people need a wider horizon."
Spending time at Advertising Week is certainly an intense way of expanding our industry's horizon over a few days, that will hopefully lead to real change when we're back to the day job. Learning from other creative industries in particular, such as music, fashion and film can help challenge all of us to push boundaries and innovate. Movie Mogul Harvey Weinstein for example joined music impresario Irving Azoff and Madison Square Garden head Jim Dolan to talk about the nexus of film, music and sport.
Tuesday's (30 September) IMDb's session was also a must watch. Keith Simanton, IMDb's managing editor, conducted an in-depth interview with Ethan Hawke about his career, influences and current projects including Richard Linklater's Oscar-tipped, Boyhood, for which Ethan committed 12 years of his life to film.
Also on Tuesday, AOL Build presented 'Killer Instincts' where Director David Fincher and Author Gillian Flynn talked about the upcoming blockbuster Gone Girl. Back in London we simultaneously hosted an exclusive preview screening on Tuesday night of Gone Girl at our monthly film club, DCM Tuesdays, which was packed out and we're predicting big admissions for this film on both sides of the pond.
I was lucky enough to get a front row seat at this fantastic session and it was fascinating to hear Fincher and Flynn discuss the creative process in bringing the novel to life. I asked Flynn what she felt Fincher would bring as a filmmaker to the story. She said she was a huge David Fincher fan, having watched Seven multiple times, as well as all his movies. She also added: "There was a real sense of excitement and relief with David on board. I knew it was in safe hands. He would understand the weird jagged cul-de-sac of the book and I knew he'd like the darkness but bring a real of sense of humour to it too."
Another interesting session today explores the advances in technology that the film industry can bring to advertising - 'Virtual Reality and the Future of Marketing.' But as a Marvel and Star Wars superfan myself, I'm most excited about today's 5pm session - 'The Superfan Effect'. Syfy and Den of Geek editor Mike Cecchini will talk about the evolution of superfan culture and the importance of addressing this key group. The power of superfans will come to the fore next year with the return of Star Wars, the return of Marvel in Avengers Assemble and, probalby more for the UK superfans, the return of Bond.
It's a star-studded week, but most importantly a week packed with opportunities to inspire greater collaboration between our parallel industries.