When I sat down to watch BRANDED I was surprised by what I saw.
This films details just how marketing and advertising are used to control what we say, what we think and what we wear and what we eat.
Think about what you are wearing and what you are eating and ask yourself, how did I even know about this stuff?
Think about what you think about the state of the world, where did that come from?
You were marketed to and told what to think.
They have been doing it to us so long there is no one to blame but we can still revolt against it.
How?
Real simple, stop playing the game and realize this is real.
This movie is not just a movie, it's a wake up call to generations who have been asleep for far too long.
If we don't wake up and start paying attention and start ignoring the marketing and looking at what is really happening around us, well we deserve the news you will find at the other end of this link.
We deserve it becasue we stood by and did nothing.
We deserve it becasue we refuse to fight it.
We deserve it becasue we did it to ourselves.
If you want to change it, turn off your computer and go outside and talk to people face to face and work together to change it and change it now, the only thing stopping us, is us.
The only thing stopping me is me.
Watch BRANDED and I bet you feel the same way. My wife does.
When a husband and a wife agree on something, well you know this motherfucker just might be on to something. I know I am becasue I married the right woman who would have told me how crazy these ideas are.
Instead she looked at me and couldn't speak becasue of the horror she felt inside.
That's impact, that's not just an important film, but one made well that delivers so well it left my wife horrified to wake up to the world we live in.
Sounds like a good fucking movie to The Movie Whore.
I have been commenting on this article over at Babeled and it got to me to thinking that I wanted to explain why I refer to myself as The Movie Whore. I am sure no one was wondering which is the number one reason to do it. Again this is my show and my warped brain. So her ewe go down the rabbit whole into the twisted and scary place that is my mind.
Qualifications to be considered a movie whore.
Must have received gonorrhea of the eye from watching movies that are so bad they should be outlawed. Examples: Including but not limited to Zombie Nation, any sequel to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Transmorphers, Alone in the Dark or any other Uwe Boll movie.
You know what a Troma movie is and you watch them avidly. Examples: Toxic Avenger 1-4 and the cartoon. Tromeo and Juliet, Sgt Kabuki Man NYPD, Terror Firmer, Surf Nazi's Must Die and others.
Must be able to cross genres with your knowledge. Examples: Christopher Reeves was not only Superman but also made a movie with Jane Seymour (Yummy) called Somewhere In Time. You know that Russel Crowe worked with Denzel Washington prior to their latest theatrical outing and you know the name of the movie. Worth 5 cookies.
Know obscure shit. Examples: Christopher Lambert is a master swordsman that is nearly legally blind. Ellen Barkin was once in the Porn industry. Rebecca Demornay has a doctorate in Psychology. The Last Starfighter was the first movie to extensively use CGI and the technology was originally pithed to George Lucas for for the original Star Wars.
You own Xanadu. I do.
You have worked or currently work at a video store because you wanted to. Examples: I have done this twice. I actually worked in a video called Ray's video that had the most complete collection of movies in California and was next door to Ray's Liquor. So yes the original Clerks spoke to me on a very personal level. I can walk into a room and within 5 seconds name the movie on the TV even if I have not seen it. Give me the plot and I can name just about any movie that has come out in the 30 years. 5 cookies to anyone that can stump me. Using IMDB is cheating.
You know the movie this quote was used in. "No matter where you go, there you are." 5 Cookies to anyone that can name it with out looking it up and 5 more for being able to name 5 actors in the movie without having to look it up.
You thought the argument over whether or not destroying the second Death Star was morally wrong was one of the most brilliant things you have ever seen.
You re-watch movies you know are bad just because it has been a while since you have seen it. Examples: Refer to this article I wrote a while back.
You own or would like to own the following movies: Including but not limited to Ice Pirates, Big Trouble in Little China, My Big Fat Independent Movie, Xanadu, Starship Troopers, The entire Kevin Smith Collection, entire Mel Brooks collection, entire Monty Python collection, Any Godzilla movie that does not star Matthew Broderick, Far Out Man, The Last Star Fighter, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey, and the Evil Dead Trilogy.
Lastly Bruce Campbell is one of your personal heroes.
I hope this clears things up a bit. I had a lot of fun writing this and did it with out having to look anything up. So it is with all confidence that I once again proclaim that I am The Movie Whore.
This role asked a man to stop being what society has always told us what a man is and step up and be a redefine what a real man is.
If you have never seen this film, go watch it right now. There are spoilers galore in this piece becasue the movie is 30 years old.
The film starts when we see a man who has it all. He has a hot wife, kids, the house and the job to pay for it all.
Then the job goes away.
The his wife finds work and it pays really well and now he is going to take care of the house.
This is where the comedy and the tragedy blur lines and take you on a journey that a lot of men have faced over the last few decades and it's something I've faced myself.
How I became The Movie Whore is becasue I was a Mr. Mom.
Society defines men by what they do for a living to provide for their families. For man to have that taken from him after a life time of programming, well, let's just say the movie is funnier than the reality.
We see evidence of this in the film when Mr. Mom goes to the company picnic and is looked down on by the rest of the guys his wife works with, becasue he's Mr. Mom and that isn't very manly. To try and regain some measure of his masculinity which has been blatantly attacked, he way over performs in a little kid like obstacle course race, embarrassing himself and his wife.
Mr Mom's go through a time where they feel emasculated and it comes from all angles.
Stop for moment and think about it. What do think of a when you think of a family man?
Did you think about a man cleaning his house, doing laundry, making dinner, helping with homework, listening to every bodies problems?
I doubt it and as you were reading that last question somewhere in the back of your head it said that this was a wife's job. Even the women had that thought and it's ok, it's been programmed into us all.
I went through a period of this feeling myself.
What was interesting was making friends with the girls. For me this was no big deal like it is in the flick. I always had mostly women friends. I like them more than hanging out with guys where everything is a competition. Funny thing is, this is the same reasoning I have heard from women who have always had more male friends. Women are too competitive with each other.
However I never had all my women friends take me to a male strip club for a night out with the girls. Honestly I don't know what I would do if they did. Mr. Mom handled it like a man. Just went through it and made the best of it and ended up having more fun then he thought he could.
That's just how men are, we'll go along with it at first just to see where it is going. We are very curious that way. Besides we have a hard time telling women no, we hate hurting your feelings but don't know what to do when you give you an honest answer and you get mad at us.
Mr. Mom has hard time with the housework and the kids at first. He's used to dealing with adults who do what he tells them and have a job to do and he doesn't have to know what they are doing at every moment of the day.
Kids on the other hand, these kids give poor old Mr. Mom a run for his money, no they kick his ass at first. A baby eating chili, a grilled cheese made with an iron and it gets worse from there.
I had a good head start for my experience. I did a lot of the cooking and grocery shopping for my mom when I was old enough to drive. I helped her plan the menus and make the list and then she gave me the atm and the car keys. I guess I was a responsible kid.
My mom taught me how to clean the house and I did it every week.
The Air Force made me clean like a mother fucker, and they taught me to iron my own shit, they taught me to be responsible for me.
My second wife let me really see all the work she does. She gave me the back stage pass into what it takes to be mom. She even tried to help me be a better dad. If only she had been a better wife... She knows I say these things and she says similar.
Being a single father with an 18 month old, well my son teaches me everything else I need to know. Him and his sisters, my 3 step daughters whom I love every bit as much as my son. They are 4 incredible kids and they make me a very proud father who just happens to play Mr. Mom for a living.
Mr. Mom also fell into the blunder I found myself in. He ended up a fat lazy slob watching soap operas all day with the house falling down around him. Me, I ended up with a stumble and flash game addiction and then I discovered blogging. Holy Shit was this a bad thing for the rest of the world.
Wait a minute, you mean I can write some shit and throw it out there for the world to read and talk about this shit with people all over the world. SIGN ME THE FUCK UP NOW!
I like to talk to people more than I like to just throw shit out there. I want to hear your opinions. Look at this way, I spent over a decade in customer service call centers in every position but running the center itself. I am used to talking to people all day about their problems for a living. I like it, I love it, I am programmed to it.
When Mr. Mom started to see the world of disarray that had become his life, he did what any real man would do, he took charge and fixed that shit and started with himself. He started with himself and brought everyone with him.
He didn't just get himself better, he got his kids better, he got his wife better, he was getting his girlfriends better. Once he accepted it and owned it like a man, well there was no one that was going to stop that man from taking care of his family, just in a different way.
He didn't do it Mom's way, he did his way, he just had to figure out what that should look like.
I had help before I ever even got here.
Being Mr. Mom didn't make him less of a man, it revealed the real man that had been hidden for far too long.
I like to think I am on that track myself. I try like hell and when I look into the eyes of my wife and my kids and my friends, I know they see a real man. Now I got a house clean and laundry to do and school paperwork to finish up and wife to have lunch with on her lunch break.
Have fun kids and go watch MR. MOM right now and then go call that man you know who is doing the job and see how he's doing. I bet he is bored as shit and waiting for the phone to ring. I know I am.
I have been in this conversation on LinkedIn about the next thing when Hollywood fails.
Here it is.
You, indie film maker, yes you. I am talking to you directly. Don't question, just listen up I have some important shit to say.
If you want to change the industry to one that allows you to make a movie and make a living doing it, you have to change the way you do things.
You need to be willing to work with others and not be so wrapped up in your vision and realize if it don't get made at all, your vision is worth exactly shit.
You need to work with other small indie filmmakers to make the film happen.
Ask Last Rockstar Productions who all helped with Catharsis.
You need to learn to share more.
Give everyone points, even the guy turning the screwdriver in the corner for one day. Give him half a point.
Keep 50.1% to the prodco and divvy up the rest. I think you might be surprised who would want to own half of a % of your pic if they are working on it. You don't like the numbers, find numbers that do work for you.
Find other prodcos and build your own studio facility. Brand the facility. Create a web channel filled with your content that people can subscribe to. Charge them for it. Offer them the ability to do a direct download for any format and buy a hard copy if they want for an additional fee.
Use a pressing service that will press your DVD or Blu Ray cheap based on orders.
As theater houses close, buy them or lease them or soemthing to give you a venue for theatrical showing.
As the network of these small studios build, ship your film across the internet and let them press a DVD for the theater. Share the box office. Let the showing house get 5% of box office take. Put some of the take of the Box Office to the studio. Put a % that keeps things running back the studio for every dollar made.
Don't advertise.
Use social media. Use Eventful's demand feature to find out where to ship your film.
Facebook and twitter posts will help get your fan base going and excited and let them share it and advertise for you.
If you have any celebrity power they better be talking this shit up on their social media outlets.
You want start up costs, well look around.
Do you know anyone that has this thing or that set up or that building to use. Use your heads and use common sense. I can't do it all for you. I can just give you the road map and answer your questions if you have any.
I am a dreamer and I know I am not the only one. Come and join me and become us and let you and I and the rest of us make a better way of getting dreams made and seen by the world.
In the immortal words of Jerry Maguire (like I could get through anything without quoting something.)
Help me help you.
So let's start the discussion and the idea sharing and finding out who can do what and who is doing what and let's get you all working together to take our rights to our dreams back and make a future where the dreamers of tomorrow will have a way to bring those dreams to life.
