A really cool ‘Public Enemies’ movie treatment by Oshkosh, Wis.
Donovan Atkinson, assistant news editor of the Oshkosh (Wis.) Northwestern wrote this week to tell us of the way his paper is commemorating the movie Public Enemies, which opens this week. A good chunk of the movie was filed in Oshkosh last year.
Donovan writes:
Public Enemies is being released Wednesday in most theaters, but Oshkosh was chosen to host an advance screening on Tuesday. We decided to do an eight-page throwback section for the Sunday edition that will also be sold on the streets Tuesday to tie-in with the screening.
The front page of the special section (click for a larger view):
The section features photos from the filming, movie stills, maps of the locations used in town and profiles of area residents who were extras in the film. I was responsible for assembling the pages; it took three days as I also had our regular editions to put out at the same time.
Inside pages (again, click for a larger view):
Donovan points out that last page, page seven — the one with the giant map — was designed by the paper’s creative director, Dan Higgins. Page eight was a full page ad.
The whole project is a revisit of an idea from last year, Donovan says:
Last April, the paper published three four-page wraps for its A section designed to simulate like a 1930s newspaper while the film crew shot scenes in Oshkosh’s downtown and airport. Drama students from a private high school dressed as newsboys and hawked the papers downtown to residents and tourists that came to watch the filming. The “retro” editions were very popular.
The front of those wraps (once again, click each for a larger view):
The Northwestern is a Gannett-owned daily with an average circulation of about 22,000.
We love clever movie tie-ins. You saw the one from the Florida Times-Union for the movie Up, right? Or the Virginian-Pilot’s Watchmen page? Or stuff for last year’s Dark Knight movie here, here and here? Or a whole series of special entertainment tabs from the 33,000-circulation Victoria (Texas) Advocate?
Do you have any interesting movie related pages or features treatments from this summer? Transformers? Star Trek? Harry Potter?
Send ‘em!
June 30th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Yes, kudos to the design folks for being creative and making something that folks might actually want to read and/or keep.
But I’m a little troubled that this really just ends up being free promotion for the movie (even with a hometown twist), done under the imprimatur of newsroom credibility. When the ad folks do it — i.e., plastering the giant vampire on the “front page” of the LAT — we scream that the end of journalism is nigh. But when the newsroom does it (albeit with more panache), it’s any better?
June 30th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I think you raise a valid point, Chris. But no, I don’t think this harms credibility at all. Nor do I think it harmed credibility when Victoria, Texas, did their big series of entertainment tab blow-outs last summer (find the link in the main body of my post, above).
I’ve not thought this all the way though just yet, but off the top of my head, I can propose a number of litmus test questions that would reveal whether or not this is a legit news project (vs. being an infotainment or ad or marketing deal)…
1. Is there any news value at all in the package?
In this case, yes, there is. Articles about folks who worked as extras, a map showing filming locations, recaps, interviews with the stars, stories about how the filming came to our little town. Plenty of news value.
2. Will it sell newspapers?
You betcha, it will. It might sell on its merits alone — Folks, after all, love Johnny Depp — but it’ll sell especially because the movie was filmed locally.
3. Does it soak up resources that would be put to better use covering hard news?
Perhaps, but perhaps not. In fact, my own judgment is that these resources were pretty well utilized. (Note Donovan’s comment about how he had to balance work on this special section with his usual daily load.)
4. Is it well-done?
Yes. Very.
5. Was it a paid story or product placement deal?
No. It’s all editorial matter. An ad adjacency was sold — the back page of the eight-page section — but that’s no different than, say, an ad in another special section or a ROP ad. (Unlike, say, the L-shaped Page one ad for a TV show that appeared on the front of the L.A. Times this spring.)
Is this a “free promotion for the movie”? Well, it’s free publicity. But, in my judgment — and in that of the Oshkosh paper — it’s worth it.
And, I’d point out, that you could argue that nearly any entertainment story that advances a movie premiere or a concert could be labeled “free promotion.” A huge advance on the sports front about a big game — say, the Super Bowl — could be called a “free promotion.”
I don’t know where, exactly, we’d draw the line between a legit news feature and a free promotion. And it might (just might) be that the line wiggles around from time to time. But I think the five questions I posed above might be a good start for folks looking for a way to tell.
Does that help? Or am I just rambling?
June 30th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
It helps, and you’re not rambling at all. :)
The local filming of the movie was certainly a newsworthy local event, and it certainly gave many locals the chance to get their names in the paper, which helps sell papers, which makes advertisers happy, which keeps journalists employed, etc. And as far as concepts go, this one is darned impressive.
Yes, I always grappled with how much entertainment coverage is appropriate, particularly in this era of declining newsroom resources. I’ve seen way too many section-front blowouts on stinker movies where it was clear that the art had been commissioned way in advance and was going to run as-is no matter what the reviewer said.
And I’d probably be raising the same questions if a local paper did days upon days of favorable, touching, and even slightly informative hospital stories once a year to coincide with a conference that just happens to be taking place at that hospital. (Not that I’ve ever witnessed such a thing, of course, uh huh.)
Either way, you’re right: It’s a thin (and moving) line between legitimate local information and the appearance that the paper can be swayed by a crafty PR person. I have no good answers, and again, kudos to the Oshkosh staff for work well done.