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 Bloom, Cheri, Adventureland, 500 Days of Summer, The Soloist (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 anticipated that the “Feature Presentation” would be great because the previews were all so intriguing, and I was correct.
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.
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 commented here, 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.
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 cost $59.99, there’s really no excuse.
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.
And typing of the movies, The Metropolitan Opera has outdone themselves again with their new New York Times banner ad:
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.
First-there are always huge negotiations to be worked out regarding the use of archival media, even in an orchestra or ensembles’ own home venue. (I am a member of an artists union and the rules are crazy!)
And the Met already does preview within their own transmissions ala the army previewing before action films. They always offer the exact kind of short, commercial-length video footage before the start of the transmission; plus, before that, the ‘ads’ on screen in the semi-lit theatre before the transmission begins is all Met-Met cast info, Met production info, opera history, cut in with actual scenes from inside the Met house, pre-curtain, pre-‘curtain speech’, such as it is.
Your suggesting taking it to the next level, in my estimation, for marketing. I appreciate that, but what we easily ignore at the movies, becomes something we have to tune out in a performing arts venue. I like reading the program notes and talking with friends, my date, etc. about what we are going to see and hear in that particular performance; the talk is different and less formal perhaps then when I am waiting to see a movie.
Do we really want to risk converting opera houses and theatres into sticky-floor, popcorn-ridden movie houses? I agree that something is needed and this is generally a really good idea, like the one yesterday and weeks prior about passes and discount referral programs, that your colleague made in her blog.
Nothing is going to be able to stay the least bit sacred anymore, is it:(((
This is an area that my wee opera company has expanded into this season. We create commercials for our upcoming production, post them online (our site, social sites, YouTube), and have begun airing them in small, independent movie theaters (the big guys are cost prohibitive). I am very interested in the idea of expanding to commercials (either pre-recorded or live snippets) done before partner org shows.
I should probably clarify that I meant video previews in the actually halls just before live performances, not video ad spots at local movie theaters, though I do like that idea, especially with the trend of opera and ballet live broadcasts in movie theaters. “You liked what you saw on screen? Now come see your local ballet/opera company live.” Your idea of previewing your performances before those of partner organizations is also a great one. That “ad space” could even be something organizations swap free of charge. Thanks for commenting! -AA
I find Interested Reader’s closing comment both arrogant and historically ill-informed: “Do we really want to risk converting opera houses and theatres into sticky-floor, popcorn-ridden movie houses? . . . Nothing is going to be able to stay the least bit sacred anymore, is it.”
Popcorn might have been the least offensive sticky item found on the floor at Shakespeare’s Globe. And while the intent of the golden age of Greek drama may have been sacred, the atmosphere was decidedly populist. Mozart found some of his greatest successes not as a court musician but in his self-produced solo concerts at venues that included restaurants and apartment buildings, where biographer Maynard Solomon describes “a harmonious connection between an eager composer-performer and a delighted audience, which was given the opportunity of witnessing the transformation and perfection of a major musical genre.”
Does it take so little — a sticky floor and some spilled popcorn — to sap the wonder out of a brilliant performance for Interested Reader? And is a clean floor to be the litmus test of artistic worthiness? This is part of the attitude that will keep potential new audiences (not just younger audiences, but first-timers of all stripes) away from the theatre and the opera house.
Can’t resist this one… I’ve noticed again and again that in cinemas where popcorn is available people don’t cough during the quiet/silent bits. So I heartily endorse the introduction of popcorn in the concert hall.
😉
[Although, because these comments unfortunately post in reverse chrono order, new readers will have no idea what I’m on about. Dear Amanda, can the comments please be posted in chrono order so we can follow conversations as we scroll down?)
Now on a serious note, some random reactions…
* Seeing footage of Hilary playing Tchaikovsky with your orchestra last time as a promo for Hilary playing Dvorak this time won’t work so well when audiences for the most part are choosing concerts based on repertoire rather than artists. It would be like using a trailer showing Lord of the Rings to promote Good just because both films have Viggo Mortensen in the them. Using the right piece but with different artists would be misleading, as well as implying that artists don’t make a difference to what you hear. (Because we would actually like audiences to make more choices based on artists too!)
* The overall challenge for orchestras compared to opera or ballet, is that the repertoire is ever-changing and the “runs” are so fleeting. (And yes, there’s not much usable footage out there.)
* Practical issues that spring to mind thinking about my own local concert hall: suspending a projection screen is costly and unsightly and there’s nowhere for it to “retreat” to during the performance; a screen would interfere with broadcast miking and the already troublesome acoustic generally; amplification is also an issue.
But really, all those issues could be solved with enough time, money and creativity…
My main problem with the idea is philosophical, no matter how well (technically and aesthetically) it is carried out.
You say “Would it be irritating…? I don’t think so…there will just be background noise/visuals.”
“Just” background noise is precisely the problem. A concert-presenting organisation is all about live music, live performance, and listening to music, not merely hearing it. When we introduce music to our audiences in a way that basically says, “This is just background, wallpaper, it’s quite ok to not pay any attention to it,” then we’re actually devaluing the very core of our mission.
Background music has its place. I don’t always like it, although I have to admire the often clever programming that goes into commercial applications of background music. But I don’t think that concert presenters are in a position to be subtly suggesting that we don’t really need to listen to music. Especially when most of the people at our concerts are there precisely because they do want to listen to music and to engage with the uniqueness of a live performance in an optimal environment. (That environment includes the “frame” of not-music, just as the art gallery provides the “frame” of the unadorned wall behind a painting and doesn’t mount Sunflowers in front of posters promoting the next exhibition.)
That’s why I would never endorse the playing of piped music (no matter how sensitively chosen) in a hall or foyers immediately before or during the intermission of a concert.
Our listeners have the right (and I’m sure the expectation) that they can find a certain aural sanctuary in the concert hall. That they can make a transition from the noise of the world and prepare themselves mentally by sitting in the space with no music (barring, perhaps the random undertones of musicians warming up, which really are a kind of sonic wallpaper), and that they can, during intermission rest the ears and brain.
Similarly (and here some self-interest), concert programmers have the right to know that a carefully thought-through program won’t be marred by ill-judged (or even well-judged) preludes and interludes.
Beyond that I would add…
* In many venues musicians come onto the stage to warm up and so on. This contributes to their comfort, focus and success in performance and must surely take precedence over anything extraneous to the actual concert.
* You say we’re advertising in programs, where’s the difference? There’s a big difference. The print ad is optional. I can turn the page or stop and read. I can skim and then come back to it. I can attend to the information I need and ignore the rest. Projected audio-visuals in the hall itself are not optional but intrusive.
A big problem for smaller opera companies is that you recreate the opera afresh each time, so there’s no “stock footage” or B-roll to use. Your performers don’t come in until a couple of weeks before performance, and you can’t get any photos or video on the set until performance week. Your marketing dept. only consists of 3 people, all of whom are busy pushing stories, selling tickets, and answering phones. And you have no budget. So how are you supposed to produce a preview? We feel really lucky to get through production time with our sanity intact. Most non-profit arts don’t put enough money in their marketing departments. And then they wonder why they don’t sell tickets…