Three days later, Donn will depart for London to watch the Red and Blue clashes.

This weekend, Donn attended a meeting of the giants.

These include Disney's Michael Eisner, Warner's Barry Meyer, NBC's Steve Burke, Twentieth Century Fox's Tom Rothman, Legendary Pictures' Michael Ovitz, as well as MPAA executives and several California legislators.

The reason for the meeting was the 30th wedding anniversary of Michael Eisner and his wife.

Michael Eisner is a well-known big man in the United States.

Over the past few decades, his status in Hollywood has been on the same level as Bill Gates has been in Silicon Valley.

Such an important anniversary party is either passed quietly behind closed doors, or it is widely invited and all the heavyweight guests are invited to witness the harmony and love of the husband and wife.

Even Warren Buffett took the time to come.

On weekends, everyone is generally free.

The circles are different, though.

Warren Buffett did not join the discussion in Donn's circle of entertainment giants.

The proposal came from Michael Ovitz.

And through Donne's relationship, taking the opportunity of Michael Eisner's wedding anniversary, he brought together many industry bigwigs to reach a general consensus that can be in line with the collective interest.

What is proposed: Product placement.

In a word, it is the product advertising placement in film and television works!

In Hollywood, it's already a very mature industry.

Product placement has been around for half a century. However, this caused a lot of controversy at the time, arguing that this kind of behavior violated the principle of journalistic objectivity and violated the audience's right to know, and was not widely spread, but only a few cases.

Until the 80s -

Spielberg made a movie called "." in which aliens and Lise chocolate are linked. Then, it made Ritz chocolate an instant hit, and sales skyrocketed by 65% that year!

Tom Cruise starred in the movie "Good Boy is Crazy", in which he wore a pair of Raymond sunglasses. Then, the sales of Raymond sunglasses skyrocketed by 3 times!

Since then, advertisers have really seen the power of Hollywood movies and have begun to increase their investment, desperately throwing money into the placement of ads in their films.

Add to that the fact that since the 80s, the cost of producing movies and TV shows has skyrocketed. In order to reduce costs, producers had to abandon their past insistence and began to look for more external funding, and advertising placement began to officially become popular.

In the 90s, it became more and more intense.

For example, in MGM's film "007: Tomorrow's Empire", the producers adopted an integrated plan for implantation, and reached a product placement agreement with five companies, Smerlot, BMW, VISA and Ericsson, and received a total of $98 million!

You must know that the total production cost of this movie is only 120 million US dollars!

This simply became the most sensational event for Hollywood bigwigs that year!

This is more sensational than changing the director of "Titanic" at the same time and letting the 18-year-old Done Walker direct!

Ordinary fans are naturally more shocked by the super hit of "Titanic", their level is low, their vision is limited, and they can't see the bigger picture, thinking that a movie with a box office close to $2 billion is a big event.

In fact, in that year, it was "007: Tomorrow's Empire" that was even more significant to the Hollywood operation pattern.

"Titanic" is just a movie that made a lot of money, but "007: Tomorrow's Empire" has changed the industrial landscape of Hollywood.

The significance of this film is no less than the concepts of "platter investment", "explosive theory", and "special effects industrial process" that Donn later proposed.

Since then, product placement has truly become a "standard operating procedure" for Hollywood products.

It has become a huge source of income for Hollywood!

Last year, New Globe exclusively produced a total of 44 films, 16 TV series and 9 reality shows.

The total production cost was $3.16 billion.

Of the more than $3 billion in production costs, product placement alone helped New Globe save $1.13 billion in budget.

In other words, 30% of the production budget can be met by advertisers!

It's definitely a huge piece of cake.

Other film and television companies, even if they are not as large as New Universal, are not as attractive to advertisers. But they have a more limited production budget and a stronger reliance on product placement.

However, more and more ad placements have caused more and more negative impacts.

First of all, selling a product to the audience without them knowing it is tantamount to deception.

Secondly, product placement will destroy the artistry of the content of film and television works, resulting in incoherence of the plot. or the implanted product does not match the plot of the work, which in turn causes the audience's disgust.

Just a few days ago, the Hollywood Writers Guild in this year's white paper focused on attacking the current situation of product placement that is overflowing with marketing.

They argue that this phenomenon deprives the screenwriter of his creative rights by making it necessary to modify the work to "stuff" the product in the final stages of the workflow.

Fortunately, the Writers Guild's voice in Hollywood is almost zero.

Far from being comparable to the Producers' Guild, the Director's Guild and the Actors' Guild.

This kind of trade union calling, the bigwigs don't pay much attention.

In labor disputes, the ultimate winner must be the employer. Those who won by the labor side became socialist countries, and then the oppression of the labor side became even more ruthless, and it was called "blessed reward".

"There is no need to worry too much about the situation here, the screenwriters' union can't make trouble. Don stood in the middle of a group of entertainment bigwigs with a glass of red wine.

Five years ago, such a scenario would have been unthinkable.

And at this moment, he is already the C core of these entertainment bigwigs.

"Long story short, huh?"

Speaking was California Senator Andrew Feeney, a descendant of Gov. Schwarzenegger.

This time, he was the official representative of California.

When the bigwigs talk about things, they don't need to be as calculating as the executives below, and propose solutions one by one, mainly to put forward an idea, and everyone decides.

Donn smiled, "This is Michael's home stadium, wait for him to come over." ”

After a while, Michael Eisner came over with a red face, and everyone smiled and greeted him.

After a simple greeting, it was back to the topic.

"Do you understand?"

"No, they're all waiting for you. ”

Michael Eisner smiled, and he was no longer polite, and said: "The role of product placement is getting bigger and bigger, with the increasing popularity of Hollywood movies around the world, it is foreseeable that in the next 5 years, the film and television industry can get a return of 20 billion US dollars from major advertisers through product placement." ”

That's an average of $4 billion a year!

It's definitely a super big cake!

No one can destroy it!

Not only can it not be destroyed, but this cake must be made bigger and stronger!

This is more in line with Hollywood and in everyone's interests.

The bigwigs all looked solemn and listened attentively.

Although there have been great conflicts between all the people here, any two people. But at the level of Hollywood, everyone is a community of interests.

Michael Eisner continued: "Hollywood has gradually changed from a geonoun to a virtual adjective. More and more Hollywood films and television productions are being produced all over the world, especially on the European continent. However, the EU and the UK are tight-lipped about product placement. ”

Councillor Andrew Feeney immediately bowed his head and said, "That's true, if I'm not mistaken...... When Hollywood products were implanted, Europe began to be vigilant and restricted it through legislation. ”

At the end of the 80s of the last century, the European Union promulgated the "Film and Television Without Borders" law, which clearly stipulates the principle of separate handling of advertising and film and television programs.

It's a hard and fast rule.

Even the subsidiaries of Hollywood Giant Group in the European Union must comply with the provisions of this law and prohibit product placement if they want to produce movies and television.

There is no doubt that this is a huge policy constraint for Hollywood.

The EU's bill is not friendly when Hollywood films are produced globally, shot globally, and then returned to Hollywood's new model of centralized distribution.

The UK is an area of the European Union, but does not enforce EU acts.

But the situation in the UK is not much better, and the British Radio and Television Authority also has corresponding regulations.

In general, the film and television environment of the entire European continent is very backward, even inferior to East Asian countries.

It is precisely Europe that is the largest overseas market for Hollywood, and it must be mastered.

"So...... Is it to lobby the EU to amend the relevant bill?"

The bigwigs are all human spirits, and they instantly understood the purpose of this gathering.

At this time, Don said, "Yes, Hollywood films and television works will be sold to Europe without any restrictions, and new media technology is developing rapidly. Times have changed, and the old EU law has been enacted for 16 years, and it is time to introduce a new law that is more in line with the trend of the times. Or...... Directly cancel the "Film and Television Without Crossing the Boundary" bill to form a free trade in the film and television market. ”

"Haha!"

Everyone burst into laughter.

Bill cancellation?

It's simply not possible.

Europe is America's biggest ally and at the same time America's biggest competitor. The EU cannot afford to let the European market become Hollywood's backyard.

The "Film Without Borders" bill is indeed a bit outdated.

The rigid requirement that commercial advertisements and film and television works be separated is not in line with the trend of the times at all.

Europeans' own film and television works do not participate in commercial advertising, but there are Hollywood works, can the EU still block Hollywood films?

Whether it is from the perspective of the industry pattern, the development of the times, or the interests of Hollywood, it is imperative to promote the loosening and reform of the EU's "Film and Television Without Borders" law.

The internationalization of Hollywood is not the integration of Hollywood and the international community, but the compromise of the international community with Hollywood. ()

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