"I saw the most amazing show (Interview) on television." Ryan O'Neal, actor

"I've never seen anything like it. I was spellbound." Ron Koslov, creator Beauty and the Beast

"Mr. Brando would like to obtain a copy of the show (Interview) he saw on television last night." Aiko, secretary to Marlon Brando

"I don't understand why there was an actor's credit at the end of the show, I thought it was real." Christopher Penn, actor Pale Rider

"Methinks he has talent." Bob Rafelson, director The Postman Always Rings Twice

"Whoever did this deserves an Academy Award" Ron Shelton, director Bull Durham, Cobb

"These authors are an interviewer's dream." David Gritten, TV critic, Los Angeles Times

"I still can't believe these interviews aren't real." Wayne Satz, ABC News

An Evaluation of a Product-Integrated Concept

By
Stephen Mitchell

In September of 1985, I sat down in the studio to tape a television show that was unlike anything I'd ever done before. It was to be called "(Interview)" and I would ultimately tape 500 half-hour segments of this show, which was similar in tone to the Charlie Rose series currently on PBS. I conceived the form and function of the show with a specific purpose in mind. I wanted to sell a product that nobody wanted to a public that had an aversion to buying.

It was important to me that the show, which was actually a 28-minute commercial, be perceived as entertainment and not as a product pitch. Furthermore, it was imperative that, in purchasing the product, the buyer was made to feel part of a select group of cognoscenti.

The product to be marketed: stories for motion picture development. The public: film directors and producers. It is well established that, while scripts are difficult enough to sell to Hollywood, unpublished stories are impossible. The buying public of producers and directors unanimously refuse to accept unsolicited materials. The function of (Interview) was to create a demand for an unwanted product amongst an insolated public. It did exactly that.

Every design aspect of the show was premeditated to distill and manipulate the audience. Every show in the series featured a cast of two, an interviewer and an author. The guest had lived some incredible adventure that was recounted in his or her book. I played the interviewer. An actor played the author, for there was no book. What he or she would recount for the camera was actually a story of my own creation, but told as though it were their true story. Why an author with a book? My research told me that new books were the hot button with producers and directors. I called it "(Interview)".

Since the show would run on an obscure cable channel without promotion of any kind, I designed the show visually to capture my intended audience. Knowing that the majority of producers and directors are male with a tendency to channel-surf, I shot most of the show in an extreme close-up on the "author". The reason for this was that viewers are accustomed to seeing master, medium or two-shots and I knew that the extreme close-up, with its connotation of importance, would be visually arresting to the channel-surfer. I only occasionally used a wider close-up and a medium shot of the "author" to create a rhythm.

As the interviewer, I posed my questions from off-camera so that the viewing audience never saw me. This was another premeditated design decision. I needed a device to hold the viewer long enough for them to become interested in the story. I anticipated that viewers would be curious about who the interviewer was and would wait until they saw him before turning to another channel. I reasoned that by the time they realized that they wouldn't be seeing him, they would be hooked on the story. Were they ever!

(Interview) generated the following results:

· (Interview) resulted in regular sales of my story ideas to film production companies, producer, directors with purchase prices ranging from $50,000 to $250,000;

· (Interview) garnered a "first-look deal" for me with Tri-Star Pictures, who would pay to see segments of (Interview) before it aired on cable television;

· (Interview) received critical praise on its merits as a show, with TV critic David Gritten (L.A. Times) referring to it as a "superior talk show" when writing a feature article about the series.

· (Interview) generated the fan base of producers, directors and creative artists I had targeted, including the following:

For more information CONTACT US

or call
(818) 380-3414

©2002 Cinebank