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WHY BEING CREATIVE ISN’T ENOUGH

admin April 19, 2019 Art, Creative, Donuts, Film, Goals, Jim Elkin, Knowledge, Learn, Life, Roshambo, Skills 0

Being creative. You wear it on your sleeve and most likely also on your socks and favorite jeans…but it’s important to note, that’s just not enough anymore. If you’re a creative person, which are many of you reading this, there are so many more skills you need to have for what you do. I’m here to help. I’m also here to eat the other half of your sandwich, but pay no attention to that.

So, you’re probably saying to yourself. “Self, why do I have to know anything other then just being creative?” Well, first of all, you should stop talking to yourself like that…but more importantly there are many reasons why you need to know more and I’m here to lay it out.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

You need to look at everything as bigger than yourself. It’s easy to look at any project and think that you just need to concentrate on your job. But, the truth is, if you can think about The Entire Project – The Entire Goal – The Entire Strategy…You will build stronger creative work for all of your projects.

Think of this as an example. You have a project with Yummy Donuts. Maybe your job is a copywriter and you need to write a complete campaign for them, including social media, print, television. That’s a lot of work, and it is, but the truth is, it’s even more than that. How can you know where to go if you don’t know where you’ve been? You have to look at what makes Yummy Donuts tick. What is the strategy that brought them to this particular campaign. What has worked before. What didn’t. Where does this new thing that you’re creating fit in and why. Also, why do I want a donut so bad right now? Anyway, if you ask yourself these hard questions going into it, it makes the process a ton easier. It’s a bit like being lost inside a large complicated maze and not knowing where to go. But, what if you could take a drone and look at the entire maze from hundreds of feet in the air…the path becomes quite clear. Also, covered in powdered sugar, but that’s for another day.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

No, this isn’t about how much money you’re getting paid or how much bread you have to make to buy a Tesla. This is about budget. I know. The B Word. As a creative, you might think you don’t have to worry about money, but you’re wrong. You have to think about what you have and what you don’t. How much you can get and what you can’t. None of these questions, should limit your choices necessarily either way. You always have options. You can always pitch to get more money…Figure out new ways to get the same job accomplished with less…Or just sell one of your kidneys. (It’s none of my business, but maybe try not to sell any organs.) But, regardless, money is not infinite and you need to know that going into it. It will shape some of your decisions, but I’m a big believer in, “Anything Is Possible” if you believe in something enough. Like these jeans I just put on that are two sizes too small. I’m lying. I’m wearing sweatpants.

BE A CHEERLEADER

This really is the most important one. Be a cheerleader for your brand. Be the biggest, brightest and loudest one. You have to believe in not only what you’re doing, but how you tell people about it. Not just in verbatim from a creative strategy brief that fell on your desk, but from deep down in that thing that you crushed on prom night…Your heart. If you can do that and really believe in it, it will show in everything that you do. It’s so important to create a culture within yourself that takes the brand you’re working on and make that part of you.

Remember, that being creative isn’t just an end all to one thing or another. It’s just the beginning to something far greater. You have the capability of being anything and everything to your brand. Just believe in yourself and having a few donuts won’t hurt either.

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Branded Content Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Bombing

admin March 1, 2019 Advertising, Art, Bomb, Brand, Brandedcontent, Broadcast, Commercial, Connection, Creation, Creative, Denver, Emotion, Fail, Film, Filmmaker, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Network, Philadelphia, Production, Resonate, Rocky, Roshambo Films, Set, Setlife, stanleykubrick, Stories, Story, Sylvesterstallone, Television, Video, Viewer, Youtube 0

Written by Jim Elkin

Stanley Kubrick was right when he said, “The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can retain interest as it conveys emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle.” Branded Content has the power to do the same. In every way. Like any true good art form, you have to be ready to take the first step. Just like a baby learning to crawl and then walk…or in my case stumbling and then flailing wildly…and then curling up into a ball. We all need to fail and that’s what is most important. No human being has ever walked without falling, except many of us have forgotten about that part. We fell many many many times. We got up and we tried again. No matter how hard and fast the floor came flying at our face. We simply forgot that each time we fall, we have learned something. We counterbalanced. We made small gestures with our arms or our legs to walk straight across a floor without falling. We do it now. You’re doing it right now. OK, not right now…you’re reading this sitting down on a chair or on a train or please god don’t read this while you’re crossing the street. That bus almost hit you! We’re just doing all of this without thinking about it. We have been learning to bomb or in this case, fail since we were born.

So, what does that mean for branded content? Well, quite simply, it means the same exact thing. We’re telling a story. You’re telling a story. That story has to mean something. To you and to everyone that watches it. That’s where a filmmaker can come in and help with branded content. It’s telling a story in the best way possible that will resonate with the viewer. But, don’t take my word for it. The Nielsen Company have discovered that brand recall was 86% for branded content and only 65% for regular ads. They also found that good branded content had certain ingredients that made them great. They are: a central personality, a unique concept, and connection with the audience. Most importantly, that content has to fit with the brand.

So, I kind of lied. Filmmakers can help, but we can’t do it alone. It is a collaborative art form in every way. We need other amazing creatives around us. We need collaborators. It takes a village to tell a story. We also need a good brand. We need the right fit with that brand. We need the right stories. When all of these things combine the right way and the right time, that’s where the magic happens.

This reminds me of a story. A story of falling and failing. It was one of my first moments on set when I was just starting out. I was on set with a big budget with a highly skilled large crew. I’ll totally never forget the craft service. We had trays brought to us with these expensive little tea sandwiches with the crust cut off. Someone actually cut the crust off of the sandwich. Not just one sandwich, but like 200 of them. Who does that? How does that even happen? How long did that take someone? I can’t get through cutting off the crust for my 6 year old daughter’s one singular sandwich without complaining loudly like I’ve been working in a coal mine all day long. Anyway, I’ll get back to the sandwich in a little bit. So, we were all waiting for a celebrity to get to set and tension was getting quite thick. Everyone, and I mean everyone, felt like this particular shot of the day was never going to work. The celebrity was very late and there was a lot of pacing, foot tapping and nervous energy. There was a car. A car that the celebrity was supposed to drive. It was a very specific classic car that took about a month to find before the shoot. The celebrity was supposed to enter the car, read their lines to camera and drive off. Pretty simple. So, the celebrity did exactly that. They got in the car. They said their lines. They drove off. Except, this particular celebrity forgot to mention they couldn’t drive. So, when they drove off, they drove right into a ditch. Everyone scrambled and a number of people from the crew screamed. Then, there was just complete silence. The celebrity got out of the car…they dusted off their expensive wardrobe (without a scratch on themselves mind you) and walked back to everyone on set. The craft service person appeared out of nowhere with that same exact tray. The celebrity took the best looking sandwich out of all of them and simply said, “That’s a pretty good sandwich.” There really isn’t a moral to this story, I just really wanted to write about a fantastic sandwich. I also wanted to write about failing. At that time, it felt like everything was over and everyone on set was devastated for the rest of the day. But, in the end we actually did get the shot. It worked. The client was happy and the car wasn’t severely damaged. It’s easy to feel like you failed, but it’s harder to except a real moment in time and just learn from it.

You will fail. That’s just going to happen. You have to except it. Never feel like your story shouldn’t be told. Any story can be compelling and interesting if you’re willing to take a risk. Just tell it the right way and in your own way…I guarantee, that particular story will find the right audience. I’ll leave you with this quote from Sylvester Stallone that is one of my favorites of all time, “It ain’t about how hard you’re hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”

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What I Learned 2017

admin December 22, 2017 Alzheimer, Dad, Dementia, Father, Film, Heart, Mind, Roshambo, Soul 3

What I Learned in 2017

I remember when I first learned my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s about 10 years ago. It hit me hard. Like many people when you hear that anyone you love has a fatal disease, it’s difficult to process. I become worried, scared, nervous and in the end felt terribly helpless. I experienced all of those things all at once. I tried to learn as much as I could about this disease and what to expect in the months and years to come. But the truth is any amount of Googling on the internet can’t prepare you for the hardest part of all. It’s what I really wanted that no amount of information or comfort from others could give me. Simply, more time.

I saw my dad over the last 10 years become someone else. Someone that was hard to recognize from the father figure who raised me as a young boy. He taught me how to read my favorite book of all time, Harold And The Purple Crayon. He played catch with me in the backyard every single time I asked no matter how late it was or what a long day he had. He showed me the completely wrong way to grill a steak unless you like it completely fried to a burnt crisp, He taught me how to treat people with fairness and kindness, but to always stand up for myself if I wasn’t treated back in the same exact way.

I’ve been fortunate enough to meet some extraordinary people in my life, but my dad was the most intelligent man I’ve ever known. He was a successful business man filled with pride, but my dad wasn’t perfect. He had many flaws like all of us do. Things that make us human. He was a little crazy with the thermostat keeping it as cold as possible…He had an annoying habit of tapping his thumbs on the steering wheel when he drove way below the speed limit as cars passed us by honking madly…He listened to dramatic Opera music at piercingly loud levels…He without fail woke up at 1am every night to sneak into the kitchen and have chocolate chip cookies. He was beautifully stoic and commanding in all his imperfections. He had piercing blue eyes. Those eyes could cut you down with one simple look. That look…that look scared me to death as a teenager, it completely stopped me in my tracks. But, that look also conveyed a sense of kindness many times over and a generosity that I’ve never known before or since.

All of these memories that he lost to the disease…all of those experiences he lost didn’t mean that I lost any of them. It made me remember him more vividly and loved him with more courage and heart. It didn’t mean I didn’t love him any less as the years went on and his mind faded away. Just the opposite. I loved him more. As he became closed off from the world and he began to lose his ability to speak and move…I felt something stronger build throughout the last 10 years within myself. The strength of who my dad was and what he meant to me. That gave me the courage to find an inner strength and love him more. It also made my family stronger, more communicative and we shared a commonality with many stories that honored his memory.

My dad and I shared many talks throughout the years before his disease. Some were combative and some talks became a time of learning, understanding and compassion for both us. We were both so different and so unwaveringly similar. But, in the end, he supported me and believed in me more than anyone else. And I believed in him. He shared with me his life lessons. How to always be there for someone else. How to never give up even in the toughest of times. How to persevere. But, also how to give up control of things you weren’t meant to control.

My father, Harold F. Elkin passed away at 11:35pm last night. He was a man I admired and loved for who he was in all his beautiful imperfections. He taught me one other thing that I’ll always keep with me. How to be a great dad. And for that I’m forever grateful. Peace and love.

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Time For A Change

admin November 21, 2017 Film, Hollywood, Protect, Roshambo Films, sexual assault, Stand, Women 0

It is a time for real change in this country and also this industry. With the re-launch of this new website, comes also a new sense of responsibility for protecting and making sure everyone we work with feels safe in a professional environment. Roshambo Films has a firm no tolerance policy for any misconduct. We plan to make sure all of our productions are surrounded by clients, cast and crew that are a completely 100% safe work place. Let’s make sure we all stand up for what is right and make sure everyone is heard. No one should ever feel unsafe or uncomfortable. We plan to make sure of that.