[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: We understand you have a very interesting Stanley Kubrick story?
Jim Fredrick, Author/Editor/Professor At Chapman University Dodge College: Yes. I was driving along the 405 freeway going 5 miles an hour on my way home from Burbank to Manhattan Beach, a very arduous drive.
I got a phone call on my car phone and it was Terry Semel, who was the co-head of Warner Brothers Studios. I had only been there a year. I thought Why is the head of the studio calling a schmuck like me? I’m just a poster/ trailer maker. He said I’ve got some bad news. Stanley Kubrick just passed away and as you know Stanley made all of his campaign materials himself.
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He’d hire artists to work whether it was the poster for The Shining or the teaser trailer for 2001, whatever. He would create the materials and send them off to his home studio Warner Brothers and say Here’s the poster for Full Metal Jacket. Make 40,000 of these.
So the studio had gotten to count on Stanley to be the marketer of his own films, almost unheard of in Hollywood history. But here he is with this film that nobody had seen Eyes Wide Shut starring two of the biggest movie stars in the world…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
About:
After starting his career in 1983 as a trailer editor and producer at famed advertising boutique Intralink, Jim Fredrick went on to serve as president of marketing at Castle Rock Entertainment, senior vice president of creative advertising at Warner Bros. and executive vice president of marketing at Sony Screen Gems. In 2011, he founded his own company, Jim Fredrick Motion Picture Marketing.
Across a span of 35 years, Fredrick’s roles as a trailer maker and studio executive allowed him to craft advertising campaigns for a range of movies, from such iconic cinematic gems as The Shawshank Redemption to the widely beloved Harry Potter franchise. He has helped produce more than 196 film marketing campaigns.
His memoir, Opening Weekend, explores the intricacies of the lesser-known business of film distribution and marketing, unraveling the complex mechanisms through which movies are sold to discriminating audiences. Replete with triumphs, setbacks, and the relentless spirit that drives the creation and promotion of cinematic masterpieces, Opening Weekend promises an enthralling glimpse into the previously untold world of Hollywood movies.
BUY THE BOOK – OPENING WEEKEND:
An Insider’s Look at Marketing Hollywood’s Hits and Flops
CONNECT WITH JIM FREDRICK:
Chapman.edu/our-faculty/jim-fredrick
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