[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: One of my favorite movies is Mr. Saturday Night for many reasons but for you I believe it was a tougher movie?
Jim Fredrick, Author/Editor/Professor At Chapman University Dodge College: I’m with you. I love the film. A passion project for Billy Crystal based on one of his characters on SNL.
He goes from young Buddy Young, Jr. a comedian in the early days of television. It’s kind of like a flashback. He becomes this old grumpy man. His brother Stan played by David Paymer who got an Oscar nomination for sporting actor in the role, it was a story about brothers and how poorly he treated his brother who did nothing but support his career his whole life.
The movie I just thought was funny. It was kind of like My Favorite Year which is a favorite film of mine too. It’s about the early days of television which I found fascinating. Billy really got into that live performance, very, very stressful. There was a romance to it but he was kind of a booger. He was mean to his brother. He was egotistical. It was a very flawed character which to me made the movie all the better. I think Billy did a great job in the role.
We thought we had a hit for sure. It was coming right on the heels of A Few Good Men. The studio was just feeling really good. We had just done a comedy that had done well called Honeymoon In Vegas with Nicholas Cage that was a little movie that did very well. We were feeling very, very confident. We felt we had another one in this. It had tested well and it was my first experience with something called tracking.
Tracking is based on political polling. So we’re just coming out of an election, obviously a lot of talk about the polling and is it accurate, is it not? Same thing with films. You go to the public and you ask how they are feeling about this movie versus this film? What audience is stronger and so you learn demographics and you start creating expectations which is a big word in movie marketing.
The expectations for Mr. Saturday Night based on how we felt at Castle Rock Entertainment about the film…(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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