What Should My Movie Be About? The Rooftop Collection Part 3 of 4

The Roof Top Collection

Before we begin our look at the "Roof Top Collection" -

We interrupt this program to bring you this important AtelierIMD bulletin:

De de da de de de - De de da de de de - De de da de de de -

Last time we discussed how important telling the story of your business is to your success, because it sets you apart from your competitors, engages customers and makes you memorable.

And, we introduced four main categories business video using the simple analogy of building a house –  

• First you start with the foundation
• Then frame some walls
• Top it off with a roof
• Finally, you fill the place with personal items

We also reviewed the – The Foundation Collection with its Testimonial Videos and Brand Doctrines and the Frame Collection – A behind the scenes look at how you do – what you do - complete with, tutorials, DIY and staff features.

If you want to review further you’ll find recent articles listed in the sidebar to the right of your screen. Or, you can just scroll down.

Now! - Back to our regularly scheduled program.

The Roof Top Collection

The Roof Top Collection is the place for all of those things you “feel” strongly about – as opposed to providing information and facts. This is where you announce innovations; celebrate anniversaries and milestones; share awards and tributes; or anything else new, bright and shiny you wish to shine a spot light on.

This is the place for broad, grand gestures of success and achievement.

Roof Tops are rare – but very special – so keep an eye out for them.

Simply put the Roof Top Collection features things that make you want to - sing and dance on the roof!

---

Where are Tevye and Lazar Wolf when you need them? If you’re a musical theater fan, you get the reference from “Fiddler On the Roof.”

If you’re not a musical theater fan I strongly suggest you become one – because musical theater – from opera to book shows – embodies the spirit of the Roof Top Collection like nothing else - because, both musical theater and Rooftop films are about making emotional connections. And, we all know emotional connections lead to loyalty.

Now, I know musical theater is the butt of many a joke – “Two musical theater fans walk into a bar..! Wait! You found another one?”

Sorry –

Musical theater, as we know it today, is a four hundred year tradition that instantly accomplishes something we all want from our media. Instant emotional engagement!

“How does it achieve this - magical and much desired - emotional affiliation?” - by creating what Julian Woolford in his book "How Musicals Work" calls a unique “theatrical” language with those of us in the audience. Every musical (and film for that matter) has its own language – that guides the experience.

Do the characters sing, dance, talk - or - all of the above? Are they human, alien, talking cars or animals?  Are they good, evil, moral or immoral, and do we care? The specifics are irrelevant – good musical theater – much like your story - begins teaching its unique language from the moment the lights come up.

But, as storyteller,you  have to be consistent. Remember,  you’re teaching us your personal language.

Woolford puts it like this -

"Having taught them, you would then tell a joke and... change to a different language for the punchline? ...that would be lunacy."

You have to be consistent from the first moment.

---

What’s really amazing though is how desperately we, the audience, want to learn this new language - and how quickly we begin to understand it in terms that relate to our own lives, and hopes, and dreams -  and how quickly we are willing to suspend our disbelief.

I was in a meeting once with the executive committee of a well known company. Some how or another, we got to talking about animation and I started to play an animated film I had made as a Christmas card the year before. To me it was just a "Hey! Maybe we could do something like this kind of moment." When I looked up however, I found a room full of career executives who were, every bit, as mesmerized, as a five year old on Saturday morning - by a cartoon! We all want to believe.

A well written opera or Broadway show does this beautifully – it grabs us by the heartstrings and begins teaching its unique language from the opening note! We want to learn and believe so badly – that we proceed to spend the next couple of hours in a semi-dark room where “normal” people, break out in ballad when their emotions become too great for mere language.

In other words – we completely buy into the experience.

In fact, we buy time and time again – spending hundreds of dollars for a ticket each and every time the show’s in town. That’s loyalty!

Why are we so loyal? Because it reaches us emotionally – instead of just rationally!

Against all logic - we want to believe that Professor Harold Hill can really teach music. We trust that Danny Zuko want’s more from Sandy than a little “Summer Lovin’.” And, we hope beyond hope - that there really is a naughty Sandy, in black spandex, awaiting us somewhere! “Tell me about it. Stud!

Okay! I’m back now! The chandelier of reality just came crashing down on the stage of fantasy!

All of the musicals I just referenced have made their way into our collective consciousness.

In new media terms - they went viral!

But, more importantly - they stayed viral. Professor Harold Hill and the Music Man – premiered almost sixty years ago! Grease – forty-five years ago!

And, that famous crashing chandelier – Well, it’s said that at any given moment – somewhere in the world – there is a performance of Phantom of the Opera in progress. It’s done over $6 Billion dollars at the worldwide box office, more than seven times its closest competitor “The Lion King.” More than double the box office of “Avatar” – the highest grossing film of all time.

Phantom of the Opera is the most valuable piece of art ever created.

I guess there are more than two fans of musical theater out there. And, we’re clearly loyal.

---

Opera’s been up to the same thing for centuries. We just don’t realize it today.

Admit it – What most of us know about opera comes from Bugs Bunny cartoons.

Even there, we want to believe that Elmer Fudd won’t really “Kill the Wabbit!  Kill the Wabbit!!!” The tune is – of course - “Ride of the Valkyries,” from the opera Die Walküre by Richard Wagner.

I bet most of you will recognize this – even in this form!

Dah dat da, dah dat.
Dah dat, dah dat.
Dah dat da, dah dat - da dah dat –
dah diddly dum!

If it still doesn't register (Click Below)

It’s the main theme of a comic opera by Gioachino Rossini – called “The Barber of Seville.” It premiered in 1816, and it’s still part of our social lexicon - after two hundred years. Though most of us born in the twentieth century will always associate it with Bugs and Elmer!

The point is – I’m not talking about your last social media update – I’m talking about centuries!  How’d you like to stay viral – or even relevant - for that long?

While, no one can tell you precisely how to create a viral video – The Rooftop Collection of films is your best chance - because this is where all the emotion is –  and emotion is what we cling to and remember. It’s emotion that we crave and share!

And, it’s emotion that connects an audience to your brand.

---

Now, I know I’ve been going on – and on – and on - about musical theater. I’m not suggesting that your CEO deliver the next quarterly report as a patter song. (Though, I’d pay good money to see that!)

It’s worth mentioning here, that in our - often far too serious world – breaking into song at the most improbable moment could be funny. And, funny has a value of its own. But, that’s another article entirely. (Coming soon to a theater near you)

What I’m saying is - the lessons musical theater can teach us about emotional connections and loyalty are beyond value. And, the Rooftop Collection works in much the same way!

It's how you can tell your story, in your own theatrical language, with a gentle tug at the heartstrings. You don’t have to literally sing, or dance, or even play an instrument, to "Be musical." The Rooftop Collection can - Make your story sing!

How many of you get a little teary eyed during the Final Four’s “One Shining Moment” video? Admit it. It’s okay to cry in basketball!  It’s baseball where there’s no crying allowed – (Well… that’s what Tom Hanks said in “A League of Their Own!”)

“One Shining Moment” is basketball set to music. It plays, on screen like ballet – graceful, elegant moves, in pristine slow motion - punctuated by dramatic, slam dunks, alley oops and three point bombs. It moves hard boiled, grown men to tears every March. And, with a little thought and imagination, you can do it with your brand.

Here’s an example of a Rooftop piece I created for the hundredth anniversary of Firestone. In those distant days of yore – before HD. (By the way - This was created from existing footage and stock photos.)

Roof Top pieces can often begin their lives in other collections. For example a particularly moving Brand Doctrine could turn out to be a Roof top too.  A staff profile could take on a life of its own and become a rooftop. It’s all about emotion.

Here’s one that was created as a Frame Collection piece for the client. For us however, it became a rooftopper when it won a 2013 “Telly Award” for Corporate Image Film.

Stock Images - Courtesy of Alan Reitano and  AEWorks Inc.