"....A really big word. You'll have to live up to it."
Almost a dozen years ago, my dear friend Tom Garcia said those words to me over a plate of tamales in a dive Mexican food joint in New York. The topic of discussion was the proposed name of my then-new production company, Fried Okra Entertainment, which became the successor to NurEye Films.
Of course, he was right. While every agency creative and every spot director tries -- really hard -- to embed as much entertainment as possible into every spot we do, in the end, we're crafting engaging marketing messages. It's communication with an agenda -- not just entertainment for entertainment's sake.
But entertaining spots are better than ho-hum spots. Always have been. And even back then, it was clear to me the world of communication, production, and distribution was changing pretty radically. So I went with the big word. Because I believed those changes would present opportunities that could someday make that big word mean something.
This week (fingers crossed), we're releasing the trailer for a documentary I've been working on, under the radar, between other jobs, for the last few months. The film itself will probably be finished in late summer or early fall. That's the target, anyway. Most of the shooting is done, and Jeff Sternberger at 2150 is deep in edit.
What we hope and believe, more than anything, is that it will provide Entertainment. Which, I know, is a really big word. You'll have to decide whether it lives up to it.
Stay tuned.
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