Saturday, June 20, 2009

Publicity in Sports, Music and Book Publishing – Sky’s The Limit Say EPPS Workshop Panelists

(L-R Janette Bax, Seth Burton, Flo Selfman and Howard Brodwin at EPPS workshop in Hollywood)

About 75 entertainment publicists huddled in Hollywood at the International Cinematographers Union Local 600 auditorium to learn about “word of mouth, social media, networking and how to use the web” with the traditional publicity tactics. The breakfast media workshop was sponsored by the Entertainment Publicists Professional Society (EPPS), LA Chapter. The Panelists

Everyone’s Blogging
“When we had a mixer a year ago January in downtown LA, Jack O’Dwyer’s George (Mc Quade) was going around with his tape recorder asking everyone what they thought about blogs. My comment at that time was, ‘the jury is still out.’ Before the ink was dry on the magazine, blogs went from iffy, to something we can’t do without,” said PR Consultant Flo Selfman, proofreader/copyeditor, president, IWOSC iwosc.org.

One of the books Selfman is working on right now, “The Wicked Wit of The West” by the late Screenwriter Irving Brecher, who died at age 98 a few months ago continues to live Online thanks to the Internet. “It is so amazing. What happened is the gentleman died just before the book came out. So the younger co writer was doing all of the publicity, but Irving Brecher died in November, so he was in all of the year-end wrap-ups in the blogs. Some of them even mention the book before it came out and it was completely done on the Internet.

Policing the Internet is “Tough”
“We use our website primarily as our news source,” said EPPS Panelist Seth Burton, asst. director of Communications, Los Angeles Clippers. “There’s just not enough space in newspapers, if you follow the LA Times Sports section for example. It is more like a sports pamphlet than sports section of the paper these days. For some reason its all about the Lakers (victory) parade. So if anything happens we have to get it out there on our own. We post video on our website, audio interviews along with new media like Twitter.

Twitter, Facebook, MySpace – No space for control
We have had a number of fake Twitter accounts and we are dealing with one right now about our coach. And recently there was a fake Twitter player’s account, where the activities were reported in the LA Times. A fake player had requested a trade on a Twitter account that was not true,” said Burton. “A lot of NBA players are on Twitter, twittering about everything. We also use FaceBook to drive traffic to our website. We offer a lot of tickets and programs through the new media platforms to give fans a sense of ownership that drives them there.”

Burton, who started working as a sports reporter for a couple of newspapers on the East Coast, moved into the media relations at the Washington Redskins. He also worked for the Galaxy soccer team before joining the Clippers.

“The Internet is one of the primary ways to get the word out,” said Janette Baxa, director of Publicity, Nederlandar Concerts. Baxa, who made the transition from a record label to music and concert publicity said, “We also employ the Facebooks, the Twitters and MySpaces of the world. For me it is very important for all the bloggers from Perez Hilton to LAist.com, LosAngeles.com, and who would of thought I would be email Perez Hilton. A lot of writes and editors have turned to the web as well, so I have establish more relationships with them Online in getting the word out on my shows. The great thing about pitching Online, they can turn it around right away and post it, obviously one of the great advantages. We still rely on advertising, but again it is selective. Where it used to be a full page, it is now a strip, she said.”

Hard to Keep Up with New Media
“We are doing it right by getting it out there on the websites, but it is hard sometimes to keep up with,” said Moderator, Madelyn Hammon, Madelyn Hammond & Associates, who said when she inquired about an event involving the cast and crew of Saving Grace (her favorite TV show) occurred when she called and asked ‘why it wasn’t posted somewhere?’, they said, ‘well, we posted it on our website.’”

“Everybody is writing a blog, it’s true. And there are some magnificent writers doing a blog. The blogs that I come in contact with has excellent research and writing. There is much dedication to their topics and a lot of write about Hollywood history, and where the author Rosenfeld finds them he’ll send a comment, I’ll send a comment and it just keeps going. They call it viral marketing, but it is still like the pebble in the stream. You start something, then someone else tells somebody else and the circles keep getting bigger and bigger. And what you hope is that it will inspire someone to actually go out and purchase the book or products,” Selfman.

Added Hammond, “Anyone can write a book, but Online it’s about selling books, about getting people to attend games or to buy concert tickets.”

“I think one of the greatest things about Internet is not having all the technology, but how it is used and how it works,” said Howard Brodwin, managing director, Team Marketing Systems. “It has really forced everybody from the biggest of companies all the way down to the most local of businesses to be as upfront and transparent as possible about who you are, and what you do, as possible. If you’re trying to get out into the publicity world, there has always been that question of spin. And these days if you are trying to spin something, whether something is going to happen at a concert or somebody is getting traded or not traded and something is going on with whatever you are promoting that information gets transmitted immediately and you can’t get it back. There is something new (technology) that is coming that will allow you to resend your emails that you have already sent out.”

“The good thing about what word of mouth provides now is you are forced to get it right when you’re getting your message out, because you know as soon as it gets out there it’s going to spread virally. The same goes for when you are uncomfortable with the situation like the Twitter incident, you have to get out in front of that message as fast as possible to notify people with the correct information. The good news is now we have all of those channels to get that information out there.”

Brodwin, when asked about which sites are best said, “Depending upon the target audience, but it is better to have five really good blog or websites to target than blasting 500.”

To contact the EPPS panelists or if you have a question they prefer you contact them via email:

Janette Baxa, janette@nederlander.com; Howard Brodwin, hkb@teammarketingsystems.com; Seth Burton, sburton@clippers.com, Flo Selfman, floself@aol.com and Madelyn Hammon, Madelyn@madelynhammond.com.

MAYO Communications:
"We Don't Guarantee Media, We Just Get It!"

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Friday, June 12, 2009

The American Legion Post Exclusive Footage of D-Day in St. Mere Eglise
















D-Day events at Ste. Mere Eglise in Normandy

Thursday, June 12, 2009

At the epicenter of D-Day anniversary activities each year is the small town of Ste. Mere Eglise, made famous by the 1962 hit movie “The Longest Day.” Each year, even today, veterans, historians, tourists and re-enactors swarm to the Normandy town to see history come alive. Active-duty paratroopers jump from C-130s in the countryside surrounding the town. Parades, wreath-laying ceremonies and activities at the town’s Airborne Museum.

The town’s 65th anniversary celebration was captured by filmmaker Richard Lanni. Please be patient while the video loads.

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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

The 65th Anniversary of D-Day On Voice of America

Film Recalls Heroism of D-Day


02 June 2009
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U.S. troops landing on the beach during the Normandy invasion, 06 Jun 1944
Saturday is the 65th anniversary of D-Day, the day in 1944 when American, British, Canadian and other allied forces launched an air and sea assault on the coast of Normandy. British filmmakers have highlighted the stories of some aging veterans who took part in the crucial battle to free Europe from the Nazis.

One hundred sixty thousand Allied troops landed on the desolate stretch of coastline, which was heavily fortified by the Germans. More than 5,000 Allied ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the operation.

It was called D-Day, a military term for an unspecified target date. American Mort Schechter was a tail-gunner with the 467th bomb group, based in Rackheath, England, and he flew on D-Day.

"We flew the first mission about 3:30 in the morning," said Mort Schechter. "We bombed a port in France."

He says the skies were quiet.

"There was no flack and no fighters," he said. "The Germans must have been sleeping, and we were thankful for that."

He says the English Channel beneath his B-24 aircraft was like a busy highway.

"We were flying over the channel and I looked down and there were thousands and thousands of ships," said Schechter. "Like if you say cars were bumper to bumper, that was what the ships looked like."


(Above Photo: Mort Schecter, his son, film Director
Richard D. Lanni, Terry Duddy, American Legion,
and Grandson Ben (11 yrs.). Photo by
George Mc Quade. Photos below by Mike Forster.


Another American, Jerry King, was on the ground at his U.S. base in England, helping to load planes with paratroopers and supplies.

"It was chaotic, believe me," said King. "There was a lot going on."

Off the Normandy coast, Earl W. Norwood was a 17-year-old sailor who operated a landing craft between the ships and Omaha Beach, one of the beaches where the Americans landed. There were 36 on board his landing craft.

"Around 7:30 in the morning, we were hit by a round that come into starboard side, proceeded to kill two soldiers and wound two very severely," said Norwood. "And here I'm just talking about it in about 15 or 20 seconds, maybe a minute, but it was a lifetime."

He kept heading for the beach. The soldiers disembarked and he took the dead and wounded to the hospital ship.

"I was driving the boat, and a lot of people think that was a great thing and so forth," he said. "But the real heroes that day were those 32 men that after they saw their comrades, the first four me on the boat cut in half or shot to pieces, two very severely and two dead, they still climbed over the bodies and did their job."

At least 9,000 Allied troops were killed or wounded in the invasion. German casualties are thought to have numbered between 4,000 and 9,000.

The costly D-Day battle would mark a turning point in the war, and would change the lives of survivors like Earl Norwood.

"That morning when I went in I was a 17-year-old kid," said Norwood. "I came out a 40-year-old man."

The story of the soldiers, sailors and airmen who landed in Normandy is told in a documentary by two British filmmakers. Ellwood von Siebold grew up fascinated with the Second World War. He turned his passion into a career when he moved to the French village of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the first town that was liberated by the Americans in Europe. Today, he gives tours to visitors, including some aging D-Day veterans and their families.

He also hosts the video tour of historic D-Day sites in the documentary The Americans on D-Day, which he made with British producer and fellow Normandy resident Richard Lanni.

"The most important motivating thing for us was to perpetuate the memory of these great men who are sadly dying away before our very eyes," said von Siebold. "We wanted to make sure that their achievements will live on forever, and this is our small contribution towards doing that."


The bloody assault on the beaches of Normandy would change the course of the war, allowing the Allies to liberate occupied France and advance into Germany, as Soviet troops advanced against the Germans from the East.

Film Review by Steve Shepard (more)

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Monday, June 1, 2009

65th Anniversary of D-Day Celebrated on Film

















Buy this DVD and $5 for each
sold benefits disabled Vets.


Film Review
By
Steve Shepherd

65th Anniversary -
The Americans On D-Day


"The Americans on D-Day" is a compact and concise examination of the
United States' part in the June 6, 1945, Allied invasion of Normandy.

Considering the enormity of the actual D-Day undertaking it might sound hopeless to present a comprehensive account in a documentary with a running time of 44 minutes, but producer-director Richard Lanni has come up with a well organized documentary that provides a clear outline of the events of D-Day, punctuated along the way with a somewhat more detailed account of specific moments in the battle that turned the tide of World War II in Europe.

The film benefits immensely from the presence of Ellwood von Seibold as host-narrator-tour guide. Donning authentic military uniform and accessories – down to the "pineapple" style hand grenade hanging from his utility webbing – von Seibold shares a wealth of knowledge on the subject, presenting it with an elegance that provides an effective counterpoint to the brutality that is, after all, at the center of the D-Day story.


"The Americans on D-Day" strikes a tone appropriate to the nature of D-Day, offering a matter-of-fact account that acknowledges the powerful emotional component of its subject matter while stopping short of romanticizing or idealizing an event that was as bloody and brutal as it was essential to the Allies' success in
Europe.


The production deftly blends archival footage and stills with contemporary footage. Early on, we see black-and-white images of
U.S. forces, including Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower – as we hear audio of Ike's sendoff to the D-Day forces.


"You are about to embark upon a great crusade," he tells them. "The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. You will bring about the destruction of the German war machine.


"We will accept nothing less than full victory"


The film then goes on to function as a battlefield tour, offering close-ups of German fortifications along the beaches of Normandy, arms – including the MG-42, a heavy machine gun that could fired upwards of 1,200 rounds per minute – and bridges and structures that played key roles in the Allie invasion.


Interviews with both
U.S. and German veterans of the operation provide further personal insight into the significance of D-Day and its human toll.


Many of the images presented in "The Americans on D-Day" will be familiar to those who have seen the feature film "Saving Private Ryan," the TV miniseries "Band of Brothers," or any number of other filmed projects that touch on D-Day.


The DVD package has extras including the film's trailer, a making-of feature, a segment on weapons training, another on uniforms and a collection of stills.

===================================================================
Editors note: If you would like a copy of Americans of D-Day to review at your publication or media news website contact:

MAYO Communications 818-340-5300 or send request by email.
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