Weekly Series Becomes First Tailgate Broadcast Of High School Football, Airs On NBC
By Nicole Rivard
Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi LA have tackled high school football for an episodic branded entertainment series promoting the new editions of the Tundra and the Tacoma trucks that airs Sunday nights during the high profile halftime show of Sunday Night Football on NBC. The series, called Jon and J.J.: The Line of Scrimmage, stars first-time actors Jon Ray and J.J. Castillo driving around the country in their Toyota Tacoma searching for the best in high school football and conducting the first tailgate broadcasts from the back of their truck.
Each installment features two pieces from each of the seven high schools they visit–one focuses on an important game while the other highlights traditions of the program. For instance, in the episode about Ohio-based Massillon High School, the actors, along with directors Andrew Christou of bicoastal Moxie Pictures and Charlie Tercek of Millennium Pictures, Santa Monica, found themselves in the neonatal unit of Aultman Hospital to capture on film the tradition where baby boys are given a tiny Massillon Tiger football at birth.
The project was unique in that cast and crew traveled together for eight weeks, there was also a lot of research involved up front to determine what schools to visit and casting took a long time to find the perfect guys . Also, there was no etched-in-stone script and hellish deadlines forced the team to be editing and posting one episode while writing and shooting the next. The only way to meet the demands of the schedule was for editors Kevin Garcia and Devin Bousquet of bicoastal Beast to travel on the touring bus, where they built a mobile editing bay. “The editors, more than any other project I have been involved with, became real creative partners. They would even pick up a camera when there was one free and they had the time and help cover a game. Together in the back of the bus we would piece together our stories afterwards,” said Christou.
The show had to look and feel like it was produced by two young guys who only had a decent camera and some editing software on their laptops. The first two shoots were loosely scripted and more like a traditional spot than the rest turned out to be. “They were okay. So we looked at all the footage we shot because we shot a ton of other stuff besides what was scripted. Interestingly, the stuff that wasn’t scripted, where the guys are horsing around and improvising on a topic was fantastic,” said Tercek. “So we thought the genius of these two guys is when we let them loose to a certain degree. At that point, we made this sort of pledge to not script anything. It was frankly a little scary for me because I am a writer by background and as a director I’m used to boarding everything up, every frame, like most directors do.”
At their destinations, they surrendered control and submersed themselves in the games, barbecues and pep rallies. “There was a lot of research involved in choosing the schools but once we got there, we let things happen. It was so fresh,” Christou said. “Knowing how to set up a situation for those magical moments to happen is something I would definitely employ on any future project whether its formally story boarded or shot listed out. I still believe in that philosophically but by having the time on the set and creating an environment for something really outrageous to happen is priceless,” said Christou.
Authenticity is key
Toyota didn’t jump on the branded entertainment bandwagon with this project. While they wanted to try a new advertising platform, they know their typical pickup truck buyer is into sports, either as a coach, fan, player, former player or parent of a player so they were confident high school football truly fit the brand. “If you think of high school football, it’s also about being rugged and capable, which are the qualities we ascribe to the Tacoma truck. We have a really valuable piece of property on NBC during halftime segments. It’s really high profile. It’s really a great way to engage our sports fans in a way that’s relevant to them,” explained Erich Funke, creative director at Saatchi. Christou agrees that Jon and J.J. : The Line of Scrimmage, which is being promoted on YouTube and through Jon and J.J.’s MySpace page, was right on strategically. “I saw a lot of those small to mid-sized pickup trucks in the high school parking lots. It was very authentic to what kids were driving, as well as the people in the town. This was really apropos for the people we were trying to connect with.”
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More