Filmmaker Proposes Curriculum to Marry Art and Advertising

Screenwriting course opens the door to alternative sources for funding the sale and production of screenplays using a branded entertainment model. Students actually go through the process of creating a branded alliance with a corporate partner for a script they have written.

(PRWEB) September 24, 2005 -- Stephen Mitchell has authored a writing curriculum for the creation of brand integrated concepts suitable for feature films, television programming and alternate media, including game content. The purpose of the course is to create a pool of talent capable of generating entertainment/advertising vehicles on demand in response to the changing dynamics of the advertising world. The name of the course is Branded Alliance.

This is the first writing workshop to address the concept of branded entertainment. Students are instructed in the art of blending story content and corporate message in a manner that is seamless. “Frank Lloyd Wright said form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union. That’s a very good description of what branded entertainment should be,” according to Mitchell.

Stephen’s first foray into the world of brand integration occurred in 1985 with the creation of the innovative and critically acclaimed cable TV series (Interview). “I wanted to sell a product that nobody wanted to a public that had an aversion to buying. It was important to me that the show, which was actually a 28-minute commercial, be perceived as entertainment and not as a product pitch. Furthermore, it was imperative that, in purchasing the product, the buyer was made to feel part of a select group of cognoscenti.” (Interview) fulfilled its mandate (See:http://www.cineparis.net/ints/int.html).

The course will stress a conceptual and innovative approach to the subject of brand integration. “Unlike product placement, which can be done by the numbers, there is no single definition of branded entertainment,” Mitchell says. “It also forces us to redefine ‘product’, for it can be a label, an idea, a city or anything else that that has the backing of corporate partner.”

Those taking the course will write a screenplay with a branded alliance in mind and actually contact potential corporate partners with a branded proposal.

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