A funny thing happened in the preparation of a theatrical
vehicle for a self-promoting media celebrity, another star might have been born
instead, but more importantly a budding distribution model bears a closer
examination.
If you are over 18-years old, then Matthew Espinosa is
likely to be something of an unknown quantity to you. The short of it is, he made himself a media
celebrity by posting short videos and GIFS to vine.com … really, not to be
judgmental, but is that all it takes these days to become “famous?”
Now, if you happen to live in that world — cell phones,
snap-chats, twitter and YouTube videos — the perfect promotional partner would
be Studio71, an entertainment company that pretty much works 24/7 trying out new
“branded content” promotions by using various platforms that transcend
traditional media. It could be the
future ... at least for some content consumers.
Think about it, you shoot a movie — and there are quite a
few talented independent filmmakers capable of delivering quality content on a
micro budget these days — bypass all the traditional platforms (theatrical,
direct-to-video, etc.) and use “social media” to get the word out.
It could work the same for big studio productions. There would be no big advertising and PR
budgets to fret over (no $20 to $30 million launch campaigns for a $150 million
film), no prints, no distribution costs, no physical inventories of products
(Blu-ray, DVD, etc.) … you just get the word out, pocket revenues from your
various download partners and suddenly theatres, cable channels and TV networks
are all suddenly obsolete.
Maybe “stars” like Matthew Espinosa and twitter
entertainment feeds are the future. You
could talk about that for hours — visceral versus digital versus physical
media; sampling and on and on.
Since we are not here to do that, but to talk about new
product announcements, it brings us full-circle back to Paramount Home Media
and the news this week that Matthew Espinosa theatrical debut, Be
Somebody, will be available on DVD on Oct. 25.
Studio71 tried a “virtual” theatrical launch for the film —
on a day/date with VOD back on June 10 — and the results were, at best mixed. The ARR for the Oct. 25 DVD release date of Be
Somebody works out to 137 days.
The film is directed by Joshua Caldwell — who has paid his
dues in the indie world with such films as Layover and Negative — and the script
is from TV-series producer Lamar Damon.
Be Somebody is slick, well-produced and the cinematography from
Eve Cohen (can’t quite figure out how she got the “look” of the film to be so
nicely presented) is A-list in quality.
Those are all pluses, which is important if you are going to
“introduce” a media darling to feature films.
It has to be done right and Matthew Espinosa gets a nice showcase here …
he’s a natural on screen (compared over and over and over again to Justin
Bieber) and plays his role perfectly; he is, however, no James Dean (Espinosa
has yet to put in the work to get that far).
He plays a teen singing sensation (“Bieber-ish”), who
decides to take a day off from his “sold-out” tour and play hooky. This is where we have he has a “meet-cute”
moment with a pizza delivery girl named Emily (Sarah Jeffery), who rescues him
from screaming teenage girls (think: teenage screaming zombies) and takes him
home; literally, takes him home to her parents.
The star here is, however, not Matthew Espinosa, but Sarah
Jeffery, who has done mainly TV series work thus far in her career — Shades
of Blue, Wayward Pines, Rogue, etc. She absolutely shines in a Cinderella-like
role — going from scruffy pizza delivery girl to artist with an intellect. The on-screen chemistry is good and she
carries the newbie over the rough spots … a total pro; expect to see her in
bigger films in the future.
Bonus features include a gag reel and a behind-the-scenes
featurette.
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