Bob Putignano / Quote - Crain Communications, Inc
PBS cranking up the blues power
Marketing blitz, high hopes for unique Scorsese documentaries
Published on August 04, 2003
It was five years ago when Martin Scorsese was seduced by the blues.
The legendary director had just finished producing a documentary about the influence
of the blues on the music of Eric Clapton, and was hungry to explore
the subject further. He approached award-winning producer Alex Gibney
about creating a documentary feature film to honor the music. But Mr.
Gibney thought it was such a rich subject that it deserved something
bigger.
So instead of shooting one film, Mr. Scorsese chose seven movie directors-including
himself, Clint Eastwood and Wim Wenders-and gave them each a $1
million budget and free creative reign to craft their own
documentaries about different aspects of the music.
The result is a seven-night series that will kick off PBS' fall season on Sept. 28,
and much more. In creating this project, Mr. Scorsese and team have
pioneered a new form of the increasingly popular documentary series,
taking it a step further than Ken Burns-famous for his academic series
on baseball and jazz-and breaking new ground in marketing as well.
"Instead of approaching a subject in a linear way, run by one person, like Ken
Burns does, you have these different directors doing variations on a
theme," Mr. Gibney says. "This is the most eclectic series
you'll ever see. It's a new approach, and its success will be judged
by the number of imitators."
With a combined production and marketing budget of over $14 million, the series is
also the most expensive of its kind ever put together. The project's
ambitious nature is all the more impressive given that it comes at a
time when blues as an art form is in decline.
PBS, for the first time, altered its viewing schedule for the project, because Mr.
Scorsese didn't want the filmmakers to have any restriction over the
length of their films. Therefore, all the films have been given
two-hour slots, with filler being used to make up any leftover time.
Already, the originality of the project and the big-name directors involved-not
least of all Mr. Scorsese-have spurred one of the biggest marketing
campaigns ever for a documentary series, with a budget of around $7
million.
On Sept. 1, HarperCollins will release a companion book called Martin Scorsese
Presents the Blues: A Musical Journey. But instead of the now
ubiquitous glossy coffee table books that accompany documentary
series, this effort is more of a literary anthology, with newly
commissioned essays by journalists such as David Halberstam, as well
as republished classic pieces on the blues by writers like Ralph
Ellison.
Dan Conaway,executive editor at HarperCollins, would not say how many copies are
coming out in the first printing, but did say that it's the biggest
print run he has ever worked on.
Wide appeal
"When I tell
people about this project, their eyes just light up, and these aren't
people who grew up in the Mississippi Delta with a guitar hanging on
the wall," Mr. Conaway says. "Scorsese's connection has
encouraged book sellers to take a bigger position than they would have
otherwise."
Soon after the book is released, Sony and Universal, working together, will flood the
market with 25 new CDs made to go with the series. In addition to
traditional retail locations, Sony is working on distribution deals to
sell the CDs at places such as Volkswagen dealerships. Volkswagen of
America Inc. is sponsoring the blues series.
The tie-ins are only part of a yearlong blues campaign centered around the film
series. Back in February, the series producers organized a major
concert at Radio City Music Hall, featuring newer stars like
India.Arie along with celebrated blues musicians such as B.B. King.
The concert was filmed by Anton Fuqua, the director of Training Day,
and there are plans to release it theatrically.
Proceeds from the concert and the film will go to the Blues Music Foundation to help
struggling blues artists and to support blues education.
There will also be concerts and panel discussions throughout the country, new blues
curricula for schools, a touring museum exhibition on the history of
the blues, and a 13-part radio series produced by Public Radio
International. The team behind this even convinced the U.S. Senate to
declare 2003 the year of the blues.
"This is one of the most aggressive marketing campaigns we've ever launched,"
says Anne Zeiser, director of national strategic marketing at WGBH in
Boston, the public television station that is overseeing the marketing
for the series.
The effort and expense that has gone into the blues campaign seems especially bold
given the art form's declining popularity in recent years.
Record sales have plummeted so much that blues labels are going out of business.
Manhattan-based blues clubs, like Chicago Blues, have either closed or
are now booking blues bands only 25% of the time. Blues musicians who
have won Handy Awards (the blues equivalent of Grammys) are making
half the money they were making five years ago.
"These
are real tough times for the blues," says Bob Putignano,
president of the New York Blues and Jazz Society, a nonprofit that
publicizes blues and jazz in New York. "The group of people that
have grown up with the blues are in their mid-40s and 50s, and it's
not being played enough on the radio to attract a new audience."
Stubborn faith
Yet, those involved in the blues series are undeterred. They expect the
documentaries and ancillary sales to be even more successful than for
Mr. Burns' jazz series, which sold more than 1 million CDs.
"The blues, since it has such strong ties with rock and roll, with people like
Hendrix and Clapton, has the potential to reach a broader audience
than jazz did," says Jeff Jones, senior vice president of Sony's
Columbia/Legacy Recordings. "If people watch the movies, they'll
want to go out and buy the music."
And if anyone can bring back interest in the blues, music executives say, it is Mr.
Scorsese. The documentaries aren't bogged down in a clinical overview
of the history of the blues, but instead are more hip, showing the
music's influence on the present.
"We didn't want this to be perceived as the last word on the blues," Mr.
Gibney says. "We wanted to celebrate the spirit of the music and
not confine it in some overly academic box."
Copyright 2003, Crain
Communications, Inc