by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC & Freelance Dreamer So “Inception” is this action-packed, visually stunning film that appears real. Too real. Indeed, although the premise is based on dreams, it isn’t very… well, dreamlike. Who has linear dreams that are essentially action films? Whose dreams appear shot from a third-person perspective [...]
Tags:dreams·films·Hollywood·Inception·Leondardo Dicaprio·movies
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC and Marketing Demonologist It was brilliant. Not the film, but the marketing campaign that turned a $15,000 amateur horror flick into a $100 million box office smash. The problem? Serious anticipointment…
Tags:anticipointment·buzz·college market·Eventful.com·Hollywood·horror·marketing·movies·Paramount Pictures·Paranormal Activity·Wired
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC Hollywood is experiencing a “Freaky Friday” that’s lasting all summer — and perhaps beyond. In the 1976 movie “Freaky Friday,” a mother and daughter magically swap bodies. After a series of icky moments milked for laughs, they predictably come to understand and respect each [...]
Tags:acting·actors·casting·celebrities·City Garage·Hollywood·Ionesco·movies·plays·Santa Monica·stage·theater·theatre
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC So here I was flipping through the Calendar section of the L.A. Times. (Only in Hollywood is the entertainment section of the major newspaper called the “Calendar.” No, we don’t do anything else in this town but entertain or be entertained.) My eye caught [...]
Tags:advertising·films·Francis Ford Coppola·Hollywood·movies·Tetro·Vincent Gallo
To prep for a video I’m producing, I watched Undead or Alive, the 2007 comedy-horror flick about zombies in the old west. It’s moderately entertaining, with Chris Kattan as a cowboy wannabe and Navi Rawat as the intellectual kung-fu fighting Native-American babe. The hitch in this giddyap? The zombies themselves. Although they have more dialogue [...]
Tags:Ann Coulter·Annalee Newitz·Hollywood·horror·Jed Rowen·movies·new zombie movies·Night of the Living Dead·Republicans·The Outbreak·The Worldwide Scoop·Undead or Alive·Zombie walk·zombies
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC Only Hollywood could make waste this beautiful. From the industry that gave us the likes of Paris Hilton comes yet another exquisite example of empty décor… Behold: a glossy oversized 12-page booklet promoting the movie There Will Be Blood. This lustrous piece of eye-candy [...]
Tags:Academy Awards·advertising·environmentalism·green business·Hollywood promotions·hypocrisy·marketing·Miramax·movies·oil industry·Oscar·publicity·publishing·stupidity·tchotchkes·There Will Be Blood·waste
"Common sense is the little man in a gray suit who never makes a mistake at addition, but it's always someone else's money he's adding up."
- Raymond Chandler
Let's hear it for uncommon sense: that inner itch that inspires you to stray from the herd, ditch the training wheels and leap into the fast lane. As we all know, it's the risk takers who get their faces on the cover of Wired magazine and their words on National Public Radio. No one ever remembers who won "honorable mention"...
Cool Rules Pronto celebrates uncommon sense in marketing and media. It's written by Freddy J. Nager, the Founder & Fusion Director of the L.A.-based creative strategy agency Atomic Tango, and marketing instructor at UCLA Extension, the University of Wales, and Antioch University L.A.
