kidmercury

I recently watched the movie Amreeka (trailer above), which is the story of a Palestinian woman and her son emigrating to the US, and the challenges they encounter in doing so. Here are my thoughts on both the merits of the film as well as new media business opportunities:

1. As a son of immigrant parents, I found the story to be quite accurate in how it presented immigrant challenges; I could relate to it quite a bit. Most of the other immigrant movie stories that I've seen are corny and lack sufficient character depth. Props to Amreeka in this regard.

2. The movie does not utilize conventional storytelling structure. There is not a clear three act structure, not a clear problem/conflict the protagonist (immigrant mother) faces, and thus a character arc that is not as developed as it could be, in my opinion (though there is a romance element that constitutes a sub-plot, and does help flesh out the characters a bit). Still, though, I think the movie was quite good; normally I don't like movies that don't play by "the rules," in much the same way that I usually don't like songs that don't fit into conventional songwriting structures. These structures are conventional for a reason -- break them at your own risk.

3. Switching over to a new media business analysis, what are the monetization opportunities if the movie were to be distributed for free on the web? Well we know the basic elements, which we've discussed numerous times before:

-- create a social network for fans; some ad revenue opportunities here
-- sell branded merchandise (i.e. Amreeka shirts, hats, etc)
-- product placement in the movie
-- increasingly I think there are lots of opportunities to turn movies/stories into games. But I think this is a lot easier when the story falls into a conventional structure.
-- fan co-creation; i.e. Allow fans to craete stories, images, etc related to the story, which in turn can be monetized
-- Physical distribution of DVDs

The key, in my opinion, is the social network, which will allow passionate fans to connect, become even more passionate, and help reduce the marketing costs of the film significantly. I also think the social network will allow the film to develop its own brand, which in turn will allow it to develop its own product line, and pursue the Nike strategy accordingly.