Businesses can now get a piece of the “Action!” in the true Hollywood sense of the word.
A new service allows corporate team-building groups to make their own movies on the back lot at Universal Studios, with every participant taking a turn in front of the camera as well as calling the shots from the director’s chair.
The exercise can accommodate groups as large as 120 employees. They divide into groups of 10, get a script and equipment, and begin rotating to different sets around the Universal lot.
At each location the job roster changes. In one scene, a chief financial officer might be the lead actress; in the next one, she’s wielding a boom microphone. “Senior management might have to take direction from someone who works under them, so it kind of gets people into new situations,” explained Warren Press, vice-president of sales and marketing for Feet First Eventertainment, the outfit that organizes these events.
After four hard hours, production wraps and the corporate teams go to lunch. Pro editors then work through the night, and by the next afternoon the films are ready for screening. Each team’s masterpiece runs five minutes. There is even an awards ceremony following the screening. Participants take home hardware for best actor, best scene or other categories the client wants.
“We learned a lot about making movies, but we learned even more about each other,” said Margaret Murphy, a demand planner at Nestle USA’s beverage division in Glendale, which recently took about 120 people to Universal. “We organize a team-building event every year. The ‘Lights, Camera, Action!’ event is going to be a tough one to beat.”
Feet First has organized corporate groups into film crews for years, but previously they did it “on location.” Only recently has the firm secured a deal with Universal to actually film on the studio property a major “wow factor” for clients, Press said.
Krista Boling, marketing manager for NBC Universal, described the deal as an experiment. While Universal’s Studio Events Department has hosted corporate groups for years, allowing them access to the back lot is new. She added that if people contact Universal about film team-building, she refers them to Feet First.
To accommodate the groups, Feet First needs about two months advance notice. Even then, Press presents clients with three possible locations because he can’t guarantee the event won’t get pre-empted by a real film crew.
The cost for the service varies depending on the size of the group, but the minimum is $12,000 for about 20 people. For larger groups, Press suggests that planners figure about $3,000 for each additional team of 10 people. The cost drops for productions not on the Universal lot.
Unique appeal
According to Press, most corporate auteurs rate the classic western as their favorite genre. The stock characters of villain, hero, woman-in-distress or town drunk are immediately accessible by the participants. The amateur actors can quickly fit into familiar scenes like the outdoor gunfight, the barroom brawl or the rescue on the train tracks.
In terms of team-building, the western tends to bring out the ham factor and get everyone laughing. “If you get a vice-president of marketing in a western dress and a wig, it’s pretty hilarious,” Press said.
After the western, the most popular formats are mock commercials and extended infomercials plugging a company’s products. Nestle combined the western and the commercial genres by insisting on “product placement” scenes in every film that included Nestle products. Suddenly employee-actors had to stretch their abilities; a cowboy might swagger into a bar and order a Nesquik chocolate milk instead of a beer. “It was over the top and extremely funny,” Press admitted.
Upon returning home, corporate groups can keep a DVD of their performance for future parties or personal viewing. In Press’ words, “the idea is to give people who see each other in the hall, and maybe give a nod of the head, a reason to stop and talk because they feel they know the other person.”
The team-building usually occurs as part of a two- or three-day meeting. The 29 working sound stages at Universal allow Feet First to produce corporate game shows, as it did for the Nestle event, that incorporate questions about the company’s products and personnel. Feet First, based in Los Angeles and San Francisco, has hosted shows for Amgen Pharmaceuticals, Broadcom, Countrywide, Southern California Edison, KPMG, Guess, Microsoft, Exxon Mobil and Philip Morris.
Press hopes to sell L.A. to corporate planners around the country. In the cutthroat competition to attract conventions and meetings, cities usually emphasize their uniqueness, and in Los Angeles, that means the film industry. “Yes, you can go to Disneyland or visit the beach in Santa Monica,” he said, “but why not go to Hollywood and actually make a movie?”
