Transcripts For KQED Charlie Rose 20131224

Were just brin storming here. Were trying to figure out how to make the news less boring and you ago like we peed in your milk shake. The news is supposed to be boring, run. Ron, its serious stuff. I just dont know why we have to tell the people what they need to hear. Why cant we just tell them what they want to hear. Nine years ago the world was introduced to one of its most beloved newmen. He was a well dressed jazz musician with an incredible head of hair, hi name was ron burgundy. Ron burgeony and his new team are back in a new movie called anchorman 2, the lenl end stands, continues it, here is the trailer. In the 7 days they were an 70s they were an ali shall shall elite unit, brick, brian and ron, they rose like the phoenix and then they were gone. The legend became the new whisper, told by the trees. Until now. Were starting a 24 hour news channel and we want you. Im going dot thing that god put ron burgundy on this earth to do. Have salon quality hair and read the news. This feels right. The news team is back. Welcome to the 80s, baby. Is that your foot between my legs. No. Oh. It was my hand. Your hair looks like white popcorn. I leak the parts of your face that are covered with skin dont stop believing hold on. Look at him. Hes a prince. Hes not that great. What did you say. He said youre not that great. Brick. Oh. I dont read jet magazine or jerry curl daily. What are you doing. Im breaking down the barriers of race by assimilation. I want to know which one of you convicts with the longest record can pass me the mashed potatoes. Am i right . Say what . Joining me now, for the movie, steve carell, david koechner, paul rudd and will ferr el. Im pleased to have them heres table. Here we are watching the trailer and you guys are still laughing. Its ridiculous. Ron is ridiculous. It is such a good idea, why did it take so long. These guys were really stu been. Hard to get ahold of. Had other jobs. Had other jobs. I wanted nothing to do with it. You were into drama by now, arent you. Comedy prepared you for the big role. I have a pretense about me now. S and if you dare stick my toe back into that world the germ filled pool. Exactly. Gives you schieffers. I mean, you know, its no comedy, so truly, now did you have to be convinced that you didnt want to be just another sequel . Well, its i mean you know, of the movies that ive done with adam mckay, cowriter and our director. Was supposed to be here. Had Something Else happen. We just never thought about ever doing sequells. We were just always on to the next story and we were more excited about that. Anchorman though was unique in that made it nine years ago t was a modest hit. We felt good about it, felt like we had done kind of a new style of comedy. And then it just sat on the shelf and over the years just grew and grew and grew and grew in popularity. And we would all get together in passing, and have the same comment that no matter what project we were working on, whatever we were talking about, the last three questions of the interview would be anchorman related. Are you going to do a sequel. What was it like to work on. And we would always compare notes that this thing is so popular. And i think in the best possible way, it just kind of woke adam and i up to the idea of revisiting these characters and why not. Its the most fun movie any of us have done. Rose agreed. Easily. Agreed. Rose what makes it that . I think everybody understands the tone. Were all going for. And everybody, these four gentlemen tend to work as a true ensemble. No one is trying to do anything but make the scene as best it can be. And adam and will who have been in a partnership really since saturday night live, kind of work in this way that is all inclusive, and really open to everybodys input. And it makes for a really, really fun set. Rose why do you think it grew in popularity. Why were people constantly comeless back to it, because youve done some other very good things, talladega, for example. Its funny because i had heard from friends when it first came out that hi friends who loved it right away. One of my best friends from college went on a double date to watch it opening weekend. Halfway through, the other couple left. They just said were going go. We dont quite get it. I know hes your friend. Its not very funny. Call us later. And just left the theatre. And so i dont know if you guys had heard some of those things. Not that severe, but yeah. So kind of left of centre i dop know if people kind ofnd stood it at first. No, i dont think they did. I often hear that people didnt think it was funny the first time. But then on subsequent viewings were just enamoured of it. I think people discovered jokes they had missed the first time. An one of those things they watched 2, 3, 4, 5 times and upon those repeat viewing they just felt just such ownership to the movie and the characters. Rose on dvd im told too. Yeah, i guess it performed remarkably on dvd, charlie. Real good. Do we have the numbers . Now heres the thing though. Its so good and its so, so part of the culture, did you not need to market it this time. Right. I wish you had told us that three weeks ago. Its kind of bizarre. In its defense i have to say. Rose the marketing or what. In the marketings defense i think its remarkable because so much of it has been on wills shoulders. And hes been going out in character. And you told me a story that, you know, you were at this one event where you werent sure, you werent aware that you were going to have to do 45 minutes of improvisation, it turned into a press conference. And thats a daunting task. And the fact that will has been ab to pull that off in character, i think is a real testament to him. And its made it i think more fun and more palatable for people. Because its been entertainment all the way along. Rose its been great from saturday night live and everything. Im pretty sure well be nominated for a marketing award. The markey. Rose nobodys in second place. Well probably sweep the markies. Rose but how many dodges do you have now. You have earned a lot of dodges. I am still waiting for one, yeah. Rose sticky subject. Rose you got to watch no continuation i dont have one. Bad news, bad negotiating on my part, i guess. Rose go stand in line. Here is the movie, it begins in san diego, youre doing something. Right. Rose these guys are doing something. Right. Rose new york wants you. Yes, we get an opportunity to come and join the gnn news team. Rose cable news. Brandnew idea, 24 hours news which ron is very skeptical of. But he, you know, its a chance to redeem himself. And they get to come to new york, the big stage, and we just thought what a perfect backdrop to throw these guys into. Rose so what is brick doing when we come to get him. Bricks deadcoconr. I think that pretty much sums it up. At the beginning of the movie brick is dead. At the end he is not dead. Thats basically, when i read the script i thought okay, heres my character arc, i start and im dead. And then im not. Rose benjamin button. Zombieland. Rose . From the office,nrco its likeni benjamin button inco reverse. Rose thats what it is. And where is brian. Brian santana is a very successful cat photographer. The best. If you gave not just. Rose if you had a cat and wanted it photographed, call brian. Absolutely. You need to make describes him as a certain way. As the quincy joneses of cat photography. By the way, thank you for that. I mean. Rose thats the outfit. Nothing but hits. You got i hate mondays. Probably hang in there. Hang in there. You, in fact, had the most to lose. Yeah. You had an empire. I had an empire and i gave it up like that. Rose when ron calls, you go. Thats what im saying. Sure. Champ has a chicken restaurant. But not exactly chicken. Hes serving rats. Well, bats. Hell serve anything. He doesnt care. Hes serving things that are deep fried. Anything that falls in the freyer. We think maybe a raccoon fell it in one point. We are like you know what, fur is off, lets go, chop that thing up, bread it. You see another animal, oh, theres a lot of meat on that thing. That became a running joke throughout the entire shoot you kept pointing to things asking would be good for your restaurant, cook him up. Wass the ratio of meat to yeahni,nr yeah. So wheres ron, our boy. Well, ron, ron is announcing the dolphin show at sea world. And ineven rated and he even he is about to call it quits, yeah, about to call it quits. And freddie chap played by dylan baker comes in and hes the producer who saves these guys. Rose so you go to new york. Go to new york. And where they find out quickly that theyre going to be on at 2 in the morning. Rose i know what that is like. You know that. Theyre not happy. Are were you happy . Yes, i was. I was happy to have a job, you knowment but i didnt have any comedic 258 ent. Yeah so, they are given the graveyard shift. And have to figure out a way to get viewers. And they stumble into developing basically infotainment. And all their bad instincts are actually bringing viewers. Because ron complains why we have to tell them what they need to hear. Why cant they tell them what they wantnini to hear. ni yeah. It came from an honestco place. They dont need to know the news. Well just tell them what they want to see. Yeah. And theyq suggestions. Brian santana pitches showing porn. Put porn on. That will do it. Now who is jack. Thats played by thats james marsden. Rose hes god. Hes god. Hes rumored to be making a Million Dollars a year. Hes come in to be the kind of lead anchor. And hes of course terribly charismatic. Rose king of anchordom. Yes. And the guys are immediately enamoured with him. Were ten, were smitten. Rose you like him. An he turned on me. More than. How you could not be in a way. He turns on me for about 100 across the room. He senses cow ard is and ron is immediately on his heels from the beginning without even saying a word. Really. So we have to deal with him. Rose ron has a romantic interest too. He does. Linda jackson whoxd is our boss. So now theyre really thrown into it because they have, theyve never had a female boss. And because the 80s, cnn, incredible amount of diversity innr the newsroom atn so very capable, intelligent africanamerican woman is now their boss. And ron and her at some point, not initially, have some romantic interest. Rose now characterize how ron burgeonee in this movie thinks of himself. Well, exactly the same as the first one. Rose never died. Because i think thats the beauty of these characters is they dont really evolve in any way. In terms of their attitudes. Yeahs, hes still hes still assured on the outside. I will have to say though that theyre now on this big stage. Theyve never had to compete. Theres all these new teams now competing for time slots am and he realizes that maybe hes in over his head. Yeah. Let me take a look at the clip. Show me the first clip. Mr. Burgundy were starting a 24 hour news channel, first of its kind. Gnn. That is without a doubt the dumbest thing ive ever heard. You mean news going 24 hours around the clock, a channel that is never off, in other words,. Yeah, yeah, 24 hours. No offense but you are stupid. I assure you we are 100 for real. Weve got state of the art facilities in manhattan. This is your first weeks salary. By the highman of Olivia Newton john. What dow say, ron . Ill takeco theco job. And i swear ill be number one again. Im going to do what god put ron burgundy on this earth to do. Have salon quality hair and read the news. Rose thats it. Thats his mission. Rose tell me about the wriling of this, and the writing, you and adam. Yeah. Rose the twonini of you. The two ofni us, this one was slightly different becausenr we had, when we started outlining it, we had a lot of things going on at the time so we had a a locker outline process and i went away for the summer so we actually took the outline and split it in half and he wrote the front part and and merged it together threw a lot of it out but some of the scenes stayed in there from that first pass. And then but we did kind of our usual thing. Well throw every idea out and kind of distill it down to the script. Rose but the script is, im told relatively detailed. Yeah, it is. Rose is that right. Definitely, oh, yeah. Rose it is not like the wing it. We get a lot of questions about that, whether it was all improvised, and it wasnt at all. The script is very tight and really, really funny. And so it is a little odd there was improv involved but the script was very, very detailed. I remember the first script i thought it was so great that we shouldnt change anything. I honestly thought we cant beat these jokes, why are we even trying. But i think what happens is it changes the acuity because you know you might improvised so you are dialed in a little harder but these guys are so magnanimous because they are available to, whatever you want to do, lets just shoot it we might get a gem. Rose yeah. Someone wrote it had the spirit of saturday night live. I could see that. I mean, you know, that obviously informed us having worked on that show for so long and loving the ensemble of sketches, you know, i think thats what appeals to adam and i comedically, i think for all of our films. It is much more exciting for an audience to see multiple funny characters as opposed to just one. Rose is it different working with somebody who has comedic experience. Its nice when are you working like this, and that everybody can, i think, well, one weve worked together before in the past which is kind of nice. But you understand in a way that it isnt always just about the joke. Sometimes its about setting up the joke or being able to kind of lob, you know, the pass for somebody else to spike it. And i think that if you are working with people who have a similar comedic sensibility, it can make the day go quicker, easier. You can really discover some things that are. Rose because its hard to teach comedy just from a text. Im still trying to learn. I think its impossible. I dont think you can teach it. Rose you have a born instinct for it or not. Well, i think the only thing you can do is say prank faster. I believe that. I remember working on a, on something before and there was a person, male or female who kept saying having trouble with this i just said just do it faster. In fact, maybe just look in the mirror and do it fast. Because this person was tending to go slow. So just faster. Rose it worked. Well, i saw this person go down the line and ask another per cnnr, another person oh, okay, whatever. If inr just said faster that would have done it. Rose . I think i dont think you can teach someone to be funny. You can make a performance funny. Some people i think everybody wants to be the its working. Come on. How cruel can you be. Everybody wants to be more of a placebo effect. You always have it. You can imagine actually having a comedy teacher on set. Wow, okay. You need to go up at the end because tass funny. It is interesting because i think were all asked by people wanting to learn and coming up, like come on, what are the shortcuts. What dow really have to do. And you already know that if you are asking me, you dont have it. Because theres no its because theres no, its not a linear approach, its just about getting up and doing it and failing. Rose now is social commentary in this film, are we saying something about america and news, and what happened to it. Scathing social commentary, really, and really, i think at the expense of comedy. You know what, that if we can get one person to vote, then this movie has served its purpose. I think so. Social commentary will kill comedy. I think if you put too fine a point on it, you know, you dont want to overwhelm. I think these guys have struck a beautiful balance between the absurd and the satirical. And theres there are both elements in this. I think its really smart. And it takes very intelligent people to write Something Like that. Im serious now about this. Were you actually thinking about where is the right balance between the absurd and the satirical or are you simply sittingci there saying weve got this circumstances, how do we make itni funny. n was this, is that as we thought about all the potential landscapes for this sequel, the one we kept landing on was 1980, the beginning of 24 hour news. And once we made that choice, ultimately were trying to make a funny movie. But once we go to 24 hour news you cant help but to comment on what is going on right now. And we also thought it would be funny and satirical to have ron burgundy be the one who discovers that you can put a car chase on the news even though its not news. And but but the audience likes it. And i think the audiences fortunately laughing really hard but also going wow, you do take some interesting little shots here. Which is, its great to kind of do both. Rose you also were able to get a whole bunch of cameo appearances in this movie, even kanye west. Yes. Rose how do you do that . Good question. Thank you for asking. I just got caught up. So you go to kanye and say my movie, kanye and youre not singing, youre just here. And you find out that he is a huge comedy fan. And you find out that he is a fan of a couple of our movies. And you kind of throw it out there. And lo and behold you hear we like to talk to you guys on the phonement and you have a conversation. Maybe two changes in the room, maybe hes not. But and you know, hes game, and comes and wants to play. Yeah. But im surprised, he seems to me like a guy beyond all the sort of over the top stuff he does, he wants to learn stuff. Absolutely. Hes damn good and he got there because he wanted to learn stuff. Yeah. He was there asking all of us questions and. He was. You just said go higher. I didnt say a word. I said awe so he also was working the entire time. Hes prolific. Honestly, were sitting, were not shooting. Jwjust . ; bs, what did youni havexd for lunch. Every day. Constantly working. My point. Making anchorman 3. I think he wrote half of it. Thats what he was doing . He was writing the third one. Hes like imnr sorry. co i only have 50 pages worth. Hes going to call you and ask if you want to be in it. I have to audition for it. Thats right. Which im happy to do. Im excited for thenrjpopportun. Anchorman 3. nrnrnrnlixd aninr cameo. Theres less than aconini 500 chance youre going to be in. ni less. ni but i would love for you to read. You guys are fineni. ni when kanye says youre probably not go og to get this but you have to audition anyway. Were going to go with matt damon. You know what, i couldnt blame you. I couldnt argue. Hes amazing, hes always good. But you got everything you wanted in this movie. You made the movie you wanted to make. Oh my gosh. You got Harrison Ford is in it, for gods sake. And you know, we just, we really wanted to take a big swing. We wanted to make it feel epic. We wanted it to not feel safe in any way. And like steve was saying, it gets incredibly absurd at times. Rose push the envelope. Yeah, yeah. We didnt want to hold back. Rose yeah. Dow feel like youre making an epic. Oh yes, and a classic. Because if you dont feel like youre making a classic when youre doing it. Why show up. Then youre that is the worst. If its not a classic im to the going to show up. You know i just barely show up anyway. Im just half there inside is this. Rose but if it is epic you give it your best, you are there early in the morning and the last to leave. Internal dialogue this is an epic. Im showing up, full body. Rose im giving them everything, i will leave nothing on the table. I will be exhausted at the end of the day. How much did you change the script once you began making the movie . I dont we didnt change any of the scenes its a tough question to answer only because we would have to go scene by scene to let you know, oh, these three jokes came up on the day. This was the same. So it is percentagewise. Oh no. What are we thinking. Rose what do we think . 30, 32 . About 32 . Yeah. Rose thats what i thought. But every day we had we had a linebyline accounting every day at the end of the day, always the same, 32. 32 . Rose this is from ron burgeonee one. Anchorman 1, take a look at this. You really want to know what love is. Yeah. Yes, tell us, more than anything in the world, ron. Well, its really quite simple. Its kind of like gonea find my baby gonea hold her tight going to grab some afternoon delight my motto has always been when its right its right why wait until the middle of a cold dark night when everythings a little clear never the light of day and we know the night is always gonea be here anyway thinking working on my appetite looking forward to a little afternoon delight rubbing sticks and stones together makes sparks ignite and the thought of loving you is getting so exciting co afternoon delight ni. ni you guysco havenrxd it i think nci afternoon delight ni. I dont know, ron. That sounds kind of crazy. ni h sounds like you have mental problems, man. Yeah, you gotni mental problems, man. Yeahni, really does. ni amn nrxdnci afternoon deligh. Going t call here to freshen thisnr up. R one take. Rose remember . Oh yeah. Yeah, we had we sung that on the set. That was ah script. That was not in the script. co yeah. ni when you went to thexd studio was this a hard sell. The first one. No, the second one. No. Rosh2buw3 the budget you wan. No. Rose i didnt thinknr so. That part was hari. Rose because you were making an ep eck and you wanted them to know, were not just making an odenico movie here. Well, that, it wasq about, it wasco just very lowaw considering where everyone is in their ca and a lot of time had passed. So yeah, it took some back and forth to kind of get it to a place thatnr we could all. Rose did you andni others take a cut in paeprg ordernico to make this happenco, isnt that right. Oh, yeah. We wanted to do it because he didnt. ni friction. nini were the only one was did. To be in this . Ini mean honestly,nr from the first, from theninr first yn a second one, we were all onn , board, completely. And noni matter what anyni of you could have said yeswrtho i a script. Absolutely. Rose is it because the first one was s jsu r funcor because you just love will and adam or what. All of it. Yeah. It was soco muchnico fun. ni wenini love themni, love each we love being a part of that first one. Weconi knew that they wouldnr write something that was going to be reallyconi fun to be in. And funny to watch. So we had complete confidencenrnrni and faith. Nownr lookni where we are. I think the first onenrni, the first one wasnini so kind oi major,ni for all of us it was such an important partnrn;of our lives i thinknini professionally and personally it wasco a reallyni great experience. Yeah. Rose so but what makes it a great experience. Well, i remember working on that moe in the firstni0 6h one thinking i condition believenr a studio isni giving us money to make this movie. Because it is so different than anything else thats being made. And it seemed to be kind of so sim patcoco cowith my own kind of thought of what is funny. And i think we all felt that. ni and soco when we wereco working on it, youni know, separate from thinking will this beco succ we all felt wellcoxdn7 we think this is funny. And that was such a thrill to work on something and have that kind of feeling. Rose when you sit down, when you and adam sit down, and you laugh. ni yeah. Rose dow generally find those in other words, is your instinct as to whatni is funny always the same or are there times in which you say it falls a little bit flat and other times you didnt expect it to go so good. Exactly. Its always that balance of you know, come upco withnr something. We haveni tears in our eyes an were like i hope other people think its funny because gosh this is funniment and then oh, we were right. Or oh, that did not work at all. But when you come at it, that guides you when you are editing the film. And for the most part yeah, youre really trying to please the audience. And once you get the film kind of in the shape that you want it, then you can go back and forni about 120 of it chuck things back in that audiences didnt laugh once but we secretly love. Rose so let me go back to san diego. Youre married to veronica. Yes. Rose and was itni Harrison Ford whoni you know, veronica is ninini yeah. ni rose and ron,conrnli youre gone. ninr youreni the worst newsman i have ever seen. ni]an andmy ron tries to argue his point. What did i do wrong. ni and we gor of ron sneezingninrw3 on the le, shouting the news co0 because it was written innr all capit air, things like that. Rose soni you when you get this new york offer, you either go or stay in sanco diego for the love of your family. Right. Rosxy oh, ron takes the yeahnrnii hesni in new yorkconr andnrcoci goingxd tonyr prove that he belongs there. Inn9 and win back the love ofnrnr his his wife and his child. He nowni has a child al knnrnr sonixdco theres a lot theni stake. Rose but hes going do what he was born to do. nre rx and read the news oz s othercoconndni question ni whats goingni to benr quotek have no idea. Rose you donaq[gnj because we didnt haveni any idea the first one would be quotable. Rose do you have an idea, steve. nr no ini really dont. nico i mean look f you had gone to the Marketing Department for the first filmn i love lamp is going to be a highlynr quoted line, they would have looked at you like youreco crazy. Rose what do you know. Or ifni you said i need to youni print up 100,000 tshirts that say milk was a bad choice. A line from a character that in the first round ofnr studio notes, their suggestion was to get rid of the brick character because he doesnt make any sense. mni so. Rose that was the studio note. ni that was the studio notes. And we said weco kindni of have a hunch this character will work and thank god we fought for that. Rose you can show your appreciation. Oh, i do every day. No, i, you know what,nr honestly, being inconi this was probably thenini big point in my career of anything. Being cast in this moviez. Rose anchorman 1. Yes, because from this i met juddnin worked together onco 40yearold virgin it lead to so manynr so i have will and adam, all these guys to thank for all of that. Rose an same for you paul. Absolutely, i met judd on that steve and inini workednr it wacr the launching pad i think for all of us. Its been an albatross for me, but look, im crawling out from under it. Its its been following me. Rose there may be a time that you can take, take the weight off your back. Exactly. Rose gives you a chance to loosen the chains, take a look at thisni, this is flavor of this film, when ron witnesses a touchingni moment between veronica, his wife whoses estranged wife and his new Love Interest linda, hpq it is. I had to come tell you something very important. You must be lynna jackson. You must be veronica. Yes, i am, pleasure. This is a touching momentco for me. Please, dont take this the wrongni way but if yougptoul shoot you with anr bebe gun. Oh. You can talk big all you want, but guess what, this kitten has got claws. Dont mess with me linda because this white rolls deep and it rolls nasty. I was feeling a little bit down but this is definitely pick up my mood. Well, i guess ill leave you two alone and its been an absolute pleasure miss corningstone. This has been great. Dow guys wantni to kit a little bit. Ron, leave the room. He has the amazing capacity of turning anyni situationni into its worst kind ofnrco version, yeah. Thats go the to be great. Thats why it is so much fun to play. Rose and itni is if i would assume, you know exactly how ron is goingdkjptoy and exactly how to go there. An thats a perfect example of we just had their encounter written. The whole game in my head was how would ronco just really ruin thisxdco moment,nr y inappropriate things thenini whole time. And suggesting that they kiss. Its just wonderful, really. And christina improvised that read the room, ron. But thats why its a joy to play ron burgeonee. He has no responsibilitynr about anything. Rose jr mean ito . Just great thoy writing or just to know that you know him. Yes. Rose i mean you have a you have a model that you can just, you know, take anywhere you want to go because you know where he 3 goes. You got his motor. Yed thank you all for coming. Great to have you here. So fabulous movie, you know. Feel better, take care of the pipes. Rose i will. Maybe iu an anchorman. I dont know. Rose probably not. Talk to kanye about the3 rose Anita Elberse here professors q. Business school. Her new book is calledtlek risktaking and the big business of entertainment. I am pleased to here at this table for theco first time. Welcome. Thank youco, its a pleasure to be here. Rose lets just get the theory out o the idexi is that its in the economic interests of studios toxd focus on a few blockbustersx paher thannr a whole lot of films that might find a niche audience or a smaller adultnr audience. Absolutely. And not just studios. n think companies acrossxdni the diffdpentnrconrni entertainment sectors, so film studios but also Television Networks and bookco publishers an music labelsni andxd teams an leagues the idea is that they should dedicate a, a the majority of their resources to what they think are thexd most likely winners. The largest share of their production budget and the largest share of their marketing budget. They should be willing to go all in. Rose it reminds me of a story told to me and others about steve jobs when he came back the first thing he did is he had all these products that they had. And he basically said ico think were going to have four main products. Thats whatnr were going do. co were going goni like hell on exactly. Thats an example i gave tow because i dont think the blockbuster strategy as i call it is necessarily limited to the world of entertainment. You start to see it more and more in a wide range ofni0 6hcj different sectors. Rose give me the other sectors now, the examplenrs ofni it. 3icj as you say apple, much more focused than anyone else on a select few products in its portfolio. ni the other example i give is Victoria Secret, the way they market their products. Everything goes, is have focused on the Victoria Secret fashion show absorbs a large chunk ofuios advertising budget in a given year. And they have their angels which in a way are the superstars that we see in many other sectors. nrnrni anothwr example inr give is the world ofni night life where we see big blockbusterni betsnini on a big, big clubs that are aimed at getting scale so that the clubsnjr can afford djs that are the superstars in that domain. So thats another example. Rose builds on itself. Yeah, absolutely. And another company that i think lives and dies by the blockbuster strategy is red bull. Very much a Media Company even though they were in the business of producing beverages and getting us to buy energy drinks. And then even burberry, so an exale example in the fashion show, when i spoke to angela, she described her company as a digital Media Company. This is a company that we know as the company that sells trench coats. Rose what did she mean by that. I think what she meant by that is they are in the business of forming connections with customers. Theyre in the business of telling stories. And theyre in thes in lee in the business of selling fashion goods but in the business of making sure consumers love the brand. That storytelling aspect is something thatnrn rnr entertaint Companies Know a lnv about. Theurc audiences listen your stories throughout the year. Rose and more and more compani[3÷ are buying this idea, you think . Well, i would hope after reading my book, yes. But we, ixd thinkco younr see it more and more. And it certainly has caught on in the entertainment space where tennr years ago ifnr you said the blockbuster strategy, there was a lot of hesitation. coni and particularly when it comes to online companies,ni the googles of this world for a long time lived by the long tail strategy. They said were going to beco making sure that we invest in a way, in a large number of very small products, niche products. They bought this idea thatni0 6 the long tail was the future of business. And if you look closely theyre allni shifting gears. Netflix is making bigger and bigger blockbuster bets than ever. Basically mimicking the strategies. They spent 100 million on the house of cards. Yeah, mimicking the strategies of networknr television. And i thinkbm advertising business that itsnr really very, very difficult to manage these long tail assortments an its all about the hits. But that was not always the theory because after reading long tail eric schmidt famously said, you know this is thenr future and google isn yeah, absolutely. Hes coated quoted on the cover saying Chris Anderson insights are significantly changing how were thinkingni about our business at google, absolutely. He also said recently i would like to tell you that the internet has created such a level Playing Field that the long tail is absolutely the place to be. Define what we mean by long tail. So long tail, the dwrd therenr is that in the oldns 6h worldco, there was onlyni a limited amount of products thatwvu d air. Right. Or would make it into retail outlets. And the idea is that because of the internet theco barriers of entry are lower,ni and0 a far larger assortment. So the long tail is p wasnt room, inni traditionalnio storesni but for which thereni is room in online channels. So all videos on youtube that dont make it on television, or all singles in the i toouns store that wouldnt have been carried by a traditional retailer in that space, thats the long tail. This is what eric said after saying that the long tail is absolutely the place to be, i would like to tell you that the internetnco is great, that the long tail is absolutely the place to be, that there is so much differentiation there is so much diversity, so many new voices, unfortunately henr says that is notni the case. Right. So what happened to call eric schmidt to change his mind. I think he saw that the long tail is a very, very difficult business to run. And what you see if you study these markets is that thenr majority of products in the tail it is aco veryco long tail so,xd anderson was right about the supply tichlted side. I think he was wrong about the he said if there is that supply, i think whatco netflix andnr youtube an many other businesses are figuring nowadays that is not necessarily the case and having to carry that assortment that hardly has any appeal to consumers is very costly. I give in the book an example for the Music Industry where of all the tracks that sold at least once in 2011, which is 8 million individual tracks, sold at least one copy, a third sold exactly onenr copy. A third. A full third of all products that were available in the marketplace. And 94 sold fewer than a hundred copies. ni someone who is makingni them available to us consumers. And that comes at a cost. And it might be a minute out cost but if you multi fly that by 8 million are you looking at a significant expense. What dow make what beyonce dhf in announcing her newco record. I thought itnr wasnai fascinating. With the book in that theres much more focus in the Music Industry now on the opening week. Its really all about getting as manyni sales as possible in a relatively short period success breed further success. So thats very much in line with what i discuss in the book. What is different of course is that there was very little build up to it. And i think it goes to another aspectnini ofni book whh is the sheer power of superstars in todays world. And beyonce is the only one or is part of a select few that can pull somethingni likeq this off. This is notnr, if hi released my book the way beyonce has released her album no onewould , right so this is something that superstars with large followings online can do, but thats not something for the rest of us. And i think what has been underestimated is the amount of partnerships. Like the sheer depth ofnr partnerships that would have toco comexd into play to do a release. Okay but there is also stevenni peopleberg who a uderen or big meltdown, 3 or 4 megabudget movies will go up, crash into the ground and they will haveco to change you dont believe that. I dont believe that. That goes against your theory. I think he is an extremely talent talented filmmaker. And lincoln didnt make that much money, i dont think. No, but what weve seen. A lot ofni publicity and attention because of steven and danielle and the idea. I assume it did well but just not a blockbuster. Absolutely. I think what were seeing is this was one of the if not the most successful years for the box office f you look at the revenues it outperformed every other year it was anico veryni busyni year. Rose and thats because of a lot of blockbusters. Yeah, i would saynr its the blockbusters that arenr generating most of the money. You see they have the highest rate of success. Done mean it cant go wrong it can go completely wrong and all of a sudden you have a lone ranger which say big big loss for disney. But by and large it goes well and its actually the smaller products, the 20 or 30 Million Dollar movies thats where the failure rate is the highest. Rose what is the difference in lone ranger, and johnny depp and the series of movies he did about the caribbean. I think itsco really hard toni say exactly what the difference is. We can look at the end result and say well, the pirates movies are just better movies, higher quality, that he peelni to audience that is pretty easy lookingn rose same actor. It is incredibly difficult to make a good movie. It is really, really complicated process. Rose thats why there are so few of them. I think going in, you can look back d say that they take a risk, yeah this wasnt necessarily the mostco established franchise. But going in t had a lot of elements. And making a fill well johnny depp seemed axd nobrainer because Everything Else that he had touched in the past had gone terrificably well. I dont blame theco filmmakers rose do you know whyco it wasnt successful . Why it wasnt successful, i think just has to do with the quality of it. Rose just the it wasnt well done. Just the fact that and i think there was also a very Strong Negative Campaign Around it. There was a very strong neglectment negative sentiment from reviewers and it was probablynini something. Influential. In this particular instance there was so muchco buildupco throughout the summer where people were waiting for the first ig, big blockbuster to fail because of these comments that had been in the press. And it wasnt just spielberg, it wasconi soderbergh before him as well. So i think everyone wasco z waiting for this big failure. And it was very hard for the studio, i think, to stop this negative sentiment that was around lone ranger. Rose you know, its an interesting example is take cbs. When they get a big hit in a Television Showninininr, thats block bust never terms of being number one on a particular night, and in the top ten for the weeknr, consistently, they will spin it off and spin it off and spin it off. Yeah, theyre building franchises around existing hits, what you see, this is particularly strong in the Television Industry, one hit generates a number of other hits because of the way the scheduling works income you have a big hit on a sunday night then you launch your most exciting property alongside it and people stay. nini because we know that there is a lot of sticky viewing so in the Television Industry to have one hit tends to lead to subsequent successes, or at least puts you in a good position. Rose how did you get to know him. I got a call from one of the people in his team and they said do you know who Alex Ferguson is. And i said yes, of course, zbecr fan. And then he said we like to meet you. Would you be interested in meeting him. Rose thats exactly what he said to me. Great, yes. So i saidco yes to that. Rose i did too. So i knew who Alex Ferguson was. And i knew of his amazing track record, theres no one in thisni sport like him. There is no one whon one club and before that was very successful with aberdeen, actually which is much overlooked, i think. So i knew about his record. And so from the getgo i thought this might be a chance to understand what made himni soni successful and to learn from his experience. Rose so what did you find out . Well, weve captured eight lessons in an article that was very successful. One of the most clicked on articles, i think, over the past few years. Rose do you think that is because everybody wants to find out if there is a Silver Bullet for leadership and management. I would like to think it has everything to do with my name. Im sure it is all sir alex they are clicking on, unfortunately. But yeah, i think it has i think there is a combination of wanting to understand what made him so successful amount of lot of manchester unitedni fans tt are interested in that. But generally i think therea is thisco idea that we can learn from coaches. Because what they are doing is managing and leading teams. And this probably a lot that transfers to other sectors and other industries. And often leading people who are highly paid and might not be manageable under normal circumstances. Absolutely. He also knew how to take care of them. Absolutely. Its the very issue of superstars and all these Creative Industries that might be difficult to manage that have all these opportunities that can go somewhere else and make more money. T manage. Rose in the end what did he have . So its extremely divi any to put your finger on it. I think one of the things that ive noticed and itsni so hard tonb put on paper. In everything that he does, hes a winner. He just doesnt accept defeat. And it doesnt even enter his mind that he could possibly be losing until he actually has lost and then he accepts it and he moves on. What is your next case study. I never talk about next case studiesment because if they are inni developmeetyou never know how it will end up. So. What are you waitingnr for. What i look for are interestingni problemsni andcod companies that are outperforming their competitors. Just recently did a new case on vogue which i thought was fascinating just because they are so dominant in the world of fashion. And i as someone who doesnt quite understand fashion have always been intrigued by this notion that one magazine has such an impact on the world of fashion. ni what did younr find out . That is a very carefully cure rated process whereby i think theyre very,nini very mindful of the brand that they have and everythingco they do is in line with that brand andco is in line withco maintaining that position that they have as the authority which is an incredible they also have an instinct for the glamor. They know who to put onco the cover of the magazine. Yes. I thinkni that if you ares a creator of a Television Show or a magazine, or you have come in an changed a magazine like vanity fair, carter knows his magazines better than anybody. He knows his audience better than anybody. He knows what they want better than anybodynrnr is anybody before, he understands most people really are the best that i know, understand audiences or they are customer sent rick so they understand who has psyche of their own, people who are going to be attracted to their productr yeah, absolutely. They know how they want glamour, how they want certain a authenticity. F ab. The other thing i learned in the vogue case is they very much live and die by a blockbuster strategy. We mightco not thi it. co that is personified by cover. Yes, and by the issues. So for them the suspect and march issue is the entire year is riding on those. So that is not that different from a movie studio that says here are our event films in which we invest the majority of our budget so that strategy that that carries over into the world of magazines was actually quite interesting to me. That is also determined by season it isnr obviouslynicod the magazine in cement. Yes, its by far the big nest terms of the number of advertising pages. And that in itself is probably 100 million business just that one magazine. Since your focus is primarily on the world of entertainment andni sports. Yeqw why that for you . Well mostly because i think its fun and as an academic i get to pick my own topic. I was looking around and didnt understand why all my colleaguesni were picking these boring tomorrowics. And im fascinated by the world of ent tanlt. I love these productsnr myself. I love the movies. I love mix. I love reading books and i figured there is enormous challenges that wqi asni Business School scholars dont really understand. Nonvuanne knows what is the best way to make these investments or how to pick winners. So i figured that would be a good fun area to specialize in. Why did you want to go into the academy. Why did i want to become an academic. Yes. Well, mostly because, i went into it as a ph. D student becausenrjva. Tj. U me that i could go to theninio u. S. For free if i wentnr intonr ph. D program and if i would do a masters then i had to pay it all by myself. Coming from the netherlands those amounts that you pay is, like those are staggering amounts coming from a country in which you hardly pay for education. That is the hobbest story that i thought this would be a good way to spend a year in the u. S. And then i loved it. I loved doing research and i loved truly understanding how markets work or how businesses work. And i also loved the teaching aspect of it. And atni the harvard Business School where i teach case, i teach the kinds of documents that i develop after having gone into the field. I getnr to discuss what i think with a group of 90 of the most talented studentsn and i get toco learn from them on an ongoing basasu about their curiosity or what . Their brilliant insights this book is really a combination of everything that the students have fold me over the years and very little of it is my own original thought, right. These are the insights i gain from teaching these cases over rose the book is called blockbusters hit making,co risktaking and the big business of entertainment. Anita elberse, thank you. My pleasure, thank you. Rose thank you for joining us. See you next time. nrninrconi captioning sponsored by Rose Communications captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org ack. This is nightly Business Report with Tyler Mathisen and susie gar ib. Brought to you by street. Com, our Rating Service provides objective, independent ratings daily on over 4300 stocks. Learn more at the street. Com nbr. Flying high, investors start the week in a different mood, with the momentum continue . We have big investment ideas for 2014. The economy, apple strikes a deal with the Worlds Largest carrier, china mobile, opening up a massive new market for iphone. What it could mean for iphone sharwh