This column probably should be titled “Discover Your Inner Elvis,” but it’s been fun using strange titles lately, so let’s go for one more. On the serious side, EPE has chosen an excellent title for their new national promotion, and the advertising plan they have developed for it is most impressive. “Discover Your Inner Elvis” is something you are going to see and hear a lot in 2007.
On Monday, April 16, EPE announced a comprehensive campaign covering TV, radio, print, and the Internet. The complete press release is posted at www.elvis.com/news/full_story.asp?id=1222. It describes how the “’Discover Your Inner Elvis” campaign is designed to get more people to visit Graceland. Read closely and you will note that Graceland is referred to as a pop-culture travel destination the whole family can enjoy.
I love that tag. A Pop-Culture Travel Destination. Let’s see, what else is in that category? Universal Studios Florida? Disney World? Dollywood? Is Graceland morphing into a theme park? I hope so. The more attractions the better. Stagger their openings over several years and give us fans the incentive to come back frequently. With all the land EPE has bought around the mansion, you know new stuff is coming. And you can count on this to include a couple of features for the kiddies.
EPE figures they already have a great destination, and the “Discover Your Inner Elvis” campaign is going to coax a lot of folks to visit Graceland. It features 30 and 60 second TV spots that will run on cable networks including Lifetime, Oxygen, Soap, HGTV, Food, Style, E!, and Discovery. In addition, coverage will be placed on local channels in six or more major markets.
So, how do the TV spots encourage the viewers to discover their inner Elvis? They take a stereotypical “soccer mom” wearing an Elvis jumpsuit and insert her into Elvis’ role on stage in the original Aloha From Hawaii concert footage. After she struts around doing familiar Elvis moves and a karate kick, we realize this is a dream sequence as the scene dissolves back to her in front of the American Eagle jumpsuit display at Graceland.
If you would like to see these very nicely done spots, click on http://www.elvis.com/discover/ and have some fun. After viewing them (and the original Aloha From Hawaii footage used in their production), you may wonder how they took Elvis out of the film and added the soccer mom. It involves two interesting technologies called green screen and rotoscoping. The actress was filmed in front of a large green screen. It was a simple matter to delete the background from the film, leaving just her image ready to be inserted into the archival footage.
However, getting Elvis out of that old film was a tedious process. Rotoscoping has been around since at least 1993 when it was used to remove Humphrey Bogart from an old movie, so he could be inserted into the Arnold Schwarzenegger flick Last Action Hero. If it is still done the way they described it in a magazine article back then, computer jockeys display a single frame of film on a large monitor. The image is overlaid with a grid dividing it into nine segments. Then, they work on one segment at a time, blown up to full screen, and divided into many tiny squares in a tight grid.
At this point, they can go one of two ways. If every square beyond Elvis’ image is highlighted and deleted, you have just Elvis left. If every square inside Elvis’ image is highlighted and deleted, Elvis definitely has left the building.
The tedious part is that there are nine segments per frame of film, and there are twenty-four frames per second of viewing time. So, it took a while, but they did take Elvis out of the Aloha footage. To fill in the gaps created, they connect and blend the images on either side of the gap. It’s not perfect, but it does fine when the image of the soccer mom is inserted over it.
We can probably look forward to seeing more re-edited film of Elvis. The rotoscope technique makes just about anything possible. We’ve already had Dolly Parton riding in a convertible with Elvis in that Tennessee tourism spot. They rotoscoped Shelly Fabares out of Clambake footage and inserted Dolly. Check it out at http://www.elvis.com/graceland/special/video_elvis-dolly.asp.
And, there is the BBC Radio 2 commercial with Elvis introducing a fantasy all-star band playing behind him. The bandmates include Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow, Jimmy Page, Keith Moon, and Marvin Gaye. You can catch that one at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/elvis/.
Remember the videos of Natalie Cole or Hank Williams Jr. singing duets with their long-dead fathers? Wouldn’t it be fun to see young Elvis from the Ed Sullivan footage doing a duet with Elvis wearing the American Eagle jumpsuit from Aloha? With all the hours and hours of Elvis on film, the possibilities are endless.
So, maybe “Elvis Gets Rotoscoped” is not only a good title for this article, but also a prediction of the future.
© 2007 Philip R Arnold All rights Reserved www.elvisblog.net
ELVIS COMMENTARY MINI-NUGGETS — # 3
Hey, You Can’t Do That: Here’s something to illustrate how strong Elvis’ hold on teenagers was back in 1956. The district school board in Irondequoit, NY, offered to let the students name a new $3,500,000 school. The ballots came back with a clear preference for “The Elvis Presley High School,” but the board reneged and pulled the offer. How’s that for a good lesson in keeping your word?
Shows How Much He Knew: John Campbell Crosby, TV critic for the New York Herald Tribune fifty years ago, wrote four columns a week carried in 104 newspapers. He once described Elvis as “Unspeakably untalented.” Crosby has been called erudite, witty, and corrosive. I would like to add one more adjective – stupid.
Elvis Movie Box Office Rankings: According to boxofficereport.com, six of Elvis’ movies ranked in the top 20 for their year of release. Viva Las Vegas did the best at # 11 in 1964, followed by Jailhouse Rock at # 12 in 1957 and Blue Hawaii at # 13 in 1961. King Creole, generally considered Elvis’ best acting performance, did not make the box office top 20 in 1958. His other top 20 movies were Love Me Tender, G.I. Blues, and Girls, Girls, Girls. None of Elvis’ movies after 1965 came anywhere near the top 20.
Not Just Teenagers Went For Elvis: Lots of middle-aged females are Elvis fans now, but he must have appealed to some right from the start. In 1956, a reporter at a concert in Fort Worth, Texas overheard a well-dressed older woman plead to Elvis: “I’ve got my husband’s Cadillac outside. Come with me?” The report didn’t say whether Elvis took her up on the offer or not, but we know he had a thing for Cadillacs.
Gimme Back My Autograph: Robert Plant, lead singer for the heavy metal band Led Zeppelin, is a big Elvis fan. He once visited Elvis at Graceland, and the two harmonized on Elvis’ hit “Love Me.” Elvis then autographed a photo, “To Robert, a true friend. Treat me like a fool, Elvis Presley.” Many years later, Plant said, the woman I was living with kept it for ten years, but finally gave it back when I surrounded the house with tanks.”
Milk Cow Blues: In Amarillo, Texas, a reporter once asked young Elvis if he intended to marry. Elvis answered: “Why buy a cow when you can get milk through a fence?” We can assume Elvis had plenty of calcium in his diet in the 50s with all the milk he got through the fences.
No Gold Record For This: In 1995, a Finnish Professor, Jukka Ammondt, translated several of Elvis’ hits into Latin. He then released a CD with the vocals provided by Finland’s Eurovision Choir. What was his rational for this? “Latin,” said Ammondt, “is an eternal language, so what better way to immortalize a legend.” My favorite songs have to be their renditions of “Tenere Me Ama,”(“Love Me Tender”) and “Nunc Hic aut Numquam” ( “It’s Now or Never”).
Another Strange List: I don’t know who tabulated it, but there is a list of the most popular Halloween wigs. Elvis came in # 6, just behind Bride of Frankenstein. The top five were all women’s wigs, but at least Elvis beat Cleopatra.
Gamblers Give Up On Elvis: Did you know that bookmakers used to give odds that Elvis would be found alive? Over the years, bookmaker William Hill took thousands of bets, but by 2004 wagers that Elvis was still alive had all but dried up. In 2005, he was giving 1000 to 1 odds, with no takers. Bookmaker Rupert Adams gave the biggest odds ever on an Elvis-related bet. He offered 14 million to 1 odds that Elvis would crash land a UFO into Lock Ness and hit the monster. Didn’t we read about that happening in the National Enquirer?
© 2007 Philip R Arnold All Rights Reserved www.elvisblog.net
Leave a comment
Posted in ELVIS COMMENTARY MINI-NUGGETS