I think most of us went into shock last night when Jack Nicholson read off the wrong name. For a brief moment, I actually thought it was a joke.
I was angry, frustrated and distraught, but comforted, really, to come home to our site to find thousands of you feeling the same feelings, and so many of you looking for a way respond.
Within a few hours we had two good suggestions to start with, and a thread dedicated to discussing them, and less than a day later, we have achieved consensus.
So here's what we're doing:Two responses: one collective and coordinated but more individual:
1. A newspaper ad
2. An email campaign
This thread concerns #1. A separate thread for the email campaign is here:
http://davecullen.com/forum/index.php?topic=1732.new#newWHAT: We are organizing a campaign to place an ad in one or more influential papers, with a positive tone, stating that we believe Brokeback Mountain was the best picture of the year. We will cite the list of major awards we are agreeing with, and briefly state who we are and why this film matters so much to us.
WHO: We need everyone we can to take part in this in some way. For practicality, we will organize a small committee to tackle the planning/logistics and make it happen. I have asked Pete in Portland to chair this group, organize the committee and take the lead in implementing it. Most of you know him as a moderator with a strong background in both community organizing and the film industry. He has been heavily involved in discussions of how to approach this for the past 24 hours, and will make an excellent leader. You will hear more from him in the next post.
WHEN: This needs to happen very soon to be effective. I would like to see the ad placed within a week.
HOW: PAYPAL LINK FOR THE AD CAMPAIGN:
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http://www.davecullen.com/brokebackmountain/adcampaign.htmlYou can donate by credit card without setting up a paypal account.And if you want to email the donation link to people, send them this:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=dave%40davecullen%2ecom&item_name=Ad%20Campaign%20by%20the%20Brokeback%20Mountain%20Forum&no_shipping=0&no_note=1&tax=0¤cy_code=USD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF&charset=UTF%2d8--- UPDATE ---
THE FINAL DRAFT AD IS VERSION 10, HERE:
ALWAYS USE THIS LINK TO SEND PEOPLE TO THE FINAL VERSION OF THE AD:
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http://davecullen.com/brokebackmountain/img/ad-final.jpgHere is the
press release for immediate distribution. Just cut and paste it into the text of your email.
March 9, 2006For Immediate ReleaseContact: John Wells at 917-715-9263 or Linda Andrews at 210-885-4882
Hollywood, California-In an unprecedented show of support for Brokeback Mountain, a website discussion board has spearheaded a campaign to collect donations from around the world to place ads in trade and national publications in support of the movie. In the first 48 hours, the group raised nearly $16,000 from over 400 contributors, and a team of volunteers designed a full page color ad to run in the March 10 Daily Variety.
The ad campaign was started by members at the Ultimate Brokeback Forum as a positive way to deal with their emotions surrounding Brokeback Mountain’s loss for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Instead of responding in anger, members wanted to find a way to thank the cast and crew of the film and to find a way to highlight Brokeback Mountain’s unprecedented string of Best Picture wins.
The disparate group quickly decided to start an ad campaign, and soon word spread to other sites, and donations started to pour in from around the world. “I think most fans of the film were stunned by the Best Picture surprise, which raised the question of how and why the Academy could have been so out of sync with virtually every other organization that awarded Best Picture honors," site organizer Dave Cullen said in explaining why so many diverse people worldwide were donating to the campaign.
According to industry watchers, no movie has generated this sort of fan response after a loss for Best Picture. Fans are happy their support for Brokeback Mountain is becoming part of industry lore. They hope that others looking for a way to honor Brokeback Mountain as the Best Picture of 2005 will contribute to the campaign, so more ads can run to help raise awareness that the film garnered nearly every Best Picture award bestowed for 2005. “Only one major organization did not name Brokeback Mountain as Best Picture,” says campaign chair Peter Greyson.
In part, this one snub for Best Picture was why those involved with the campaign wanted to send a clear message that Brokeback Mountain was embraced by people around the world as well as highlight their gratitude for the film and remind people of the spirit of the film as expressed by Ang Lee: “[Jack and Ennis] taught all of us who made Brokeback Mountain so much about not just all the gay men and women whose love is denied by society, but just as important, the greatness of love itself.”
The organization spearheading the ad campaign is the Ultimate Brokeback Forum, hosted at davecullen.com/forum. The forum has 2,500 members and in only three months of operation is averaging 12,000 unique visitors each day and over 200,000 page views. For more information you can find them on the web at
www.brokeback.davecullen.com A copy of the ad going into the Daily Variety can be found at:
http://davecullen.com/brokebackmountain/img/ad-final.jpg--- (end of press release) ---
See all the stories written about us here:
http://davecullen.com/forum/index.php?topic=2005.msg87880#msg87880
