Mark Achbar (5)
By Katherine Dodds On February 04, 2014 | 0 Comments
It's February! And around Hello Cool World you know what that means! Time to show our campaigns some love...
It's no surprise Valentine's day is also our company anniversary, and this year we're a teenager - we turn 13! Every year we're reminded that we founded Hello Cool World because we love what we do.
Sexual Health, Harm Reduction, love and respect for the planet and for indigenous people, promoting heart-felt causes like our #4Eva campaign in honour of Eva Markvoort, and of course our love for people-over-profits through our work with the The Corporation film.
So why not celebrate with us? Everything on our online store is ON SALE.
We even have some Good Clean Love all-natural products (body oils and lube) -- just for your pleasure, and with prices reduced.
Our #4Eva art cards and heart tees also make great valentine gifts. (And February is also heart month, big congrats to Mark Wilson who sent us a photo of him wearing his #4Eva heart shirt while celebrating his one-year transplantiversary last week!
But even if you opt for another gift from our store, all these sales support our campaigns, (which of course you can also donate directly to):
65_RedRoses #4Eva - Right now we're gearing up for April/May #4Eva Legacay campaign.
The Corporation 10th Anniversary Year - In May we will launch our crowd-funding for our 10th Anniversary year to re-build our Corporation and Hello Cool World website systems to create an ongoing legacy for our orgnanizing work with our do-gooder cohorts. Join us for a year of organizing, dialogue, and actions!
Picturing Transformation - We're also offering FREE shipping for our new book Picturing Transformation Nexw-áyantsut, which shows how 10 thousand people saved a rainforest through love, cermony and community.
Katherine Dodds AKA "Kat" is the founder of Good Company Communications and HelloCoolWorld.com. Trained in renegade advertising & branding through her work with Adbusters in the '90s, Kat's early induction into the possibilities of the web-world was inspired by the term hypertext, which she immediately found comforting. She is dedicated to cause-related communication and to the development and use of tools that promote democratic processes.
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By Katherine Dodds On September 18, 2012 | 2 Comments
BE PART OF THE STORY. SO THE STORIES GET TOLD.
Once upon a time, when we were working with Velcrow Ripper to launch Scared Sacred (The first film of his trilogy which is being completed by the new release of Occupy Love), the tag line 'Be part of the story, so the stories get told' emerged in our mass email template for Hello Cool World - it's still there for those of you that are on any of our 'lists'. It proved to be prophetic, as the entire marketing world has not only cottoned on to 'story telling' as the hot new buzzword (oh but it's actually ancient) for all the cool young campaigns.
But it's true, story has a power that moves people more than moralizing or rational arguments alone. But when a story well told, with emotional appeal, is backed up with both compelling facts and a call to action - it's heart, mind, and world changing. And of course this is what the best of documentaries do with the added audio visual vocabulary to bring to the proverbial table.
Which is why we've taken a documentary storytelling (and discovery) approach to all our projects, even the ad campaigns!
I INTERRUPT THIS BLOG TO SHAMELESSLY PROMOTE FOUR FINE FILMS COMING TO VIFF!
(Listed here in screening order.) I've already got my tickets to the following films, made by fine filmmakers who are friends and colleagues. If you are in Vancouver get your tickets now!
1. The Last White Knight • Dir. Paul Saltzman (Prom Night in Mississippi) • Premieres Sept 29, 8:45pm Empire Granville 4
2. Occupy Love • Dir. Velcrow Ripper (Scared Sacred, Fierce Light) • Premieres Oct 4, 9pm Empire Granville 1
3. Shadows of Liberty • Dir. Jean-Philippe Tremblay • Premieres Oct 5, 3:20 p, Empire Granville 5
4. Blood Relative• Dir. Nimisha Mukerji (65_RedRoses) • Premieres Oct 6, 6:45pm Empire Granville 2
Our ongoing work on The Corporation has been a calling card, but that project is by no means over for me. I am still balancing my desire to truly have an impact on the corporate form itself, and to build a movement out of the consistently growing numbers of supporters who contact us. As happens at this time every year I have had a lot of filmmakers who are also fans of The Corporation inquiring about working with us.
This blog began as a letter to one of these filmmakers, and as it turned into a manifesto of sorts I decided to blog-i-fy it for all to read. This season, this contemplation is being tempered with the need to create a real live business plan for growth as part of the VanCity Women Entrepreneurs program I was accepted into. Currently, I am getting support to work on this growth plan and will be give the opportunity to pitch it to potential lenders and investors.
As happens every time more filmmakers want us to take on their projects I do a lot of soul searching about what exactly we did for films before, and what I can realistically do for them. I've been backward engineering the successes and challenges fo the work with The Corporation...
The Corporation has been a project now for me, for over a decade. I was involved with The Corporation before it was even in production, and my role was far more than that of someone brought in after the fact. My roles were as producer and creative director of the website, and Creative director for the branding (we created the signature logo) plus "Director of Corporate Communication" - an ironic title reflective of my role not as a publicist but as the producer/director of the entire grassroots outreach.
All efforts were centred around having the website as our communications hub and tool. With Mark Achbar's help I raised 100K for the website and leveraged 100K more from distribtuors in four countries, who collectively spent a million in advertising all directing traffic to our website, which continues to have a significant amount of traffic ten years later. In essence, a campaign needs to be produced and directed, and the resources required, as well as the timeline are much the same as making a film!
Tag(s):
Hello Cool World,
Environment,
Film Launch,
The Corporation,
Fair Trade,
Mark Achbar,
DVD,
Fair Trade DVD Distribution,
The Corporation Film,
Distribution,
Women Entrepreneurs 
Thank you to all those who went to see Surviving Progress during it's opening week! The film was such a success in Vancouver and Toronto, it's being held over in both cities!
In Vancouver, Surviving Progress will continue playing at The Rio from December 9-15, and it will begin playing at Denman Cinemas from December 16-22, everyday at 7pm.
In Toronto, Surviving Progress will continue playing at Cumberland Four until December 22.
Please remember that you can contribute to the success of Surviving Progress by liking it's page on Facebook, following @surv_progress on twitter, and tweeting #SurvivingProgress to stay involved in the conversation.
Tweet Cheat Sheet
- #SurvivingProgress (@surv_progress) will be playing at #DenmanCinema in #Vancouver Dec 16-22! Showtimes: http://bit.ly/vsxfRu
- #SurvivingProgress (@surv_progress) will be held over for a THIRD week at Cumberland Four in #Toronto! Showtimes: http://t.co/GFT3Pxs8
- @briandjohnson reviews #SurvivingProgress (@surv_progress) in Macleans: http://t.co/hk789dEa
- #SurvivingProgress is getting rave reviews! Read the latest blog from @CorporationFilm:http://t.co/vUeLsU6c @surv_progress @alliancefilms
- Is Wall Street killing the environment? Read "The Road to #SurvivingProgress" by @leirenyoung http://bit.ly/sDcRdh @surv_progress
- Director @mathroy discusses what leads to societal collapse in @Nowtorontohttp://bit.ly/rBPQ2S #SurvivingProgress @surv_progress
- "In #SurvivingProgress (@surv_progress), civilization should be viewed as an experiment" -- @georgiastraight http://bit.ly/vziou5
- @mathroy & HaroldCrooks talk to Tribute at #TIFF about #SurvivingProgress (@surv_progress) http://t.co/gs9qiYFh
- "#SurvivingProgress probes humanity's march to the brink" via @VancouverSun Read more: http://bit.ly/rRhBpi @surv_progress
- Listen to @mathroy talk about #SurvivingProgress on @cbcradio http://t.co/Cexa8Vkuand remember to follow @surv_progress
- First Financial Insights Inc: #SurvivingProgress (@surv_progress) "Most Important Film in Decades" http://bit.ly/sbmsXK
- @inmovies writes about #SurvivingProgress (@surv_progress) directed by @mathroy & Harlod Crooks http://bit.ly/tPaCLp
- "Provocative, brainy, visually arresting, disturbing." #SurvivingProgress (@surv_progress) http://bit.ly/vzMT3s
Every mouse click used to copy/paste a tweet, or share a link helps!
For info on Surviving Progress, keep reading after the jump.
Bella is the newest addition to Hello Cool World, enlisting for the cause at the end of 2010. A graduate of BCIT's Broadcast Communications for TV program, she's worked in all aspects of production and has a knack for new media & technology.
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By Bella Sie On December 01, 2011 | 0 Comments
SURVIVING PROGRESS is a stunning new feature documentary that connects the financial collapse, growing inequity, and the Wall Street oligarchy, with future technology, sustainability, and the fate of civilization. Inspired by Ronald Wright’s bestseller A Short History of Progress, filmmakers Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks dig deep into human nature and patterns of history to challenge and redefine the very idea of progress.
For the last four years Mark Achbar has been the executive producer along with Vancouver colleague Betsy Carson on 10 documentaries made possible by the box office success of the Corporation.
As Mark says:
"In light of the Occupy movement, that this film — 6 years in the making — is being released NOW is some kind of miracle of timing!"
Please help us spread the word as it's so important for films to do well on opening weekend in order to stay in theatres!!
Continue reading after the jump for showtimes, press links, and a list of ways you can easily help us promote the film!
By Katherine Dodds On January 19, 2011 | 0 Comments
GOOD BUSINESS 2011! I admit I started 2011 feeling a bit tired — overwork and a family tragedy overshadowed New year's eve, and we began 2011 with a cornucopia of deadlines. But this morning I finally got to the post office to pick up a package that had been sitting in postal limbo while I was out of town. Opening it up I was inspired! A gift from Mark Achbar & Siobhan Flanagan, it is a very cool book called "Business Model Generation". The geek in me crowed with glee. It reminded me what all this busy-ness was for... and how we got here.
The story I like to tell is how seeing Manufacturing Consent, the film about Noam Chomsky & the media that Mark Achbar & Peter Wintonick made in '92, is why I went into media. And working with Mark on his next big film -- The Corporation -- is why I started a company (a tiny corporation that is not publicly traded!) And of course Adbusters was my training in advertising, and Naomi Klein's No Logo inspired me to fight the big brand bullies, but, as with Manufacturing Consent -- my sense was that the power beneath all this corporate media, publicity and advertising could not be left in the hands of only those seeking profit alone.
We bagan our mission to unleash the power of branding to do good.
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