Moguldom Studios’ Prez Brett Dismuke Talks Film Division Strategyby Wilson Morales
May 27, 2014
Out today on DVD is the documentary ” The Swirl,” which is being released by the newly formed Moguldom Studios. “The Swirl” tackles societal and cultural issues relating to interracial dating, asking the question; is it the new trend or still taboo? There was a time when interracial dating was a taboo practice that could lead to physical harm or even death. Today it seems to be of greater acceptance as with celebrity power couples Kanye West and Kim Kardashian or Ice-T and Coco. The Swirl takes a comedic look at this serious topic by digging into the cultural shift in attitudes around interracial relationships.
Moguldom Studios are part of the company (Moguldom Media Group) that owns and operates Bossip, 24Wired.TV, MadameNoire, HipHopWired, StyleBlazer, Lossip, and AFKInsider and two other high-traffic sites targeting multicultural readers at a combined rate of 19M monthly unique visitors.
In addition Moguldom Studios is digitally releasing a series of 60-min documentaries (branded “docutainment”) this year that’s covering some pretty interesting topics such as “A Genius Leaves the Hood,” and “Gunland,” topics taken directly from the headlines of their news/pop culture content.
Blackfilm.com recently spoke with Brett Dismuke, president of Moguldom Entertainment, about Moguldom’s strategy for their film division and what else to expect from the company.
Congrats on the new position. What led you to the company?
Brett Dismuke: I was previously the Senior Vice President of Acquisitions and Urban Programming at One Village, which is the urban division of Image/ RLJ Entertainment. Essentially, the Moguldom team decided they were going to start a film division and they needed someone with the expertise and they came and talked to me. After meeting with a lot of the staff members, I decided it would be a good fit for me to come over and do what I was doing over at One Village. We’re definitely trying to be a cutting edge, new style film company, giving you content that surmises what everyone is talking about. That ultimately is why I decided to come over.
Documentaries are not always an easy sell. What makes The Swirl worth picking up?
BD: It’s interesting with the words that you use because what we are doing at Moguldom is that we have nine websites with Bossip, MadameNoire, Styleblazer, and Lossip among them and we already have millions of visitors that are already talking about certain things and debating certain topics on our message boards. They are also sharing links and stories. Instead of us creating a film and hoping that people are talking about it, we look to see what’s being talked about and debated on our sites and make films about those topics. The audience picks the topics for us. The whole point is to not take any sides but preset both sides of the argument so that the debate can continue on these sites. We call them “docutainment” because we have the resources to do research and present data and statistics and celebrity interviews to support the things that people are discussing.
What’s the next step should you have successful sales?
BD: By talking about the things that they are already debating, we’re providing entertainment that they want, as opposed to forcing different issues on them. We’re also going to gear up our film slate over the next year or so. In addition to doing these “docutainment” films, we’re also going to create a scripted series. We’re going to launch a digital channel. We’re going to do feature films, comedies and stage plays. We are going to diversify our content for the fans of urban content, but the documentaries are just the foundation of what the film company started with. We’re going to elevate that and take that to the next level so that we can be a full service entertainment company.
Having a built-in audience certainly helps get the company get off the ground faster than others.
BD: Yes. Having that built-in audience is definitely an advantage over other independent film companies like ourselves, but I want to be clear in that we don’t want to limit ourselves to just our website audience. That’s where we are started but we plan to have series on television networks. We plan on doing tours at some point.
The company plans to have a screening “A Genius Leaves the Hood” at ABFF on June 20. This is the unauthorized biography of Jay-Z. Where there any plans to reach out to him prior to making the film? What are you looking to get from this?
BD: When you’re doing a biography, sometimes when the subject of the biography is not available or has no interest in participating, it doesn’t mean that you still can’t tell the story; whether you are doing the film or writing a book. If you look back at VH1 and the “Behind the Music” series they used to produce, that was a very popular series and if you notice, you never saw with the actual subject of that episode. Technically, those were one hour unauthorized documentaries. With “A Genius Leaves the Hood” we didn’t talk to Jay-Z directly, but we do have interviews with people that worked directly with Jay such as Jaz-O, who worked with Jay-Z in the early years of Roc-A-Fella. Jaz-O presented Jay-Z to the world. We have an interview with Damon Dash, who was Jay-Z’s partner. We have an interview with the videographer for Roc-A-Fella Records, who captured the daily movement for three consecutive years. We have people from the media that covered Jay-Z’s professional dealings as he ascended into superstardom. There are people in the film that are qualified to speak on what they witnessed first hand even if Jay-Z and Beyonce are personally not in the film.
Is “The Swirl” the first big release for Moguldom Studios?
BD: Actually, “The Swirl” is our latest release. As of right now, we have “A Genius Leaves The Hood” in the marketplace. That came out in March digitally. We also have out “Gunland,” which talks about the gun violence in Chicago. That was released digitally in April. “The Swirl” is actually our third release, but we completed six films in 2013 and we’re on pace to complete another 12 this year in 2014. I’m in the middle of several different discussions about distribution. It’s only going to get better from here. In addition to being on Itunes and Google Play and Amazon and Xbox and Playstation, there will also be DVDs in the marketplace. You’re going to see these films on television networks and on VOD. You will also see a lot more film festival participation as we’re moving forward and increasing awareness for Moguldom Studios.
What will be the big marketing push for these films when they are competing with the other films released on the same day?
BD: Essentially, our first two films were primary marketed through our website audience. If you had been on any of those sites within the last 6-8 weeks, you would know that ‘A Genius Leaves The Hood’ and ‘Gunland’ is out, but what my job is as I come into the company, I’m trying to grow and expand the audience beyond the website. The first step is using the PR firm 135th Agency in getting the word out on these films and they are doing a wonderful job. With the publicity push and all the social media interactions, there will be more advertising and we are going to get bigger and bigger to the point where you are going to know what Moguldom Studios has coming out next.
The Swirl will be released on May 27, 2014, with the DVD and digital download available for purchase on Amazon.com, Google Play, iTunes and www.moguldomstudios.com
