A Michael Bay self-parody ad (Koala bears meet George Miller‘s The Road Warrior) made with the cooperation of Michael Bay) for the Australian Commonweath Bank. Except the ad doesn’t mention the word “Commonwealth” so…I don’t get it.

The piece begins with the Koala bear action ad and then cuts to an American ad agency’s creative team (with Bay in attendance) showing it to the Commonwealth guys. Bay used “a lot of his own money” to make the ad,” an agency guy explains. Bay, faintly beaming with pride, adds that “seven helicopters” were used. The client is unimpressed, doesn’t get it either. End of spot.

N.Y. Post critic/columnist Lou Lumenick is reporting exclusively that the Tribeca Film Festival “is cutting prices for this year’s edition, running from April 23 to May 4, after complaints about a 50 percent price hike for most tickets in 2007.

“Most evening and weekend tickets will cost $15, down from $18 last year, and the festival is introducing six- and 10-ticket packages that bring the admission price down to $12.50 apiece,” he reports. “The charge for most weekday and midnight screenings is dropping from $14 to $8, with a 10-ticket package for $64. A few gala screenings and special events will continue to carry a $25 ticket price.”
In late March ’07 Lumenick, Indiewire‘s Eugene Hernandez and myself (among others) groaned about the ticket-price hikes.
“It’s clear Tribeca has seriously lost its focus and become the cinematic equivalent of a street bazaar,” Lumenick wrote at the time. “The festival’s decision to boost most ticket prices by a whopping 50 percent from last year — most evening screenings now cost $18, a few as much as $25 — indicates a leadership that is increasingly out of touch with New Yorkers.

On 3.30 I wrote that “the TFF, launched on the spirit of downtown recovery from 9.11.01, now has a new rep — the nation’s most avaricious and money-grubbing film festival.”