Don't Be Like Mark Focus!

Thanks to my colleague Stanley Rowin over at Pro Photo Business Blog for revealing this YouTube piece, of a photographer spiraling down from a high dollar figure to free during this 60 second example of self-flagellation, and further evidence of the negotiation axiom "whoever speaks first loses" after price is discussed:

(Continued after the Jump)

Interestingly, the character playing the photographer, humorously named Mark Focus (that's got to somehow be funny to all the people with Canon Mark III cameras having focus problems) is actor Eric Krupnik, who is also listed as a production assistant for this 1969 movie titled Putney Swope. Was Krupnik living the mentality of his character as well? Krupnik has done little since in the film industry, whereas Putney Swope (played by Arnold Jackson) went on to a well rounded career as an actor!

The plotline and one comment about the movie from IMDb:

ark satire in which the token black man on the executive board of an advertising firm is accidentally put in charge. Renaming the business "Truth and Soul, Inc.", he replaces the tight regime of monied white ad men with his militant brothers. Soon afterwards, however, the power that comes with its position takes its toll on Putney...

This movie shows that the free enterprise system and the quest for the almighty buck transcends all racial and ethnic barriers. Ultimately the market place determines the message that is sent to the public....A conservative white-collar advertising company is taken over by a group of street-wise African Americans...who wants to make a buck and believes he can sell products by telling the the truth. But the movie shows that no matter how hard he tries to do something different, the market place and the political system demands that he conform, rendering him no different than his predecessors. Interesting, off-beat movie.

Gotta love the low-five that the "militant" bodyguard (played by Buddy Butler) gives Putney Swope at the end!

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