Making an immediate impression
My latest column is up over at Brandweek. This one is a brief (though long) piece about how the trailer for Cloverfield made such a strong impression and generated such fan speculation and buzz because no one saw it coming. There were no leaks, no descriptions from projectionists on AICN, no nothing like that. The audience was cold-cocked by a trailer that defied all their expectations, and it was from a director infamous (in the Three Amigos sense of the word) for delivering entertainment that challenged the audience to pay attention to what was happening on screen.
Taking the Audience By Surprise
|
|
September 19, 2007
By Chris Thilk
The audience arriving at their local theater to see Transformers on the film’s opening weekend likely had no idea they would shortly witness history in the making. They thought they were in store for an afternoon or evening of giant freakin’ robots, and hopefully the movie wouldn’t completely ruin their memories of playing with the toys as kids.
But before they were shown Optimus Prime, Megatron or any of the other robots they saw a trailer. Not only that—they saw THE trailer.
I speak, of course, of Cloverfield. Or 1-18-08. Or whatever it is J.J. Abrams’ mysterious disaster movie is going to be called. Since that trailer, which showed a going-away party being interrupted by some sort of apocalyptic event, a cottage industry has sprung up trying to decipher clues as to what the movie is about and what’s going to happen. And that’s a great example of word-of-mouth generation.
But I wonder if there would be as much—or as passionate—speculation going on if the trailer’s appearance had been common knowledge before audiences saw it. Nowadays studios often tip off numerous movie news sites that a new trailer for a high-profile movie will debut on a certain weekend and in front of a certain movie.
But Cloverfield took the audience—both in the theaters and then online—by surprise. No one knew there even was a J.J. Abrams movie being shot. If they did, it certainly wasn’t anything people were posting nonstop speculation about. But this trailer and subsequent just-as-mysterious Web site proved an incredibly effective way to jumpstart a conversation.
It could be argued that, had Paramount told some of the bigger movie sites out there that there was a new trailer premiering, it wouldn’t have made as much of an impact. Much of the reaction has been the result of being metaphorically slapped upside the head out of nowhere. It caused such an uproar because people hadn’t already read descriptions of it on the Internet and run through the casting announcements. The element of surprise is, I’d speculate, 80% of the reason Cloverfield and its slowly unfolding series of mysteries are so capturing the attention of movie writers.
It also has a lot to do with who’s behind the camera. If Brett Ratner were making this movie no one would be pouring over Web sites looking for shadows. But Abrams has, through his TV shows Alias and Lost, built a reputation for layering clues under clues under clues. In the audience’s mind there is no detail too trivial to not be analyzed for insight as to what it might mean. Abrams has built a brand around himself that encourages this sort of??yes, I’m going to say it—brand interaction.
And that’s what this really is: a great campaign that encourages, if not demands, audience interaction. Now it’s up to Abrams to deliver a product that delivers on the promise of the campaign.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Chris, I have to be a technicality geek for a second and dispute your statement:
AICN had Cloverfield news 2 weeks before the trailer hit, but no one really cared about the project then.
Also, Alex from First Showing also published the trailer information the week before the release.
But yes, I know what you’re saying, most of the audience were unaware.
Keep up the great work