Monday, December 22, 2008

trailer wrinkle


Something I noticed while watching the tube.

The trailer for the new Underworld flick, Rise of the Lycans, aired today and it attempted something rather novel in terms of TV spots. By the way, viewers caution, this new sequel's not directed by Len Wiseman.

What the trailer did was headlined the movie title and its release date at the top of the screen throughout its entire presentation. This did somewhat disrupt the aesthetic appeal of the trailer itself, kinda like a fly buzzing around eye level, but I suppose it did fulfill its overall intention -- we'll see in a couple days whether the release date survives in my living memory. But more imperatively, if it does, whether I give a hootenanny. Because a marketing strategy can brand and implant all it wants, but if the quality of the product and the quality of the product's persuasion is lacking, well, it's irrelevant.

I also noticed a marketing trend which is gathering steam for movies banking on their top-billing movie stars to draw in their audiences: the (playfully solemn) singular close-up, i.e Will Smith in Seven Pounds & Brad Pitt in Benjamin Button. In my opinion, the megawatt movie star is a near-transition away from becoming wholly passe, but this directness in marketing scheme is something that bodes well for aforementioned transition and indicative of it taking course. Basically, the pussyfooting is cutout. But, it's also very fascinating to gauge the expanse of this strategy seeing as the above-stated exemplars both feature these international movie stars in feathery exercises in commercial sentimentality (though probably still solidly entertainment).

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