Could “Avatar” Win Best Picture?

By Brett Hogan

 

Last week, the trailer for James Cameron’s sci-fi experiment “Avatar” debuted. While initially unimpressed with the teaser, I began to wonder: Could this film win best picture? 

 

Buzz has been generating for this movie for years. Years. The technology to make this movie didn’t exist when Cameron conceived it, so he invented it. When is the last time you heard of a director spearheading the invention of anything? The casting started in 2005. Most movies these days, even epics, are done in half that time. I could go on. 

 

The most important thing to take away from all of this is that people are saying this will be the future of movies. Now, I don’t agree with the idea that CGI will become more prevalent than it already is. But I do believe that this will set the bar miles higher for sci-fi. I mean, that is what Titanic did. And that won some awards if memory serves.

 

I’ll bet you’re asking yourself, how can you even suggest that a film like this will win Best Picture when the initial trailer was nothing better than visual stimulation? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, the Academy has expanded Best Picture to ten films. This doesn’t guarantee anything other than improved chances for most films on the cusp.

 

Second, after last year’s Oscars debacle, which saw the best film of the year, “The Dark Knight,” not only get shafted in awards but nominations as well, the Academy is pulling out all the stops to appease those with the loudest voices in the film industry, the fanboys. Now, the Academy probably didn’t lose anything because of that other than some viewers of the award show. Perhaps if people are again outraged with the winners or nominees, the heads of the Academy would lose their jobs. So this is all about the Academy protecting itself, which is not so outrageous.  

 

 

Third, there is an economic motive here. I’ve heard this film will cost $190 million, not counting the R&D costs associated with Cameron’s inventions or the cost of getting 3-D cameras into every theater in the country. The Academy will do everything in its power to get people into the seats and make this the next “Titanic” or “The Dark Knight.” But the Academy doesn’t have much power, besides nominating and awarding, so they will slap the “Nominated for Best Picture” moniker onto every commercial and print ad to get the people who didn’t believe the critics to relent and see this movie.

 

Of course, all of this is pure conjecture, and no revolutionary film (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, etc.) has ever won the Best Picture category because it changed the game. Except maybe Titanic. But still, could this movie actually win? My answer is no but a nomination is certain and who knows what could happen from there. We’ll know more come February 2010.

Very Viral: The new way to market movies

By Brett 8/9/2007

 
This summer has had me hooked to my computer, for reasons other than work. I have been constantly checking and rechecking for new updates to a few movie sites just to get a glimpse of what’s going on. Of course, I speak of The Dark Knight and JJ Abram’s new project dubbed Cloverfield. Both of these movies have me jacked up due to their marketing campaigns.

Viral marketing is a very new concept of using “word of mouth” advertising via a computer. Basically a movie’s marketing team will release a clip or create a website that is devoted to showing the viewer little, but keeping their interest high. While viral marketing can apply to many different products, we are only discussing it in terms of movies.

Let me start by saying that the producers of Cloverfield have done a remarkable job marketing this movie. They released a “trailer” (more like a short clip that shows only what it needs to) and then took it off as soon as the buzz started to be generated. This left millions of people wondering what happened in this trailer. They then went on and attached it to every Transformers print. People starting to get more excited for Cloverfield than for the movie they were about to see. Everyone is anxious to know more about what is happening. People will see this movie just to know what is destroying the city. Many rumors are flying around, but no one is saying anything official. This secretive ploy could make this movie.

If Abrams doesn’t release a trailer, people will see this movie just because they saw the clip. Imagine if I could sell you a cell phone by giving you nothing to form an opinion on. The movie could be awful, and people would still go and see it just because of that clip. Releasing a real trailer could turn people off from this film if they see something that is way out of left field. However, I think Abrams needs to release at least one more clip, unless he goes the traditional trailer route with a voiceover, etc. This will keep the movie fresh in people’s minds and ready to go when 1-18-08 arrives.

This brings me to my next point. The date is the only thing we have to go off of with this movie. No official title (Cloverfield is someone’s title, but not Abrams) has been announced and no one knows the actors involved. The team behind this film may not only be reinventing the cataclysmic destruction of the earth flick but also the way studios market to moviegoers. At this point, the only thing we have been exposed to beyond the clip is the website 1-18-08.com where pictures have been added as an effort to keep people interested and guessing.

The other film that has been generating equal, if not greater buzz, has been The Dark Knight, the sequel to the brilliant Batman Begins. The first teaser trailer has been recently released to get the general public into it, but for us die-hard fans, we know that it started long before then.

The main website started innocently enough with a graphic of the new Batman logo. We learned that the cast list was starting to fall together (to this date, there are still rumors as to who is playing who) and a basic plot.

Although most guessed that this film would include the Joker, people went wild once it was officially announced. The news of Heath Ledger was more exciting still, and led to several photoshoppings of what Ledger would look like with the makeup on. Things took off when Aaron Eckhart was revealed to have accepted the role of Harvey Dent.

A link was established to take the viewer from The Dark Knight main webpage to a new site with a picture of Eckhart reading “I believe in Harvey Dent” (accessed at ibelieveinharveydent.com). Not long after that, another page was created (ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com) with the same picture but vandalized to have red circles around the eyes, and a smile on the face.

At that point, the first pictures of the Joker were released on the site. But they didn’t stop there. If you attempt to access this site now, you will only find that the Joker has hijacked the site to say “Page not found.” Highlighting the text reveals laughter expressed in several “hahaha’s” as well as the hidden message “See you in December” (possibly a trailer featuring the Joker will appear then?). After this, we had some down time before we were graced by the newest site showing the teaser trailer, and a Gotham City police report detailing a crime by the Joker (by far my favorite site).

However, not long after that site was active, it was replaced with “rent-a-clown” which shows pictures of several fans at Comic-con sporting Joker style makeup. There is also an 800 number you can call to hear a hostage of the Joker read a note before being, well, terminated. If this stuff does not make you want to see this film right now, check your pulse.

The real intrigue here is the way the studio is bringing the fans into the world of Batman. What is typically being done in the first half hour of a film is being done online. Most of what has been released pertains primarily to the Joker who is establishing his ethos by hijacking websites and defacing pictures of public figures (similar to something the Joker might actually do).

I will be the first to say that some of the things (the phone message) I have encountered in this marketing campaign can be described as borderline over the top. We are being brought into the microcosm of Gotham City by being made to feel as if the Joker exists and is really doing all of these things. Fear and excitement go hand in hand here and it works to bring people to theaters.

The question remains, what happens next? To be honest, I don’t know. Perhaps games and puzzles within website promoting movies that lead to subplots? Maybe exclusive chances to win tickets to the premiere when you crack the code? How about set visits? Keep it up, whatever you decide to do. This brings a whole new dimension to movie making and may finally bring some fresh ideas to the big screen.