There. I said it. Got a kickass movie or television you want me to be excited about? Throw some weird canon websites up there that tell a back story or give clues or expand the movie's narrative and I AM ALL OVER THAT SHIT.
No kidding.
Cloverfield comes out in just under two weeks and I could not be more excited, until after I see it and I count the days until The Dark Night in July. Both films have been doing the viral marketing tango on the internet the past few months and I've been following them both with gusto. THE JOKER SENT PEOPLE TO GET CAKES, REAL FRIGGIN CAKES!
In Cloverfield, the events in the movie presumably happen on January 18, 2008 (same day the film is released) so the events that lead to the monster attack on NYC would be happening right now. Over the weekend, news clips from all over the world (read: in different languages) started showing up to report on the destruction of the fictional Chuai station in the Atlantic Ocean. Here's the American entry:
Cloverfield News has them all if you'd like to see the above news in French, Italian, Spanish, German, Korean or Japanese. Multi-cultural!
Additionally, all the main characters in the movie have MySpace accounts and have been interacting with each other for a while now. Recently, "Rob" announced via his MySpace that he got a job with a Japanese company called Slusho . . . thus the going away party for him featured in the movie's trailer. Slusho also has a crazy online presence as well as it's parent company Tagruato. There is even a Tarugato-opposed group called TIDOwave involved in the story. Oh and then there's Jamie and Teddy, two more characters that have a website (password: jllovesth)on which Jamie can communicate with Teddy while he's gone. . . working at the Chuai station! There is actually a lot more to this online puzzle and if you're interested I would go to Cloverfield News and catch up.
I find this type of viral marketing fascinating. I have no idea how important the lot of this is to the film or if it will be even necessary to enjoy it, but it really shows us what we can do with story in the digital age. I am reminded of the 80s comic book series/graphic novel The Watchmen which was sooo much more than a comic book. Each chapter ended with an excerpt of a book, a magazine article, something that provided depth, back story, and motive to a character or situation that simply could not be expressed as well over a few pages of panels. I believe the internet allows us to expand on that type of storytelling. JJ Abrams seems to understand this very well, as he has been doing the same for Lost since the beginning (remember the weird ads for the Hanso foundation in 06?). Lost, by the way has some new websites to follow: Oceanic Airlines is back up and flying and Sam Thomas on Find 815 is looking for a lost girlfriend who was on the fateful flight.
So despite the title of this post, I am reluctant to simply call all this "viral marketing."The word "marketing" makes all of it seem really lame and I am smart enough to know I am being marketed to, but even without the online games I would still see Cloverfield and The Dark Night and I will certainly continue to watch Lost faithfully until the writer's strike takes its toll after eight episodes. I think this is more the artists in these mediums breaking the walls of the medium down and finding new and interesting ways to tell stories. You usually don't need to know all the back story to enjoy the final product, but it makes the world the writers have created become so much more dense and enjoyable. Just ask J.K. Rowling and her upcoming giant Harry Potter encyclopedia.
I'm not saying every movie needs these internet additions, surely we don't need to read the livejournal of Sandra Bullock's character before Keanu started sending her letters from the past (future? I never saw that one), but for a movie like Cloverfield or a series like Lost which breaks away from traditional narrative, it makes the overall experience that much more enjoyable.
How do I get in on this? I want in.
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