Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: What's Up With That 'Cloverfield' Trailer?

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Posted by Paul Goulet (Member # 297) on 07-09-2007, 08:44 PM:

USA TODAY

Copyright 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. All Rights Reserved.
2007-07-09 07:21:52

What's Up With That 'Cloverfield' Trailer?
By Anthony Breznican,USA Today
Posted: 2007-07-09 19:21:32
Filed Under: Movies
(July 9) -- What is it?

That's the question moviegoers are asking about a mysterious trailer promoting an unnamed film shown in previews before Transformers.

The 'Cloverfield' Experiment

It's possibly Hollywood's biggest experiment with reverse psychology, creating immense want-to-see passion in people by refusing to say anymore.

The footage is grainy home video of a party in New York, featuring happy-looking twentysomethings dancing and mugging for the camera before disaster strikes.

The lights go out. The party people go to the roof and see huge fireballs erupting in the city. Panic ensues and the group runs to the street, where something large hurtles through the sky and crash-lands in the street in a heap of burned wreckage.

It's the Statue of Liberty's head.

There is no title on the trailer. The date 1/18/08 is shown, along with a line saying it is produced by Lost co-creator and Mission: Impossible III director J.J. Abrams.

The project is known by the code name Cloverfield, but that is not the real title, according to Paramount Pictures, the source of the trailer.

Hollywood-Elsewhere.com's Jeffrey Wells says the trailer is a clever ploy working just as the studio hoped.

"It's probably more enticing to not quite know what is that they're putting across," he says. "It's always better when you can arouse imaginations and get them wondering without making things too explicit. That's not the age and aesthetic of today. Everybody wants things right on the nose."

On the Web, at Fourth of July barbecues and at post-Transformers screening dinners, people wanted to know more. Harry Knowles, the online king of movie previews at AintItCool.com, says Paramount's unique marketing campaign will "drive all the rest of us crazy. The worst thing about releasing a film without a title is my phone starts ringing at inappropriate times in the morning and night. When you have your phone number on your website, people think, 'Let's call him and ask him what we saw."

His theory, based on puzzle websites Paramount set up as clues, such as the fake prophet page EthanHaasWasRight.com, is that the film will involve the late H.P. Lovecraft's tales of monstrous ancient gods wreaking havoc on Earth.

Other online speculators theorize the film is the long-promised Voltron movie (which would explain its placement at the beginning of the Transformers film) about ancient robotic lions that form the titular giant to defend Earth from invasion. More stabs in the dark are that it's a new Godzilla film, a big-screen takeoff on Abrams' Lost TV series or an entirely original project.

Paramount has not posted the trailer online, and pirated versions are being quickly stamped out by the studio, claiming copyright violation.

All that Paramount sources will say is that they can't say anything. Yet.

Copyright 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. All Rights Reserved.
2007-07-09 07:21:52

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 07-09-2007, 09:45 PM:

Here is the trailer on Apple

Posted by Frank Dubrois (Member # 3042) on 07-09-2007, 09:52 PM:

quote: Paul Goulet
It's possibly Hollywood's biggest experiment with reverse psychology, creating immense want-to-see passion in people by refusing to say anymore.

Ummm...yeah ok. This has been done before. It always leads to major disappoint. Internet hype will turn this flick into another major Hollywood flop.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 07-09-2007, 11:19 PM:

I thought the trailer was pretty cool.... hopefully the forthcoming excessive hype on AICN doesn't lead to Snakes on a Plane syndrome.

Posted by Paul Goulet (Member # 297) on 07-10-2007, 06:35 AM:

quote:
quote: Paul Goulet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's possibly Hollywood's biggest experiment with reverse psychology, creating immense want-to-see passion in people by refusing to say anymore.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

quote:
Frank Dubrois Ummm...yeah ok. This has been done before. It always leads to major disappoint. Internet hype will turn this flick into another major Hollywood flop.

FRANK, The Quote is from the article, not me

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 07-10-2007, 12:15 PM:

quote: Paul Goulet
Paramount has not posted the trailer online, and pirated versions are being quickly stamped out by the studio, claiming copyright violation.

Yeah, they just happened to send one to Apple though. [uhoh]

[ 07-12-2007, 05:16 AM: Message edited by: John Wilson ]

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 07-12-2007, 05:14 AM:

From Showbizdata.com

YOUTUBE AXES TRAILERS FOR CLOVERFIELD

Tuesday, July 10 2007

YouTube has complied with a request from Paramount to remove copies of a trailer for the forthcoming Cloverfield. The trailer for the J.J. Abrams-produced movie made its first appearance last week with the debut of Transformers in movie theaters. The following day copies of the trailer, apparently shot with a camcorder, began appearing on YouTube, but they were soon replaced by a notice saying "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Paramount Pictures Corp." Paramount is a unit of Viacom, Inc., which has filed a $1-billion copyright-infringement lawsuit against YouTube. Writing on the TechDirt site, one blogger commented that the studio was obviously trying to generate buzz with the trailer. "Why is it that the studios wanna ruin their buzz?" he asked. Another blogger replied, "It makes perfect sense -- when you let lawyers run your entertainment company. Perhaps we should just be thankful that Paramount hasn't tried to have the people who filmed the trailer arrested."

Lucky they did that...otherwise millions would be able to see he trailer. Oh, wait a minute... [uhoh]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-12-2007, 05:23 AM:

I think it's pretty clear that the studio wants to keep the quality high for people viewing the trailer. Letting people watch shitty camcorder jobs of it on youtube won't be as effective as the high quality master on apple, even though it will reach less people.

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 07-12-2007, 07:19 AM:

I cannot reveal my source, however I have it in good authority that is is a Godzilla picture, shown ONLY from the view of individual citizens video cameras, all ranging in quality and length.

There is a clue in the trailer where a charachter refers to another about a friend going to tokyo so they are throwing a bash of some kind when it hits.

My source is not working directly on the project but one of his producers is and has sworn me to secrecy regarding who gave me the info. They are very tight with security on this deal.

If it is a Godzilla pic, I can only hope that we get back to the glory days of godzilla and forget about that forgettable beast with matthew broderick.

Caio.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 07-12-2007, 11:54 AM:

I like trailers like that.

Although, I can't view the Quicktime links. Keep getting the broken Q image... [Frown]

Posted by Keith Peticolas (Member # 971) on 07-12-2007, 07:24 PM:

I think this is way more than a Godzilla movie. J.J. Abrams is playing a very neat game with the clues to what "Cloverfield" really is. Follow the web sites for some clues. Damn neat piece of marketing.
http://ethanhaas.org/cloverfield3/
http://1-18-08.com
http://www.ethanhaaswasright.com/
The Hanso Foundation is involved with this as well.
Too cool for just another giant lizard movie. I am really looking foward to this just to see what the hype is building too if nothing else. Movies are fun.

Posted by Shane Cooper (Member # 2510) on 07-13-2007, 10:37 AM:

I had a patron that was pissed beyond belief about this trailer. She came out the other day and exploded, accusing my theater of cutting the title off of the trailer because we were "reckless".

There is no level of logic or explanation that was going to pacify this woman. Hopefully she saw one of these online articles!

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 07-13-2007, 01:34 PM:

I thought Godzilla at first, because of Japan being mentioned in the trailer, but I tend to agree with the Cthulhu theory. My reasoning is all of the videos from www.ethanhaaswasright.com speak of a prophecy or a time traveler's account of things to come. A little complex for Godzilla. I was able to get through the first three puzzles, but I watched the last two videos on youtube.

Of course it could all just be there to make people think it is not Godzilla, when it really is. It has certainly caused quite a bit of internet buzz.

It would be awesome if they keep it under wraps until its release date.

Edit: Link corrected.

[ 07-15-2007, 11:02 AM: Message edited by: Chris Hipp ]

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 07-13-2007, 05:44 PM:

quote: Chris Hipp
all of the videos from www.ethanhaswasright.com

What videos? All I see are searches.

Posted by Anslem Rayburn (Member # 1267) on 07-13-2007, 07:23 PM:

Link should be ethanhaaswasright.com

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 07-24-2007, 01:48 PM:

Strike one up for the Godzilla theory. The name of the movie might be "The Monstrous".

Poster spotted:
http://www.chud.com/index.php?type=news&id=11164

Domain name: THEMONSTROUSMOVIE.COM
Registrant:
Paramount Pictures Corporation
5555 Melrose Avenue
MOB 3111A
Hollywood, CA 90038
US

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 01-18-2008, 02:45 AM:

quote: Dave Williams
I cannot reveal my source, however I have it in good authority that is is a Godzilla picture

Ummm, yah. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Brian Michael Weidemann (Member # 2243) on 01-18-2008, 03:39 PM:

quote: Dave Williams
... and has sworn me to secrecy regarding who gave me the info. They are very tight with security on this deal.

Funny, I would have thought that the info itself would be more sensitive than the leak source. Oh, sure, let the film spoilers be announced to the world ... but we need the tightest security. The world CANNOT know the name of someone vaguely related to someone who may have worked with someone who knew the college roommate of someone who's working on the film! [Roll Eyes]

I only caught parts of the film ... am pretty sure it ain't Godzilla, or anything in its order, family, or genus! [Wink]

But, sure if you want to think of it as a Godzilla-type of movie--monster terrorizes big city--then sure, that's probably close enough.

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 01-20-2008, 02:53 PM:

quote: Dave Williams
I cannot reveal my source, however I have it in good authority that is is a Godzilla picture

You may want to from here forward lower the clasification to a not-so-good authority.