THE HOBBIT: An Unexpected Journey TRAILER: Singing Dwarves, Creeping Gollum, but no Mention of Dragons or Spiders

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Frederick Greene

Like all the other J.R.R. Tolkein fans around the world (and we are legion), I’m anticipating the release of Peter Jackson‘s production of the Hobbit (2012). Why then did the trailer give me pause, curl my lip, elicit a “wha?” response? It’s not that the visual realization of Middle Earth disappointed nor that I objected to casting. (Martin Freeman and Ian Holm as young/old Bilbo are ideal.) Rather, I think my WTF moment was with the articulation of story and sales elements, and what seemed a paratactic (this and this and this) structure, rather than a tighter, more directed one.

Now that I’ve watched the trailer a dozen times and thought at length about what it’s trying to do (and what it does), I’ve come to understand and appreciate its skill, artistry and motivation. Still, I credit my taste and subjective response enough to use them as a springboard to analysis and explication.

Lets stipulate that a film like The Hobbit has many advantages: unparallelled source material; built in fan base; ample production resources; top flight production team; world-class cast; huge awareness and desire to see the film; and major buzz online and in social media. As with the later Harry Potter films, trailer makers and their studio clients have to be treading warily, on guard against derailing/dampening the marketing campaign more than aggressively seeking to ignite or enhance it. It’s an enviable position to be in, but not an easy one to negotiate.

Let’s examine the trailer.

At 2:31, the official trailer is on the long side. After the logos of its three production partners, Warner Bros., New Line and MGM, the film opens in the Shire, before the hillside home of Bilbo Baggins (Holm) telling telling his nephew Frodo (Elijah Wood) details of youthful adventures as yet undisclosed. We meet the Wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellan) who visits young Bilbo and invites him to “share an adventure.”

In short order, he introduces Bilbo to a dozen dwarves and Thoren Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), the human leader of this band of bold adventurers. The dwarves, cozily crammed into Bilbo’s comfy burrow, proceed to sing “Far over the misty mountains cold,” a narrative poem from Tolkein’s novel that chronicles the Dwarves’ mining and metallurgical skill and their historical defeat by a dragon who occupied their ancestral home and took possession of their fabled hoard of gold, jewels and armaments. The song, which plays at length is partially expository (albeit obliquely) and partially atmospheric. Indeed, the tune is arranged and orchestrated for the grand and epic final music cue.

The first of several cards appears: NEXT DECEMBER, over a sepia toned map of Middle Earth, the same graphic that’s used for subsequent cards.
We see Gandalf exploring an ancient ruin; Bilbo walking through an opulent mansion (castle?) and finding a shattered sword, like the one that figures in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Card two: FROM PETER JACKSON
We cut to Kate Blanchett, reprising her role as Galadriel, stroking Gandalf’s face.
Card Three: DIRECTOR OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY.
Next, scenes of the journey and dialogue between Gandalf and Oakenshield indicating the peril Bilbo faces.
Then, as the music builds, we see epic longshots of the glorious landscape (New Zealand, presumably?) and scenes of fighting, magic, camaraderie and play.
Cut to Gandalf telling Bilbo before the journey that “you’ll have a tale to tell when you come back,” to which Bilbo asks, “Any promise that I will come back?” Gandalf answers, “no. And if you do, you will not be the same.”
The title card, THE HOBBIT, in gold letters appears as the camera pulls out, after which Gollum, the most interesting and complicated character in Tolkein, makes his first appearance, uttering his trademark “precious” and exposing his abject and uncannily threatening desire to Bilbo.
The trailer closes on the Credit Block, as customary.

As I mentioned above, the trailer never really explains the adventure behind the story Bilbo tells to Frodo. Rather, we see scenes from the adventure without explicit connection to that plot. Of course, the marketers can rely on some familiarity with the source material to explain what the trailer doesn’t, to wit, that the band of adventurers will confront and rob a mighty, fearsome dragon.

And yet the trailer, despite this signal omission, is also a “tell all,” since Bilbo relates the tale as an old man who has clearly survived the adventure. Additionally, we see a shot of Bilbo setting out from home and a matching shot of him returning, as if to underscore the “happy” ending to this epic tale.

Oddly, though, the dragon goes unmentioned, nor are the giant spiders that capture and sedate– preparatory to eating– Frodo, depicted. (I vividly recall that scene from a stage performance of The Hobbit, scene as a 5th grader. It was, and remains, terrifying.) Why, I wonder? Is there dragon fatigue in the land? Are the spiders “old news” since there was one in the LOTR? Or, has Jackson embargoed showing the dragon, out of a desire to hold something back for the ticket buyers? I do not know, and I’d like to. BTW, the Dwarves’ poem tells of the dragon, but that verse is not sung in the trailer.

In this trailer, then, the marketers have a wealth of appeals and they exploit most of them. They sell Peter Jackson. They sell the connection to the LOTR trilogy, a world-wide commercial and critical success. (The sword, the ring and recurring characters establish the linkage between cinematic pleasures enjoyed and those anticipated.)

The marketing team sells visual splendor, beloved source material (implicitly–not explicitly) and a recognizable and revered cast, reprising familiar and venerable roles. And, in the button of the trailer (the part after the Title but before the credit block), the trailer sells Gollum, the wretched, disturbing, degraded Hobbit (and alter ego to Bilbo/Frodo), here voiced again by Andy Serkis and brought to life through the magic of motion capture.

Singing Dwarves is a risky choice for an adult epic and although it doesn’t work for me, perhaps other fans will feel differently. There’s so much going for this movie (and its trailer) that I doubt the issues I’ve mentioned in this post will dissuade many viewers from seeing the film. Still, I’d very much like to know the decision making process that resulted in the omission of the dragon by name or by visual representation.

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UNTITLED STAR TREK SEQUEL “Fan” Trailer that “Fooled the Internet”

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Frederick Greene

In early June 2012, the above trailer was posted, claiming to be the official teaser for the sequel to J.J. Abrams critical and commercial Star Trek movie (2009). The editors as Film School Rejects and Ain’t It Cool News, among others, accepted its bonafides and shared it with fans as what it purported to be, only to admit they’d been “taken in,” by a skillful misrepresentation.

This trailer is by a fan, and although it features actual, as-yet unreleased footage from the film (the shot of Benedict Cumberbatch in the honeycomb chrysalis/pod is authentic and a legitimate “get” from the production), it was not a product of Paramount or Bad Robot‘s marketing effort. I say “was,” because the fan-made teaser came to my attention in an advertisement by Paramount for the upcoming film, an ad that highlighted the virtuoso deception. In other words, the “fan teaser that fooled the internet” is now a marketing meme for Paramount, as inevitably it will be for another much-anticipated release.

Studio marketing departments are understood to feel ambivalence about fan trailers, especially those that masquerade as “official” or “authentic” productions. Ten years ago, an online trailer for Attack of the Clones (2002) created a sensation before it was revealed to be fan-produced. On the one hand, the studio loves the buzz, the engagement, the careful study of the trailer and the added publicity from its discovery as “unofficial.” On the other hand, the positioning of a major studio release is a decision about which the marketing department feels justifiably proprietary. A rogue “fan-trailer” could compromise carefully laid (and very expensive) strategic and promotional plans. Fans and their enthusiasm are invaluable adjuncts until they go “off the reservation” and resist, reject or re-direct the narrative that the studio/production company has chosen for its project.

What’s remarkable in the case of the Untitled Star Trek sequel is that the fan trailer and its successful deception are embraced, appropriated and integrated into the studio’s marketing plan. It’s enough to make one suspicious about just how “unauthorized” and “fan-produced” this trailer actually was?

But I come to celebrate this complicated, unmanageable phenomenon, not to exercise my paranoia about the totalizing aspect of Hollywoood Marketing campaigns. This is an impressive performance by an “amateur,” but one who has clearly internalized the formula and mastered the various skills required to conceive and produce a blockbuster teaser.

The 1:10 teaser starts with the MPAA green screen, followed by Paramount and Bad Robot logos, which imply “authorized” and “official.” The iconic first note of the iconic, harmonic progression known as the Star Trek theme is struck and repeated, over a deep, ominous synthesized note.

Scratchy footage (apparently from the science films about reproduction and nuclear fusion you might have watched in high-school) appear over a slightly distorted and not entirely continuous recording of the prophetic words of President Eisenhower’s valedictory speech (1961), popularly known as the “industrial-complex” warning: “America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate..scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research..As we peer into society’s future, we must avoid the impulse to live only for today..there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties.”

As Ike intones the last lines above, a close shot reveals a human form (Mr. Cumberbatch) inside a honey-comb pod, as the music modulates into a minor key and swells to the final reveal of the Star Fleet Symbol, followed by the credit block.

The imagery depicts human reproduction (fertilization, the developing fetus, the “pod-person”) and atomic investigation (the secrets of the atom; the release of its energy). Yet, the imagery, like the soundscape, is distorted, hazy, smoke-occluded, with signal interference (analog problems!) and hyper-closeup photography resulting in abstraction and near indistinguishability. At times, shots of characters from the film are superimposed over other images (graphics and the beating heart of a fetus). What it all means, is a challenge to the viewer, an invitation to repeat, slow-motion viewing, research and comparison with others viewers.

This is an impressionistic and highly suggestive teaser, a mystery rather than a revelation, raising more questions than it answers, in the best teaser tradition. There is no copy, although the Eisenhower speech about the perils of scientific advance unrestrained by realism and responsibility, points to a conflict the film may explore. It’s beautifully conceived, edited, soundscaped and produced, indicative of professional skill in the fan who created it.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether this teaser is truly a “deception,” or the simulation of deception in pursuance of the Studio’s marketing campaign. The audience has been engaged, first in reacting to the “putative release;” second, in discovering the deception; third in celebrating its skill; and fourth, in buzzing about the film with the breathless enthusiasm of the hard-core fan base. The casual viewer is implicated in the hype as well as in the revelation and policing of deception. The scandal becomes yet another story about the production, one that enjoys the added value of being spontaneous, organic and “real,” rather than a manufactured, planted and dutifully reported feature from the unit publicist or a high-profile interview with cast or production team.

The viewers role is interactive, rather than passive and spectatorial. His or her “work” as a fan now extends to discovering the fake or fraudulent; viewers are now required to watch trailers forensically with an eye to establishing authenticity. It’s hard to imagine a more engaged kind of viewing practice or one that is more likely to result in the fan/viewer/likely audience member buying a ticket when the film itself is released.

I call this active watching “meta scrutiny.” Not only do I want to know about the film to be release–and trailers are notoriously parsimonious in revealing detail since much of the fun is the “tease,” the arousal of curiosity without its concurrent satisfaction–, I want to know if the trailer itself is official, authentic, authorized. As a “reader,” of this text, I have to be familiar not only with the formula of teasers to assess its “quality” in that register, I’m now obliged to know something about the production of the film it teases, in order to ascertain the truth of its self-presentation.

In this case, Paramount and Bad Robot have aligned themselves with the positioning of the film proposed by the fan, and it’s this embrace, appropriation and acceptance that I think most remarkable. First of all, what might “fan positioning” mean, as a category of marketing? In this case, a person or team, with no financial investment or creative and production responsibility in the film (but probably a significant emotional investment) has presumed to position the film in the mind of the likely audience member, and succeeded wildly.

The untitled sequel is presented as if its chief concerns are the relationship between past and future, science and ethical responsibility, reproduction and duplication. These are rather heady concerns for a trailer campaign to foreground, although Star Trek is admittedly a special case. Ontological questions have always been a staple of its fictional world. Certainly, it’s not difficult to think that the studio marketing department might have preferred a less “abstract” and cerebral sell, perhaps one involving action, rivalry, spectacle and heroism. And perhaps they did, only to find their campaign commandeered by an online phenomenon. In that case, perhaps re-aligning their positioning became the more sensible strategy.

Paramount has the next play, the release of the actual official teaser, and after that the official trailer(s). But henceforward, I and other trailer afficionados will be asking not only “what world is this,” about a new release, but what evidence authorizes us to accept the claim that this is indeed the “official” and actual world of the film (at least as established by the distributor’s marketing department) and not the private, personal perspective of a talented, motivated fan?

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BOOK TRAILERS: An A-V Advertisement for a Verbal Medium

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Frederick Greene

The author of a manuscript  I’ve been editing recently asked me what I knew about Book Trailers and whether I recommended she produce one for her novel.   As a toiler in the world of previews, heralds and coming attractions, I  approved her interest as theoretically sound, while acknowledging that I had almost no exposure to the practice.   Coincidentally, a trailer-making client expressed an interest in exploring book trailers as a sideline of his business.   Clearly, I needed to bone up on the subject and the post that follows represents my first survey of and reaction to the field.

An ungainly neologism coined by Circle of Seven publisher Sheila Clover, “Book Trailer” combines two distinct mediums, histories and sensibilities into a phrase that is nonetheless immediately intelligible.  In fact, it’s more than just intelligible.  If the proliferation of blogs and sites devoted to book trailers is any indication, the notion has immediate, intuitive appeal to authors who are trying to advertise, explain, position–in a word, “market”–their books.

Wikipedia defines  book trailer thus:

“A book trailer is a video advertisement for a book which employs techniques similar to those of movie trailers. They are circulated on television and online in most common digital video formats.”

I should note that book trailers, like their movie trailer models, demonstrate a wide range of skill, ambition, formulae, style, budget and audience appeal.   Despite wide differences in production value and approach, (as a review of the top  search listings showed but too plainly),  there are essential ingredients or formal qualities that an effective book trailer should possess.  (Most of these will be obvious.)

Title page or sequence;  Author name; Publisher; Excerpts of the text, whether read or scrolling on screen or both; Images, whether still photos, stock footage, or specially shot materials produced for the trailer; Sound scape, including music cues and foley; Copy describing, positioning or characterizing the work being advertised; Editing of visual and aural elements into a brief a/v format.

It is quite common for the author to appear in his or her own person, reading from the work,  describing what prompted its production, and/or pitching its relevance, interest and genre, among other qualities.

As with a movie trailer, a book trailer relies on core appeals to attract the attention of a likely or motivated audience.  I say a “likely” and “motivated” audience because, with the exception of a few bestselling authors, most authors/publishers lack the resources for a TV/Cable/Radio buy. Typically, consumers of book trailers will encounter them on the internet or perhaps screened in a bookstore or at a book fair. In other words, they will have sought them out and represent that most desirable of audiences, the self-selecting one.

The appeals that a book trailer makes are similar to those for filmed entertainments (film, TV, gaming, etc.) and include Story, Genre (including age-appropriate writing), Stars (re-defined here as familiar/beloved characters and well-known authors) but generally exclude “spectacle,” since that quality is outside the capacity of the written word.  Provocative, spectacular, scandalous or epic content, however, can and usually is promoted, heralded and marketed.

To these fundamental appeals, book trailers may add provenance (author, editor, publishing house), critical reception (reviews, blurbs,  advance publicity), awards, and phenomenological qualities like “best-seller” or “banned in Boston,” or “on the Prohibited List of the Catholic Church,” to drum up sales.

This is from the Book Trailers for All site, hosted by Circle of Seven Productions.  It categorizes by age-specific writing and genre and offers advice and workshops for creating your own book trailers.  The trailer above sells sex and intrigue to adult readers and features stock-footage and perhaps some special shoot materials to convey the solitary pleasures to be had within the covers of the book.

The trailer at the top of the page, Colson Whitehead‘s The Comedian, is a very sophisticated and beautifully produced/edited book trailer, as befits its acclaimed, best-selling author and pioneering (post) publishing house.  This is what you can do with resources:  a book trailer that is almost indistinguishable from a movie trailer.

T.C. Boyle‘s The Women, hosted by BookScreening.com, features special shoot materials, chapter titles, a gorgeous music cue, but no voice over or excerpts of the text.  It relies on the recognizability of author Boyle, who is routinely reviewed in the NYTimes.

Lastly, a shout out to book-trailers.net, which tops the rankings despite the mostly low-budget, self-published titles for which book trailers have been produced.  Based on a review of some of the trailers, I’d guess that Microsoft Movie Maker software was the default mode of production.  Here you will see scrolling text, stills, video of the author talking about and/or reading from his or her book, without too much fastidiousness about production value.  A link to a “how to make a book trailer” may be of interest to those of my readers with their own authorial ambitions.

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