I went to see THE ROOM tonight as it was playing as a midnight movie... I have seen it a few times before as I r megageeK... I've been thinking a lot about promoting your own film and how its really difficult to guess how the audience will receive it.... what will get they attention? What will they laugh at? What will creep them out?
As I was watching the room again...I noticed that this film is like an out of context nightmare for the director... people focus on these random things that are weird or wtf inducing like Lisa's neck in some boring dialog scene...or the football in every "friends hanging out" scene 0_o Or during the last shot of the film which was supposed to be sad or moving or something the crowd was chanting "suck his dick!" cause the way the shot was framed the peoples heads were moving over the dead guys crotch 0_O I don't think that's what he wanted....
I mean the d00d who made the room still WON in the end because it was so bad and out of context it made it good... its when you get caught in between where you lose and no one cares....
So I think to properly promote your film you have to like guess the context...
If you guess right it will make sense to people and perhaps they will be interested and tell someone else about it... if you guess wrong it won't make sense and they'll just move along to something else... unless its SO WRONG like THE ROOM or BIRDEMIC it makes it funny...
So I have to try to guess right with the context when promoting HSM... or promote it the total WRONG way on purpose....
As I was watching the room again...I noticed that this film is like an out of context nightmare for the director... people focus on these random things that are weird or wtf inducing like Lisa's neck in some boring dialog scene...or the football in every "friends hanging out" scene 0_o Or during the last shot of the film which was supposed to be sad or moving or something the crowd was chanting "suck his dick!" cause the way the shot was framed the peoples heads were moving over the dead guys crotch 0_O I don't think that's what he wanted....
I mean the d00d who made the room still WON in the end because it was so bad and out of context it made it good... its when you get caught in between where you lose and no one cares....
So I think to properly promote your film you have to like guess the context...
If you guess right it will make sense to people and perhaps they will be interested and tell someone else about it... if you guess wrong it won't make sense and they'll just move along to something else... unless its SO WRONG like THE ROOM or BIRDEMIC it makes it funny...
So I have to try to guess right with the context when promoting HSM... or promote it the total WRONG way on purpose....
That's a very interesting question, I've been asking myself the same thing but about art in general.
ReplyDeleteI think when there's truth in the story, or at least the creator's sincerity, people are more likely to get it and/ or overlook irrelevant details.
This is something I've seen with all forms of expression, whether it's a painting, a story, a film or just an opinion in an essay or something. No matter what it's about or how it's delivered, if the creator is being sincere or manages to capture truth in his work, it will be well received and usually in the right context.
Like any kind of fakery means DEATH for the creator's intentions and aspirations. People's reactions to truth is always predictable, lies not so much. But then you don't really have that problem so I wouldn't worry so much when it comes to your work. Though it's highly intriguing and I think about it all the time.
You're tearing me apart, context!!!
ReplyDeleteXD
Sure you'll do the right thang.
Adam
If you want another great example look up "Deadly Premonition" for the 360.
ReplyDeleteBest worst game ever ^ ^
@DieA
ReplyDeleteYeh I'm always a slow when it comes to figuring these things out when it comes to promotion+perception so in the past year or two I was like Ohhhhh yeaahhhhhh ^ ^ Like reading about the premiere of Stanley Kubricks 2001 wherein like 250 people walked out and it wasn't doing well in theatre's until they rebranded it as "The ultimate trip" and it became hugely successful...
I'm coming to the same conclusion...that most people won't look deeper into the things I make so they get stuck on the WTF?! TRIP OUT! factor...
Korzybski & Gurdjieff knew a thing or two about this - seems you do too ^ ^
ReplyDeleteThe people who walked out on you don't matter, it never matters how much people don't understand something, what matters is how nuts the people who did like it went. I don't know about marketing, which is a shame because I went to a business academy, but you do have the luxury of testing everything on your Youtube audience.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's impressive about 2001, again see, masterpieces like Eraserhead get slandered to this very day. Things like that are what makes me think the businessy perspective "as many people as possible need to approve of my stuff" is not as good as "the people who do like it should like it as much as their first puppy" kind of thing. I'd rather be the maker of Eraserhead than 10 Oscar films. You're doing the right thing though, once you've got the heart and some truth it's good to have strategy.