tagged w/ After Last Season
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The lost art of the movie trailer is a bit of an enigma. A trailer's main purpose is to entice you into waiting and being able to rewatch it countless times while still being pumped for said film. Or, it is meant to shiv a question so deep into your mind that you can't help but break into a studio lot to find out why.
That said, these trailers stood out the most to us this year.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans Trailer - Watch more Movie Trailers
5) Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans
Technically a sizzle reel over the actual trailer, this introduced the world to the supposed madcap nature of Werner Herzog and Nicholas Cage. Yet the actual film was far more bizarre--not for a lack of iguanas and break-dancing souls, but because so much of it depended on Cage's own mannerisms and Herzog's toying with the audience.
Which is what this trailer should've made stridently more clear, yet we were blinded by iguanas.
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4) C Me Dance
What starts out as a seemingly inspirational story quickly takes a turn for the spitting-out-coffee. Guest appearance by Satan.
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3) A Serious Man
Speaking of confusing: the Coens' latest took on a whole new life when it came to keeping the beat. The entire process was so off-kilter for a trailer, especially for one of their films, that it looked completely foreign when compared to other films at the time.
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2) After Last Season
The trailer that set off fevered search for the purpose of Mark Region's debut. After all, no one could believe this was legitimately a film--which, in the year that Old Dogs was released, is surprising.
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1) District 9
Is it a fake documentary? Is it viral advertising for Halo? Whatever it was, District 9 managed to captivate everyone through its' viral ads demanding residents were escaping and that peacekeeping forces were headed in to keep them under control.
The lost art of the movie trailer is a bit of an enigma. A trailer's main... more
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Of course, we can't just have five favorites. So what else did 2009 bring into my life like a sickness before rapidly consuming and taking over my immune system?
5) Paranormal Activity and Paramount's Marketing Department
"Because You Demanded It" became a staple phrase starting in September and it completely overwhelmed the country by the time Paranormal Activity came out. From Eventful into an orchestrated PR campaign launched by Paramount's Digital Marketing department. So, why did we take part in it?
In a sick way, it's good to be wanted. And for the first time since the Saw franchise came bleeding and slicing into the world, horror fans were given a sense of self-importance and worth. This was a film that spoke to them because they had pretend power over its' release. Never mind that Paramount sat on the film for two years just to make a re-release. Not to mention that literally everyone reminded you to demand it, which is all in thanks to Paramount's awesome PR.
They're so awesome, in fact, that they've likely crippled the future of independent release structures and will shift us into the glorious future of "Indie"--BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO DEMAND IT.
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4) Avatar/Delgo Mash-Ups
The dust has settled: Avatar is now cool to like! You can want to watch it without irony and excitement. But I like to remember the days when blue CGI creatures were interchangeable with other blue CGI creatures.
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3) 2012/Collapse trailer
In a moment of marketing kismet in release karma, Roland Emmerich's diaster flick unspooled the same day as Chris Smith's documentary that was also about the actual end of the world as we know it. Then the trailers happened to run into each other at the theater. One thing lead to another and boom goes the dynamite.
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2) After Last Season
Perhaps a true legitimate independent film that found marketing through the Internet, Mark Region's After Last Season got a four-screen release in four different states for one week. It spawned discussion of it being viral marketing, an art project and even inspired rumors of an infamous festival programmer with a penchant for karaoke to steal a print from one of the theaters. The same infamous festival programmer said it was akin to a true cinematic experience, since it inspired such a cult frenzy.
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Chaos Reigns (Antichrist)
While Lars Von Trier's latest got basic VOD distribution, it burned through the online film community faster than you could drink a milkshake. The spark happened at Cannes earlier and gradually came across the rest of the community until a full-blown forrest fire happened in Austin of epic meme proportions. But even then, this didn't spread nearly as wide as There Will Be Blood's iconic line. Instead, Chaos Reigns became a film nerd joke that the rest of the population could only squint at.
img uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
Of course, we can't just have five favorites. So what else did 2009 bring... more
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It's a sad day as people sing the praises of Basterds, we lose the final member of the Big Studio Indie Arm gang. The last victim film to be released under the now-defunct Paramount Vantage label was also released last Friday, but you'll never hear or see it unless you're in Chicago, Seattle, Boston, San Francisco or Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
We're talking, of course, about The Marc Pease Experience, which stars Ben Stiller and Jason Goodman and is co-written/directed by Todd Louiso (Love Liza). It drew a 31 from Metacritic and 25 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. So what's the big deal then? Well given its' limited release, The Experience came away with $3,000 for the entire weekend. On 10 screens.
This jogged the old memory as we recalled other Great Moments in Quiet Releases:
[youtube 2Kp8ycMhvO8]
Zyzzyx Road
Where It Was Released: 1 Theater (the Highland Park Village Theater, Dallas, Texas)
How Much It Made: $30 US after a 6 Day showing paid for by the producers.
Why It's A Great Moment in Quiet Releases: It's the stuff that legends are based on. Brought to light originally by Devin Faraci at CHUD, this was a film that featured Katharine Heigel, Tom Sizemore and one of the strangest legal battles in history. Of course, it went on to make some money in the international market ($300,000+) and off home video release, but it was in part thanks to Devin Faraci learning about this movie that one of the recent cult fads could be born.
[youtube UJz5vURvEAQ]
After Last Season
Where It Was Released: 4 Theaters (Lancaster, CA; North Aurora, IL; Rochester, NY; Austin, TX)
How Much It Made: Unknown (No record exists of the film's week long run at the four theaters.)
Why It's A Great Moment in Quiet Releases: Season wasn't "quiet" per se, but it spawned enough of an Internet Shitstorm that people became obssessed with the trailer (myself included) and trying to discover the back-story of the film's director, Mark Region, and his production company, which also served as the location for the film shoot. Regardless of a $5 million budget claim, Last Season did the impossible and opened on a four screen theater across four states for one week. This is a mildly important thing to consider when most independent films can't even show in one theater in the director's home town for a week. Yet no one but Region knows how much the film made. Season inspired rabid speculation among even hardened cinephiles, prompting one rumor that one man, while on vacation in California, drove nearly 4 hours to the location in Lancaster to barter for a print of Last Season that was being thrown out.
[youtube EgQ_ichSL9A]
Delgo
Where It Was Released: On 2,160 screens nationwide
How Much It Made: $694, 782 (or $237 per screen)
Why It's A Great Moment in Quiet Releases: Delgo is one of the best loud-yet-quiet releases ever. It was once championed as the future of independent animation and CGI, but soon became one of the saddest $40 Million productions that gestated for over 11 years in production. Not to mention it seems errily similar to Avatar.
[youtube nAloQYjWmFI]
Bandslam
Where It Was Released: 2,1,21 theaters nationwide
How Much It Made: $2,231,273 (Opening Weekend)
Why It's A Great Moment in Quiet Releases: For a critically praised tween comedy about music and friendship, it was used as nothing more than a dumping ground for The New Moon teaser trailer. Mis-marketed to the High School Musical fanbase, this film wound belly-up the second it fell out of the gate. Maybe not a "quiet" release, but it sure played itself off rather quickly.
-John Lichman
It's a sad day as people sing the praises of Basterds, we lose the final... more
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I almost forgot about the mind-bendingly weird trailer for After Last Season until Twitch reminded me that it does in fact come out this Friday. I had originally assumed it was some kind of low-brow attempt at making a cult film like Tommy Wissot's Videogum nabbed it originally, pointing out the exisqiute cardboard sets.
But then it got weird--it got a trailer page on Apple.
And then Filmmaker caught up with the production company.
Finally, this Friday, if you live in either:
-John LichmanI almost forgot about the mind-bendingly weird trailer for After Last Season until... more
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I still don’t know that I buy it.
Which is to say that, having driven 90 minutes to see Mark Region’s After Last Season at a Cinemark megaplex in the middle of the desert, having uttered the title at the box office with the same nervousness by which young men of old might have purchased a ticket to their first adult film, having sat down in the theater, having watched all 93 minutes of the film itself projected on 35mm and then driving 90 miles back home afterward, I feel no more convinced that it’s real than I did when I first watched (and watched and watched) the trailer after it surfaced online three months ago. The cards just don’t line up.
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Click the link to read the rest of the review, which is incredibly interesting once you're taking this film's entire genesis into account.I still don’t know that I buy it.
Which is to say that, having driven 90... more
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