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Star Wars: Episode VII: The Nerd Rage Awakens

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

DigificWriter said:
^ You're trying to convince people to go see your film. Withholding virtually all information about said film is really not a very effective marketing strategy, because it gives the impression that you don't care all that much about said film or don't think it's going to be all that successful, because if you did, you'd put information about it out there for people to see.
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If you were talking about an independent film or a low-budget film then I would totally agree with you. However, this is Star Wars. People will go see this movie without seeing a single second of footage or a glimpse of a picture or having any idea what the movie is about.

When you're dealing with an established property as well known as Star Wars, you can afford to be withholding. Also, for what it is worth, Lucasfilm and Disney aren't withholding all information. They have released the cast, they have confirmed the crew (including the return of John Williams) and they have released the title and teaser trailer. Based on the fact that the original trilogy cast is returning, we can surmise the film will take place after Return of the Jedi - as a matter of fact that piece of information was confirmed by Disney back in April 2014. Disney has even confirmed the new film will have no ties to the Expanded Universe, giving you an idea of what the film will at least not be about.

I am sure Disney and Lucasfilm are very confident about Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but I don't think anyone expected them to reveal pertinent or even story information more than a year before the movie is supposed to open.
 
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

The point is usually to make the audiance curious enough to go see your movie.

Sometimes less is more.

Oher times more is too much and people decide it isn't worth seeing in a theater.

Some teasers are so weird that you don't even know what it is for until the title shows up.

Take a film like Hook. The teaser didn't tell you what it was about at all. Only who was in it (by actor's names), and the production people. It was just a map for most of the teaser ending with just a Hook in place of someone's hand. The clue on the map was "Lost Boys", meaning a Peter Pan story in line with Captain Hook. But aside from that, there was nothing. No clue what it was about aside from what one could guess based on "Peter Pan" stories.

With The Force Awakens, you can gather some of what is going on based on the past Star Wars films, but that is it.
 
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

DigificWriter said:
I wasn't expecting there to actually be another example of this happening, but I'm not all that surprised that the only other example is a J.J. Abrams film. For all of his creativity as a director and storyteller, he clearly has no idea what he's doing when it comes to marketing things, and I'm quite frankly surprised that Disney and Lucasfilm's marketing people approved the idea.
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I completely disagree.. with The Force Awakens he knows exactly what he is doing in the marketing of this.. the new Stormtroopers, shots of Tatooine, and the Falcon have already been leaked. The new X-Wings (and, again, the Falcon) were leaked on purpose.

That means that the majority of this teaser was him just outright confirming what was leaked was in the film.. and we still have little knowledge as to what to expect,
 
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

DigificWriter said:
I wasn't expecting there to actually be another example of this happening, but I'm not all that surprised that the only other example is a J.J. Abrams film. For all of his creativity as a director and storyteller, he clearly has no idea what he's doing when it comes to marketing things, and I'm quite frankly surprised that Disney and Lucasfilm's marketing people approved the idea.
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We've been talking about an 88-second teaser for 13 pages now. I think J.J. Abrams knows exactly what he's doing when it comes to marketing things.
 
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Masiral said:
DigificWriter said:
I wasn't expecting there to actually be another example of this happening, but I'm not all that surprised that the only other example is a J.J. Abrams film. For all of his creativity as a director and storyteller, he clearly has no idea what he's doing when it comes to marketing things, and I'm quite frankly surprised that Disney and Lucasfilm's marketing people approved the idea.
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We've been talking about an 88-second teaser for 13 pages now. I think J.J. Abrams knows exactly what he's doing when it comes to marketing things.
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Very true!

Of the last four movies he directed, three were from established franchises. He doesn't need to sell, he needs to wet the appetite that is already there.

And c'mon, look at how much people were talking about the lack of information about STiD. We were speculating so much, we were creating our own buzz for the entire movie. If that doesn't scream free advertisement, I dunno what does. ;)
 
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

DigificWriter said:
Everybody keeps mentioning examples of films where the teasers were basically a collection of images meant to whet people's appetites, but the difference is that, prior to said teasers being released, we at least knew SOMETHING about the basic storylines of the films they were promoting (regardless of how far in advance of release the teasers for said films were released).

I cannot think of another film in history that has had a teaser trailer released - regardless of when said teaser was released - without an official 'synopsis blurb' for said film having been released first.
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I think you don't understand the concept of a teaser trailer.
 
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Were this November of 2015 and not November of 2014 I'd be thinking that Lucasfilm and J.J. Abrams were out of their Vulcan minds for airing a teaser like this. But it's not, and they're not. There are still 12 months to go until the world premiere. You don't reveal major plot details in a teaser trailer 12 months before the movie premieres.

Remember the very first Trek '09 teaser? It aired in the spring of 2008, more than a year before the film itself opened in theaters. Nothing but historical voiceovers playing in the background and dark nighttime shots of the Enterprise being constructed. You didn't even realize it was the Enterprise being built until the very last moments. The Episode VII teaser revealed considerably more than J.J.'s 2008 Trek teaser ever did, and that film went on to become one of the biggest blockbusters of the following year and even win an Oscar.
 
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

An effective 'tease' has to have context, or else it won't work as intended.

A teaser trailer, effectively, is the visual equivalent of making a good first impression. You only get one shot at making people interested enough to pay attention to the movie you're promoting, because if they don't 'get' or find any interest in what you're trying to 'tease', they're less likely to pay attention to more in-depth marketing down the road, and it's easier to 'hook' people if they're able to put what they've seen in a 'teaser' into the proper context, something that can't be done in this case because of the fact that there isn't a proper context within which to 'frame' the TFA teaser.
 
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

There were two things there that would grab most of the intended audiance.

1. The Millenium Falcon doing its thing.

2. "Star Wars" - this one defies the need for context after 37 years.
 
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

^
This.

Seriously, it's Star Wars. There's a lightsaber, the Millennium Falcon, TIE Fighters and Stormtroopers. What else does an 88-second teaser for a Star Wars movie released a year before the film itself need?
 
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

A shot or two of members of the original cast to let Joe Schmoe know they're in it?
 
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

DigificWriter said:
An effective 'tease' has to have context, or else it won't work as intended.

A teaser trailer, effectively, is the visual equivalent of making a good first impression. You only get one shot at making people interested enough to pay attention to the movie you're promoting, because if they don't 'get' or find any interest in what you're trying to 'tease', they're less likely to pay attention to more in-depth marketing down the road, and it's easier to 'hook' people if they're able to put what they've seen in a 'teaser' into the proper context, something that can't be done in this case because of the fact that there isn't a proper context within which to 'frame' the TFA teaser.
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People have simple brains. You hook them with simple things. Give them to much at once, and they loose interest. So, when you want to hype, simple and fast visual stimulation. With Star Wars, that is so effing simple. And they have them here, the lightsaber, the Falcon, X-Wing. Hooked. Done. End of story.

Same thing goes for ALL the big franchise movies. Batman's logo-teaser with the voice of the Joker. People had no idea what the movie was about, but boy were they hooked.

Movies that aren't part of that, never have teaser-trailers. They have normal trailers, which do give us something about plot and characters. Because we need to identify with that. And that's the kind of trailer you described. The normal trailer.

A teaser trailer is a whole different kind of animal, and if you look at what everyone else in this topic is describing, I think the one person who is getting the defenition of a teaser trailer wrong, is you.


We only really started getting teaser trailers, when we started having big franchises in movies. Because we already identified with the movies made previously, we only needed the small teases. We already HAVE context. We don't more need more.
 
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

The Old Mixer said:
A shot or two of members of the original cast to let Joe Schmoe know they're in it?
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In theory the Millemium Falcon does that.

What we don't know is what roles the original cast's characters are playing in a Galaxy 30 years after Endor. That's something for later. Maybe the trailer next year, or maybe not even clearly until the film comes out. It could be spoilery as all getout as to what they are doing 30 years post Endor. Especially with the old post-Endor EU seeming gone.
 
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Star Wars needs no context because Star Wars was already "sold" to the audience decades ago. All this teaser needed to do was say "Hey, guys. Star Wars is back!" It did that and then some.

Personally, I'm loving the lack of plot information. Waiting for the Prequels was exciting, but we already knew what the basic story would be. This is the first time since the run-up to ROTJ that we've had a new Star Wars movie coming and we know almost nothing about the plot. I relish being kept in the dark.
 
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

here's the George Lucas Special Edition of the teaser.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v93Jh6JNBng&feature=youtu.be[/yt]
 
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

The Old Mixer said:
A shot or two of members of the original cast to let Joe Schmoe know they're in it?
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I honestly doubt there's a significant portion of the moviegoing public that doesn't already know that. My 75 year old parents know that.
 
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