Since directing the magnificent "Training Day" in 2001, Antoine Fuqua has directed seven more feature films. Every single film predominately featured nearly exact same title card in its trailer: "From the director of TRAINING DAY". With the release of the first trailer for "The Equalizer", the filmmakers added "and OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN", which earned over $161M worldwide at the box office to the card. Now, with the trailer for "Southpaw", they switched out "Olympus Has Fallen" with "The Equalizer" (which earned $192M worldwide).
Many distinguished Hollywood directors have embraced the Futura font over the years, most notably Stanley Kubrick, J.J. Abrams (here and here) and Wes Anderson. In fact, Futura has the honor of being the first typeface to appear on the moon.
But, remember, Hollywood. If everything is in Futura, nothing is in Futura. Let's not overdo it.
Since directing the magnificent "Training Day" thirteen years ago, Antoine Fuqua has directed six more feature films. Every single film predominately featured the exact same card in its trailer: "From the director of TRAINING DAY". This year, however, with the release of the first trailer for "The Equalizer", the filmmakers have added "and OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN", which earned over $161M worldwide at the box office to the card.
Let's go down the checklist... Font - CHECK Black text with white outline - CHECK 3D text - CHECK Cyan color palette - CHECK Superfluous flares - CHECK Giant number behind title basename - CHECK
The teaser for Gareth Edwards’ “Godzilla” was given high praise from moviegoers for its beautiful, evocative imagery. The rhythm and pacing of the teaser, combined with the gorgeous visual effects work of a group of paratroopers gliding their way into the ravaged San Francisco skyline, made it one of the most memorable teasers of the year.
Most importantly, the “Godzilla” teaser succeeded because it teased; it didn’t reveal a shred of the film's plot or character, or show audiences exactly what the movie is about, which is refreshing.
One of the reasons the “Godzilla” teaser works so well is the music -- in fact, the first time I watched the trailer, I shouted at my computer screen, “Hey, that’s cheating!” The filmmakers used the music from a sequence in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”, the famous Jupiter And Beyond The Infinite scene, which features the dazzling slit screen photography, shot by the visual effects legend Douglas Trumbull.
“Any trailer that uses that music would look cool!” I joked. And then, I wondered if that’s really true? Can any trailer with the music from the “2001” stargate sequence look cool?Challenge accepted!
So I put the Lux Aeterna orchestration from “2001” (by Gyoergy Ligeti) underneath the “Grown Ups 2” trailer, starring Adam Sandler, the least-cool trailer I could think of. I did some minor picture editing to make the edit work, sweetened the audio and added some stingers.
Ten years ago, "The Matrix" sequels "Reloaded" and "Revolutions" were released within 178 days of each other, and held the record for shortest time between blockbuster franchise sequels. This year, that record has been broken.
2013 marks the year a film and its sequel were released within the tightest timeframe. In March, the Gerard Butler thriller "Die Hard At The White House" debuted in theaters. A mere 98 days later its sequel "Die Hard At The White House 2", directed by Roland Emmerich, will be released.
Some audiences might be a bit confused since Channing Tatum has taken over the role of the heroic Secret Service Agent (from Gerard Butler), and apparently the President is now Jamie Foxx (perhaps original President Aaron Eckhart was impeached between films). Producers of "Die Hard At The White House 2" plan to excite audiences with even more high-octane machine gun fights, action sequences of helicopters shooting up Washington D.C. monuments, the White House exploding in giant fireballs and general, garden-variety-White-House-destruction-porn.
The sequel also promises to have even bigger, flappier American flags triumphantly being raised, exciting visual effects shots of Air Force One completely blowing up mid-flight, and apparently much more comedy than the original. Producers also promise to explain how the White House could be rebuilt so quickly after the events of the original film.
UPDATE: This post has been updated with an additional film. Click here to read.
Since directing the magnificent "Training Day" twelve years ago, Antoine Fuqua has directed five more feature films. Every single film predominately featured the exact same card in its trailer: "From the director of TRAINING DAY".
I just watched the new teaser for Sony's new film, "Resident Evil: Retribution", and I couldn't help think that the title card's design looks awfully similar to a rival studio's iconic logo.
Another in our Movie Marketing Is Hard! series. Okay, so "True Blood" is not actually a feature film (it's the Alan Ball series on HBO), but the studio used this one-sheet as a prominent part of their publicity campaign. The series debuted in 2008, and the Megan Fox starrer "Jennifer's Body" comes to theaters later in 2009.
The posters are essentially dead ringers for one another, with the slight exception of one storytelling element: the "True Blood" poster features a subtle vampire fang, while "Jennifer's Body" has no such fang (since the film is about cannibalism, not vampires). But the similarities in overall composition, framing, color scheme, the heavy lipstick, tongue lick and blood drip are groanworthy.
Another in our Movie Marketing Is Hard! series.Now that we know that The New York Times is keeping an eye on this blog, let's give them more of what they love: pointing out the obvious lack of creativity amongst studio ad campaigns.
Notice any, ahem, similarities between the one-sheets from these two Nicolas Cage movies? Gore Verbinski's "The Weather Man" (from 2005) and Andrew Niccol's "Lord of War" (also from 2005) have a few eerie likenesses.
Nicolas Cage, squarely facing the camera, looking straight forward
Cage wearing a coat and tie
against a white background, with a simple title graphic against white as well
most significantly, the exactly-the-same creepy, sad expression on Cage's face
Of course, the "Lord Of War" poster gets serious bonus creative points for the illustration of Cage's likeness using ammunition, while "The Weather Man" poster gets several points deducted for creating an image whose defining theme is that a big Hollywood star is in the film. And at one point, he gets nailed with a strawberry shake.
So, only yesterday I realized that we were quoted in The New York Times on a story about advertising trends and conspicuous and unintentional similarities among current marketing campaigns. Did I just write that? The New York Times? Someone from The New York Times, the newspaper of record, has read this silly website? And their head didn't explode from the egregiously poor grammar, unresolved arguments and questionable sentence structure prevalent throughout this site?
The article made mention of my most popular post, "Beowulf and 300," part of our Movie Marketing is Hard series, which probably rocketed to undeserved heights after being picked up by Defamer last year.
From November 20, 2007, in the freakin' New York Times, in an article titled "Imitation Hits the Marketing Business. Again.":
Another in our Movie Marketing Is Hard! series. Hey, look! The folks behind the "American Pie" movies have created another chapter of the "American Pie" saga! But hold on... something's amiss. "Wedding Daze" is not actually a sequel to the "American Pie" movies.
The "Wedding Daze" DVD cover certainly, ahem, borrows a few visual elements from the branding of the "American Pie" series, don't you think? And the ad campaign (including its television commercials) seems especially intent on ripping off the visual style, tone, and title-osity of "Pie's" third film, "American Wedding." The only thing missing from the cover is a tagline like, "If you liked 'American Pie,' you'll love "Wedding Daze!'" And that would be a tad awkward, because the films were created by different studios.
Jason Biggs prominently featured on the cover? Check. Actors, in tuxedos, isolated from their backgrounds and placed against a white backdrop? Check. Big, boldy, red title, with white specks to dirty it up, and a freakin' rectangle around the title? Check. Slight counter-clockwise tilt of the title graphic? Check. A redhead actress on the cover? Check. "Wedding" in the title? Check.
"Wedding Daze," an MGM film directed by Michael Ian Black, is actually a complete rebranding of the film originally titled "The Pleasure of Your Company," which apparently was completed in 2006. MGM, it seems, sent the project directly to DVD and retitled the movie. I'm sure the marketing folks at Universal are thrilled about "Daze's" marketing campaign.
Another in our series, titled "Movie Marketing is Hard!", illustrating the lack of creativity amongst studio ad campaigns.
Zack Snyder's "300" made a lot of money. How much money, you ask? $450 million. Of course, if you asked the marketing geniuses at Paramount behind the "Beowulf" ad campaign, I'm sure they would have corrected me, and answered "$456,068,181, domestic plus global."
Why would the Paramount marketing team know this fact so intimately? Well, it's clear that they've been studying the ad campaign for "300" very carefully. Among many stylistic and clear similarities between each films' trailers, here are a few highlights:
Both trailers have the lead, bearded, warrior hero, in closeup, loudly proclaiming that "THIS! IS! SPARTA!", or, "I! AM! BEOWULF!"
Each trailer has an anachronistic guitar-riff-filled montage of violence, wrapped up with our warrior hero proclaiming something about "TONIGHT..."
And, most obviously, each trailer's graphics are rough, bold, blood red, and set against time-lapse clouds with lightning bursts.
Sure, there are some broad, thematic similarities to both pictures. But the "Beowulf" trailer is clearly trying to mimic the success of the "300" campaign, with no attempt at subtlety or, perhaps, advancing on the style that "300" created. There are several different ways to market a film. It takes a gargantuan lack of creativity to simply carbon-copy a previously successful campaign.
