What will hook the audience?

[Lobster Charlie]

I'm talking about in terms of visuals, seeing a trailer or poster. To be honest, that Watchmen teaser poster is cool for ME, a comic book geek, but I doubt most average people are going to be "wowed" by it.

What's going to be the visual "WOW" factor that will hook the casual observer? 300 and Sin City had an interesting look which drew people in. Spiderman and Batman are established characters.

Off the top of my head, I'm thinking Doctor Manhattan and Rorschach will definitely be something interesting looking to get attention. Something that makes you say "Whoa..what's that?"

Maybe in the face of so many comic book films being made (most of which are, IMO, crap), The Watchmen will be "The Anti-Comic Book Film?"

 

[buddha182]

You've got a very interesting question here and I'm really unsure either... That's why we leave it up to the movie studios to figure out how to market it!

Honestly, even that Rorschach image that appeared in the 300 trailer is something that I still think people who aren't comic book fans won't relate too. I'm guessing they'll really push for a trailer that connects with the story and time period. Something that is a very deep introduction and really draws people in with the story wondering "wow, where will this go" or "this looks really interesting."

As Zack said, he's not aiming for the teeny-bobber comic book movie, he knows what this movie's audience is, and he's aiming for that. I guess it's the marketing department's job to come up with something else that expands beyond that.

 

[I Am The Knight]

I think the marketing department will play out Dr. Manhattan and the "From the director of 300....." the most.

 

[ToddIsDead]

If it has a good trailer, it'll find the audience. That might sound a little naive or stupid, but that's what it's going to come down to. This doesn't have a huge built in audience like a Batman or Spider-Man. It'll take a nice trailer with lots of pretty visuals and "money shots" to get the asses in the seats. The premise alone isn't going to get anyone exceptionally excited. Not more-so than any other super-hero movie. And certainly not the cast either.

Expect "From the director of 300" to be all over the place though. That's going to be a huge part of the marketing. And it'll probably help a bit too.

 

[buddha182]

This is almost getting me somewhat worried. Like 300, they're gunna play all those money shots in the trailer and there won't be that much left over that will be pure excellence that you'll only find in the movie... Hopefully that isn't the case

 

[Luchastyle]

i think having the comic book art on the posters will intrigued a like of average movie going folks. i think focusing on the dramatic/mystery aspect of the story will get an older crowd that they are shooting for. i think showing brief action sequences will only bring in younger audiences that won't appreciate the scope of the movie. you want to appeal to people the age of the characters. people who were in their 20s or 30s in the 80s. people who can "get" a lot of the points they are trying to make. so i think taking a very different approach than most comic book movies will be what gets the audience. even a lot of casual comic book fans don't know anything about watchmen. the people who go see x-men and spider-man movies are watchmen fans. you see the older, higher brow crowd. and only an intriguing story will draw them in.

 

[Lobster Charlie]

I guess I'm just "concerned" about how much money this film will yield. I pray that it's a huge success, so other more mature R-rated comic-book based works are greenlit.

This film will probably benefit from casting a wide net of appeal over the entire audience, if only to make the studio feel a little more secure.

 

[Luchastyle]

I guess I'm just "concerned" about how much money this film will yield. I pray that it's a huge success, so other more mature R-rated comic-book based works are greenlit.

This film will probably benefit from casting a wide net of appeal over the entire audience, if only to make the studio feel a little more secure.

i think it'll hit $150 mil. but not much more. it'll be a moderate success, but nothing huge. i hope it will be a critical success though.

 

[Compi716]

I think this is the image that might end the trailers. It looks cool and amazing, and can hook the audience.

 

[Reptile]

I'd have an animated poster of Rorschach's face

 

[Motown Marvel]

the promise of blue penis.

 

[Reptile]

the promise of blue penis.

hell we saw Barts

 

[WalterKovacs]

well, the movie is obviously going to be visually arresting, so that will advertise itself, plus if they get they guys who cut together the 300 trailer, and throw in there "from the people who brought you v for vendetta and 300" i think youll get a packed house.

 

[Reptile]

but V sucked

 

[StorminNorman]

V for Vendetta didn't suck, thats simply absurd.

And even if it did, it was beloved by millions and has a strong cult following.

 

[Johnichi Chiba]

300 showed that all a movie needs to be successful is imagery that will capture people's attention. Watchmen has that in abundance. As long as the trailers and TV spots contain enough imagery to get people wondering what the hell that was all about then Watchmen should do fine and probably hook a fairly large audience.

 

[Rust]

Yeah, visually Watchmen contains more than enough selling points to get "outsiders" in the seats if done right.

I guess Gibbons will only do the teaser-posters, which by themselves, should be quite effective as a tease. That'd be quite unique and definitly an eyecatcher next to "ordinary" photorealistic posterart.
They should probably show Manhattan on one of the early posters though, cause he will be the main visual flagship for this movie.

They showed The Comedian getting beat up on the Comic-Con-poster. I guess it'll also be the actual first teaser-poster for the movie.
Then I guess they'll introduce Rorschach on the next and then Niteowl and then Ozy etc. as they're introduced in the book. I dunno...

I think we can expect some photorealistic posters too prior to the release. Hmmm, it'd be cool to see some of the teaser-posters by Gibbons turned into a photorealistic shot. Like that Comic-Con-poster only done as a shot from the movie. That'd be friggin cool. Manhattan on Mars... mmmmmmmm.

And yeah, an animated Rorschach-poster with changing fliuds... hehe.

On a sidenote, 300 was just a promotional stunt for Watchmen.

 

[Sandman138]

The promise of a movie that transcends genre?

 

[Reptile]

I was talking about the movie

 

[superkong 500]

Zack Snider said in an interview that there will be character posters one with doc M a full body shot of him levitated and silverware floting around him and the words saying, superman is real... he's american.

So I think the marketing will focus on them trying to exploit every interesting visual element to pull the audience in.

 

[buddha182]

yea but character posters... no one really outside of the people who already know it look at those... we're talking trailers and such...

i do hope they just make some incredible regular posters (not character ones) though...

 

[Closerframe]

"From the director of 300"
"From the studio that brought you 300 and The Dark Knight"
"From the mind that brought us V for Vendetta and From Hell"

 

[Lobster Charlie]

See I'm wondering what the overall visual style is going to be like. Dave Gibbons' style, as much as I appreciate Watchmen and Give Me Liberty...does it really lend itself to something particularly interesting in live action?

I'm really curious to see what path ZS takes in bringing this to life. You can't really go "300 style" with it, as those comic panels were heavily stylized.

 

[Rust]

See I'm wondering what the overall visual style is going to be like. Dave Gibbons' style, as much as I appreciate Watchmen and Give Me Liberty...does it really lend itself to something particularly interesting in live action?

I'm really curious to see what path ZS takes in bringing this to life. You can't really go "300 style" with it, as those comic panels were heavily stylized.

Snyder said he wouldn't go 300 on this one. His visual reference for Watchmen was Se7en which I can TOTALLY relate to. I always wanted Fincher for Watchmen, so this is just one more step in the right direction.

 

[Caliber]

I think it will be hard to please the same audience who saw 300 because this isn't ultra violent. If they advertized it with the from the director of 300 it could backfire but once some footage is out maybe we'll see what snyder has in mind. They should play up Rorschach but I guess showing Doc Mahhantan doing something liek grow bigger or take a tank apart should get people interested.