That ain't right

POSTED BY: Redlava
UPDATED: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 20:18
VIEWED: 8748
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ONTHEDRIFT

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 1:20 AM

I am glad to see someone else is questioning the marketing for Serenity. You have no idea how much my sister and I have bitched about the Fast&Furious 3, we have seen that movie pimped EVERYWHERE. Every time we turn around there's a poster or another trailer ad etc. Seriously EVERYWHERE, so as you can imagine we've been bitching a lot. And if it's not coming across in my post - it pisses me off, because I never saw Serenity advertised outside of the SciFi channel either. (I also never heard of the RTam sessions until a few months ago. I keep thinking how cool it would have been to show Session 416 Excerpt 2 on tv as an ad with no explanation only an awesome website to hook people on the movie.)Anyways, I firmly believe that we would be looking at much different box office results had the marketing campaign been more well thought out, or actually existed, depending on your viewpoint. This all leads me back to what's been rolling around in my head the past few days, how do we promote the Serenifly verse. I'm thinking on it and when and if I come up with anything I'm heading here to talk to you shiny folks.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 1:28 AM

1. Adam Sandler hasn't had a good movie since Happy Gilmore. Nobody wants to see that guy do serious stuff. We already have a Jim Carrey for that. Adam was just a big dumb loveable boob and now, at 40, that he's losing his boyish charm, I predict that his career is just about over. I hope he saved some of that money.

2. FOX has only 2 rules. a) Simpsons will outlive anyone who was alive when it first aired. b) All shows that stimulate the brain and do not induce a comatose state will be destroyed.

3. I never even heard of Serenity until recently when my brother got me hooked on Firefly, the best damn show ever. (See 2 above)

4. Fast and the Furious was pretty damn cool for a mindless guy flick. They couldn't pay me to watch the sequels though. I did like seeing all of the hoopdie rides in my neighbor hood with big fish tails on the back though. Can't figure why a guy would put a $2,000 sound system and a brand new silver tail on a ride worth $200.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned."

ONTHEDRIFT

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 1:41 AM

To actualy answer the question your thread was about - Sorry. The one thing that I don't like (which is pretty much pointless to mention as there's nothing to be done about it) is that the BDS and BDM doesn't have the most sellable premise. It's hard to introduce people who aren't scifi fans to it because they immediately write it off as genre crap. I'm a Buffy/Angel/JOSS fan and have watched a Trek ep or two in my day but don't really consider myself a "scifi fan". When I read that Joss was starting another tv series I was very excited, and then I read what it was about- it was described as a Space Western ... yeah I wrinkled up my nose. I just didn't see it, I couldn't conceptualize how I could get past all the space-stuff etc to really love this show and the characters in it. Having much faith in our fearless leader though I figured if anyone can make it work he can, BUT, space western? Long story short I didn't have tv at the time the show premiered or for a good long while after. I forgot about the show until I read about Serenity and then saw Firefly on SciFi channel. I fell in love instantly. But Space-Western (or any other way you might describe it), how do you get the people past that so they actually experience the show. Most people just tune out (my mother included) the moment they think anything is really scifi. Sean Maher got some crap in an article I read for describing the show as not scifi but a character drama. That's what it is! The fact that they're on a spaceship is secondary to what the PEOPLE on the spaceship are going through, and thinking, and doing, and becoming. And as previously mentioned my faith in the general public's taste is non-existent. Look at the most successful shows vs the brilliant shows that get cancelled or are barely hanging in there. So, how does one sell a "Space-Western-character-drama" to the somnambulant public whom prefer reality shows in overwhelming fashion???????????????????????

So a long rambling non-sensical post to answer a simple question.

grr argh

MERC2K

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 1:46 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by RMMC:
Considering that the top box office movie for the weekend was another brainless Adam Sandler piece of gos se, it's pretty much the lowest common demoninator that seems to be at work.

*Feels like Kaylee*
Click ain't gos se...

I was going to go into it more but it seems RKLENSETH already covered it.
;)

AGATSU

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 8:49 AM

The only thing I thought could be different (except for the being cancelled part) was that the settlers were actually dressed like they live in the Wild West. I mean, okay, so the outer rim is the new frontier, but it kinda doesn't make sense that people would emulate fashion styles fom 700 years ago just because they are in a similar situation. I think if they were dressed more like Jayne, with t-shirts etc., it would have been more believable and wouldn't have turned off the people who don't like Western - they probably wouldn't even have noticed how Western the show was, while the Western fans definitely would have, even if people on the settler moons were wearing modern clothes.
Other than that, no complaints from me. And it isn't even a real complaint, since I didn't mind, but I'm worried that it scared a lot of people off.

The Serenity Summer Campaign is on, baby - prepare to kick some serious pigu!
September 30th is Serenity 'Versary! Be there or be a purple-belted poop-head. (<- not the official slogan.)
I'm so into Firefly, my butt glows in the dark.

REDLAVA

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 1:04 PM

I have to agree with Onthedrift and Agatsu on their points. I think the show was 5 years behind it's time, or maybe 5 years ahead. There was a cultural shift going on in 2002 because of all the choices other than TV that people had for entertainment. I think that the networks had realized that it was harder to suck people into a show when they had the internet, or movies on the big screen or their new Plasma TV, or concerts, or overtime at work to fall back on. I think people in general needed a reason to fit TV in their already busy lives and if you can't suck them in in the first ten minutes with a chick in a bikini, or somebody eating pig testicles while wallowing through mud to gain immunity than it wouldn't be watched. I think it is slowly shifting back now after the whole reality TV craze burns itself out. Look at the success of Lost, 24, House, the CSI's, Desperite Housewives, and Grey's Anatomy. All of those have a plot line that requires a person to stop and watch. If Firefly was introduced as a new show back in 1998 or next year, with a better time slot granted, it might have done much better in the ratings. IMHO

Personally I liked the western motiff of the show. It helped to sererate the haves (alliance) and the havenot's (everybody else) very clearly. But it was 500 years in the future for cryin out loud. But when you look at it people still wear dusters and cowboy hats, belt buckles the size of your fist and cowboy boots today even though the old west was 150 years ago. Would it have taken away from the show if people wore different clothes? Maybe, maybe not. But something a little more modern definitely would not have hurt. I definately don't look at the show as being a space western, way too generalized. It is a character drama through and through, the spaceships and gunfights are an added detail that makes it more unique.

WHOISRIVER

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 1:30 PM

Universal advertised Serenity on the season premieres of both "Lost" and "The Simpsons", in the first adbreaks, which had an average of just over 20 million people between them, with is upwards of 8 figures in dollars of advertising costs.

In truth, the advertising WAS there - but it's very hard to advertising a sci-fi western comedy action human condition film compared to say, an Adam Sandler film. Or a film about cars. Or Snakes On A Plane.

Ultimately, we live in a world where people are celebrity obsessed and reality TV shows rule the airwaves. That's just the reality. More people watched 'Fear Factor' each week than went to see Serenity at the box office in it's entire theatre run - because, you know, they found people eating live spiders more interesting.

Junk food TV and movies rule to roost, which is just the way it is.

AGATSU

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 1:53 PM

I thank the powers that be that people can't make reality computer games, because they sure as hell would if they could.
I could rant for hours just about the growing rate of advertising within games (without making them cheaper for the consumer) and the fact that they release them half-finished for Christmas because, hey, we can download patches or buy add-ons that are actually the REST of the supposedly finished game!
And they know we'll put up with it because we don't have much of a choice.
Any company that sells stocks sells its soul to the devil, because from then on it's all about the money instead of the product. Developers and creative teams are generally very shiny people, but suits just wanna see coin and don't give a hwai about the product the creators care so much about.

I recently saw something on TV about stupid TV shows actually making people dumber, while educational shows, if presented in an appealing manner, make people smarter.
But since the majority of the people is engulfing themselves in brainless sh*t, it's unlikely they'll get any smarter and realise what TV COULD be.

BTW, if I ever meet Paris Hilton, I'm gonna break her legs.
With her face.

- menacingly growling Agatsu, slowly calming down

The Serenity Summer Campaign is on, baby - prepare to kick some serious pigu!
September 30th is Serenity 'Versary! Be there or be a purple-belted poop-head. (<- not the official slogan.)
I'm so into Firefly, my butt glows in the dark.

DEWRASTLER

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 1:53 PM

Brining the thread back to topic again, the only problem with the BDM that I've seen is that it takes very long to develop itself, and if you don't know the characters you're not sure what is going on or what you're watching. That's the problem I've faced when introducing people to the BDM. I think it hurts when the Miranda storyline doesn't develop itself until over an hour into the film because then newbies are asking themselves 'What was the past hour for than just getting them to this planet?'

FUTUREMRSFILLION

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 2:18 PM

I disagree. I saw the BDM first and didn't need the BDS to understand what was going on. The great thing was that the movie made me want to spend more time with these people.

Agatsu - I think the frontier people were going for wearable utilitarian clothing that would be easy to make if you didn't have access to factories. Things like the bonnets and long coats and the womens clothing would be easy to make with only needle and thread or a sewing machine. Maybe it wouldn't be identical to 1800's clothing, but I bet it would come damn close - plus you have to factor in knwoledge. These people would have been told stories of the old west - they made have deliberately fashioned their clothing that way to feel a part of that whole "conguering frontiers" thing.

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