10. You Know That Making Your Poster The Same As Everyone Else Or Your Soundtrack The Same Just Makes Us Think Your Film's Nothing Special, Right?
I'm going to counter a popular marketing opinion. The reason movie posters all are starting to look the same is that apparently, the general public will subconsciously associate the upcoming film with another good film and y'know, happy thoughts. And a subconscious desire to see the movie and go in with those happy thoughts. No. Here's my reasoning, based on so many internet grumbles from the above poster and so many others, Maybe your logic applies to the general public. But the fanbase of films like Star Trek, or the Avengers, or Star Wars? They see it as derivative. Or unoriginal. And it poisons their expectations, and THEY are the ones who buy your every special edition, write the most scathing reviews that then colour more mainstream reviews, and will buy your $120 Enterprise Bridge playsets complete with sound FX. If you make them think you're ripping off Nolan's "Batman", they will go into the theater expecting a ripoff and you're fighting an uphill battle to win them back. Which is funny, because in Star Trek's case they should be going in on your side because you cast Benedict Cummerbund well as a villain and have Carol Marcus as a character. Just have a Klingon ship (Or the Reliant) dogfight with the Enterprise and you've done all the fan-pleasing you can before Leonard Nimoy shows up again. We're not asking for the Star Trek film posters to look like those pulp oil-painted ones for Star Trek II - IV. But something that didn't make us feel like our franchise has to steal from Bane and the League of Shadow's crew would be nice, and certainly let some fans keep an open mind when seeing the film. Same goes for soundtracks. If I show you this.... Or this... Or this... ....and then ask you to hum the relevant music....well, I bet you can do it. In fact, if I ask you to think of similar music, you'll probably end up humming different music from the same film. Even if, say, for "Star Wars" you hum the Indiana Jones theme, they ARE the same composer. And I bet you can hum entire phrases too. They're catchy, memorable, and you probably LIKE every film you can hum the music too. Now go ahead and hum this film's music - Yeah. It's not a bad film at all, but it's got a pretty standard "action-movie" score. Which is a shame, as with such an iconic character a memorable theme'd be nice. Music to a film can get things done and be perfectly good (Hans Zimmer, for example, can always turn in a great score - It's just some certainly are more memorable than others). But when you have a movie that has THEME music, well, congratulations - You just netted yourself memorable promtional tools and merchandising opportunities, studio execs! Sorry, a little less cynicism this time: Memorable theme music goes the extra mile in making a film great. People can love the music of a film just as much as they love the characters and the film itself. If you make it just like every other movie, you've literally given us less to love.....and once again, made it "just another movie" to the people most likely to keep loving and buying your movie and its music: the moviegoing fans. So in conclusion, if you care, movie studios, we'll care. As that last statement conitnues to scream for emoticons, I'll leave you to snipe or support in the comments below.....
In a parallel universe where game shows' final jackpots and consequent fortunes depend on knowledge of obscure music trivia and Jon Pertwee/Tom Baker Doctor Who episodes, I've probably gone rich, insane, and am now a powermad despot. But happily we're not there, so I'm actually rather pleasant. Really.
