The reason & the significance.
Posted on October 24th, 2007 at 3:35 pm in News |
All monster movies from Godzilla to Cthulu have focused on two things. Chaos and destruction. Chaos for the people, destruction of the city, and the destruction of the monster–all of us would readily agree on these 2 focused topics in a monster movie…right?
Then what is 1-18-08, codename Cloverfield, overnight, Wreck, whatever it’s going to called!…All about? Yes, it’s the big question we all want the answer too and so far JJ Abrams and his marketing team have given us information that contradicts all monster movies.
What do YOU! Think about the information released, whether it be from slusho.jp , tagruato.jp, 1-18-08.com is all about? Do you think J.J. Abrams and his team released background information about Slusho and Tagruato (like flavors, drilling platforms, family history) because he won’t have time to explain it? J.J. wont have the movie span to include these things? Slusho and Tagruato have nothing to do with the movie and were released to send us on a wild goose chase?
What or why do you think these sites, this information, was released for the 1-18-08/Cloverfield movie?
40 Responses
IMO, JJ and his crew started up this ARG to dispense background information that he would have wanted to tell us all, in order to make sense of the story (so we don’t have a giant monster rise up out of nowhere without anyone explaining what the hell it is). They probably would have put this in the movie, were it not for budget or time constraints, or it could even be something as trivial as simply not fitting into the storyline. That’s pretty much how it was with Lost and the Lost Experience (which seemed awesome. Anyone here participate in that one? I was traveling that summer, didn’t get the chance) You’re not going to have the cliche scientist saying “My best guess is that the Tagruato Corporation’s deep sea drilling projects awakened the monster, and that the Slusho drink…” etc etc.
And, there’s the obvious marketing ploy. Regardless of if these sites are legitimate ARG material or simply red herrings, we’re all (and I’d give credit to whatever poster said this, but I can’t remember them, or where they were posting, or even the exact quote) “enslaved by the game.” We’re all definitely hooked, definitely seeing this movie.
If this thing doesn’t make as much money as at least, say, Britney Spears’ most recent album… finish this sentence as you wish, I just find the thought too depressing to go on.
When the guys who made “The Beast” for the film A.I. did their ARG, the content of the plot for the ARG was only loosely based on the movie. While J.J. Abrams seems to be using the characters from the actual movie for this ARG, it may be a similar kind of deal where the plotline of the game are only related to the “world” of Cloverfield–not the direct plot of the movie.
i think its being looked into WAY to much. does this make sense?
the trailer was released 9 mos early, to see how it was taken. people freaked out on it more than anybody could have thought, so they added 1-18-08.com & slusho. people were still drooling, and starting to get pissed about nothing being around. there wasn’t going to be anything else around, this isn’t an ARG, it wasn’t meant to be anything. they now how sooooooooo many people involved in the online community to either love the movie and make them millions, or spread the word to every human that this is bullshit and sucks donkey balls, and nobody will go. they are only trying to appease what percieved audiance they currently have, as word of mouth on this could either prove it king, or flush it in the toilet
or, i’m wrong and they wanted to give us a story to follow….
godzilla…
cheers..hiccup
I can’t imagine that they would make a movie without background stories on Rob and Co. How can they make a movie about a monster with no back story on the monster. For the lot of us that knew about this movie, and have been following it since July, everything would make sense. What about the other (sane) people? For instance. My mom would probably like this movie, but I know she wouldn’t sit in the internet and search for clues. She wouldn’t watch the trailer hundreds of times. There are more than likely more of those people, then there are of us. That is why we are given a little bit of info like what slusho is, and the myspace pages. We are not given anything major, because it will be in the movie. Sure, we will know that Jamie may be a whore, andy why Rob is going to Japan, where someone who is not on these boards may not, but that is not important. Maybe there will be some kind of inside joke about oven mitts and hammers that we would get, where the others wouldn’t.
We will probably get a few more little bits and pieces of information, but nothing ground breaking.
Yeah, I agree, most ARGs that are simply to promote something (be it movie, TV show, whatever) with a story will only give information to do with the world of the story. But this obviously does make use of the main characters.
To be honest, I was confused by your post, officespacejk. How can they be trying to appease us, when they’re doing such a bad job at it? Lol. I don’t know. It’s obvious there’s going to be a movie, it’s obvious they’re trying to make money off of it, and it’s been confirmed that the sites are legitimate. Check out unfiction.com’s definition of ARGs. I’d say this falls in that criteria.
That’s the tricky thing about ARGs. Very few people actually play the games, but the idea of it when used for publicity purposes is to spread the word about the product. Surely we’ve all made at least one other person aware that this movie is happening. As a matter of fact, Jarvis would have known nothing of this movie had I not told him. So, indirectly, I deserve an admin promotion too :P.
Do we know exactly why Rob is going to Japan? If so, when and where was this found?
Yeah My bad. I kind of assumed that Rob was going to Japan because they are looking for people in marketing on the tagruato website and his myspace says that he works in marketing. I don’t konw if this is the exact reason, but it sounds good. Then again, my myspace says I own a dog grooming company.
Maybe I made all that stuff up. I don’t know anymore.
Yeah, that sounds like you’re probably right.
Dog grooming company… I’m pretty sure you choose what it says for your occupation when you create the account.
I really don’t believe this is an ARG either. It just looks like a large amount of backstory. backstory which has to make it into the movie somehow or the movie won’t make sense. if only the online community knows why the monster is out and about; the movie would suffer.
personally, I think it’s just something to keep Cloverfield on our minds until the true marketing cranks up. cloverfieldclues has a post about an interview with another character “Lily” and she mentions doing interviews and stuff for Cloverfield for the next three months leading up to 1/18/08.
Someone mentioned the lost experience, i missed that one; but i do remember seeing lost puzzles in the bookstores, i don’t think they gave anyone any more information than watching the show did.
Oh and @paulsnofun, I could easily be your mom’s age and I scour the sites every for some stupid, little clue! so you mom may just be hunting for clues behind you back. LOL
@tony yeah they are doing a shitty job of providing information, but just enough that we keep following along. i don’t think this follows ARG guidelines though, unfiction or not. my biggest criteria of an ARG is the G, and there is no farkin’ game around here. everything i’ve seen it is more of a viral marketing deal.
as far as appeasing us, if we weren’t given anything to chew on, most of us would start bad mouthing the movie (not just to each other) and when anybody started talking about it when the next trailer comes out, we’d tell them how shitty its going to be. that, the power of word in a marketing gig, is enough to turn heads.
and, as far as occupation on myspace, its just a text field. i think mine says office dweller, wish granter, and bullshit shoveler. my job around here is pretty close to the wolf in pulp fiction. i fix problems. www.myspace.com/jeffersonk if anybody wants to check it out, or add me.
@ Tony….not true, i saw the trailer at transformers, i just had no idea there was a internet *if* there was an internet marketing campaign.
I would have to agree with Jo. JJ is currently giving us “half the cake” when we want all of it.
This is all very contradictory. There’s a fine line between viral marketing and ARGs. Sure, the word “game” implies entertainment. Why would you all be doing this if not for entertainment?
Generally, ARGs are meant to give back story. Yes, it’s marketing. But it’s also undeniably a game we play.
“Half the cake” - They can’t give us the whole cake, that would defeat the purpose of a movie. And, of course we want all of it. That’s why we play the game.
The Lost puzzles were part of the Lost Experience, and yes, people did actually gain a lot of back story for Lost. Head over to www.lostpedia.com for more information.
The interviews: Doubtless it’ll just be more to attract viewers. Again, they can’t give us the whole cake without the movie.
About badmouthing: Sure, we bad mouth. But undoubtedly, we’ll see this movie to see if it will prove us wrong.
I don’t even know what we’re debating anymore.
@ Tony….”half the cake”, yes i agree we want the whole cake, but like u said, they cant give us that….why not 3 / 4’s the cake then lol? I ment it like that….we have half, we want a whole but cannot get it, so why not give us slightly less than whole?
I’d settle for knowing what movie the next trailer is attached to! If there is going to be another trailer. I would imagine there will be one with the real name on it.
although I’ll still end up saying “one adult for Cloverfield, please” at the box office on Jan 18th!
That’s brilliant Jo. I never thought about it, but I will probably wind up saying the same thing. Part of me thinks they should keep that name (because I am so used to it), but another part thinks they should change it because that is what we (the online folks) call it, and I am an elitist prick.
Well, I’m off to read Officespace’s myspace page. That should make me very productive today.
www.myspace.com/paulisnofun for any of you who want to waste your day away. I mean, hell, it is Friday.
ok, just so we aren’t all going to show up to a movie…friday night…by ourselves…(contemplates proff plum in the study w/ the revolver)…where is everybody? if anybody here is close to me, i’d rather drive a little ways and meet somebody that would enjoy it, rather than go to a movie by myself. however, i’ve already told the kids (8&10) that if i have them that weekend, they are going to the movie, and get to see what this slusho shirt is about…
i’m in mt pleasant michigan, if anybody else cares to try this
I’m in the Philly burbs. I already decided that I am taking 1-18 off and going to the movie in the morning or afternoon. I usually take half days (of take off full days) for movie premiers. I’ll try my hardest not to hop on here after the movie and spoil anything for everyone.
Heh. I think Jarvis and I are far out of read from you all. Oh, and from the day of release till it gets to our (for the moment) undisclosed location, we’ll be forced to go dark from the forums, blogs, and, yes, comment boards. We know you’ll miss us.
Calling it “Cloverfield” would be nice, I suppose. I mean, I think any other name wouldn’t be quite mysterious. Besides, this actually has a backstory to it (Wolfmother’s song, “The Joker and the Thief”).
Gotta go.
Tony. You are more mysterious than this movie.
what does this mean?
I think Jarvis and I are far out of read from you all
some strange intergoogle lingo i don’t know?
Me and Tony live in the Carribean, trinidad to be exact….still at school lol.
So yeah…we’re off the map from u guys :(
oh, so read is supposed to be REACH…gotcha…nothing special besides shitty typing…
Read-around. That’s going to be my new favorite word.
Yeah, my bad on the typo. Isn’t it great how simple typos can become internet phenomena (pwn, originally own… look at where the letters “o” and “p” are located on your keyboard)?
@Jarvis: Fine, go ahead and ruin the mystique. Ugh.
oh god please let something interesting happen today…i need to speed up the last 1.5 hrs in the office…
I hear you office. Time is dragging today, and for some reason it is seven hundred degrees in my office.
i don’t have a heat issue, just the lack of motivation issue…
you know what you get when you cross a rooster w/ a telephone pole?
something very very scary…..?
I have no idea, but I bet the word cock is in the punchline. What do you get?
I think I’ve heard this one before. And I think the answer is really stupid.
cock that wants to reach out and touch somebody…your right, its bad…
ok, i’m outtie for the weekend, and a bidness trip to boston, catch you guys wednesday
wow…..i….um….yeah…..good joke, ha ha…hee, huuuh……oh god…
looks like work is the same all over. that’s the best joke you could come up with, officespace?
I’m from north jersey and probably attending the first showing on 1/18. but I don’t sit next to anyone in the movies. No offence anyone. you all sound great, but I actually like going to movies alone. my life is crazy normally and the movies are my escape.
maybe i’ll wear the Slusho shirt - if we all were to wear them, we’d look like a cult.
Eyeing up “30 days of night” for tomorrow or sunday. figure most of you are at Saw 4, how was it?
There’s been a Cthulu movie?
yup there sure is. Infact, there is a NEW Cthulu movie out in fall this year, 2007.
+ “the call of cthulu”.
Yeah there is the chuthulu movie and a voltron movie coming out in 2008 or 2009 idk which year but I know that the voltron movie will suck badly because its being made by some new guys I’ve never even heard of before. And if anybody sees commercials for the movie gatchaman or something like that just remember ITS NOT RELATED TO 1 18 08 ok because I know somebody will come here and say that. I think the worst idea for this movie that I’ve heard was that it was a power rangers movie hahahaha wow!
What’re your opinions on the Iron Man movie? I know relatively little about it. Just read an article. Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man. Cool-looking armor.
What say ye, any Iron Man fans in here?
I used to watch the Iron Man cartoon as a 5 year old. i remember he can fly with jet boots :S ? and he has a cool red + gold armor that my mum and dad bought for me one halloween at age 6 lol.
So, I haven’t read everything you guys have said, and though I saw the “cloverfield” trailer when it first premiered I’m just now really starting to get real into it. I’m still getting a hand on all these companies involved so cut me some slack. So here’s my theory:
I think the reasoning behind the monster and everything will be a somewhat stereotypical one. The way Slusho and it’s corresponding sites are up you can’t shake that feel. First off apparently Slusho’s secret ingredient is found somewhere in a mysterious spot in the ocean right? And I mean from what we’ve gathered it might be in the same spot the monster is around.
So I’m thinking the where abouts of mr monster are already know. And maybe theres some kind of conspiracy involving these drinks. And they are affecting these people negatively hence the girl with the infection. I think that they just get sick but nothing happens to them. BUT then the monster comes around and has some kinda effect on people. It like triggers people into those raptor like monsters.
Obviously, I think the monster was awoken by the drill.