Serenity: The new way to promote a film

[nerd4hire]

Thank You Fox, for selling Serenity to Universal.

Universal has been promoting Serenity smart. The decision to push the opening to September is starting to feel like a good move. Serenity was originally supposed to open in April during the time the Space opera demographic was waiting for SW III.

In the meantime, behind the scenes the actors have been playing the convention circuit. Joss has been connecting to the fan base via the internet, and that fan base is growing. DVD sales have begun to kick in once more after a great start, and an inevitable die-down. They fell down to the [HASHTAG]#100s[/HASHTAG] spot, then moved back up to the 20s recently after the Serenity campaign began.

The big thing though - the new thing - has been this unique viral advertising gimmick of advanced screenings. Here's what a Dallas newspaper is saying about it.

Starring a cast of unknowns, could it start a trend toward early sneak previews for films in need of word of mouth?

"Every case is different, but every time something succeeds, somebody else is going to try it," Mr. Whedon says. "The use of the Internet and fan bases and cults has been pioneered by The Matrix and other movies like Blair Witch. This is a new way of dealing with an increasingly vocal and involved public that the Internet has thrust upon us."

Dallas News

In fact the news appears to be getting out there, even beyond the internet. Local Newspapers seem to be picking up on the Serenity Buzz.

Story from NY Daily News

Story from Boston Herald

Story from Miami Herald

Damn. Lost the URL, but this is from Kansas City Star

By SHARON CHAPMAN. It was exhilarating. It was devastating. It was the best night ever for fans of Joss Whedon's "Firefly.". Last ...

I just remembered, you have to register at some of those papers, so here's quotes:

Dallasnews.com

Sneaking 'Serenity'

Fans of TV creator Joss Whedon sell out previews of his big-screen directorial debut

09:57 PM CDT on Sunday, June 12, 2005

By MANUEL MENDOZA / The Dallas Morning News

Universal
The space Western Serenity, an offshoot of the failed TV series Firefly, features a cast of unknowns.

Jeni Balch and her husband, Andrew, drove 200 miles to see a movie. Then they did it again.

They're part of a cult, not the dangerous kind, building around failed TV series Firefly for almost three years now.

The movie they traveled from Abilene to Austin to catch, and later Abilene to Dallas, is the show's big-screen offshoot, Serenity. It isn't scheduled for release until September but already has been seen by thousands of "browncoats," as the fans call themselves, during two nights of unusually early sneak previews in May.

"It's great geek bragging rights," Ms. Balch, 24, said from her choice spot at the front of the line outside the AMC Valley View 16. "We could walk down the street and see a movie or make an event out of it. It's fun being part of a community around this."

Serenity is the film-directing debut of Joss Whedon, best known for creating two other cult series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff, Angel. But while those shows lasted years, the space Western Firefly was canceled halfway through its initial season, 2002-03, on Fox.

That should've been the end of it. But the browncoats -"“ named after the show's rebellious heroes, a group of renegades who have turned to thieving for survival after losing a civil war to a fascistic intergalactic empire "“ -wouldn't stop talking about Firefly online. When a DVD release of the show's 11 episodes sold hundreds of thousands of copies, Universal became interested in a film version.

Initially scheduled to come out in April, Serenity was pushed back to make way for Universal's The Interpreter, according to Mr. Whedon, and also to get out of the path of brand-name spring movies, like that more robotic space Western tearing up the box office.

"A lot of young male movies were opening," Mr. Whedon, who also wrote Toy Story and Alien: Resurrection, says by phone. "And even though my movie isn't geared toward any particular age or sex, it's a sci-fi movie, and they're going to be looking for a young male audience."
Joss Whedon

But with a hyped-up cult chomping at the bit, and the chance to start early word of mouth, Universal decided to sneak-preview Serenity in 10 cities. The screenings sold out instantly, so previews in 20 other cities, including Dallas, were added.

Joel Heires, a Plano designer of cellphone and PDA games, got a ticket through his roommate, who happened to be on an Internet forum when they went on sale.

"He's a huge, huge Buffy-Angel-Firefly fan, anything to do with Joss Whedon," Mr. Heires says. "He knew we'd want to go."

The scene at the Valley View mall was, well, a scene. Before the preview, two women from a publishing company quizzed the lined-up fans, a few dressed like characters from the movie. They gave away copies of a Whedon biography and a book of Firefly essays in exchange for correct answers.

Inside the theater, the atmosphere was similar to a rock concert. The first through the doors scrambled for the best vantage points while exchanging high-fives over their good luck. During the screening, they laughed and gasped in all the right places.

In a filmed message to the audience before the movie began, Mr. Whedon said, "It's your movie. So if it sucks, it's your fault."

Ms. Balch says Serenity caught her eye "because it's a great story that's universally appealing."

Mr. Whedon, who has been tapped by producer Joel Silver to write and direct a movie version of Wonder Woman, says, "It touched people enormously because it's a genre people love, and the thing that has been lacking from it for a while was honest, seat-of-your-pants, knuckle-scraping, gray-area humanity."

Starring a cast of unknowns, could it start a trend toward early sneak previews for films in need of word of mouth?

"Every case is different, but every time something succeeds, somebody else is going to try it," Mr. Whedon says. "The use of the Internet and fan bases and cults has been pioneered by The Matrix and other movies like Blair Witch. This is a new way of dealing with an increasingly vocal and involved public that the Internet has thrust upon us."

Dallas News

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"But I'm hopeful about the upcoming movie 'Serenity,' which, like the TV series it's from - 'Firefly,' is a western in the sci-fi mold. That's a great combo, and it has the potential be the next big thing."

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/310946p-265891c.html

When both the ``Star Wars'' and ``Star Trek'' universes reach their final frontiers this month, where will sci-fi addicts next get their fix of the future?
Perhaps in the dark, gritty `` 'verse'' of ``Serenity'' - director Joss Whedon's big-budget movie production of his failed 2002-2003 TV series ``Firefly.''

http://theedge.bostonherald.com/movieNews/view.bg?articleid=82017

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Back to the future



It turns out that having a network drop the ax on your favorite TV series isn't really a good enough reason to give up on the show.

At least that's what an AMC Aventura theater full of Browncoats -- fans of the 2002 Fox series Firefly -- learned Thursday night during an early screening of Serenity, the movie set six months after the series' final episode.

Writer-director Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel) is trying to create buzz by showing an unfinished version of the film, which he was able to produce only after fans formed a ''Can't stop the signal'' campaign and made the boxed DVD set of all 14 episodes a top seller. In an introduction to the action- packed film, Whedon thanked fans for their support and asked them to spread the word about the movie -- or keep quiet if they didn't like it. Judging from the raucous applause throughout the showing, he has little to worry about.

The movie, which follows a crew of a spaceship 500 years in the future, is expected to land in theaters Sept. 3

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/people/11759673.htm

 

[nerd4hire]

Here's another one concerning the effects of the promotion from the Sacramento Bee -

'Serenity' seekers: What makes sci-fi fans go cosmic, even months before a film's premiere?
By Gina Kim -- Bee Staff Writer










Sophia Caramagno, 32, of Martinez is one of dozens of fans who converged in Roseville last month for a screening of "Serenity," a movie based on the canceled Fox TV show "Firefly."
Sacramento Bee/Anne Chadwick Williams


Sidney Baldwin


Nathan Fillion speaks to fans during a surprise appearance at a screening of "Serenity" in Roseville. He plays Malcolm Reynolds, captain of the spaceship Serenity.
Sacramento Bee/ Anne Chadwick Williams


The cast includes, clockwise from far left, Gina Torres, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau and Fillion.
Sidney Baldwin

There's a fine, fine line. But when one goes from fan to fanatic, it's easily apparent that the line's been crossed - at least to others.

It's when you not only own a set of Spock ears, but wear them, proudly, in public.

It's when you have three walls in your home dedicated to "Star Wars;" several shelves filled with DVDs, books and Luke Skywalker figurines, plus a life-sized plastic Yoda in the corner.

It's when you drive 450 miles to see a sneak preview of a movie that doesn't even open for another four months, not to mention spend $200 on an outfit to look just like the main character.

Grayson Ross, 20, did that last month, when he and two friends drove from Newport Beach to Roseville for a screening of the sci-fi flick, "Serenity," which is not scheduled to be released until September.

"I'm a pretty crazy guy," admits Ross, a student at New York's Rochester Institute of Technology. "But this show has a certain magic to it, and nothing else I've experienced can compare."

Based on "Firefly," a canceled Fox television series, the futuristic "Serenity" was written and directed by Joss Whedon, the brain behind "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Diehard fans, who banded together online after the TV show was yanked in December 2002, are already giving indications that this might be the next let's-wait-in-line-for-days phenomenon.

The timing certainly couldn't be better. Last month, the final installment in the "Star Wars" saga hit theaters and the television program, "Star Trek: Enterprise," left the air.

That's a big science-fiction void to fill.

Enter "Serenity."

"It's just something that grabs a hold of you and won't let you go," says Kenneth Parkhurst, 31, of Orangevale.

For the Roseville screening, Parkhurst, who became a fan when the first episode of "Firefly" aired, took the day off from work at an Orchard Supply Hardware store in Sacramento and waited 11 hours to get the best seat in the house. (For the record: the center, middle seat.)

To help pass the time, Parkhurst brought two books, including one on "Serenity," and a cheesecake. He then spent the day with a handful of other fans and the interwoven squirrels decorating the carpet at the Century Roseville 14.

"This carpet and I, we know each other," Parkhurst says.

Which brings us to the question: What makes people drive hundreds of miles in costume or spend a day on multicolored carpeting just to see a movie?

It's the innate need to prove true fandom.

So says Ed Robertson, a pop culture critic for the online newspaper Media Life. After all, he says, "fan is short for fanatic. With science fiction, you take that level of passion and it kind of goes to the nth degree.

"With science fiction, in general, there's always been that sort of close-knit community," adds Robertson, talking from his home office in Vallejo.

"No matter what you do, no matter what your income, no matter what your family life is, no matter how popular you may or may not be in your daily life, you go to a science fiction convention and you already have something in common with 5,000, 10,000 people."

Sacramento resident Ellen Fernandez, 46, was hooked on "Firefly." But besides her husband, Fernandez couldn't find anyone else to talk to about the conformist Universal Alliance or the cannibalistic subhuman Reavers.

No one understood her attraction to the complex main character, Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, who leads the crew of the spaceship Serenity.

So last year, she started the Sacramento Browncoats, so named for the color worn by the losers of the civil war, including Reynolds.

For the fan club's first few months, the four members counted Fernandez and her husband, Dex. But then there were 10. And now, there are about 50 members who meet regularly, Fernandez says.

"I have never been a clubby person," says Fernandez, whose is a freelance German translator by day. "But when you really love something, you want to tell the world."

While extreme fanaticism is largely discounted by the mainstream public, that feeling is really mischaracterized, says Robert Thompson, who, as a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University, has made it his business to understand fans.

"People used to make fun of those Trekkies; the phrase, 'Get a life,' kept coming up," Thompson says. "And to an outsider, they really did look like weird people obsessed with a TV show. But on the other hand, you have to envy somebody that takes so much pleasure that most people don't get."

Thompson believes there is an easy test to determine if fanaticism has gone overboard.

"If you name your pets Kirk and Spock, that's fine. Or C-3PO or R2-D2," he says. "But if you name your kids that, you've crossed a line and you should step back and reassess."

At the Roseville screening, dozens of brown coats dotted the audience.

They sang the television show's theme song while waiting for the movie to flicker onto the screen.

They drove from San Diego, Reno and Vancouver, Wash.

They weren't disappointed.

Nathan Fillion, who plays the strapping Capt. Reynolds, surprised the audience when he sat down with them to watch the movie, complete with a bag of popcorn.

Afterward, he answered questions for a half hour and signed autographs. And although it was well after midnight, not a single person walked away before getting 30 seconds with Fillion.

The 34-year-old actor was happy to comply, talking on one fan's cell phone, posing for photographs and laughing off an offer from one woman to bear his children.

Fillion, who grew up in Canada, always dreamed of playing a Han Solo-type character. But his success so far has mostly been from the soap opera, "One Life To Live," when he played Joey Buchanan from 1994 to 1997.

Since "Firefly," his fan base has drastically shifted from middle-aged women to the science-fiction enthusiasts who register in his fan club, Fillion says.

"You might think they're weird because they dress up. But that's what I did through the whole movie," Fillion says. "These are people who share my interest and my passion."

Take Ross, the fan who drove from Newport Beach. To dress like Fillion's character, he made a long brown coat from micro-suede, put stripes down the sides of a pair of pants, bought brown boots and formulated a low-slung gun holster.

A lifelong "Star Trek" fan, Ross says he's been a serene believer from the first episode of "Firefly" he saw.

And to him, the costume, the drive to Roseville, meeting Fillion - it all seemed meant to be, as if the stars, or perhaps the galaxies, were aligned just right.

"This is a night I will cherish for a very, very, very, very long time," he says.

Sacramento Bee Jounal