We have been awarded one of the highest honors the YouTube community can bestow on a feature film — A Short Edition! In the footsteps of Scarface - The Short Version, and The Big Lebowski - F**king Short Version, here is The Blair Witch Project - The Short Version:
We are excited to announce that Altered will be playing tomorrow night, Tuesday, December 19th at 8:00 PM EST in the virtual world of Second Life, and everyone is invited! Admission is free, but seating is limited so show up early.
Ed Sanchez and some of the other people involved in the making of the film will be on hand to talk shop and answer questions after the screening as well.
The event marks the grand opening of Flux’s Drive-In on Motorati, which is sponsored by Pontiac. Read more about it, and get a special link to the location here.
What is all this virtual alternate world stuff you ask? Remember 20 years ago, when everyone was predicting that people would stop going outside and live virtual lives and the world would end because of the internet? Well, that’s Second Life! If you haven’t checked it out yet now is a perfect time to experience what all the hoopla is about, and a great chance to hang out with friends and watch a scary movie.
Download the free Second Life browser now, create an avatar, and spend a few minutes learning the ropes in Second Life, then come hang with us tomorrow night and watch Altered under the virtual stars! See ya there.
For all the stories written on The Blair Witch Project, and the marketing campaign in particular, it’s amazing how much misinformation is really out there.
I’ve decided it’s time to debunk all of these false assumptions and claims, but using projects happening now. When the media starts comparing Blair Witch’s marketing campaign to something, as they did with Snakes on a Plane, I’ll use that as an opportunity to get underneath the claims and talk about what was really going on. Well, today we have a big one — Lonelygirl15.
Now that we know who is behind Lonelygirl15, it’s time to respond to all the reporters and media comparing Lonelygirl15 to The Blair Witch Project.
It’s an easy comparison to make, considering the media (and advertising industry) at large have never really understood what TBWP campaign was really about, instead chalking it up to a simple “is it real/is it fake” debate. I mean, here’s an industry publication that actually claims we generated attention through “teaser clips.” In 1999 we were all on dial up, and hardly anyone could figure out how to get video to play online, but hey, it sounds good and makes the comparison more relevant to the story, right?
But one of many critical differences between Lonelygirl15 and TBWP is that the meta-mystery of TBWP, the “is it real or fake” question, was simply one layer of the story. An easy one to debunk, no less. Once you found out it wasn’t real, there was a central mystery of the story — “What happened to Heather, Mike, and Josh? Was it supernatural? Was it criminal? What does the found footage reveal?” When people walked out of the theater, these are the questions that fueled the debate, and the meta-questions mattered not.
Lonelygirl15, on the other hand, has lost all its mystery with the creators’ unmasking, and there’s nothing left in the story to grab onto and discuss. They let the “is it real” question dominate the dialog rather than the narrative they were spinning. I admire their resourcefulness and hope they can pull it together and reclaim the momentum they lost, but they are going to have to do it with good old fashioned storytelling, this time.
The disappointing opening of Snakes on a Plane was an excuse for fearful Hollywood executives to declare the internet, and blogs in particular, as unable to open a film. Some claimed the power of blogs is overvalued and used the Snakes numbers as proof. Variety took the opportunity to compare Snakes to The Blair Witch Project and point out the “perils” of internet marketing.
But there is one important difference between BWP and SoaP, and all these bullshit pronouncements about the “failure” of the blogosphere to open a movie only obscures the real lesson Hollywood needs to learn.
It’s hard to see past the massive Blair Witch backlash, but when BWP was released it was met with a chorus of favorable reviews. People were anticipating BWP before it came out and loved the movie after they saw it.
Once people saw SoaP, word of mouth about the film spread faster than the hype that fueled its anticipation. Whatever desire I had to see SoaP was quickly eliminated by the chorus of reviews that could be summed up with the words “it was all right.”
The deafening buzz over Snakes on a Plane proves the power of the internet to generate heat. The disappointing opening of Snakes proves that you still need to make a good movie.
Just heard from Ed who’s at the The Ranch with Gregg working on the sound mix for Altered. Sounds like everything is going really well. He wanted me to let y’all know about American Movie Classics documentary on The Blair Witch Project airing next week:
Jeff Goldblum hosts Movies That Shook the World: The Blair Witch Project on AMC on Fri., Dec. 9 at 10:00 PM / EST, Sun., Dec. 11 at 10:00 AM / EST, Mon., Dec. 12 at 10:30 AM / EST, and Wed., Dec. 14 at 9:45 AM / EST.
Click here for more info on the show. I don’t know anything about it so I’ll TiVo it, but I think they talked to Ed, Dan, Gregg, Mike Williams and Joshua Leonard so check it out.
Last minute announcement - MegaCon panel with Lloyd Kauffman and… me!
The Orlando MegaCon starts today. It’s a massive Geekfest of horror/sci-fi/collectables, celebrity autographs, screenings, and panels held at the Orlando Convention Center each year. Last year, Lloyd Kauffman, the man behind Troma Films invited me to appear on the Troma panel and it was so much fun we’re doing it again!
Sorry for the short notice, but the panel is TODAY at 1:30 PM!
Friday, March 5th - Make Your Own Damn Success: An Interactive Q and A Workshop - 1:30 - 2:20, Room 312C
How to bring attention to your project via media, festivals, comic books, and distribution outlets!”
Take a long lunch today and come hang with us!