It's amazing how any little visual can help a project so dramatically. I mean all that "trailer" is, is a series of random shaky shots and noise. Yet it helped paint a picture for the "Oh look, a shiny object!" executives and they all p*ssed themselves to make it.
Kinda brilliant of the writers and their team. Also super simple. Funny. Also kinda interesting, as it basically tells spec writers that they better start raising a couple thousand bucks to buy a camer and shoot and edit a 1 minute teaser to help their chances of actually making anything happen. Dunno if that's a good or a bad thing, depending....
How can anyone tell the amount of impact that trailer had on the sale? What if the script was amazing? Has anyone read it? Not to mention you have Bertino/Biddle and Platt producing.
Personally, I think the trailer was just a little frosting on the cake. It's more about the script and the package imo.
"One night every year, strange creatures attack earth and kill thousands, targeting a different place with no one knowing why. Centers on a family in small town America that is attacked and must defend themselves."
How can anyone tell the amount of impact that trailer had on the sale? What if the script was amazing? Has anyone read it? Not to mention you have Bertino/Biddle and Platt producing.
Personally, I think the trailer was just a little frosting on the cake. It's more about the script and the package imo.
Well, we can only go by what's stated publicly on it, like on Deadline:
"The duo helped move things along by making a teaser trailer for the spec that was leaked by their Verve reps before the auction began. About six other outlets were interested but Universal moved fastest."
They made it seem like it played a big part in getting things rolling, and creating competition which Universal felt they had to get a leg up on.
*shrug*
Anyway Terrance thanks for the logline, that sounds like it could be kinda interesting, and well, it's clear what they're thinking: franchise. You start with this one, with a low to mid range budget (maybe $20-$30M) focusing on this small town family this year, and then if it's a big hit, immediately produce another one with a bigger budget after the first is a hit, focusing on someone in a bigger city, and so on and so forth. They could probably milk this concept for at least 4 or 5 films, which is probably why it was so hot in the market, as it's all about long term franchise potential with the studios right now.
Um, isn't this what happens in Detroit every Oct. 30th?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_Night
(...speaking of filming on a low budget - I bet they can get plenty of public domain footage that evening and score Senate Bill 0569 incentives if they move fast and cut the same deal Clint did on "Gran Torino." )
This is a great example of how doing this type of thing can work for you.
I think this trailer is awesome. You can see it wasn't throw up overnight and they probably planned and worked on this just as much time as they did on the script.
If this is the way forward, we all need to spend a lot more time on our "package".
I don't think this by any means is going to usher in a new "age" where everyone makes/needs to make a teaser to sell a script. Projects have sold because of short films/sample storyboards and many thought the same thing. This happened to be a case where the concept/tone could have been expressed easily in a teaser. Most specs won't translate in that type of medium.
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