Movie Marketing Madness: Me and Orson Welles

“The theater…the theater…what happened to the theater?”

That’s the opening line to a song titled “Choreography” that’s part of the holiday classic film White Christmas. Featuring all sorts of what was, at the time, modern dance, the routine basically wonders what happened to the classic theater style in a time of interpretive dance and other craziness.

In 2009 there’s a similar sort of “what happened to what was formerly called the ‘legitimate stage’” going on. Serious shows and edgy fare are few and far between as movie adaptations and revivals crowd out any stage big enough to be worth measuring.

So it’s an interesting time to look back at one of the all-time giants of stage AND cinema mounting a production of Shakespeare’s Julies Caesar. This look comes in Me and Orson Welles, the new film from director Richard Linklater. The movie brings the audience in to the story from the perspective of a young man, played by Zac Efron, who falls bass-ackwards into a role in Welles’ production and who then must navigate not only the formidable presence of Welles himself but also the road to romance with a young production assistant played by Claire Danes.

The Posters

The poster is a mixed bag. While it seems clear on its face – the theater audience, the obvious love triangle, the fact that everyone is literally in Welles’ shadow – it actually becomes less so when you look more closely. That love triangle isn’t positioned into any sort of stare-down or anything, they’re all looking off-camera at someone who’s pointing to an LOLCat on their computer. And the inclusion of Welles there means he is literally standing in his own shadow. And Efron looks like he’s just awoken from a coma.

But it does work from a consistency standpoint in that, as we’ll see, it matches the trailer’s look and feel pretty well. And it is suitably dramatic – especially the title treatment – and so represents the theatrical tone of Welles legacy and such.

The Trailers

Similar to the poster, the trailer certainly puts its stake in the “Theatrical” category in terms of presentation. We’re introduced at first to the character played by Efron and the basic plot point that this period we’re watching him through is the week that changed his life. We’re also given a clear look into the character of Welles and how demanding and egotistical he can be. But it’s the blooming romance between Efron’s and Danes’ characters that moves things along and which will obviously create some of the tension of the movie as her affections become a point of contention between the young genius and the young nobody.

But the biggest thing that comes through is that, despite who the people might be, they’re all just actors around Welles and his room-filling personality. We get glimpses of him in the radio studio and a quick shot of him pulling a little magic to impress a lady. As Welles himself shouts to those assembled on stage, they are all there simply to fulfill his vision and that’s more or less how the characters in the movie are presented as well.

Online

The movie’s official website starts off by asking whether or not you’re in the U.S. or the U.K. Once you choose appropriately – in this case the U.S. – you get thrown into the site where you can view the marketing content.

Up first is “Trailer” which is exactly that, the movie’s one trailer. The section does come, though, with a Clearspring widget that you can put on your own site if you’d care to.

Next is “Synopsis” and there you’ll find just a simple two-paragraph recap of the movie’s story. “Press” has pull quotes from a half-dozen newspaper critics praising the movie, though without links it’s impossible to see the context those quotes appear in.

“Gallery” has, by my count, 22 photos, mostly still from the film but also including a couple of behind-the-scenes shots with director Linklater.”Cast and Crew” has the credits and career history of those who made the film happen.

Finally “Downloads” has Wallpapers either for your PC or your Mobile device as well as a handful of Icons you can use for your IM chats.

There’s also a great section that’s only linked to at the bottom, outside of the rest of the menu, called “About Orson.” There Linklater posts archival pictures of Welles, including a shot of him on the stage of the production the movie depicts, photos of books and scripts and a couple of film snippets. It’s not a timeline, but it’s very cool, with Linklater writing short descriptions of the items we’re looking at. I love these sorts of sections on the sites of historic movies and this adds a lot of flavor to the movie, showing that it’s based on facts and research and not just made up out of whole-cloth.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

Little to nothing that I’ve seen. I may have come across one or two online ads but that’s about it – nothing on the TV front and nothing in the way of promotional partnerships.

Media and Publicity

The movie had its coming out party at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival to some decent buzz but then languished without a distributor for almost a year until it was finally announced a deal had been struck to have Freestyle Release distribute it in the U.S. When it did reemerge, that deal showed it wasn’t a traditional release partnership. Instead there was quite a bit of the DIY mindset behind it (Los Angeles Times, 9/15/09), with the focus being on the eventual DVD release since no mini-major had the interest or the bandwidth to distribute it.

The original War of the Worlds broadcast, one of Welles’ early career-making achievements, was “presented by” the movie on the date of its original airing. This re-broadcast was online only and not available for later streaming, which is disappointing, but it’s still cool that they did it anyway.

Overall

I think the biggest problem with this campaign is that it feels…tacked on? The thought that keeps running through my head here is that after sitting in limbo for so long the campaign, once started, seems kind of rushed and not at a level that it should be for a new movie from one of the major directors of the last 15 years. Part of that is certainly coming from the fact that, instead of the support of a major (or minor) studio it’s being released in what is a more truly “independent” – albeit with significant infrastructure – way.

But what there is of the campaign is pretty good. I like the trailer a lot and feel like it speaks to a couple different audiences – those interested in Welles and his history, Efron fans, romantic moviegoers – effectively. And while I might have nitpicky issues with the poster it’s not bad and I certainly get, and even think it hits, what points it was going for. The website is a tad more disappointing, but what are you going to do about that?

Advertisement