Rent Trailer: Thoughts?- Page 7

[Marquise]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 12:18pm

The trailer needs to sell the movie to the largest audience possible. The problem with RENT is not that it is good or bad or whatever but 80% of people would see the trailer and automatically dismiss it out of hand as a musical and they have not want to see it.

The trailer doesn't market itself well enough to grab as large a share as possible of the audience to go and at lest give the movie a try (something "Chicago" did real well). The trailer is really only going to appeal to those musical junkies who must likely going to see it to begin with (maybe it will attract a few individual fans of some of the more mainstream actors like Rosario and Jesse), but for the most part it will only attract those who like musicals, and know about the movie already.

But it is a musical and the majority of the movie going public already knows that it is. There's no going around that, so why even try to hide that fact? Is there something wrong with musicals that you feel it should be marketed as anything but a musical?

And the problem is that crowd of people while very loyal and show be rewarded will not be enough to make the movie a 'hit'. RENT needs to attract a wider audience, and this trailer really doesn't do that.

As far as your view on the trailer not marketing itself well enough "to grab as large a share as possible of the audience to go and at lest give the movie a try"... I have to disagree. The movie was basically a teaser. It used the show's most instantly recognizable song "Seasons of Love" to frame a collection of scenes from the movie to convey an overall feeling of the piece. I would however love to read your suggestions on just what steps you feel Revolution Studios should take to market this film to that ever elusive "large share".

Now we are lucky that we seem to be in a promising market at the moment for movie-musicals but it only takes one bad movie to kill of the franchise again. RENT was always going to be a tough cell since its cross-over appeal was never as big as "Chicago", "Phantom of the Opera" or "The Producers" to begin with.

I disagree. More studios are taking there chances because they now see a market for the musical genre. The disappointing performance of "The Phantom of the Opera" at the box office didn't deter the studios from green-lighting "RENT", "THE PRODUCERS" or "DREAMGIRLS". In the long run a movie will succeed if it's well made and is well recieved by the movie going public regardless if it's a musical or not.

I want to see more musicals appear on the silver screen, but we need to market the current crop coming to a theatre near you soon well enough to actually suceed and thus convince the studios to greenlight more down the line. And you cannot market a movie if the trailer puts off way to many people (and sadly the vast majority of people would dismiss it out of hand for being a musical and not give it a chance IF they are not conviced otherwise it would be worth seeing - "Chicago" did this, "Phantom" even though a much bigger brand name then "Chicago" didn't really do this (even though the trailers I thought where impressive) - and thus lead to a mediocre box office return.

This is only a teaser trailer, the first in what I'm sure will be many trailers and ads created in the promotion of this film. The movie should not be judged on the strength of just this one trailer. I don't get your justification of "this trailer putting off too many people". As far as I know I haven't read anything negative about this trailer or of this trailer putting off anybody, with the exception of you not liking it.

I think "The Producers" proberly can succeed in marketing itself the same way "Chicago" did and suceed, but I feel this trailer really really hurt "RENT" even if us fanboys and girls liked it.

How has this trailer "hurt" RENT? The movie hasn't officially finished filming. It hasn't opened yet so how in the world has this one trailer hurt the film? You have every right not to like the trailer. I'm not disputing that. But your other arguments don't hold water. Sorry.




Updated On: 6/4/05 at 12:18 PM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 12:26pm

Marquise, that's the avatar I really like! YAY!

[loudasthehelliwant]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 12:30pm

Nice post, Marquise.

I have to say, I showed this trailer to people who have never seen a musical before nor do they have a large desire too, and they said that it looked awesome and its something they would go see. *shrugs* Maybe its just the people I showed it too. But I think it definately has some appeal to certain audience members, even if they're not big musical fans.

Updated On: 6/4/05 at 12:30 PM

[Rentaholic2]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 12:30pm

See, when it comes to marketing Marquise knows what's up. Notice how he/she put all his/her writing in bold so your eyes go to it...otherwise, I would have said 'this post is way to long and I shall not read it'...but because of her crafty marketing, I did!

[LariTheLoud]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 12:32pm

My change of icon should say wonders about what I thought of the trailer. :) I think I watched it way too many times yesterday... A few hours' worth, maybe, which is just sad. It was addictive.

Anyway, about the marketing.

I showed it to a non-musical type girl. She REALLY liked how it looked (and she thought Adam was smokin'), so she said she's definitely going to see it. I don't see any problem with how the trailer was made.

Updated On: 6/4/05 at 12:32 PM

[Marquise]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 12:32pm

I'm a HE! But thanks! LOL!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 12:35pm

ahem. I hope that candle isn't too hot for him, Lari. His hand might sweat.

Kidding. Love. ::sigh::

[Marquise]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 12:35pm

Lari, that's a great capture of Adam lighting the candle. I love it.

I do wish Rosario's hair was curlier in the film though. :p

[LariTheLoud]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 12:52pm

Thanks.

Poor, sweaty hand. XD Let's towel the diva off.

EDIT: I sure hope he isn't gonna read that. Ha!

Updated On: 6/4/05 at 12:52 PM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 12:53pm

Let's towel the diva off.

I'll take care of that.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 1:12pm

Great post, Marquise. If I may reiterate one aspect of your post:

Urban, how would you have done the trailer differently to appeal to a wider audience?

Others have already claimed that it looks to fluffy and happy, but making it grittier still wouldn't make it appeal to more people than the current teaser trailer; in fact, it could do the opposite. It's just interesting that people either think that it's too sanitized from what they perceived the show to be, or that it's not mainstream enough to be a financial success.

"I saw him in that one about the Jewish guy at the Catholic school (can't remember the name - I always confuse the right one with something else)"

School Ties. I saw it on again on TV the other day. Love the glasses on Anthony.

Updated On: 6/4/05 at 01:12 PM

[kas]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 4:04pm

i think i remember seeing him in a beautiful mind. and i saw school ties on tv the other weekend - he's so cute. what else has wilson been in besides flawless? i guess daphne was the tango dancer with deniro in that movie, too.

[roquat]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 5:16pm

"Chicago" was sold on sex appeal; "Rent" can't really do that. And there's no way to hide the fact that "Rent" is a musical--every word in it is sung! And why do we have to hide the fact that it's a musical? "Phantom of the Opera" failed because it was BAD. Shouldn't we be worrying about whether it's good or not, instead of quibbling about what genre it is?

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 5:29pm

I don't really think that Phantom was a failure, it was just a modest success. It made twice it's budget overall and even after advertising costs and whatnot I'm sure it made some sort of profit, plus there's still DVD sales and rentals. I think, whether you think Phantom is bad or not, part of the problem was that all 3 stars were relatively unknown and when people saw them on talk shows promoting it they couldn't connect with them. Yes, there was Minnie Driver, but not many people are going to go see a movie because of her. Additionally, because it opened in different places at different times there was no real "opening weekend" to gauge.

I think Rent will probably do quite well.

Updated On: 6/4/05 at 05:29 PM

[mollyllom]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 7:02pm

I love the trailer! When Jessie hits that note...aaaaaaah it was just so shiver-inducing amazing.

I managed to get my teacher to let me and my pal play the trailer for the whole class, and a bunch of poeple who aren't fans of musical theater who had no idea what RENT was said they would totally go see this, it looked relaly cool. So they've got the 16 year olds covered in marketing I spose!

[Dreamcatcher]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 7:32pm

Those glasses made me laugh in a good way. They were in School Ties, A Beautiful Mind and LSoH I think...or very similar ones. So cute. :-P

Anyways yeah Jesse really nailed his solo, as did Tracie. First time I've heard her sing and I sure as hell wasn't disappointed! Both of them sounded incredible. Especially when Tracie hit that note in "Measure you're life in love" with the long hold on the "love". Gave me major chills.

[Marquise]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 9:12pm

"So they've got the 16 year olds covered in marketing I spose!

I see alot of big brothers/sisters or mommys and daddys being asked to take the 16 year old fans to the movies cos this movie will most definitely get an "R" rating.

[ponine24601]

Posted: 6/4/05 at 9:29pm

mine:

-is it november yet?
-holy **** tracie sing!
-i love how they are going to include the whole roger/april scenario

i really can't even describe my thoughts at all! i know that this movie is going to be amazing.

[hellskitchenguy]

Posted: 6/5/05 at 1:16am

Marquise - i agree with you regarding Rosario's hair. I too wish it was more curly. I know it sounds so trivial but to me it's such a big part of the character's physical appearance.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 6/5/05 at 9:31am

I like Rosario, but I don't think I'd reccomend her doing anything that would make her head look any bigger than it already is.

[Steeler Jim]

Posted: 6/6/05 at 9:51am

In regards to April's role in the film....

My prediction is that she will only be seen in flashbacks during One Song Glory, and probably won't have any dialogue. I think the reason we see her so much in the trailer is a) her death is a big plot point in the overall story, and b) let's remember - not everything has been filmed yet.

The next trailer will undoubtably have snippets of La Vi Boheme, Take Me or Leave Me, etc. in it. My guess (and it's an educated one) is that the editors had much more film footage to choose from for this trailer than will actually be used in the final cut of the movie.

I doubt that character of April will have much screen time in the final cut outside of what we've already seen.

[VivLaVieBoheme]

Posted: 6/6/05 at 1:31pm

Ok I guess I'm WAY behind in the Broadway world right now, cause I just finally saw the Rent trailer, and here are my thoughts....
Holy motherf***ing sh**!!
It was sensational- I absolutely can't WAIT for the movie. As for Tracy Thoms, man can she sing! Also, I love that April gets a tiny piece of the role, b/c not everyone that sees the movie will be rentheads. Also, that trailer did two things: gave me chills, and made put in my Rent cd when I saw it. Wow....anyone know if there are any advance tickets? Also, I can't get a trailer anywhere- anyone know any sites, cause the one I found here doesn't have a trailer link like it says it does.

Updated On: 6/6/05 at 01:31 PM

[Drew7810]

Posted: 6/6/05 at 1:36pm

Ok...how thrilled was I to find the link! It looks so different yet so much like how I would imagine it to!!! It will be absolutely incredible (i hope!).

[DeathofBohemia]

Posted: 6/8/05 at 11:07pm

"Hello all, sorry it's taken so long for me to post. It has been an incredible experience making a movie with my family here on location. It leaves very little free time. I want to tell everyone that is concerned with the film staying true to the play that I don't think Chris Columbus could have done more to preserve it. As I write to you, I'm flanked by Nan and Julie Larson, Jonathan's mother and sister. They, as well as Al, Jonathan's father, have been here every step of the way, offering overwhelming support and encouragement. Back in the days of the original production, I couldn't help but speculate, if Rent gets made into a movie, what will it be like...what will it look like... I'm sure all of you have thought the same thing many times.

Well, speaking from a biased point of view, it looks better than I ever imagined it could. It's amazing how cinematic this story is, and how it translates seamlessly to the screen. It is a true, honest translation of the show, but heightened to the nth degree! It's a huge blessing to be able to, almost 10 years later, come back and revisit this story, this character and this music, being the man I have become and not the boy that I was. I know over the years there have been many actors playing all these roles, and you all have your favorites. But I know you will be happy with the cast that has been assembled. We come to this with all the sensitivity, love, humor and respect that it deserves.

I'll be back to write more; I just wanted to make my presence known here on the blog site. I'll try and come up with some stuff to tell you that you have not heard from any other cast members.

So get ready for the amazing experience of Rent on screen!!

Much love
Adam Pascal "



Got that from the Rent Blog.

Anyway, I was completely blown away by the trailer! My eyes were filled with tears while I watched it the first time!
I still get chills up my spine everytime I see "RENT" fade in at the end, when the first note of SoL sounds with the Paramount Trademark light,and also when Anthony is walking down the stairs at the very beggining when you hear just the first few notes of SoL. I was sceptical, I have to admit about the new Joanne, since I loved the original one so much, but, my God, Tracy sounded INCREDIBLE during her solo! Particularly that last, high note! Wow.
I was also curious about how Rosario Dawson would be as Mimi (I'm not much of a fan of the original Mimi), and she really did look exactly the way I thought she should.
Every shot in the trailer was so expertly placed to fit the song and the kind of slow, touching theme that seemed to seep through it! Judging from the trailer, I really do think that the director of photography, Stephen Goldblatt, is a genius! Every shot and lighting was just perfect.
I really like the song they chose bc 1) it's the most popular of the soundtrack to non-Rentheads, so it will probably get the most audience members, and also 2) it completely showcased the drama in the acting and cinematography that they showed. The entire cast sounded wonderful. You can really hear the dvelopment and growth in their voices (Particularly Idina's- I thought).
Before seeing the trailer, I was excited about the movie, but I couldn't really picture it on screen other than just the way it is on stage in front of a camera. But it transcended to the screen so beautifully! For nearly every shot I could tell which song it came from, and it was really just moving to see because the emotional core of those scenes became even stronger just in the one second shots that they showed. I loved the bit where you see Adam lighting Rosario's candle- it's so sweet! And then when you see him shouting at her as she leaves the apartment (I'm assuming that was during Another Day), and then later when he opens the door and sees her (I'm pretty sure during "Goodybye Love"). Wow. Less than a second of those scenes is enough to bring me to tears- the acting is that powerful!
If a trailer can make me feel this passionate about the movie than I can't wait to see what the entire film will do!
I wish we'd gotten to see more of Anthony in the trailer, though.
Anyway, all of my doubts about the movie keeping all of its emotional depth and beauty were completely dashed when I saw the trailer. If anything, I think that the movie will make the show even more moving!

I feel like there's so much more to say about this trailer because it's moved me so profoundly, but I can't think of the words. I'm sure you all understand that feeling, though!


Wow. I need to go watch it again, now.

~Stacey

[DeathofBohemia]

Posted: 6/8/05 at 11:15pm

P.S. Wilson Jermaine Heredia looked amazing during "Today 4 U". I saw the show for the first time a few months ago and was blown away the Angel we saw, so I can't wait to see how Wilson will do (especially considering he won a Tony for the role). I bet he'll be incredible beyond belief!

Wow, I can't WAIT to get the soundtrack to the movie, so I can listen to it on the (rare) occasions when I won't be watching it in theaters! Oh, bloody hell, do I HAVE to wait until November?!!! ::twiddles thumbs impatiently::