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Mystery Trailer for “Cloverfield’

July 16, 2007 by Robert Marich Leave a Comment

"Cloverfield" trailer screen grab.
A screen grab from “Cloverfield’s” teaser trailer presents street panic with hand-held-like video.

Paramount Pictures’ unconventional cinema trailer that is attached to its “Transformers” blockbuster got moviegoers talking the next day around the water coolers at work, according to “USA Today.”

The trailer, which doesn’t name the film (“Cloverfield”), presents a rooftop party populated by yuppies in urban Manhattan in documentary style that is disrupted by fireballs in the distance. (story continues below after movie poster)

"Cloverfield" movie poster.
Alien invasion yarn “Cloverfield” pumps up mystery in its initial marketing.

The trailer shows a boisterous but ordinary rooftop party that descends into panic. Young-adult party revelers run to the street for safety when huge fireballs fly, but there is no safety…just a widespread terror.

The whole 1 minute and 52 second trailer is shot in grainy, hand-held documentary style. That imparts a realism; it’s not a slick Hollywood storytelling.

In the teaser trailer, the premiere date 1/18/08 is shown as well as text identifying the producer as J.J. Abrams, who is co-creator of ABC Television drama series “Lost” co-creator and director “Mission: Impossible III”. Abrams is something of a brand-name for stylish mystery, so flashing his identity gives the mystery some substance.

“Ultimately, it was J.J Abrams’ ‘mystery box’ approach to marketing, which takes a story that is being sold to the audience, and conceals key pieces of information,” writes Mike Reyes in CinemaBlend.com. “Those pieces [will be] revealed at a later date.”

Related content:

  • ‘USA Today’: Mystifying Trailer Transforms Marketing
  • Slashfilm.com: JJ Abrams Top Secret ‘Cloverfield’ Movie Trailer Attached to ‘Transformers’
  • CinemaBlend.com: 10 Years Later: How ‘Cloverfield’ Completely Changed The Way Movies Could Be Marketed

Filed Under: creative Tagged With: movie trailers

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