Yesterday I went to the London Comic Con at Earls Court, a science fiction, horror and comics fan convention. It was filled with stalls selling film and comic memorabilia and there were also stalls where you get movie stars (and some folk who are little more than extras) to sign their autographs for £20 a pop – what business, sign you name for cash!
I went to Comic Com to get some 1950’s classic movie posters for my new flat, and bumped into several Associate Producers from Gone Fishing – I am delighted that I am, not the only geek involved in Gone Fishing!
What caught my eye though, was a large stand from Universal Pictures. They were running trailers for a bunch of their movies coming out in the next year or so. They were asking people to sit down and watch these trailers, fill out a form rating each one, and in return, they would be entered into a draw for an iPod. Of course we have all heard of testing movies, but I have never seen audiences being tested on trailers. I managed to pinch a copy of one of the forms and you can take a look at it here if you are interested.
Basically, you can see that they are breaking the group down into a basic – have you been to comic-con before or not (or you or are you not a major geek?), what age are you (age demographics), did you like the trailer? (how effective was the trailer), and will you go see the movie?
All fascinating stuff, especially to see that even a player as big as Universal, values such grass roots data. What was most interesting though was just how eager people were to give up 20 minutes of their day, to fill out a form and win an ipod – or perhaps the idea of being somehow involved in the way a film is released was just too exciting to turn down. We were, after all, at ComicCon!
Onward and upward!
Chris Jones, Film Maker and Author
www.livingspirit.com
[email protected]
It's a good idea to test trialers; the recent movie Hancock didn't bear much resemblance to the trialer; it didn't feature Charlize Theron and she stole the show.
Posted by: Stephen | July 21, 2008 at 06:23 PM