Am I the only one who's not a huge fan of all these pre-release fan screenings? (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

Good points. You guys have all led an interesting and compelling dialogue on the topic, which was what I was looking for when I broached the topic.
I'll definitely be interested in whatever further feedback you can provide.

 

[David Rogers]

I don't understand how you can be surpise-spoiled by reading online. I read fast but it's not hard to simply stop reading.

Stay out of the Star Wars discussion threads. Stay off Force.net. If the blog entry, or the web-thread says "Star Wars", stay out.

If you're a spoiler freak, you cannot expect to engage in the pre-release hype over a project. Period. This may be disappointing to some, as it is to me sometimes, but the fact is this isn't new. Spoiler-ville has been this way for a long time. In Spoiler-ville, there's running water but no lights, heat, air, or even a paved road. Spoiler-ville is at the end of the Texas penninsula comprised of rickety tin shacks. State of the art just means spoilers.

It's hard to avoid spoilers at a *party* or some other in-person gathering where you are conversing verbably. There, the person's said something before you even begin to have a chance to go "hey no spoilers!", or jam your fingers in your ears or something.

Online, you're reading along. "The new Star Wars film is the one fans have been waiting for. From the first time Obi Wan ..." whoops, stop reading.

How hard is that?

Bottom line, the pre-release publicity (reviews, previews, set reports, hype fanning, actor interviews ...) WILL drop spoilers. The publishers of Entertainment Weekly, CNN.com or whoever else don't care about spoilers. They care about having "compelling content", and to them that means telling plot points and ruining the flick.

 

[Jacinto]

I agree 100% with Chris Harvey. The issue has nothing to do with the pre-screenings themselves, but rather with the types of films and the types of people that are fans of those films. Adam, just look at all of your links to the Blogs about the new Superman movie over in that thread for an example. There just wasn't a daily update of the filming process for Spanglish posted online. Why? Nobody gives a shit about the production of it. As Chris said, it only becomes a problem with "fanboy" films. If the subject matter isn't your lifeblood, you have no problem not telling everybody you know the newest secret detail that you just found out about Episode IX: Attack of the Menacing Space Ninjas.

I didn't see The Sixth Sense until it had been in theaters for 2 months, yet nobody I knew had let on about the twist. And I think it's because there's no such thing as The Sixth Sense bedsheets for someone to lie on and masturbate to the newest picture of Haley Joel Osment that they just downloaded from the internet. The phenomenon you describe only seems to happen to that extent with films and characters that people center their whole lives around, like Star Wars, LOTR, Matrix, Star Trek, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, and various other comic book adaptations. I'm sure there are people out there that know all the skinny about the pre-production of the next Julia Roberts film, but they manage to rest their heads each night (not on a Pretty Woman pillowcase) without spilling the beans online.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Perhaps it is an ettiquette issue, then. Even when there's a warning that says "SPOILERS!" I know to stop reading. But when they just plunge into things, sure I stop, but I've had some detail ruined in the process. By contrast, I can watch the Bryan Singer blogs without reading the supporting material and not be overly spoiled about the overall plot and everything.

As a counter-point, I got tickets for one of the May 26th screenings of "Serenity". I'm excited as hell to be sure; as Shad implied, it should be a blast. But for every person that lucked out like me, there's atleast five that are thinking, "Damn! Missed out again, I wish I'd never even heard about these." From that viewpoint, it seems like a quite exclusionary practice. Sure, I'm on the inside this time around but it doesn't leave me unsensitive towards those who remain on the outside.

 

[Shad R]

I'm far from a "fanboy" of Star Wars. Love the movies, but not insane about them. I just happened to be at the right place, the right time, and knew the right people. (I worked for a fast food chain that had a tie-in, and my boss offered me a pair of tickets.) But, I loved it. I'm glad I went. LotR, even though it was only opening day and not pre-veiw, now they were nutty about LOTR. People were actually comparing the book to the movie...during the movie! Geez.