Cloverfield - 1:18:08 Thread

[celtfan 3.0]

OK, a friend of mine just emailed me about this and I have wasted the last half hour at work digging up all the info I can.  Have you heard about this?  This is fun and crazy.

OK, first, go to apple's website and check out the trailer.  Then read on.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/11808/

Excited, right?  Well, there's some serious buzz about this highly secretive movie as well as some pretty creative guerrilla style marketing.

The movie has no title yet, but the two terms people are using to talk about this movie is 1:18:08, the release date, and the movie's code name, "Cloverfield."  No one knows much about the plot, but there are supposedly clues throughout the internet.  It is produced by JJ Abrams.

There's a couple websites to check out.  The first is www.1-18-08.com.  This site just has a few pictures on it that you can drag around with your mouse and "flip" with some fancy mouse maneuvers.  Some of the pictures have messages hand written on the back.  I just found that last bit out myself, but have not been able to find any pieces to this "puzzle."

Then there is this one - www.slusho.jp.  Some reporter said that this site "has lots of clues," according to the movie's wiki page.  I went there, and it seems like it's a website for some Japanese soft drink.  However, apparently it is somehow related to the movie.  Not only was the site registered a week before the trailer to this movie aired, but if you watch carefully at the trailer, one of the guys in it is wearing a shirt with the "slusho" logo.  Also, if you go to the store, you can buy these same T-Shirts, but they are being shipped to the US only.  If this were a real Japanese site, why would they ship only to the US?  Also, "Slusho" was apparently another on-site code name for the movie during production.

I have no idea what www.ethanhasswasright.com is, I haven't looked too deeply into it, but it seems like an online video game.  There are rumors flying around that it is linked to cloverfield.  brams has denied this, but there's too many rumors out there about it to ignore.

Supposedly, there are also other sites online that people can find that offer additional clues to the movie.

So there you have it, if you need yet another reason to waste your day away online and there's just not enough Celtics coverage out there for you, let's try and pull all the pieces of this puzzle together on this thread!

EDIT: I just read the "History" section of slusho.jp, and it's clear it's not a Japanese soft drink site.  The monster has to do with the sea somehow.  A large whale?  I dunno.

EDIT 2: www.slusho.org is another site with links to a couple more related sites.  Yes, I'm absolutely hooked on this.  I don't even know what it is that I'm hooked to, but I can't get back to work....

[Scott]

Well, you certainly just pulled me in...very interesting.  I now know what is going to suck up the rest of my night at work.

[SaCaCh]

Well I hope they are paying you well.

[The Incredible Hulk]

I saw the trailer play before transformers...

[shookones99]

When is the guy wearing the slusho shirt in the trailer?

[celtfan 3.0]

Well I hope they are paying you well.

I'm salaried.  And I just worked 60 hours last week, so I don't feel bad wasting the last 2 hours on a Monday. 

slushozoom.com is another related site.  It has links to what appears to be random things from all over the web.  One of the links is to slusho.jp, with the omnipresent quote, "You can't have just six."  Also, if you drag your mouse to the very bottom of the page, a hidden message pops up:

T.  .. I
Did the past ever exist, if there is no proof?

Knowing Art by Name is not as important as knowing art by site.

All is not as it appears.

Strange.

 

[celtfan 3.0]

When is the guy wearing the slusho shirt in the trailer?

52 seconds in, he shows up for a split second.  Here's the link to the article that found it:

http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/07/09/confirmed-slushojp-is-a-cloverfield-viral-website/

JJ Abrams... Why do you do this to us>!>!>!?!?!?  Agghhh

[The Incredible Hulk]

The movie is tentatively going to be called "Overnight" and there is a lot of information about it on IGN...

Basically it's a movie that revolves around a monster attack on New York City, as seen from the perspective of a small group of people in a Blair Witch style of film making.

Should be cool...

[dig616]

what does this have to do with the celtics?

[Scott]

what does this have to do with the celtics?

It is located in the Off Topic forumn...

[Roy Hobbs]

The movie is tentatively going to be called "Overnight" and there is a lot of information about it on IGN...

Basically it's a movie that revolves around a monster attack on New York City, as seen from the perspective of a small group of people in a Blair Witch style of film making.

Should be cool...

Interesting.  I'd heard an alternate title was "Furious", and this is the preliminary movie poster:



That's from aintitcool.com; it could be a fan-created photoshop or whatever.  No idea, really, but it's a cool poster.

[Roy Hobbs]

what does this have to do with the celtics?

Okay, seriously, what's with all the newbies complaining about threads posted in the off-topic section?  There is a lot of discussion on this blog that isn't strictly Celtics related, or even basketball related.  That's why we have multiple forums.

[Scott]

From IMDB:

"The title for now is still "officially" unconfirmed, but title and first four teaser posters (bearing the headings "Monstrous," "Terrifying," "Furious," and an untitled poster) were scheduled to be revealed at the Paramount Pictures panel at San Diego Comic Con on July 26,2007"


"In addition to the originally suspected title of "Monstrous," there have been several other titles traced to Paramount and perhaps the project, including "Colossus" and the more recent "Overnight." It has also been speculated that Paramount was attempting to re-name the film after the supposed "Monstrous" image and title leak, but, as "Monstrous" was one of three named posters also distributed at ComicCon, this theory seems unlikely."

[LarBrd33]

viral marketing is really interesting.   The movie could suck, but it's still causing buzz.   It's a smart risk to take... now showing the title could have backfired, but obviously it was going to cause interest and a lot of googling.   

Viral marketing is really fascinating to me.  Most recently I was surprised by the tactics of the band Wolf Mother and their video "White Unicorn".  Initially they released the video... a simple little music video of a "live performance" of sorts.  kind of boring:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZajUzLY--iQ  ...

Later a 15 year old "fan" in Germany named "Banditobruce" released his own version of the video... a "defaced" version where he "doodled" little animation all over it:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6x8toMqbbU  ...  a lot of people fell in love with the amature immature art animation of the video.   Apparently the band was on the radio saying they loved it and actually wanted to meet the kid.   

Unfortunately I have played around with rotoscoping and some animation and understand how freaking time consuming a project like that can be (don't ask me how long it took me to create a silly 2 minute lightsaber fight... just don't... ask).   Seemed a bit unfathomable for some random 15 year old german kid to go through all the effort.   So I did a little digging and found the website for the director of the original video, Kris Moyes:  http://www.kmoyes.com/ .  Not surprisingly, all his previous work has to do with weird and unusual animation.   So what's that mean?... the entire "defaced" version of White Unicorn was just a viral marketing scheme.  Having only released the video on youtube, they were relying on word of mouth to spread and hype the video much like the famous treadmill dance vide by "OK Go" for the song "Here it Goes Again".  Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, that "defaced" version of the Wolfmother video was only watched by roughly 80 thousand people.  I tried googling for other people who caught on to it... and didn't really find anyone.   From my guesstimation... it was a failed attempt at viral marketing (I figure they anticipated a bit more than 80 thousand views, right?)...       

[Roy Hobbs]

Obviously, LarBrd33 is, in fact, the lead singer of Wolf Mother, and is just using Celticsblog as a launching pad for yet another viral marketing scheme.