Joss post at the Serenity board

[orangerful]

Hello, young lovers, wherever you are. This is Joss, coming to you live via technology. I thought it would be fair to give you all my little State of the Onion before I descend into the depths of the Warren to pound away at my keyboard, munch lettuce and ignore that annoying nerd Fiver who keeps saying something bad is coming, like he can tell or whatever. I'm excited to beat this Wonder Woman script into shape (and munch lettuce). Mostly, to be honest, I'm excited to (deliberately split infinitive) not be a Professional Serenity Barker. I love you guys, I loves me some Serenity cast, but I am yammered out. By Spain it just got surreal (I think Nathan and Summer will back me on that one). Selling is not my strong suit. Actually, my strong suit is Kevlar, but it bunches in all the wrong places.

So I have read much over the past weeks: we have Won! Lost! Triumphed! Failed! and have, of course, agreed with every single thing I read (one of the exhausting things about having no personality). But in the dark blue of early morning I do have some perspective, and it runs thus:

I'm very content. I think the movie is really good. That was hard to a)do and b) realize. The response has been terrific, the majority of the reviews extremely positive: people GOT IT. What's more, an impressive number of people saw this movie who never would have, and even more still will. This is not spin: I know we didn't do the expected numbers our first weekend, we didn't have an unprecedentedly small drop-off the second (which was my personal fantasy.) I've been to some dark places, just like you guys. But the movie has legs, and people who loved it LOVED it crazy, the way love is supposed to be. Europe has been a nice boost (and a lung-splitting shout out to my UK and Aussie UIPeeps -- they're dears, and efficient as hell). We'll keep soldiering on, until we can't crawl and we find DVD to carry us. I see us kind of like the Shawshank Redemption without all the Oscar nominations (unless Best Feet becomes a catagory). People who were befuddled by the title or lack of premise hook will finally pick it up, and keep picking it up... They may miss out on the big-screen exitement, but they'll see our little tale and take it to their hearts. Takes a while. Just like the show.

I've seen a couple of posts with Browncoats beating themselves up about not having done enough. I never want to hear that again. You guys have gone above and beyond above and beyond. The people who are above and beyond are looking at you guys and going "Man, don't they ever quit?" Your efforts, and your investment (emotional as well as tickety) have done an enormous amount for this film and my battered heart. No more self-flagellation, unless it's the healthy, what-every-young-person-needs-to-learn-about-their-body kind.

And what about Da Fyoocha? (And why did I need Arnold to say that?) I have no idea. It could be that this tale is told. Or it could be that down the line, dollars accumulate and some exec says, "let's spin that wheel again." Or who knows. I'm not resting my hopes on it, but it's not a concept I'll ever close the book on. In case the 30,000 reporters I told didn't get this message out, I love this crew like Nick loves Nora, like Hellboy loves Pancakes, like Bridgitte loves Bernie (and if you're old enough to get that reference, my condolences.)

Thank you all. I'll be in touch again, but I have an Amazon to rassle. Remember that this is not over; every dollar (or Euro) counts, every new convert is a friend for life. But don't fret too much on what's to come. Enjoy the remarkable things we've accomplished. You're Big Damn Fans. Have some lettuce.

All love, Joss.

Comments

quote-a-thon

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

does best Bono voice: "this is the song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles, now we're stealin' it back!"

Box office? not so well. It was dropped from 1700 theaters in the US this friday. It's doing better overseas, I think, because sci-fi has less of a stigma over there, plus the UK and Aus got to see Firefly in order and all that jazz, so that helped the fanbase.

Really, the movie got screwed. It became this gineau pig to see how far fan support and fan promotion could take a movie. Universal was sorta testing the waters and trying to figure out how to use fans in getting the word out. Which created a bit of a backlash because we knew there was no promotion so we sold the film like crazy and some people got annoyed with the constant babbling of Browncoats (we fans are known). But the movie is fantastic. I'm thinking it might be like Austen Powers and such, where it didn't do so well in theaters, but everyone rented it or saw it on TV and loved it. The DVD sales for this film will be great.

I do want to see it again though. I'd suggest tomorrow afternoon but then Perri couldn't come cuz I'm sure she's working. I'm only working 9-1 and then tuesday I have the afternoon shift so if you guys wanna be crazy and see it, I'd be up for it. All my shows are in reruns cuz of baseball :(

Re: quote-a-thon

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

well, the other thing about Serenity is it had no "names", no "stars". All of the actors are unknowns. Or, at least, people you've only seen in bit roles. So there were no "faces" to sell, where with Ghostbusters you had the SNL crew (when the posters were revealed) and Led Zepplin, well, how could you keep a Zepplin album a secret?

Also, I don't think they knew how to advertise the movie (which was a problem they had with the show...actually all of Joss' shows, if someone hadn't forced me to watch Buffy against my will, I never would have found out about it cuz the ads looked like average teen drama). I mean, how do you advertise a movie that's a space/western but not about space cowboys, and not really goofy, but that has a lot of humor but at the same time social commentary and a message?

You can't. Joss makes cult shows. That's what he does. And, to me at least, tv/movie related cults are something that you have to discover on your own because you randomly rent the movie or watch an episode by accident on tv. *shrug*

Re: quote-a-thon

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

well, we could talk about these things but I don't think the library would be too happy with me using the phone while on the desk to call you and discuss such important maters. :P I love my blog. It's really just the next step from IM for me. Back in college, I just had IM on all the time and chatted with people for hours. But now I can't really be by my computer all the time and having live conversations, but I can check my blog while I'm on the desk. :D

However, even if that isn't the case, this wouldn't explain the success of many indy type films. Films like Napoleon Dynamite and El Mariachi (which had almost no marketing, and cost about $7000 to make) break the mold.

I doubt that either of made big money in the box office, both of those probably fit my cult definitions from earlier pretty well. They were successful for indy films but not for films put out by major motion picture studios in regular theaters (Napoleon didn't get put into regular theaters until after a successful run in the "artsy" theaters...like Garden State did). No one expected those films to do anything.

and now I've lost my train of thought because some patron had the nerve to ask me a real question! *Napoleon voice* GAWD! You're ruining my life!...I need some chapstick!

firefly rant

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

ah, okay, see, the thing with Firefly is this - it wasn't just a show that got critical acclaim and was cancelled. It wasn't just that the ratings bombed. Joss got screwed in a whole different way. There was a bidding war for his next project, FOX, a major network, wanted a piece of the cult action. Except, FOX has lost the misson. Back in the day, *coughXFilescough* they'd let a show with eh ratings but pretty good reviews go for awhile. Even if a show did get cancelled, they'd usually at least run the episodes that were made.

But Firefly, OH FIREFLY! Firefly is not the tale of say, Star Trek, where they ran the show, cancelled it and then it got it's movie. FOX ordered the episodes, then saw the pilot and freaked. They told Joss that he could not have a two hour pilot and told him to right a one hour (or, in FOX land 40 minute) premiere instead, in about the length of a weekend. The resulting episode The Train Job is amusing but VERY uneven and when I turned it on that first night I said "Oh crap, I must have missed the premiere!". You needed the premiere. But FOX wouldn't have any of that. In fact, they decided not to run the episodes in order (which, in the joss land is a big no-no because he's all about the characters and stuff changes from episode to episode). And to top it off, they decided that they would run sports instead, then run Firefly whenever, completely alienating anyone who might just want to "tune in" and try it. After running about 9 of the episodes in some shape or form, they cancelled the show. THEN they ran the two hour pilot!!!! THEN everyone went "wow, this is really cool, can't wait for it to come back from fall break...wait? it's over? THATS IT!". So "bombed" is the wrong word to use, I feel. Because "bombing" would mean that someone had to actually promote it and run it and stuff. FOX just sorta sat there in shock because it was too damn intelligent, and instead bumped it and KEPT FASTLANE for the WHOLE SEASON!! *fumes fumes fumes* Fastlane was total crap but they knew how to sell that shite - hot babes, boobs, sex, cars, sweaty guys with guns. oh yes, that they kept. (modern TV makes me angry, can ya tell?)

Fast forward to the holiday season, Firefly DVD sales are fantastic. But Firefly is not Family Guy - they can't get the show back on TV. But Universal has seen the rabid fanbase and they think "meh, what the heck, this Whedon boy may not have a bajillion fans, but the ones he has a fecking crazy" so they give Joss cash and say go for it.

And he does. And we are excited. But, I think you're right, Universal didn't want to put a whole lotta money into the marketing. Instead, they wanted to see what fan support could do. So they tried the random "preview screenings". They did allowed Joss to post the "River Tam Sessions" viral videos to be passed around online. Lots of random stuff like that which we've seen in real life, but not so much on the internet (at least, not by a "major movie studio".) ANyhoo, so it was a test.

But yes, I think a problem with Joss Whedon fans is that we are a smart bunch. Too smart for tv/movie execs, I think. Because we are not the kind of people that see commercials and say "hm, I should buy that because it's a commercial during my favorite show!". We are the "wtf! fast forward! that will not make my ass look better!" people. This was pointed out during the "Save Angel" campaigns. Because scary NASCAR fans actually go out and buy the products that endorse their favorite racer. On purpose. We only thought of it when the "Save Angel" (ask Perri) campaign was going on and we were trying to figure out ways to show the big wigs that they can make money off of us if they really want to).

Firefly is back in the top 10 on AMazon.com now too. Everyone who sees an episode tends to go for the whole set, and Serenity was like the big season finale that everyone was actually told what time to tune in for. DVD sales for this movie will be great, because all the people who said "well I better watch the tv show first" and who are watching it now and missing the theatrical release will be buying the movie DVD come December.

Re: quote-a-thon

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

okay, if you skim the first chunk of this article (http://emahollywood.com/firefly.html) you can see why we are all so rabid about this show.