The Fashionably Latecomer's Guide to The Untitled JJ Abrams Project working titles Cloverfield, 1-18-08, ..., by Edward Michaud
It's (about) a movie. If you saw Transformers in the theater, you saw the trailer. Here it is again (because it's that good), or here it is for the first time (for the fashionably late).
In addition to looking like "The Blair Witch Project" on steroids (that's a good thing in some circles), the trailer succeeded like no other in crowdsourcing its virtual marketing. The result was a flood of online speculation about every aspect of the production, and in particular, an irresistible soapbox for a multitude of theories about the nature and origin of the mystery monster. Hollywood Executives take note, when presented with a blank canvas, the people spoke loud and clear, and the following projects should be greenlit the second they walk through the door: Cthulhu, Voltron, and Leviathan, Behemoth and Ziz. But, as it turns out, JJ Abrams had something else in mind.
So what's better than projecting your own giant boogieman/robot onto the big screen? How do you get all those dutiful geeks and nerds to stay interested in (promoting) your movie in spite of the fact that it's not starring their childhood favorite? You offer them, instead, an online ARG, which is geek speak for Alternate Reality Game. You provide them with clues, hints, back-story and curiosities, and you essentially challenge them to spoil the movie by piecing it together, online, before it is ever released. They (the geekosphere) are working on it right now. They've found 1-18-08.com, slusho.jp, tagruato.jp, and even the human stars of the movie blissfully unaware on MySpace. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. If you like, you can watch them work, all day, all night, and on weekends. And if you're intrigued, you can join them too. And joining them is what you will have to do if you want to know more than the basics above. The virtual mountain of information these volunteers have generated exceeds the structural limitations of a synopsis. From an audio analysis of the trailer to divining the true nature of "Kaitei no mitsu" to knowing what's real and what's fake (like this fan made trailer).
There's simply too much--and too much of it wholly speculative, if not outright b.s.--to sum up in brief. With that, it's inevitable that this 1-18-08 subculture will suffer the slings and arrows of all brands of traditionalists. From the scorn of those who can't fathom people obsessing over a movie when there is war, disease and famine in the world to those who find time to muster resentment at being challenged by an unconventional approach to marketing. But lost in their confusion is the birth of a new, as yet defined, hybrid form of art/entertainment. It's not the comic book turned Sunday morning cartoon turned movie turned video game. Far from it. It's perhaps best described as open source myth creation. Whether concocted or by accident, JJ Abrams and Co. have opened the door and turned the wisdom of crowds loose on their unfinished movie. Come 1-18-08, whatever the movie is called, it will enjoy a mythos as rich and as complex as Godzilla, and to the movie maker's credit, the fans will have had a hand in its creation.
These days Eddy, to his surprise, honest, finds himself happily blogging at 1.18.08. What he'll do come 1.19.08 is anyone's guess.