Visitors to Artisan’s Web site for its film “Requiem for a Dream” won’t find the names of stars, a plot synopsis or even a release date. Instead, they’ll find an impossible-to-navigate site, in which users to lose control and spiral into chaos.
And that’s the point, says director Darren Aronofsky (“Pi”), it’s a metaphor for a film about addiction. “You think every once in a while it’s making more sense, but slowly it just gets out of hand, and you end up in hell,” Aronofsky says.
As online marketing becomes an increasingly important tool in the arsenal of film promotion, studios such as Artisan, Fox and DreamWorks are finding new ways to use the Internet to draw audiences. The popular site for “X-Men” (www.x-men-the-movie.com/) conveys a theme park feel, while “Gladiator” (gladiator-thefilm.com/) challenges visitors to “enter the arena” and engage in a scavenger hunt within the site. The user is invited to find Emperor Marcus Aurelius’ 40 virtues of an upright Roman, each designated with symbol. When all the symbols are found, the user can gain access to limited-edition photos, desktop art, and cast interviews.
But perhaps the reigning champion of Web marketing is the ongoing, ever-expanding Blair Witch Web site (www.blairwitch.com). Not only does the site promote the new sequel, “Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows,” but it also continues to build on the lengthy, fictional history of the Burkittsville curse.
“It’s really been our philosophy that the sites we create that are essentially experiences onto themselves,” says Amorette Jones, executive vice president of worldwide marketing for Artisan. “Our intention is basically to convey a movie’s soul. We extend the experience of the movie online.”
While hearing any executive use the words “movie” and “soul” when talking about marketing may seem strange, it represents a rethinking of how movie Web sites are and can be used.
“I was sick of all movies having these stupid, basically flashy electronic billboards on the Internet,” says Aronofsky, director of “Requiem.”
When thinking about a different online approach to “Requiem,” Aronofsky was complaining about his dilemma to a stranger on an airplane. The gentleman asked Aronofsky if he had seen any of the original artwork online, and directed him to soulbath.com, a Web destination that highlights electronic design artists. After visiting the site, the 31-year-old director called the London-based Internet design company Hi-Res! which oversees the site, and a collaboration was born.
Florian Schmitt, creator of new media at Hi-Res! went to work with his team designing a site that would reflect the tone of the film. The theme of the film is drug addiction, and Schmitt wanted to underline the chaos of addiction, but within an online experience. What they came up with is an entirely different animal, separate from the film, Schmitt says.
“It mirrors the film, but we were looking for metaphors to use on the Web,” Schmitt says. “What is addiction on the Web? Gambling? Infomercials? We wanted to convey that.”
Aronofsky adds: “You have to be a sophisticated Web surfer to get it, I think. A lot of it deconstructs what most Web sites are like. Some people say, `It’s making my computer crash!’–and no, that’s just the aesthetic,” he says.
Artisan also plans similar Web experiences with “Soul Survivors,” a movie about life after death, and Wayne Wang’s “Center of the World,” a sort of “Last Tango in Paris” meets “Leaving Las Vegas” digital film. For the “Center of the World” Web site, users will be asked a series of personal questions, which if answered correctly, will allow them access into a gentlemen’s club, which is one of the settings of the film.
“The two leads of the movie [a stripper and a venture capitalist], they’re trying to seek this solace and intimacy with one another,” says Jones. “The user will be seeking this solace as well with the female stripper on the Web site.” While creating new online experiences promoting film may smack of digital convergence, Schmitt says there’s little danger of the medium’s becoming diluted and indistinct.
“Traditional media are definitely going to merge, but on the Web, as soon as the vast majority of people have broad band access, the opportunities [for creative expression] are just going to be limitless,” Schmitt says. “I don’t think it’ll replace films, or magazines, but it’ll be an extension.”
Jones adds: “For us, it’s looking at the technology that currently exists and trying to introduce a more creative art form. It’s less about the downloading of celebrity biographies, and developing a very creative site that complements the filmmaker’s experience.”
