Unofficial Coverage of VDT Production

[ceppault]

Since production started for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, I feel there has been more unofficial news and images available than when The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian were in production. I certainly am not complaining, and I do find all of it very interesting.

I have asked myself, "Is this helping or hurting The Voyage of the Dawn Treader as a feature film?" I do understand there will be disagreement on the forum about the content of the film; this poll and topic is not about that. What impact do you think unofficial coverage will have on the success of the movie, if at all?

[Gymfan15]

I voted "The coverage can only help contribute to future success". I think this film is going to be HUGE in Australia at least; just because of how much production has embraced the local talent and spots, and invited the "regulars" to come get a glimpse of a big film being produced. I think it's helped generate a LOT of internet buzz that VodT would be without otherwise, and considering everything that VodT has to overcome on the way to being a success and ensuring future Narnia films, that is a very, very good thing.

The only way all this exposure could be a bad thing is if production is careless with what they allow the public to see, and if it's a constant, unending stream through the whole filming process. I don't think that's likely...it looks like they've been allowing us to see some stuff, and disguising or blocking off others. There's some bits of the film that are fairly significant to the plot that I'm pretty sure have been filmed already, and there hasn't been an inkling about it on the general internet. That's a good thing, I think.

I'm guessing that we'll see a lot of stuff filmed on the Dawn Treader, but not much else. And that's completely fine with me.

[narnian1]

I also voted that it would help the final outcome,
and like Gymfan said, it's as long as production doesn't become careless, which I assume they are keeping a very strict eye on what they let out to the public.

I also don't expect to see much else other than some things on the ship.
I also don't want anything else as far as filming goes, because if I see "everything" before hand than there is no joy during the actual movie, or rather less of a joy.
So it will help as long as they keep limited what they do let out.

[Bookwyrm]

I think they've done a very good job of letting us see the things that will excite us and lead to rampant speculation. Too much secrecy results in people losing interest, too little means everyone is spoiled and the movie becomes less of a must-see event. I think they've managed to keep the balance of secrecy and publicity just right. Enough to keep everyone excited, but not so much that we know everything.

[starkat]

One of the good things about this is it is coming from the fans themselves. So the fans are spreading word and sharing their excitement with the fan sites and it helps get everyone else excited, because it is someone just like us. It also gives a different look to the behind the scenes filming in the movie.

Once post production starts, we'll likely get little bits from official sources, but now, it gives the production a way to publicize without having to spend a lot of money. And I too think they've done a good balance between publicity and secrecy.

[GlimGlum]

I think the coverage helps. I feel better about VDT at this point than I did about PC. It definitely will help VDT to open big in Australia when it opens there and is keeping the interest alive at present among Narnia fans everywhere.

Now, just keep the balance between the unofficial fan coverage now and the official stuff when it starts to come out and it should be just the right mix for when VDT is released.

Also, I agree with what my fellow modulators have said above.

[Peepiceeka]

I believe it will certainly affect Australia's reaction, since they're the ones most involved with this. But, I'm uncertain about the rest of the world. If news and pics such as the ones we've been getting keep coming out it could possibly give the film more publicity than the previous ones, unless this happened with the last two, but I don't know.
My only concern would be if all of the pictures that have been coming in are going to be spoilers and affect people's first viewing of VDT.
As long as the observers don't get too intrusive into the filming and try to get pics of things they shouldn't yet, everything should be fine. And the filmmakers seem to be doing a good job of keeping things that need to be hidden for now, hidden.

[JadistarkilleR]

i've been following production of popular franchises as well as smaller/ independent films for well over a decade now. i've seen the handling of "unofficial images and reporting" in a wide variety of ways, from the impossibly paranoid to the free-for-all-show. truthfully, if they want this to be strictly hush hush, they would've had security and "spotters" with walkie talkies flagging down anyone with a camera, i'm not even gonna start about onlookers watching the shoot.

but what this does more than anything is build hype for the movie. this is advertising money cant buy. people flock to the shoot, more people click on it on the net, they see it, their curiosity builds up, they're amazed, they feel invested in it, the movie debuts and they want to see how the finished product turned out. if anything VDT has a built in audience in not just Narnia fans, but the people of Australia (at the very least the Gold Coast). there is a certain pride for a city from which the film was shot in-- ask any Chicago native when The Dark Knight was shooting there, heck ask any Kiwi when LOTR was shooting in NZ.

i know the concern about this is "are we giving away too much of the movie this early on?" that has been an argument as old as the internet. in this regard this argument doesnt hold much water. why? because this is a film based on a book series thats 60 years old, nearly everybody knows about this story, and for those who doesnt its just a quick trip to the library or bookshop to discover it. so the concern about giving too much of the plot away is unsubstantiated. there is nothing to give away (except for plot changes, but i'll get to that later), if anything it fires up the imagination and the excitement of actually having a beloved tale take shape in front of your own eyes. look at the interest-- not to mention the business-- generated by the VDT shoot in the Gold Coast. i'm very sure they havent seen anything like it since before the production team came.

so now what about giving away "the new stuff"-- plot changes, or the entire plot (for original screenplays)? in all the years that i've followed a movie, soaking myself in every spy report video/ images, set reports, concept art, pre-viz, leaked scripts, leaked soundtrack, sometimes leaked parts of the film-- nothing compares to actually seeing the finished product onscreen, with the music and the effects and the dialog and the editing all coming together and tells the tale the way its meant to be told. i've found myself in many situations where i have enough information to run the entire movie in my head, trust me its nothing compared to actually seeing it play in front of you, bigger than life.

so if the concern is that are we spoiling the movie by having unofficial coverage, that is so not true. remember that the outside shots of what many people witness does not a movie make. there is a lot more storytelling-- to me the more important aspects of storytelling-- that takes place indoors, away from the crowds, where its just the actors and the director and the camera capturing every nuanced performance. and then theres the added element of taking all that was shot and editing them together in a small room, tweaking away for weeks on end. so by the time the crowds from today watching a drenched Caspian and Edmund and Lucy play onscreen late next year, that scene would've changed so much it would be hardly recognizable from anything seen today anyway .

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

LWW was very well received in Australia considering our small population. PC less so but still it didn't do too badly. I think VDT will perform very well in Australia, not just because it's being filmed here but also because many Aussie Narnia fans claim VDT as their favourite of the series.

[IloveFauns]

The coverage can only help contribute to future success

If people see the coverage they are more likley gonna want to go see it.

[Queen of Narnia]

I voted "The coverage can only help contribute to success."

There was a short time I doubted all this - obviously intentionally - public filming of the movie. And I was surprised at it since - as ceppault already mentioned it - we didn't get by far so much information at this early point of production for PC (I missed the LWW time so I can't say anything about it). I feared that people would get tired of the movie because of too much 'background information'. I feared that people would think "Oh making a movie looks so much less magical than I thought it to be". And I feared that people would gripe on the looking of the ship and of the actors.

But then it occured to me that nowadays you can see the Making Of movies on TV and on each and every DVD anyway. So it's nothing new to people it's rather something very exciting to be allowed to be on set for a short time. And - as Gymfan15 already said - the movie is going to be huge in Australia. Because I think there will be people who don't know much about Narnia or don't care for the movie. Or because they are so very grateful that such an amazing movie was filmed in their country. And maybe a few of those people visited the set with their kids or friends etc. and I'm sure most of them left the set with a "Wow I have to see this movie" feeling. And the Narnia fans/movie fans/fantasy film fans are going to watch the movie anyway.

All in all I'm pretty sure the movie rather gains audience/gains popularity. I don't think people will lose interest through the unofficial coverage.

So that's why I think the coverage can only help the movie.

Also I'm sure that despite all this public filming the filmmakers just give away what they want to be known. Just add up the facts. We've seen tons of pics of the ship, a few of the cast and we got one clip of them filming a scene. There are still a lot of things we don't know about. How will the ship finally look in the movie? What did they film in the studio(s)? What's the new script like? etc. So it's not that much we got to see so far. It just seems much to us.

And, last but not least:

.. nothing compares to actually seeing the finished product onscreen, with the music and the effects and the dialog and the editing all coming together and tells the tale the way its meant to be told..

trust me its nothing compared to actually seeing it play in front of you, bigger than life.

That's exactly the magic of watching the movie and the reason why my excitement will stay the same. With or without unofficial coverages.

[ceppault]

... truthfully, if they want this to be strictly hush hush, they would've had security and "spotters" with walkie talkies flagging down anyone with a camera, i'm not even gonna start about onlookers watching the shoot.

Now that you bring this thought up. Of all places they security would control the flow of people to the set, it would be so at Cleveland Point.

That's exactly the magic of watching the movie and the reason why my excitement will stay the same. With or without unofficial coverages.

This summarizes the feeling for me too.

So much more to see.

[SParcher44]

The other day i had a though "Is Dawn Treader being to open and releasing things to quickly". LWW and PC didnt have this many updates and videos when they were in filming. I'm not sure about you guys but I think this could end up harming VDT in the long run. I know you don't have to watch the videos if you don't want to but they are still out there and they are giving whole scenes away. I think by the time the movie comes out we'll already have a chunks of the ship scenes peiced together. What are your thoughts on this? Am I the only one feeling this way?

[Kate]

There isn't really much that the crew can do about it; they're filming in a public place. But I think all the fan video footage can only help. The public at large isn't watching these. It's mostly just those people who are really into it. Even I haven't made it a priority to watch them and I count myself as a big fan. The footage is helping the big fans get an idea of where the project is going, but the footage that really counts is the filming done by the big black official cameras with the footage that is actually going to end up in the movie.

[Bother Eustace]

I agree with Kate, these small tidbits are good. Although I am a bit biased, as I have eaten up every single one of them... Seriously though, most of the general public still hasn't realized VDT is even being made. Plus, these scenes are hard to see and you can't hear more than two or three words in the best of them; only people who are intimately familiar with the books are going to do an figuring out of scenes, and those people will probably be seeing the movie anyway no matter what. I think this openness is keeping the fans excited, and I'm good with that!

[greenbird37]

I dont really watch the videos, its just too many to watch. I think they want to put it more into the public eye. I was not on the forum when LWW and PC was being made, but they probably feel they need to put more out there to make the movie known. just my two cents!