But, uh, the production studio issued a ninety-second teaser, which I’ve now seen. And it is being shown in the theaters now. It’s hooked on the end of some fairly major movies. I think, one of the Jane Fonda Films that’s out now. And, uh, it’s a dynamite ninety-second thing, because what it is, it’s like a little ninety-second movie. It’s like what happened as you went to the movies only they ran the film real fast, so the movie was over in ninety seconds. You know, you’re sitting there saying, “Wait a minute! That was a great movie but I don’t seem to remember too much about it.” So when they showed me the ninety-second teaser, it starts out like a movie and then it is cut, you know, from scene to scene, and in ninety-seconds, a minute and a half, it’s over. So I said “Would you run that again, please?” So they ran it again for me, and it’s just incredible. Your hear Harrison Ford’s voice over it, they call it a “voice-over,” and he says something like, “I was at Tyrell Associates Office — that was where all the action was.” Next thing he’s on the street walking with a lot of people and somebody hits him. You don’t get to see who hit him. He looks startled; apparently he doesn’t know who hit him, and then there’s this beautiful woman in a transparent raincoat running, and then there’s some kind of gunfire exchange, and after I’d seen it a second time I still did not know what I’d seen. I mean, they call it flash cutting, which is cut so fast that it registers subliminally. So your brain knows it’s seen a series of events but it doesn’t really know what it’s seen. So I says, “That’s a great ninety-second teaser.”
— Philip K. Dick
—
An excerpt from What If Our World Is Their Heaven? The Final Converations of Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick was one of the greatest thinkers his generation and his observations of film are fascinating. Things passed through a mental filter with him and what came out the other end was a fascinated detachment from what we casually accept. The bit regarding having seen a whole movie in ninety-seconds is astounding. It might be one of the reasons trailers can be so satisfying and feature films from the same material so frustrating. It’s the glossy picture on the outside of the microwaveable meal versus the real thing.
For reference, I presume this is the trailer Dick is talking about.
Ghost And Mr. Chicken Trailer (via mstrmacabre)
“Calm?!” Do “calm” and murder go together?! CALM AND MURDER?!
More and more I see trailers like these; brilliant documentaries on miscellanea that I don’t think I’ll get the chance to see. The standard process for documentaries, and independent films in general is to shuttle them around to various film festivals where they’ll (fingers crossed) get picked up by a distributor and they can live a longer life on DVD or some other home video alternative.
I often wonder if filmmakers ever consider releasing their films under a Creative Commons license, thereby making their films accessible to a larger audience. I understand the need to recoup and investment. Making films is possibly the most expensive art form in existence, and giving away your “product” might seem stupid, but like Tim O’Reilly says, “the greatest threat to an artist isn’t piracy, it’s obsurity”.
