There are whispers & hints on the Web of a new giant monster movie, to appear 1/18/08, entitled Cloverfield.
There are strong hints of Lovecraftian horror in the rumors.
I’m strongly interested.
Anybody else?
CandidGamera et al–what’s the buzz on this flick?
It’s by the people reesponsible for Lost? Maybe I can miss it. I prefer resolution in my movies.
I love the viral marketing they have done, and I’m excited… just hope it can live up to the hype.
Here are a couple of prior threads on cloverfield…
Alls I know is that I’ve seen the trailer twice on the big screen, and it makes me very, very dizzy. The whole faux “We’re shaking the cam so it looks amateur!” thing is so goddamned annoying. Especially when they add in fake… I dunno what to call them, “blips,” like something you’d see in a garbled transmission or on a VHS tape.
Really, really, really annoying.
As Bosda’s quoted blurb states, the whole thing is filmed via camcorder from one of the characters themselves. So, yeah, surviving a giant moster attack is going to make it shaky, and unless it’s a digital camcorder, it’s recorded on a VHS tape. Think of it kindof like a Blair Witch treatment of a giant monster movie, although that might put you off of it even more.
Bosda, I think that Cloverfield is everything that Hollywood’s Godzilla wasn’t, already.
It’s a simple concept that most modern movies have forgotten- intrigue, realism, and subtlety, and a real story with believable characters and some complexity. CGI has been used blatantly, but finally it might be used subtlely and with a real story.
Wow, that viral marketing thing really is working. 'Cause you’ve seen the finished film, right?
I think he’s saying that from what he’s seen already, it’s already put 1998’s Godzilla to shame.
I hope so.
I hope that G-98 is put to the flames of a bonfire, quick!
There’s not a moment to spare. :rolleyes:
G-98 = G.I.N.O.
Godzilla
In
Name
Only. 
The advanced publicity for the 1998 Godzilla ALSO put the 1998 Godzilla to shame. I still remember one of the early advertisements. There is a lecture going on in a natural history museum, by a skeleton of a T. Rex. The lecturer is going on about how the T. Rex was the largest, meanest land predator ever. There is a “Boom. Boom.” going on in the background and the surface of a glass of water shakes. Then a foot comes down through the skylight and crushes the skeleton–any CLAW on the foot is larger than the whole T. Rex.
I don’t remember anything from the movie itself. Now I don’t let a clever advertising campaign get my hopes up too high.
I am also already sick of the Blair Witch Shakycam style of filmmaking. Bring Back Steadycam!
Ten years from now:
“Did you see that new movie last Saturday?”
“Yes, I sure did, and it was AWESOME!”
“Yeah, and the picture was SO solid and steady! How did they DO that?!”
That Godzilla teaser was legendary! I was so excited to see that movie, if only for that scene (which never ended up in the movie, but would have been the best scene).
When we went to see The Pursuit of Happyness in theaters, my girlfriend started getting queasy from all of the handheld camera work. I honestly didn’t notice it. But I can’t watch The Shield, not because the handheld makes me sick, I just find it horribly distracting. I did a lot of volunteer video camera work in middle school and I was more steady than that. I know it is deliberate, but it is a horrible directing choice. The same goes for close-ups during fight scenes. Frank Darabont, during his commentary in The Shawshank Redemption, mentioned his disgust with directors who do that. I couldn’t agree with him more, and I trust him more as a director knowing that. I will eventually see The Mist based on my trust in him not to zoom in on fights, othewise known as Michael-Baying the shot.
The Cloverfield teaser was brilliant because I could tolerate the handheld camera for the duration of a preview and for the purpose of realism. But if the whole movie is done that way, it’s a waste of film and a waste of the hype.
I never hated the Godzilla movie as much as seems to be socially acecptable…yes, the human element was…ick…but I had a fine, popcorn filled afternoon.
Sorry. The Mist is largely done by handheld (though a tad steadier than in Cloverfield, it’s not first person footage). Apparently Darabont either changed his mind between then and now, or else was talking about something more specific, because he used shakey cam to good effect to increase the sense of immediacy and claustrophobia in that film.