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by Oscar O'Sullivan Anyone else remember when the first you knew about a movie was when you saw the trailer a couple months before it hit cinemas? Studios had control over audiences’ initial reactions back then. They could decide exactly how much they wanted audiences to see. In the digital age, that power is gone: Online releases of trailers come into play much earlier than in the past, so audiences have longer to build their expectations. Even before a trailer is dropped, set leaks and photos often surface online with alarming regularity. Studios suddenly find themselves with less control over the first impression of their films than ever before. Birds of Prey (2020), a new film in the DCEU franchise, is set to release in February of 2020. Production of the film has only recently begun. One really has to wonder, then, what business Warner Bros. has putting out a teaser over a year before the movie is set to hit cinemas. Surely they have jumped the gun with their marketing campaign? I’d disagree with that assessment, even if I understand the sentiment. This teaser is very much that: a tease. Its 20 second runtime consists of nothing but brief shots of the principal cast in costume. The “trailer” lacks footage because there is no footage to use. This is a glorified photoshoot that tells us nothing about the tone or content of the product it is advertising, and is a brilliant move by a studio known for bone-headed marketing disasters, such as its tonally inconsistent trailers for Suicide Squad (2016), which left audience utterly confused as to what kind of movie the finished product would be. To explain my point, I will give you a contemporary example. Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019) recently released its first trailer, giving fans their first look at Spidey’s new costumes and Jake Gyllenhaal’s appearance as Mysterio. Unfortunately, instead of my first impression of Mysterio being his dynamic entrance in the official trailer, I had already seen photographs of him standing limply in the middle of some street. The potential surprise was gone. This is why I think Birds of Prey has done so well. They have beaten leakers to the punch by taking back control of that pivotal first impression. Instead of being introduced to the characters via amateur snaps of them chatting on set, our first look has been a dynamic, atmospheric and, most importantly, professional introduction. I believe that this marketing choice was a direct response to the prevalence of set leaks in superhero movies. Last year, when leaked set footage of Joker (2019) hit the internet, it prompted a spike of interest in the project that had been absent before. DC seemingly jumped onto this opportunity by posting the first official look at Joaquin Phoenix as the titular clown. Similar to Birds of Prey’s abbreviated teaser, it is a simple, 15 or so second clip of Phoenix looking at the camera. This clip built upon the buzz that the leaks had created, showing that studios are becoming aware of the way leaks like these can affect the all-important pre-release period. Sure enough, the Spider-Man leaks were swiftly followed by Tom Holland officially debuting the costume on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Studios are making a concerted effort to take back control of the first impression, and Birds of Prey’s marketing demonstrates the next evolution of that. If you are still wondering how effective this kind of teaser can be, consider that I am sitting here writing about a movie that I have not even seen footage of yet. Sure, people were discussing this movie before the teaser, but that kind of blind speculation is inevitable. This teaser has moved Birds of Prey to the top of the superhero speculation pile, if only for a few days. As I write this article, set photos have surfaced online of Margot Robbie standing about in costume. DC’s teaser beat the inevitable leaks by a day. This kind of teaser could well become the standard for superhero marketing going forward, especially when it comes to characters who have not been brought to the screen before. Once again, our first impressions will be in the studio’s hands, and that is just fine. I give the Birds of Prey teaser an 8/10, because arbitrary ranking is how you end an article these days, right? Yeah, that seems right.
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