Ok, so I'm not really one for blogging. I've always had trouble accepting the idea that a person might actually care enough to read about my life as it really isn't all that exciting. Having said that, today I actually have something to talk about.
If you've gone to see Transformers then you also likely saw the strange trailer for an unnamed movie before. Nobody really knows much about this movie beyond the fact that it will be filmed with camcorders and that J.J. Abrams (of LOST and Alias fame) is the producer on it. Being the inquisitive nerd that I am I had to find out what the deal with this thing was. Naturally I turned to the internet.
After some very light searching I discovered that the movie is being tentatively called "Cloverfield" and it is some sort of monster movie featuring a creature called "The Parasite". Upon digging a little deeper I discovered that this movie is apparently somehow connected to this website: http://www.ethanhaaswasright.com . There's currently some debate over whether the two are actually connected or not. Regardless, I assure that this story is about to get creepy.
If you go to that website and can figure out the puzzles you eventually get to see a strange and unsettling video with a guy talking about the prophetic visions of one Ethan Haas.
There's also a link that brings up your email client with the subject line "I'm one of you... help me!". I was bored so I figured 'What the hell' and I sent off the email. A few minutes later I get two responses. The first is an email giving hints of how to get through the puzzles; it was from a man named Van Mantra (the same guy in the strange video mentioned earlier). The second email read as follows:
“I think i’m safe, for now. Wherever I go it isn’t long before they find me. It seems The Mezin are connected to every aspect of humanity, from culture and religion to our most advanced technology. I have to be careful contacting all of you. When I began I thought I could safely speak about his writings and perhaps save us all….”
Now let me break here to explain something. This whole marketing tactic is called viral marketing and it's fairly common amongst movies and video games. The internet is somewhat a buzzing with this whole Ethan Haas website and literally thousands of people have gone through and already experienced what I posted about above.
However, nobody has experienced what happens next.
All of what I wrote above happened about a week ago. Since that time I'd forgotten about the website and had been concentrating on some pressing matters at work. Yesterday at around 3pm I was working away when I was told that there was someone downstairs to see me. This is mildly weird as virtually nobody comes into our building but it is not completely unheard of. I simply assumed it was a package I would have to sign for.
This is where shit gets crazy.
As I walk down the stairs there's a young man about my age standing at the door. He's a fairly typical-looking skater guy with a backpack and a skateboard; I had never seen him before in my life. I later found out his name is Mike.
Mike: "Are you Adam Spencer?"
Me: "Yes"
Mike: "Some guy on the street just gave me $5 to deliver this letter to you."
Me: "What?"
Mike: "I don't know. He gave me $5 and said your name is Adam Spencer and that you work in this building."
He hands me a non-descript, unsealed, plain white envelope with "Adam Spencer" written on the front. I open it up and it reads:
"A.S.,
You endangered yourself by contacting me, and for that I am grateful.
You must tell people that I was here.....that I came to you.
The Mezin Source are liars and fools.
We must all heed the writings of Ethan Haas before it is too late.
We must prepare for the coming war.
Make them listen. Tell them I was here....and to believe my words.
We must all act on 08-01-07.
It is not too late to change the future.
Van Mantra"
Needless to say, my mind is officially blown right now. I immediately ask Mike his name, which he tells me. Next I ask who gave him the letter. He says it was an average looking guy wearing a baseball cap (disturbingly enough the man in the video named Van Mantra is also wearing a baseball cap). Mike and my coworkers friend both ask for the website (posted above) which I gladly give to them.
I should note that nobody knows I emailed that site. The only person that knew I was even on the site was my other coworker Chafic who swears up and down that he had nothing to do with it. Judging by his reaction and his level of obsession over what happened I am inclined to believe him.
Any of you from Fredericton know that this is a small city and there are no giant marketing firms that do this sort of thing. Beyond that, nobody online will believe me that this has happened. They either think I am pulling their leg or someone is pulling mine. The only problem with that being that nobody knew I was participating in this ARG (alternative reality game).
If you want to see an original scan of the letter go to here: http://blogs.ci-fi.net/chaf/archives/114
011808
ehm, the title is NOT 'Cloverfield', nor is there any connection to ethanhaaswasright.com...is what is said
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1060277/faq#.2.1.8
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1060277/faq#.2.1.8
What will this movie's title be?
EditHistoryDelete
It is for now still unconfirmed, but it is now confirmed the title will be announced at the Paramount panel at San Diego Comic Con.
July 29, 2007: J.J. Adams decided not to reveal the title at San Diego Comic Con, and keep us in the dark a bit longer.
The title was was believed to be have been leaked on Wednesday, July 25th by a movie poster booth vendor named "Luanna Jo Brown" at the Frank and Son's Collectibles Show in City Of Industry, California.
It is unknown where this vendor obtained the poster, as they were marked on the bottom edge as 'Property of Paramount Pictures - For Promotional Use Only' and when questioned, she refused to answer questions relating to it's provenance.
The poster's price was marked for $15.00. A passerby recognized the image of the headless Statue Of Liberty and took camera photos of the poster offered for sale and uploaded them to several 'Cloverfield' related websites. The title of the film was supposedly "Monstrous," though this may simply be a heading as there have recently been sightings of two other posters bearing the words "Terrifying" and "Furious."
J.J. Adams did inquire at the panel if he should title the film "Monstrous." It is unknown whether or this is a reference to the supposed title leak.
Paramount Pictures had originally planned a large panel discussion (official announcement) on July 26th 2007 in which they would have officially revealed the eagerly awaited film's title. However, at the panel, Paramount declined to reveal the title of the film.
It is speculated that Paramount has decided to re-name the film, "COLOSSUS" due to the unauthorized title leak by the poster vendor.
I hope its not Monstrous, that sounds a tad dumb... Its more likely a tag line for the poster, and other ones would have different ones.
Colossus sounds a tad over done, like its expected some how...
I like the title "Cloverfield", its different. And I like the title 01-18-08 too, even if it would never work if the film slipped
Colossus sounds a tad over done, like its expected some how...
I like the title "Cloverfield", its different. And I like the title 01-18-08 too, even if it would never work if the film slipped
@Jackal.
Sounds cool. I love that kind of crepy stuff, but I would say it has nothing to do with those actually making the film/game whatever because I am sure you would not be the only person they would use this kind of marketing action on. Therefore they would have to send out tens of thousands if not even up to millions of these courior delivered personalised letters costing them far more than what the marketing value would be. I would really look deeper into the one guy that knew you sent the email. He may just be a fairly good actor and planned to seem astounded when you got the letter. I have fooled friends with pranks in the exact same manor.
Sounds cool. I love that kind of crepy stuff, but I would say it has nothing to do with those actually making the film/game whatever because I am sure you would not be the only person they would use this kind of marketing action on. Therefore they would have to send out tens of thousands if not even up to millions of these courior delivered personalised letters costing them far more than what the marketing value would be. I would really look deeper into the one guy that knew you sent the email. He may just be a fairly good actor and planned to seem astounded when you got the letter. I have fooled friends with pranks in the exact same manor.
Uh, well....good luck with that. :shrug:
[img]http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g228/Magnus3204/forumheader.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g228/Magnus3204/forumheader.jpg[/img]
No, see, they'd actually only have to send out a few and let word of mouth do the rest. That's how viral marketing works.Magnus wrote:they would have to send out tens of thousands if not even up to millions of these courior delivered personalised letters costing them far more than what the marketing value would be.
Re: jackals post... that's pretty damn cool.
Cloverfield is only the project name/codename, and it has nothing to do with that site.Jackal wrote:After some very light searching I discovered that the movie is being tentatively called "Cloverfield" and it is some sort of monster movie featuring a creature called "The Parasite". Upon digging a little deeper I discovered that this movie is apparently somehow connected to this website: http://www.ethanhaaswasright.com . There's currently some debate over whether the two are actually connected or not. Regardless, I assure that this story is about to get creepy.
If you go to that website and can figure out the puzzles you eventually get to see a strange and unsettling video with a guy talking about the prophetic visions of one Ethan Haas.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/33332
AICN posted an actual letter/email from JJ Abrams recently, and he confirmed that there was only one website relating to the movie that people had discovered so far, and it was 18-01-08.com or whatever it is.When you get overexcited, you get an Ethan Haas situation, and people spend a lot of energy that they shouldn’t spend in the wrong direction. To be clear, all the Ethan Haas sites are interesting and well-coordinated, but none of them have anything to do with CLOVERFIELD. Instead, they are marketing for an upcoming game called ALPHA OMEGA by Mindstorm Labs. Cool stuff, but it’s not connected to the film at all.
sliver wrote:Cloverfield is only the project name/codename, and it has nothing to do with that site.Jackal wrote:After some very light searching I discovered that the movie is being tentatively called "Cloverfield" and it is some sort of monster movie featuring a creature called "The Parasite". Upon digging a little deeper I discovered that this movie is apparently somehow connected to this website: http://www.ethanhaaswasright.com . There's currently some debate over whether the two are actually connected or not. Regardless, I assure that this story is about to get creepy.
If you go to that website and can figure out the puzzles you eventually get to see a strange and unsettling video with a guy talking about the prophetic visions of one Ethan Haas.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/33332
AICN posted an actual letter/email from JJ Abrams recently, and he confirmed that there was only one website relating to the movie that people had discovered so far, and it was 18-01-08.com or whatever it is.When you get overexcited, you get an Ethan Haas situation, and people spend a lot of energy that they shouldn’t spend in the wrong direction. To be clear, all the Ethan Haas sites are interesting and well-coordinated, but none of them have anything to do with CLOVERFIELD. Instead, they are marketing for an upcoming game called ALPHA OMEGA by Mindstorm Labs. Cool stuff, but it’s not connected to the film at all.
Read my first post. I know.
Yea I read a few days ago where someone was at a fair or market or something and found a vendor with one of the posters for sale and took a pic of the poster thinking that Monsterous was going to be the title. Another person saw one in a store front somewhere and it said something like Terrifying.Jackal wrote:That's not the name. There are a series of three posters each with a different header: monstrous, furious, and something else.
Uh, well....good luck with that. :shrug:
[img]http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g228/Magnus3204/forumheader.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g228/Magnus3204/forumheader.jpg[/img]
It may be a creature never focused on in a major film before. Possibly a Chimera.
The monsters codename for production is"parasite".
One of the toughtest parasites to get rid of are the Chimera Parasite types. Their multi-genetics makes them very suseptible to one form of treatment in one of their genetic sets and nearly immune to that same treatment in their other genetic sets. Multiple treatments are required to get rid of the Chimera Parasites.
The legendary Chimera has the head of a lion and there is a lot of agrueing over one partiular line in the trailer. A guy yelling either "I saw it! It's a loin! It's huge!" or "I saw it! It's alive! It's huge!"
If some people are hearing it wrong and he did say "lion" all of this would fit.
Then again that outline of damaged buildings in the poster where the creature entered the city really seems to fit the outline of Godzilla's hips and shoulders.
Also there has been a lot of talk about doing a ten years later version of the 1998 Godzilla with Mathew Broderic.
As well the cloverfeild thing is a bit giving.
First off J.J.'s production company Bad Robot is on Cloverfeild Blvd. Right on top of where the old Cloverfeild landing strip used to be where the first round the world flight took off from and landed.
In the trailer there is appreantly a song in the background ( that I can't hear on my crappy speakers ) that is playing that mentions something about cloverfeild and the party is Japanese themed and the lead guy is Headed to Japan and the song playing is by a band called Motherwolf and on their album cover there is a big lizzard much like the one from the video game Rampage.
Supposedly in popular Japanese mythology the spirit that protects the earth (or in their eyes "Japan") is called Motherwolf and Godzilla though he attacked it a lot was very often depicted and being protective of Japan.
And the slusho stuff both in "lost" and the trailer and lots of other stuff J.J. has done may be a clue. Slusho is a popular Japanese icon just like Godzilla.
A lot of Japan and Godzilla or at least Lizzard references here.
Only problem here is
1. The 1998 Godzilla is by Tri-Star and this is Paramount and
2. unless they are messing with the origonal (as hollywood is well known to do) that sounded nothing like the call or roar of Godzilla.
Just a bunch of cheap theory stuff based on a lot of heresay I read online.
The monsters codename for production is"parasite".
One of the toughtest parasites to get rid of are the Chimera Parasite types. Their multi-genetics makes them very suseptible to one form of treatment in one of their genetic sets and nearly immune to that same treatment in their other genetic sets. Multiple treatments are required to get rid of the Chimera Parasites.
The legendary Chimera has the head of a lion and there is a lot of agrueing over one partiular line in the trailer. A guy yelling either "I saw it! It's a loin! It's huge!" or "I saw it! It's alive! It's huge!"
If some people are hearing it wrong and he did say "lion" all of this would fit.
Then again that outline of damaged buildings in the poster where the creature entered the city really seems to fit the outline of Godzilla's hips and shoulders.
Also there has been a lot of talk about doing a ten years later version of the 1998 Godzilla with Mathew Broderic.
As well the cloverfeild thing is a bit giving.
First off J.J.'s production company Bad Robot is on Cloverfeild Blvd. Right on top of where the old Cloverfeild landing strip used to be where the first round the world flight took off from and landed.
In the trailer there is appreantly a song in the background ( that I can't hear on my crappy speakers ) that is playing that mentions something about cloverfeild and the party is Japanese themed and the lead guy is Headed to Japan and the song playing is by a band called Motherwolf and on their album cover there is a big lizzard much like the one from the video game Rampage.
Supposedly in popular Japanese mythology the spirit that protects the earth (or in their eyes "Japan") is called Motherwolf and Godzilla though he attacked it a lot was very often depicted and being protective of Japan.
And the slusho stuff both in "lost" and the trailer and lots of other stuff J.J. has done may be a clue. Slusho is a popular Japanese icon just like Godzilla.
A lot of Japan and Godzilla or at least Lizzard references here.
Only problem here is
1. The 1998 Godzilla is by Tri-Star and this is Paramount and
2. unless they are messing with the origonal (as hollywood is well known to do) that sounded nothing like the call or roar of Godzilla.
Just a bunch of cheap theory stuff based on a lot of heresay I read online.
Uh, well....good luck with that. :shrug:
[img]http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g228/Magnus3204/forumheader.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g228/Magnus3204/forumheader.jpg[/img]
Oh really? Cool. Then folks can stop waisting time on Godzilla theories.Transient wrote:J. J. has already said it's not Godzilla. He says it's a completely unique monster.
Though I love a good old cheap Godzilla flick (and the newer ones) I would have been dissapointed if it was Godzilla. I am supprised that it is a new creature though because it seems that J.J. is notorious for only doing remake stuff or Film Adaptations of pre-existing stuff.
So the Chimera idea may still stand. Hmmm... time to see what else it could be.
Uh, well....good luck with that. :shrug:
[img]http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g228/Magnus3204/forumheader.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g228/Magnus3204/forumheader.jpg[/img]