What Happens When People Market a Movie Wrongly

New drawing coming really REALLY soon! It's been crazily hectic these days. What with the Kancil Awards deadline just over yesterday. College picked us (my partner and I) to send our entry in but we had to send it in ourselves (explanation: my college filters through every entry sent by students and shortlisted Kancil Award entries are usually sent in by the college). It's a long story filled with re-do-s, re-printing and a whole lot of shit we had to deal with, but I'm not mentioning this here.

Anyways, I've heard this movie is quite good.



Yeah, Aly Michalka and Vanessa Hudgens. Check out the poster:



Sounds like a High School Musical-ish movie, LOOKS like a High School Musical-ish movie, the only problem - it's not. Summit apparently made a bad choice in marketing it. It Disneyfied the whole thing. Now, I'm no Disney-hater. In fact, I've loved Disney ever since I was a kid. The only problem I've ever had (and still have) with it, is how some movies/shows they have produced were losing the classic Disney touch (not inclusive of the Pixar movies). But I hear that the Disney family (that was fired from Disney, or something to that extent. Yeah sounds stupid I know, it feels weird typing this) is coming back to Disney, hence we have more classic movies to look forward to (like Princess and the Frog).

ANYWAY, back to the movie. The marketers chose to market the movie via Disney Channel's Vanessa Hudgens and Aly Michalka and decided to call the film "Bandslam" instead of "Will" because "Will" was too... Indie, when in fact the film IS indie (well, according to a source it has an indie voice wrapped up in a high concept). I hear it's a very Juno-like film. It's a School of Rock-ish movie caught in a High School Musical-ish skin. Statistics say that most people thought it was another High School Musical-like movie.

Remember Juno's cute trailer?



Compare it to the Bandslam trailer.....

Here's a brief synopsis about the film:

Charlotte Banks (Aly Michalka) has what it takes to be a true rock star, and with the battle of the bands approaching she's determined to win. Her chief opponent in the upcoming competition is none other than her egotistical ex-boyfriend Ben (Scott Porter) . Ben may be cocky, but there's no denying his charisma when he takes the stage. With a little help from new arrival Will Burton (Connell), Charlotte's band begins to develop a unique sound and starts writing some original songs. Meanwhile, as Will and singer/guitarist Sa5m (Hudgens) start to make a love connection, disaster strikes, and the band is forced to choose between conceding the competition or standing tall and finally living up to their true potential.

Apparently, Rob Freidman, the person in charge of this trainwreck of a marketing plan heard Hudgens' singing and thought there was only ONE way to sell this film - High School Musical. The problem here, was that Vanessa isnt playing Gabriella from HSM. Her character here is a monotone, dark, goth character. My source tells me, she's actually pretty good, but I think the bad advertising overshadowed that. Would a dark character be marketed as.... Smiling and happy, I wonder? The poster was already a huge spoiler. And by that, I don't mean for the movie plot.

You can read the full rant (I don't mean it in a bad way) here.

The marketers definitely did not read the movie right, neither did they take the time to know its target audience, which are two VERY important aspects when it comes to marketing. They made a quirky, unique and cool indie film into a tween flick. Mind you, the movie was rated PG. No tween flick could possibly be a PG film.

At first glance, I wouldn't even consider watching Bandslam. I mean, I don't even like High School Musical. But after checking out some info about it, I think I'd really want to watch it.

It Really Was It

Sooooo.... Who wants to watch it watch with me?



Aww heck, got teman or not I die also must watch!!!! But seriously la.... Who wanna watch with me? I'm open! Wait that didn't sound right, did it?

The Dawn of A New Moon

Note: If you are a Twilight fan (especially if you're an Edward Cullen fan), please do not continue as this entry may be offensive to you. You have been warned.



I'm pretty sure you guys have seen the recently released New Moon Trailer. A lot of hype has been re-generated over the Twilight saga, and fans are just rearing to watch it. Now, I'm not Twilight fan. I cannot fathom why the girls go all ga-ga over Robert Pattinson, when all I see is a seriously constipated face trying its hardest to look.. I dunno, sexy in vampire-like way? I still hate Bella (the one in the movie) because she was so expressionless I thought she was a robot that was trying too hard. I totally did not see any chemistry whatsoever between Bella and Edward, and by the time they got together I went: "THEY WERE IN LOVE???" The ONLY person that managed to catch my eye was Mary Alice Brandon's Alice Cullen. She was just too cute! I found the plot amazingly dry, so bloody typical, and awfully tedious. The cold, stiff acting didn't help much either.

Yes, picking up an apple from a tree for a girl is enough to make her want to be you girlfriend. Every boy who wants to get a girl should really do this! Right.

Judging by the trailer, New Moon is probably gonna be just as cheesy (the dialogue made me want to vomit. How the actors could keep going all mushy-mushy to each other and keep a straight face, I have no idea), and just as dry. Gosh, I want to slap Bella so badly.... Is it just me, or am I liking the evil-looking blonde voltur-whatsitcalled woman more?

Okay, if you are a Twilight fan, ignored the warning, read this far and are about to throw stones (or whatever you can find) at me, let me say ONE redeeming point about the Twilight saga: Jacob Black. Watching the trailer, Taylor Lautner made me actually want to watch the movie.

Look at that. He kinda looks like a guy from a surfer ad to me, but honestly, he is hot.
Check out those abs!

If you asked me.....
Taylor Lautner is way more handsome and way hotter than Robert-I-Need-To-Poo-Fast-Pattinson.
I'm so glad they cut his (Taylor's) hair.

Maybe he WAS trying, but I seriously don't feel turned on.

AND another thing, why on God's beautiful Earth, did they choose Robert Pattinson, over HIM????

Gaspard Ulliel.
Ooh-la-la.

He doesn't even HAVE to act sexy, the guy OOZES sex appeal. He, in my opinion, would make a much better Edward Cullen. Whatever possessed the director/producer/whoever was in charge of casting to overlook him? I'd choose him in a heartbeat. Heck, this guy made Hanibal Lecter look sexy. I'm not sure if he was good in it, cos I did not watch the film (with me getting nightmares so easily and all....). But boy, was he hot. And when he speaks in French... or even in English, WITH THE FRENCH ACCENT.... Oh lord...

So, why is Robert Pattinson Edward Cullen again?

A Japanese Advert

I tell you, I can never remember the name of the product of this ad even though I've seen it so many times. It's what we call vampire creativity, an ad that is so creative, that you cannot remember the brand name at all. This ad won the "Golden Pencil Award". According to my lecturer, this is the ultimate award that a copywriter can wish to achieve.

So, tell me what was your first impression of the ad, and... can you still remember the brand name after watching it? :)

Oh, Parting Never Sweet

This post is dedicated to the lovely Paik Hwa and... Uh... Lam Ming Guan who will both be flying to England very soon. This picture was taken last Thursday during our farewell party for the both of them. I can't believe we're all flying off one by one! Next it's gonna be MichT. I hear she wants to fly to Aussie... I think. After her, it'd probably be me.... I'm not sure who else is gonna fly off, but I'm pretty sure that the yam-cha gang is probably gonna whittle down to one or two people. I'm gonna miss you all so much! I feel so nostalgic thinking of the wonderful times we had together. I have one thing to say though, please, PLEASE don't forget us! Do remember to keep in touch and TOLONGLAH, don't come back to Malaysia like a pendatang haram and NOT tell anyone about it.....

Paik Hwa and Lam, please take care. Please stay in touch. And remember this, we all love you (well if the others don't, I know I do. ;)). It's not exactly a very heart rendering speech, I know. These are very simple words, but I really mean them (I can feel your bulu naik-ing). With that said, bon voyage and have fun!

Justice- "D.A.N.C.E"

Here's a vid I've been meaning to post up a long time ago, but I kept forgetting the title. I saw this back in Sem 1 (which was last year), thanks to Joyce Ngu. The shirts are plain shirts by the way, they just added in graphics. The graphics here are damn cool. And by that, I mean that the timing of all the graphics on the tees is so precise, I was amazed. So amazed, I started raving about it the next day. Enjoy!

P/S: This isn't the original version, guys. There were a few scenes left out, so... Not as cool as the one I saw. If I manage to find the particular version I saw, I'll repost the vid.

It's a Big Ad Indeed.

I saw this ad a few days ago in class. Not sure if you guys have seen it, but personally, I feel it's really creative. Apparently, after the launch of this ad, the sales of Carlton Draught rose. It was really bold of the advertisers and the company to choose such an unconventional way of launching a beer ad, considering that your average beer ad does not involve millions of people running around and singing.

What used to be

Nope, I did not trace this. It's really simple and really rushed. I used to draw a lot. My books would be filled all sorts of drawings when I was small. It irritated my parents and teachers really badly. Oh yeah, I painted a lot too. These days, I don't draw so much cos I got busy. I'm not too sure how to pixelise it. AM planning to post some of my artwork here. Especially since I don't have much to blog. Most are gonna be handdrawn and black and white. I'm not too good with CG yet.

A Revamp At Last

FINALLY, this blog is revamped. It took me this long to figure out how to change the template so yeahhh. I am happy. :) Like I promised, I've edited the blog and everything.

However, I think I lost some of my links, not really sure la. Cos I had to upgrade my blogger account settings and all. Being me, and I know I am prone to being extremely muddle-brained, I cleared my previous layout without thinking, and yeah, lost a lot of my widgets. I guess you can consider this blog still under construction, though I'm not quite sure what else to do with it....

For now, I must go back to my cross cultural essay..... Whoo-pee.

Additional notes

To whom it may concern:

Sorry guys, but I'm not going to edit this blog until I can figure out how on Earth to modify the html codes of the blog templates provided by yummylolly.com. Don't worry guys, I'll definitely revamp this blog. Thank goodness I'm not doing creative multimedia (as interesting as it may be), or I just might die.

At this point in time I should be:

A. Vegetating in front of the TV (though I don't watch it as much anymore)

B. Leveling up in my PS2 (sadly, PS2 saya rosak. Have to send for repairs. How I wish for a PS3!)

C. Reading a good book on my comfy bed (Which reminds me, Ches can I pinjam The Diary of Anne Frank please?)

Unfortunately I have an essay to do, some bloody groupwork that I totally forgot about, and I STILL haven't organised and revised my notes. At least it's a holiday tomorrow.

Quite frankly speaking, I prefer Twitter to Blogger. For one thing, updates are way easier, and there's much less hassle.

I wonder....

What would it be like, if everyone were rich?

What would it be like, if the media didn't exist?

What would it be like, if Michael Jackson weren't discovered?

What would it be like, if I were the youngest, not the eldest?

What would it be like, if the Earth was flat?

What would it be like, if I chose science, instead of advertising?

What would it be like, if we lived in treetops?

What would it be like, if I saw Big Foot, and lived to tell the tale?

What would it be like, if I were rich?

What would it be like, if I were born in January, not December?

What would it be like, to have blonde hair?

What would it be like, to have fair skin?

What would it be like, to have my own laptop?

What would it be like, to be a Leo, and not a Capricorn?

What would it be like, to live as a superstar?

What would it be like, if the world had pink trees, instead of green?

What would if be like, if the sky was green, not blue?

What would it be like, to never grow up?

What would it be like, if Malaysia never achieved independance?

What would it be like, to have a dancing jellybean?

I don't know, you decide. ;)

Note: Just because I wondered, doesn't mean that my favourite colors are pink and green.

I haven't been in a blogging mood.

SOOOOO yeah, no updates so far. That is, till now (the post you're reading la).