I find this to be an odd statement. A24 backs some really incredible films and they kind of address it at the beginning of the article. I am one of the viewers that gets excited by an A24 film...
There’s no way of knowing exactly how A24 has inspired such an intense fanbase, but a huge part of is down to its unorthodox, fan-centred approach to marketing.
I find this to be an odd statement. A24 backs some really incredible films and they kind of address it at the beginning of the article.
“I felt like there was a huge opportunity to create something where the talented people could be talented,” Katz said. We find movies [for which] our perspective, our system, our people, can act to make it something special. If it’s gonna be released the same way by another company, we usually don’t go after it.”
I am one of the viewers that gets excited by an A24 film because I know at the very least I'm going to see something weird. I don't want a polished Marvel movie, I'm not hyped about upcoming rom-coms, I want some weird, existential crisis to come out of the screen at me. I don't anticipate the endings of their movies. I don't get warm fuzzies from them. It feels like people get to make the movies they want to make without having to pander to a wider audience. I think that's the magic of an A24 film.
The article is primarily about A24's unique marketing, but there is also a section at the end dedicated to discussing the films themselves too.
There’s no way of knowing exactly how A24 has inspired such an intense fanbase, but a huge part of is down to its unorthodox, fan-centred approach to marketing.
I find this to be an odd statement. A24 backs some really incredible films and they kind of address it at the beginning of the article.
The article is primarily about A24's unique marketing, but there is also a section at the end dedicated to discussing the films themselves too.
But What Is It About The Films Themselves?
None of that sleek and trendy marketing would stick, however, if the film themselves weren’t worth paying attention to. So, what is it about A24 films that so enchants its fans?
Like any film studio, A24 has its share of critical darlings and cinematic flops. For every studio’s Everything Everywhere All At Once, there’s sure to be a Sea of Trees, or Dark Places (widely regarded as A24’s worst films). But what links each entry into their catalogue, even the flops, is a dedication to showcasing unique stories told by new and underdog filmmakers. You won’t find any billion-dollar superhero box office fodder in A24’s catalogue, nor any cash grabby reboots. What you will find are authentic attempts at bringing new and thought-provoking films to the world.
Whether those stories are about traversing the multiverse, growing up as a gay Black man, or travelling to Hong Kong to farewell a dying relative — they’re all films with a fresh, often necessary perspective deemed too risky, or too strange for major studios. And if there’s one thing film buffs have been starved of in the last decade, it’s original movies.
The studio’s resulting showcase is a collection of unique films made by left of field directors that star fresh and compelling actors. Not every film that A24 distributes or produces is a masterpiece, but they all boast an eclectic, novel yet passionate approach to storytelling that’s becoming more and more absent from a dizzying cinema landscape dominated by the big studios and their safe blockbusters.
In an increasingly corporatised cinematic landscape — where the biggest films are made with CGI programs years before they’re even scripted — it’s not hard to see why a disillusioned younger audience would latch on to a company that is dedicated to breaking up all that monopolised monotony with movies that remind us of how cinema is supposed to feel.
Heh, yeah in retrospect I suppose it was a bit of an odd statements. "There’s no way of knowing exactly how A24 has inspired such an intense fanbase" but here are all the reasons why they have! :P
Heh, yeah in retrospect I suppose it was a bit of an odd statements. "There’s no way of knowing exactly how A24 has inspired such an intense fanbase" but here are all the reasons why they have! :P
It's kind of rare to find an opinion piece that reflects what I think as well as this one does - though in my case I don't care one iota about their viral marketing campaigns or cultish fanbase....
It's kind of rare to find an opinion piece that reflects what I think as well as this one does - though in my case I don't care one iota about their viral marketing campaigns or cultish fanbase. A24 today is to movies what Devolver Digital is to video games; they're taking advantage of the large pool of talented individuals to create unique experiences that the larger studios are no longer willing to risk their money on. But unlike the indie video game scene, there tend to be more barriers to getting people to watch a movie.
On somewhat of a tangent, I don't think A24 would be as successful if it weren't for the releases that Blumhouse were putting out before they got popular. I noticed that a lot of Blumhouse films were not really so much horror as horror-themed, and I always thought the reason why these films became popular in spite of not being technically very good - or otherwise not quite in the horror genre that they specialized in - was precisely because of the public exhaustion with mainstream films.
Blumhouse has a fascinating model. Jason Blum is a very interesting guy. He started off with Noah Baumbach (they were college roommates), and then he worked for Harvey Weinstein during their...
Blumhouse has a fascinating model. Jason Blum is a very interesting guy. He started off with Noah Baumbach (they were college roommates), and then he worked for Harvey Weinstein during their Miramax days (Blum has talked about how Weinstein threw a cigarette at him). Miramax were known for their indie Oscar contenders and how they revolutionized awards season. But they also released genre films (like Scream). Blum, seemingly, took that aspect and created a company around that specific part.
Blum is essentially the new Roger Corman, except Blum specifically only works with filmmakers that have experience within the industry as opposed to Corman who would hire film school students and other inexperienced filmmakers on the cheap. Scott Derrickson came to Blum to direct Sinister after having directed the flop that was The Day the Earth Stood Still. James Wan came to him to direct Insidious after having directed Death Sentence which he wasn't very happy with. He revitalized M. Night Shyamalan's career with The Visit and Split. He started the directorial careers of Damien Chazelle and Jordan Peele. I have a lot of respect for what Blumhouse does even if they do release straight diarrhea several times a year.
I don't agree that audiences are "tired" of mainstream films. If that were the case Marvel movies wouldn't be making as much money as they do. It's just that they offer smaller films that can easily make a profit thanks to their low budgets (typical Blumhouse films are budgeted below 10 million), and they're in a genre which is easily marketable where you don't need stars or IP. Blumhouse is much more profitable than A24 (who is currently exploring a sale to Apple). Even the hits that A24 has like Everything Everywhere All At Once will end up not being profitable (in this case it's because the budget was 25 million dollars so it won't break even theatrically).
If you haven't experienced Everything Everywhere All at Once yet, do yourself a favor and watch it ASAP. Don't watch anything about it --- go in totally cold.
If you haven't experienced Everything Everywhere All at Once yet, do yourself a favor and watch it ASAP.
Don't watch anything about it --- go in totally cold.
I absolutely concur, but just to make be clear; even having watched trailers and knowing a bit ahead of time, it was still absolutely amazing. After having watched it, I recommended it to friends...
Don't watch anything about it --- go in totally cold.
I absolutely concur, but just to make be clear; even having watched trailers and knowing a bit ahead of time, it was still absolutely amazing. After having watched it, I recommended it to friends and in the process realized that even if you don't worry about giving spoilers and try to explain the film to someone, it's not really a film that lends itself well to being summarized and explained to someone. So I just tell people "I can't explain why this is a great movie, not because of spoilers, but because I lack the ability to adequately describe it to you".
I'm not a film buff, but I went with a friend who very much is, and they walked out of the theatre and said "that may be the best film I have ever seen".
I had a similar experience when I saw Upstream Color, but this is way better than that. When the credits for UC came on, everybody just sat there for about half a minute before chatting -- I've...
I had a similar experience when I saw Upstream Color, but this is way better than that. When the credits for UC came on, everybody just sat there for about half a minute before chatting -- I've never seen anything like it.
EEAAO is remarkable on every level. The mechanic for switching is so simple and doesn't rely on any crazy CGI or anything. Really, nothing relies on crazy CGI, which is so refreshing. This is basically an analog version of Dr Strange done right, in a way. I'm so excited to watch it again with some others.
If you're interested, I pulled frames from the rapid switches -- part 1 -- 2-3 frames for one shot and one frame per shot. There are some really neat easter eggs in there like a zoom meeting with the editors or something, some Laura Palmer and other film references, and some truly bizarre images.
I find this to be an odd statement. A24 backs some really incredible films and they kind of address it at the beginning of the article.
I am one of the viewers that gets excited by an A24 film because I know at the very least I'm going to see something weird. I don't want a polished Marvel movie, I'm not hyped about upcoming rom-coms, I want some weird, existential crisis to come out of the screen at me. I don't anticipate the endings of their movies. I don't get warm fuzzies from them. It feels like people get to make the movies they want to make without having to pander to a wider audience. I think that's the magic of an A24 film.
The article is primarily about A24's unique marketing, but there is also a section at the end dedicated to discussing the films themselves too.
Totally to all of those points. I just thought this was a weird statement to make considering all of that:
Heh, yeah in retrospect I suppose it was a bit of an odd statements. "There’s no way of knowing exactly how A24 has inspired such an intense fanbase" but here are all the reasons why they have! :P
It's kind of rare to find an opinion piece that reflects what I think as well as this one does - though in my case I don't care one iota about their viral marketing campaigns or cultish fanbase. A24 today is to movies what Devolver Digital is to video games; they're taking advantage of the large pool of talented individuals to create unique experiences that the larger studios are no longer willing to risk their money on. But unlike the indie video game scene, there tend to be more barriers to getting people to watch a movie.
On somewhat of a tangent, I don't think A24 would be as successful if it weren't for the releases that Blumhouse were putting out before they got popular. I noticed that a lot of Blumhouse films were not really so much horror as horror-themed, and I always thought the reason why these films became popular in spite of not being technically very good - or otherwise not quite in the horror genre that they specialized in - was precisely because of the public exhaustion with mainstream films.
Blumhouse has a fascinating model. Jason Blum is a very interesting guy. He started off with Noah Baumbach (they were college roommates), and then he worked for Harvey Weinstein during their Miramax days (Blum has talked about how Weinstein threw a cigarette at him). Miramax were known for their indie Oscar contenders and how they revolutionized awards season. But they also released genre films (like Scream). Blum, seemingly, took that aspect and created a company around that specific part.
Blum is essentially the new Roger Corman, except Blum specifically only works with filmmakers that have experience within the industry as opposed to Corman who would hire film school students and other inexperienced filmmakers on the cheap. Scott Derrickson came to Blum to direct Sinister after having directed the flop that was The Day the Earth Stood Still. James Wan came to him to direct Insidious after having directed Death Sentence which he wasn't very happy with. He revitalized M. Night Shyamalan's career with The Visit and Split. He started the directorial careers of Damien Chazelle and Jordan Peele. I have a lot of respect for what Blumhouse does even if they do release straight diarrhea several times a year.
I don't agree that audiences are "tired" of mainstream films. If that were the case Marvel movies wouldn't be making as much money as they do. It's just that they offer smaller films that can easily make a profit thanks to their low budgets (typical Blumhouse films are budgeted below 10 million), and they're in a genre which is easily marketable where you don't need stars or IP. Blumhouse is much more profitable than A24 (who is currently exploring a sale to Apple). Even the hits that A24 has like Everything Everywhere All At Once will end up not being profitable (in this case it's because the budget was 25 million dollars so it won't break even theatrically).
If you haven't experienced Everything Everywhere All at Once yet, do yourself a favor and watch it ASAP.
Don't watch anything about it --- go in totally cold.
I absolutely concur, but just to make be clear; even having watched trailers and knowing a bit ahead of time, it was still absolutely amazing. After having watched it, I recommended it to friends and in the process realized that even if you don't worry about giving spoilers and try to explain the film to someone, it's not really a film that lends itself well to being summarized and explained to someone. So I just tell people "I can't explain why this is a great movie, not because of spoilers, but because I lack the ability to adequately describe it to you".
I'm not a film buff, but I went with a friend who very much is, and they walked out of the theatre and said "that may be the best film I have ever seen".
I had a similar experience when I saw Upstream Color, but this is way better than that. When the credits for UC came on, everybody just sat there for about half a minute before chatting -- I've never seen anything like it.
EEAAO is remarkable on every level. The mechanic for switching is so simple and doesn't rely on any crazy CGI or anything. Really, nothing relies on crazy CGI, which is so refreshing. This is basically an analog version of Dr Strange done right, in a way. I'm so excited to watch it again with some others.
If you're interested, I pulled frames from the rapid switches -- part 1 -- 2-3 frames for one shot and one frame per shot. There are some really neat easter eggs in there like a zoom meeting with the editors or something, some Laura Palmer and other film references, and some truly bizarre images.
The dog, grapes, and tree are my favorites. Thanks for these!
i luv tennis had me. haha. So weird and perfect.