Part 10:the Marketing Machine
Steve looks at the sketches, then back at the producers, then back at the sketches. "Right. Does anyone have any idea how we're selling this?"
"...We're a month into filming and you're worrying about this *now*?" Mark asks.
Steve waves a hand in the air. "I mean image. The first statements we've got out are 'superheroes who decide to work on a bigger scale', I'm interested in the look. The first rushes I've seen are mostly big swooshy spaceship interiors, and rubble-strewn fight scenes where you destroyed cities. What kind of statements are we looking at here? True Blood, it's all sex sex sex and blood. Game of Thrones, brooding on the throne, which fits with the whole murky political alliances and power grabs that series is based around. Throw me a bone here, what is it, Superman? Batman? Captain america? Thor?"
Rabia sucks in a breath. "Well, we have Superman and Batman. And an acrobat martial artist, a girl who controls electricity, a winged hunter, and an android looking character. most of them could fuck you up without thinking about it."
Steve drums his fingers on the table of sketches and character designs. "And you've been writing excitable blog posts and are letting the actors tweet photos from set..." He pauses, bringing up the gallery of those. "Interesting angle, considering how much totty they're tweeting."
"...Totty?" Greg frowns. "What's totty?"
"Fit people. Pretty and handsome pin up material." Steve says, waving his hand dismissively. "Learn more english slang, you're living and working here. have you not seen how many pictures they tweet of him shirtless?" he asks, pointing at the sketches of Apollo and pictures of Simon. "We could build a marketing campaign around that if this was True Blood."
"We're thinking at least half of that is due to Ross." Mark says dryly. "he said he believes in giving the fans what they want."
Steve nods in appreciation. "The man definitely has an idea there. But back to our dilemma. What's the tone of the series? We can't just sell it on half-nude pictures of a pretty bloke with an impressive six pack. That's not a marketing campaign, that's the cover of Men's Health. Or that rather cool one of the girl with wings spinning around, they're still clearly snaps taken when messing around. Is it grimy? Dark? Cheerful? do you have a general hook line?"
Mark swallows "Er..."
"Oh good lord, how the hell did you even manage to pitch this series to the money men?" Steve asks, wincing. "Tell me what you used. Think back to exactly what you used."
"Farscape meets Torchwood only competent. Defending the world against threats only they can." Greg says promptly. "the statement put out when it got picked up was 'The action-packed tale of a set of superheroes who decide to form a team to handle the world-spanning (alien or homegrown) threats that other superhero teams aren't equipped to deal with.' How's that?"
"Okay, that's not bad." Steve says, rubbing his chin. "Still need a bit more of an original hook. Got a lead character? A leader? Some sort of focus point or common theme?" He pulls up some images. "Look, Battlestar Galactica, when they rebooted it, went for the villains and threat. Grimy good-looking soldiers are all very well, but they're still grimy soldiers in grey. The enemy is robots. robots that look like humans, and the most recognisable is the statuesque blonde in the red dress. They reinforced that, then added the red flash in the eyes. Hundreds of fucking robots backing up a statuesque blonde. Robots could be your best fucking friend, they could be your wife or husband or boss, you woudn't know, the threat's within. Red and black and blonde. 'They look like us. they act like us.' War statements of paranoia, that's selling it. True Blood. Amazing, amazing bodies. Flesh and mouths and sexy biting and blood trickling in an erotic way." More images. "OZ: prisons and glass and menacing cons and stark prison imagery. Deadwood: we are cowboys and we are grimy. the Wire: Look at us, we're serious cops and gangsters and we could not give a shit about you. You're so much fucking collateral. Hawaii five-O, the recent series: Pretty people and explosions in paradise." He puts his hands back on the desk. "Come on, throw me a fucking bone here that I can work with. You've got good material, i just need to sell it for you to the public. Catch their imagination, because all I know right now is that it's comics. what separates your Superman from the bloke in blue with the cape?"
Rabia's eyes narrow. "Our lot will fuck you up if you put a foot wrong. they're here to do a job, not kiss babies."
"Good, good. Fuck you up i can work with. And here to do a job." Steve says, making notes. "Got a villain?"
"Not really. They change each arc." Greg says. "Mad terrorist, blue aliens from a parallel earth..."
"Too disparate." Steve says dismissively. "All right, not villains. Got a leader?"
Rabia points at the pictures of the girl in white. "Her. Jenny Sparks."
"Relatively unassuming." Steve notes. "Interesting that her image isn't knock out or all that tough, I know she was tough as nails in Robin hood. I know the character's electricity based, but... anything more?"
"Hundred years old, alcoholic, pessimist, been fighting to make the world a better place against all the shit that gets thrown at it all her life." mark says. "How's that?"
"Not bad." Steve says. "hmm. give me a minute." He stares down at his notes and the pictures for a bit. Then a bit more. Then a bit more, occasionally moving one around. Finally he takes a deep breath. "Okay, if we go with the disparate coming together thing with a general vibe of 'these people will fuck you up if they have to' threat thing - it's power, it's all converging and they're going to be doing something with it." Looks up at the producers. "How's that?" He moves the pictures some more, and points to the Doctor. "Him?"
"World's shaman. the Doctor." Greg says promptly.
Steve hisses disapprovingly. "Oh, that's a right bugger for selling to the sci-fi crowd, that is. Doctor Who's already got a fix on that brand. Bit different, you've not got a lunatic wandering space and time, but still...."
Mark grins. "It's heavily implied that one of his past incarnations was one of the old Doctor Whos."
Steve grins. "Oh, nice one. Seriously, though, if you ever get into an interview on one of the Brit sci-fi sites, there's quite a few influential ones, word to the wise. You have Doctor Who the show but the characters are the Doctor. Just The Doctor. not 'Doctor Who' they'll notice and they're legion. And organised."
"Come across this problem before?" Mark says sympathetically.
"To put it mildly." Steve says. "Bad, bad case of foot in mouth. They were mocked. Viciously."
PR Offices
Steve looks at the screens, then back at the team. "Right, first job is images. one sheets to tie in with character idents, to get the public to go 'who the fuck are this lot?', then we go in for a trailer that's all mood... Everyone look at the rushes and the pilot, read the damn comics, and then start submitting your idea for the idents, we can tease the one sheets from that. trailer will be more of a unifying thing, but we do not explain shit in the trailer. I want massive, donkey punch of anticipation. We also need a Winter is Coming style ident... Christ, why isn't this Game of Thrones? Game of Thrones would be easy, compared to superheroes. there were snowy wastelands and fucking great swords and executions, not to mention the original writer had dreamt up all these mottos. Mottos are good when they're short. Easy to put on a t-shirt." He crosses his fingers and un-crosses them again. "Superheroes, why did they give me unknown superheroes? Superheroes have logos. Heroes the tv series had a logo. This does not. All the image they used in the comics adverts - I know, i looked them up and threatened people with the originals - blonde girl with a fag in her hand looking arrogant and people flying across the picture. Everyone in comics uses people flying across the picture, it's like they've never got their heads out of the mentality of people bursting through paper rings in the circus in the 1930s." He takes a breath and muses "Suppose it works as an analogy since it's not like they've stopped producing muscled lads and lasses in brighly coloured skintight lycra hitting each other. but we need to be more, we have to get the public interested."
Eoin's got his brow furrowed, twirling a pen in his fingers. "You said you wanted an image for the Winter is Coming ident, what about doing a fade? I know the general thing of this show is 'saving the world', so we could go one of those almost silhouettes - you know, like the Bond films do. Lit from behind so you get them in shadow."
Steve frowns. "Possibly usable. The saving the world tagline, definitely. 'The Authority: Saving the World. Date.' Yeah, that works." He points at Eoin. "You can stay." He pauses. "Still got to come up with an image."
"Emphasise 'world'?" Emily asks. "Flying above the world, sun...?"
"...maybe." Steve says, then makes batting motions. "Get to work, bring me ideas for idents."
The-carrier.net
First teaser
Okay, here we go, first teaser trailer for the show below.
A blur of action, a wall exploding, fading out into the back view of a figure of a woman looking down on the earth from a spaceship. Saving The World. The Authority.
So, what do you think? Tell your friends.
bleeding Cool
The first - teaser - trailer has appeared on The-Carrier.net, HBO's making of The Authority site. What do we think? It's intriguing, certainly, and sets up the tone of the show as action. it's not got the spookiness of 'Winter is Coming', but we'll let you decide.
Comments!
thestingo writes:
Well, start as you mean to go on, it appears.
Brassmonkey writes:
Okay, that's clearly Jenny looking down on the earth there.
>Mangoman writes:
I like the way they're setting her up as powerful and kind of lonely. Suits her.
>>Ivantheterrible
When she's not drunkenly shagging people...
EW.com
First pictures from The Authority, HBO's new big ticket show about a superhero team that's dedicated to fighting world-spanning threats. Slideshow below.
image: swift flying into action.
image: Apollo and Midnighter walking together in the Carrier.
image: The Doctor surrounded by trees.
image: Jenny Sparks taking a drag from a cigarette in a shadowed corner.
image: Angie, hand morphed into a gun
image: Everyone sat around the table in the control room while Jenny stands at its side.
image: jack wiping blood off his face, grimacing.
@AngelHarker
These pics make my left side look really good.
@ShipDrew
But you still look really weird blonde.
@BellaGarcia
my pics are clearly an object lesson in 'how to look good naked'.
@Zoommei
WIIIIIINGS. Are they not glorious?
Trailer debut time in the offices of HBO marketing.
Amy dims the lights, and they switch it on on the big screen on the wall.
Establishing shot of blue sky, everything looks calm, and from the horizon a bird flaps its wings, getting closer. Closer and it's not a bird, it's a woman and she's gaining speed. There's a drumbeat, and a man in red goggles is meditating in the middle of a glade of trees. Panning down, it becames obvious that he's floating above the ground, and the ground isn't grass or packed earth, it's cracked pavement, and the cracks are glowing. Panning up, the sky is... whirling. Another drumbeat. A masked man in a long leather coat is kneeling on the ground, cradling a man in white carefully, the pose showing obvious intimacy between the men. Drumbeat. A man in a suit balls up against being pelted with broken glass as a skylight breaks. Drumbeat. A woman - no, an android shaped like a woman rises up through coils of wire and fibre optics, wires making up what appears to be hair flaring out as she rises. Drumbeat. The man in the leather coat looms out of a dark alley as the camera passes it. Drumbeat. The man in white he'd been cradling grins, the grin of someone about to do something very dangerous and he's going to enjoy it. Drumbeat. A young blond woman in white is lit by the spark from her fingers that sizzles up into a long line of electricity from her fingers to the lightbulb above her, casting the room into light, then using the spark to light a cigarette. She takes a drag from it, blowing the smoke out, and speaks. English. So very English. "Pretty mess you've got yourself in there, haven't you, sunshine?"
The drumbeat goes up to pounding bass, and the flashes of action and scenes speed up - fights, people hitting each other, the man in the suit leaping from a high point, gunfire, alien skies, the man in goggles standing staring up at giant figures that look like witch doctors and shamen, and then there's a flash of lightning and the screen falls silent, and it pans to the woman in white standing in a door, fag in hand as she taps the ash off, and she speaks again, contemptuous. "You've had your fun pissing about. Want to do some real work?" Drumbeat as the screen goes black, and there's another crackle of electricity across the screen, words flashing up, and the woman's voice says 'Somebody has to save the world' as the words flash up. The Authority. 2013.
Everyone in the room claps. Rabia grins. "Oh, very nice. Good job."
Eoin sighs. "Anji still thinks we could shave a second or so off the early clips, make it that fraction tighter." he rubs his stubble. "Now I'm not completely sure, but.."
"If we let you and Anji loose, we'd never get it finished." Steve says. "You're as bad as make-up artists on photoshoots, you are."
"Pity we couldn't use 'There has to be somebody left to save the world'." Greg says. "I always liked that one. It's more poetic and it's a direct quote."
"Problem being that it's a bit ambiguous and implies everyone else is dead." Steve points out, sipping his tea. "We needed a good line that summed up the mission. This works. Christ, I like 'There has to be a world left to save', but that screams 'someone's running riot and while we need to stop them we need to make the civilians and puppies are okay'. You might as well be ending on an image of a mum raising her baby into the air while sun comes through the patio doors on a summer day. And make the viewers throw up. this is HBO, not fucking soppy Hollywood rom com territory. they ended Battlestar Galactica like that and it was completely fucking wrong, never mind that tacked on moral I slept through. damp fucking squib like no other damp fucking squib."
Mark grins. "Someone's a bitter fan."
Steve shrugs. "Not denying it, I just think it was a crap ending. Whole series is one theme about desperate striving and living from day to day and the sacrifices you have to make and dark and horrible and suddenly it's wandering off into the green fields because they've run out of road and didn't know what else to write. Christ, the end of the previous season was better, where they get to the first earth and it's a post-nuclear wasteland. Fitted better. I make my living knowing how to use image and making an audience want to tune in. I've read the comic, I've seen the rushes and photos. Poetic works in context, it works great when Jenny Sparks is explaining why she's founded the team at the end of the pilot because someone has to do the job. But it does not fucking work as a tagline."
"You're just not a writer, are you?" mark asks.
"Nope." Steve says. "Thank Christ. Now we show this to the brass, then stick it on the end of ...which of our big tickets were we going with? anyway. Announcements up on the blog and twitter and the word mailed out to the news sites to drum up the number of people that tune in with time of showing, then up on the web five minutes after that. yell at your blog people and tell them to be on time with this, I want the web fucking buzzing and you lot monitoring the comments feeds to see where we've gone wrong and what we need to push to tweak the idents." He pauses, sipping his tea again. "And that includes ONTD. Amy, you're the one with membership, first opinion?"
"As a pro, a fan or a random ONTD troll?" Amy asks, biting her lip. Being the fansite and gosip site monitor on the marketing team does strange things to parts of your brain you never knew about.
"Random ONTD troll." Steve says. "Not ONTD_authority, that's the drooling fangirls who already know the comic. Go."
Amy takes a deep breath. "DUDE. SHINY. OOO, PRETTY. BRING ON THE GIFS, MY CHILDREN. I would so heart the electric powers. ...They're the gay ones, right? Androids? Seriously? Wow, could he look more like a goth wet dream of a pimp? Did Batman walk into a leather bar? EW, DO NOT WANT. Like Batman isn't gay. Blinders. OFF. DO NOT WANT. And neither does this gif of Gizmo. Or this gif of someone from Buffy making an 'ew' face. ...That's the chick who played marian in Robin Hood, right? She looked tougher as Marian when she was beating people up. And that's Guy of Gisburne in the suit. Actually beating people up. ...That's Guy of Gisburne? Yep, that's why you need to watch it. Wow, tell me he's single. Sorry, he's going out with electricity girl in the trailer."
The writers stare at her. "...Really?"
Amy nods. "According to research and experience. It'll vary a bit, but that's the general gist of what ONTD reaction will be. But it'll be five pages' worth."
Rabia's still eyeing her. "It's disturbing how much you sound like Mei in deranged speed demon mode."
Eoin grins. "Mad gossip-obsessed commentators reproduce Welsh Top Gear obsessives in real life. Who knew."
ONTD_Authority
TRAILER!
embedded video
Oh my word it's shiny.
Philpot :
I just... *FLAILS*. SHINY.
Greengirl:
So. Many. Buttons. Pushed.
>Jenjen:
Apollo and Midnighter just... Oh god. Midnighter holding him like that. SO MANY FEELINGS.
>>Remainsoftheray
PRAISE BE TO THE GODS OF HBO, WE WILL GET BED SCENES.
Fleeble:
All possible doubts about Angel harker as Jenny have been erased from continuity. :stares: She's... can I be her when I grow up?
DeeDeePen
I wish to subscribe to Angie's class for alien-looking android. And I want her fibre optic wig.
>Lena
It really is kind of awesome. And very shiny.
>>Deedeepen
Very very shiny. With added LEDS. :pets:
Gisburnefan:
I can totally, totally cope with Drew spending the entire time looking like an Armani advert.
>L4yercake
Dammit, Angel, why did you get there first?
Eoin's frowning at the mock-ups when Amy joins him and hands him a cuppa. he takes it reflexively, only slightly burning his tongue. "What's the problem this time?" She asks.
"Something about this one is bothering me." Eoin says, pointing at the Apollo mock-up. "It's all supposed to be a little off, a little dangerous, right? He's happy and smiling and there's no bloody threat."
"He's fucking superman, sweetheart, Superman isn't threatening until you see him take someone out, and even then you'd still hand over your baby." Amy says unsympathetically. "Just go with it. Apollo even shits rainbows because he's got a boyfriend who'd turn the world upside down for him but gets on with the job because it's his job and he was conditioned into it by Special Ops."
Eoin eyes her, taking another sip of scalding milk and sugar with a hint of tea. "You've been hanging around the fanfic, haven't you?"
"No, just the ship manifesto and fandom guide." She pauses. "But the fanfic and related fan activity has rocketed since the actors started posting photos from the set. Give 'em visuals that even slightly hint at a look, and specific faces rather'n comics..." Amy smiles beatifically. "The Internet, she is for Porn."
Eoin mutters "You've been stalking the fans for too long if you can capitalise things like that." he pauses. "I caught you doing fansquee and heart-hands yesterday, too."
"Terrible, terrible habits." Amy agrees. "On the other hand, I now know far more about the inner workings and codes of a strange and terrible world that's eternally mostly closed to you as a straight-ish male. it's strangely comforting." She pauses, tilting her head and looking at the posed stuff they'd decided on for one sheets and posters. "Still, take away the quotage, some of these don't look that dangerous. I mean, the Jenny one we've got for the main poster?" She gestures at the image. Profile, mostly in shadow, with a clenched fist crackling with electricity. 'Someone has to save the world.' The Authority. "Not that menacing. Very eye-catching graphic, though."
@ShipDrew
Oh, photoshoots, my old friend...
@Gavster
@ShipDrew at least there's no horse this time.
@ShipDrew
@Gavster True. But the brooding is mostly the same. But he won't let me sneer. i do a great sneer.
The-Carrier.net
New preview trailer!
the camera circles and pans steadily, always on the move. Never staying still.
Midnighter: A dark figure looms out of an alleyway, streetlight catching the slick puddles and wet leather and the voiceover growls. "I know what moves you're preparing to make. I've fought our fight already in my head, a million different ways. i can hit you without you even seeing me."
The Engineer: Gleaming chrome surroundings. Almost too bright. An android-looking woman with fibre optic dreads that writhe restlessly is looking at her hand, close-up. The voiceover is pleasant, specualtive. "I replaced my blood with nine pints of nanomachinery. I can manipulate it into doing *anything*."
jack Hawksmoor: A window ledge, in a city somewhere. The man standing on it has his hands in his pockets as the wind whips at his clothing. He's clearly high-up. "I can feel the city's heart beating, and feel the tread of the people and cars running along its veins. Just because I can hear the city screaming doesn't mean I have to like the inhabitants."
Swift: A woman with giant wings, standing on a cliff overlooking a canyon, tracing patterns in the dust with her foot. "I can feel the currents in the air changing, telling me which way to fly to seek my prey. Time to hunt."
The Doctor. Aurora borealis, and a man strolling along underneath it. Everything in his wake... ripples. "The world goes on further than you think. I can see it all, and it's beautiful. and sometimes it needs a little... twist."
Apollo: A man in a white top and white combats flying up into the clouds, against the sun. So bright he's glowing, and there's halos on the screen. "I joined up to fight for a better world. Just do it on a bigger scale now."
Jenny Sparks: Figure sitting curled up on a roof, lit cigarette in hand, the murky grey skyline behind her. "I'm a hundred years old and I control electricity. Some bugger once called me the spirit of the century. He was drunk." Pause. "Christ I need a drink..."
Group shot, mostly in shadow, close up on Jenny looking down. She raises her hand, and electricity runs along it, lighting her face. "But someone has to save the world." She whispers.
The Authority.
April 17.