Do you want to be the Master of Your Own Destiny? Well, too bad, but — judging by a recent campaign by MTV — you can increasingly have more control over what you watch, thanks to social media.
Savage County is not a big, mainstream horror film, but due to a campaign from MTV and Eventful, the movie (which was directed by David Harris) will now be airing on a mainstream network (MTV 2) on October 7.
How did this come to be? The deal was this: If 100,000 people “demanded” to see the film (via the Eventful’s “Demand It!” feature) it would air on MTV. If not, well, the film was formatted to function either as feature or in chapters, so it would have merely appeared on digital channels. On top of MTV 2, it will appear on MTV.com, Comcast VOD, and many other places like Playstation Network, Xbox, iTunes, DVD and Amazon.
According to MTV, the film reached the 100,000 mark in less than a month and a half (the Eventful campaign launch on August 10). According to David Gale, executive vice president of MTV’s new media division, this is only the beginning of the campaign.
Today MTV is launching a digital comic book, which will function as a prequel to the film, on Comic Book Resources. They also commissioned NYC artist Vincent Castiglia to create a painting for the film (in his own blood… shudder) and gave 10 prints away as prizes via horror news site Bloody Disgusting.
And that’s not all, there are also currently five trailers for the flick — which tells the tale of a group of teens who have a terrifying run-in with the mysterious Hardell family — as well as a transmedia project called The Savage Country Gazette, which is basically a newspaper from the town featured in the film’s title (think that website that launched to generate buzz for The Blair Witch Project). “Watching a movie doesn’t have to be a sit back, lean back experience,” Gale says, referring to the interactive nature of the website.
According to Gale, the network is working on getting the word out at a low cost while also reaching fans where they’re likely to be. “We had to build a fanbase in advance,” Gale says. And, judging by the 100,000 people who want to see the film, Gale and MTV have succeeded.
Regardless of the merit of said film (you can check out the trailer above and come to your own conclusions), the social media campaign surrounding it is certainly part of an interesting tradition. First, there’s the idea of letting fans decide what they want to watch. Last year, the show Chuck scored a third season thanks to the social media efforts of fans, and, back in October, Paramount used Eventful to successfully lobby for the wide-release of indie horror flick, Paranormal Activity.
The campaign also dovetails nicely with cinema’s recent trend of getting folks where they live — remember that whole The Last Exorcism on Chatroulette thing? (Incidentally, anyone else noticing a trend here? Horror films using social media to gain a foothold and generate buzz. But that’s a post for another day.)
If you place content in a place where it doesn’t seem too blatantly promotional — i.e. give viewers experience and content versus telling them to watch something — people will be more apt to listen.
What do you think of MTV’s campaign? Will you watch Savage County?
Reviews: Eventful, Vimeo
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