Project Hail Mary

 Project Hail Mary

!Spoilers!


    Project Hail Mary has one of the most intriguing concepts and film styles that I believe has ever been released in theaters. Now I know people will argue with me on that but for now, hear me out as I talk about the new Film Project Hail Mary.

    The co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are the film makers behind Project Hail Mary who worked closely with cinematographer Greig Fraser to shoot the film in IMAX to depict two different timelines throughout the story. they would switch between IMAX and 35mm film specifically to shoot the times Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) is in space compared to scenes of the character on earth. physically separating the two opposing spaces. while they physically separate the two on screen. One of the most fascinating aspects of the IMAX film is how deeply it can impact the viewers emotionally.



    To really give you an idea of how deeply impacting this movie is, Project Hail Mary is an adaption of a novel written by author Andy Weir published in 2021. It follows beloved character Ryland Grace who wakes up as an amnesiac astronaut millions of miles away from earth with a mission to save earth from an extinction level threat caused by an organism dubbed "astrophage" which translated in Latin means "star-eater". During his travels, he encounters a being from the planet Erid, who Grace later names Rocky, who was sent out on the same mission; to save his planet from extinction due to the astrophage.




While the gorgeous cinema of this film is one of the main reasons its done so well in the box office, there are many other reasons the release announcement caught so much attention from the public. not only does it appeal to space buffs and cinephiles, PHM (Project Hail Mary) has such a large fan base because of past novels written by the author that follows the same theme of space exploration. The release is a win for long time Andy Weir fans. Especially after his last book adaptation The Martian released in 2015. And it doesn't hurt that the main character is played by famous actor Ryan Gosling, famed for his range of emotion and movie genres. 

The timing of this movie was especially exiting considering it was to be released in the theaters after the launch of  Artemis II, which objective was to send 4 astronauts to orbit the moon. placing stepping stones for future opportunities to send the moon its own space as well as help us land on the moon for the first time in 50+ years. The marketing team even worked with NASA to give the astronauts the opportunity for an early viewing before they left since it released in the theaters while they were on their mission. PHM had many unique ways to market the film to the public past the large amount advertising online 9 months before the movie was set to release. The marketing teams favorite strategy was the use of practical effects and projecting immersive hologram displays. An example of this was during the NYC premier, a hologram of the character Rocky was set up to greet the guests. The marketing team was also able to get a spot in the Superbowl to advertise the trailer which was an easy way to reach a large amount of the general public.




The PHM team obviously faced a lot of challenges during the production of the movie as well as during the trailer release and press tour. one of the biggest challenges to overcome was convincing the fans of the book to believe in the accuracy of the movie. All movies that are based off a beloved novel run the risk of getting details wrong that can anger the fandom. Another heavily noted challenge is the trailer itself. there is controversy over the amount of spoilers presented in the trailer, specifically the spoiler of the alien Rocky. Viewers felt that the screen time he got during the trailer ruined the illusion of a mysterious space being. A filming challenge they faced is the concept of filming most of the movie using practical effects. like the puppeteering of Rocky, who needed 4 separate people to operate the puppet. One of the most fascinating work arounds for CGI that I read about was for the scene shown in the trailer of Grace floating in space surrounded by infra-red light and visible particles. I will link an article below explaining how they filmed that scene, I think it really shows how dedicated the entire team was to making this film.




While this movie is one that I find hard to criticize, the trailer does have its own faults. As I mentioned, the trailer spoiled too much of the film, which seems to be a common factor in a lot of modern movies. As well as the trailer seemed to be all over the place. after seeing the movie it made sense, but I feel as though the amount of scene changes with no explanation that they are flashbacks and purposeful may confuse the audience and make them not want to see the movie assuming that the movie would be just as messy. Marketing wise, the team didn't cater a lot to the general public. most of the physical marketing was in settings where you could only get in spending a lot of money or by being well known, like the NYC premier.

My suggestions for the marketing team and for the producers of the trailer;

1) More public pop ups to intrigue people who haven't heard of the movie/book

2) A book signing collab with Andy Weir and Ryan Gosling

3) Organizing the trailer more/ Make it more apparent that the movie is based around flashbacks to the process on earth

One of the things I've learned from analyzing the strategies the team took and asking the opinions of my peers of what they thought about the trailer was that sometimes its okay not to take such large creative risks when releasing trailers for movies. I understood the intention behind the craziness of the trailer and how it was supposed to represent the stress and anticipation the characters are feeling throughout the movie, but sometimes its okay to let viewers find that out during the actual movie itself. another thing I've learned is that even though the novel is so popular to the general public, marketers will still only spend the large amounts of money on media opportunities and pleasing celebrities rather than spending it on gathering the attention of every day people walking the streets.




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About Me!

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 Howdy! Hi! Hello! My name is Korben Cantu, I was born and raised in Austin Texas but have been living in Oregon for almost half my life now. After high-school my best friend since the 9th grade and I moved into the same apartment and its been the best times of my life. I'm a business major freshly transferring out of two terms of forensic sciences. one of my main passions is literature and any kind of opportunity I get to write so marketing comes as kind of a dream to someone like me who loves to write but never knows what exactly to write about! I'm most interested in learning about how to create something that catches the eye of the public in unique ways.  Two things I am very passionate about are reading and listening to music. my favorite books at the moment are Project Hail Mary and I will always be in love with the writing in Song of Achilles. I'm a CD collector, and I just finished both my collections of the Mumford & Sons albums as well as the Sublime albums. W...
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