It appears Michael Bay and Co. are going to be leaking fake information about the upcoming Transformers film in order to throw us off of their trail. We get wind of this strategy from the man himself via slashfilm:
“Sorry everyone, everything you are reading (other then we are shooting in Philly) is false,” Bay wrote on his website Shoot For the Edit. “We are going to give so much disinformation on this film to confuse everyone.”
I think this is a valid strategy if you want aspects of your film to remain a secret. If you flood the market with bullshit, the hope is that people will either give up on the news altogether or simply be unable to separate the real news from the fake. It simply means more posting for me, and as a community we can try an discern what truth may be found in the myriad of fables that are thrown our way.
I am curious if Michael Bay said this because someone was getting too close to the truth; or if he simply hopes that by announcing his strategy, everything coming down the pipe will be suspect. Either way I champion his use of this tactic, I think it is humorous, and everyone on his end of production will have a laugh with it. This strategy may however be very annoying to die hard fans (that spend a lot of time advertising the film via word of mouth in their day to day lives). A balance will have to be struck, because without your fans, you’re nothing as an entertainer.
A disinformation campaign is bound to backfire on Bay?
Because the massive amounts of disinformation that George Lucas spreads about every Star Wars and Indiana Jones movie has done so much to harm his career?
Problem is, he’s going to get a lot of people hopes up with certain things that will end up not being true, and it may backfire on him.
Shane, Copy That Bro!
Yeah, I know directors like to think they can surprise everyone when their film hits the theater, but everyone is different. The vast, vast majority of people don’t hunt out spoilers. Those who do will still be able to sort the truth from the lies easily enough. All this tactic will do is serve to piss off the people who like to know as much as possible as early as possible.
And in the process, the disinformation will give either false impressions about the movie being worse than it is (if the false information is to make people enjoy the final movie more… it may in fact scare them away all together) or it will disappoint people who do go to see it based on fake information (imagine the disappointment that a bunch of stuff you were eagerly awaiting ends up not being in the film)
Not a good idea. He should just focus on making the movie kick ass. Who cares if some people want to find out info early?
lol @ bay trying to make people think.
OMG! Everything we know is false? So it’s not gonna be about giant robots punching each other? Starring the same guy from the first movie? And based on the toys everybody knows? Probably also with the same over the top direction and a thin-as-paper script? Gee, I just can’t wait.
This could theoretically backfire again Michael Bay in that some how the fake leaks could make the film sound better than it really is which will only lead to a huge fan backlash when people see what the final product is. On the other side, it could make film look horrible which would then could severely affect interest in the film as well.
If this strategy works, I’d expect more directors of big budget films to do the same.
So, if Michael Bay says that Lazerbeak isn’t in the sequel, he’s lying?
Bay is giving false information like he said…or maybe that’s just t confuse us? What going on? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Doug! You just made me laugh out loud. My respect for you just went up a hundred fold.
Yep.
Wasn’t this article posted here a few months ago? Slow news day?
So everything he says will be the exact opposite of the truth? Okay, so in the coming weeks we’ll hear that, for TF 2, Megan Fox can act now, the superflous humans have been cut, Bay will actually hold the goddamn camera still, there will be no scenes set at magic hour, no lens flares, no 360-degree shots, the Decepticons will get more than three lines apiece, and Optimus will actually get to finish off the baddie rather than Beeflord.
Bay said that he was going to give wrong information out around the time that the strike was coming to the end of it’s run when he said to have wrote a screenplay himself.
Old news finally been caught up with i guess, for you guess here
Well i would hope that Bay concentrates foremost on making the actual film, not throwing us off the scent. I think all it will do is annoy some people, but these are the same people who actively chase down spoilers and scripts for movies that have yet to come out (and as we know, plenty of drafts of Transformers leaked onto the web). In this day and age, the best you can do to keep your film under wraps is lock down the script and make sure it doesn’t leak.
In all honesty, it seems a little silly anyway. It’s a film about giant robots fighting so there’s not that much to spoil. If Bay wants to keep the new characters under wraps, even when the trailer comes out and have us speculate their names then that’s great. That will create buzz for the film and get everyone talking. Other than that, i don’t see much point……
….unless Optimus dies of course (Spock in Star Trek II style).
Bad idea.
This will only turn the web community against this film.
Doug if your going to publish the BS on this what’s my motivation for reading or giving a crap about it.
(If its all spin) I’m not going to waste time trying to figure it out. its fricken transformers BFD.
Some fans that don’t frequent the sites will get wind of this or that being in the film and when they don’t see it ij the movie there gonna get pissed.
This is a very bad move.