Did misuse of "Motion Posters" reduce the Hype for Billa2 and Vishwaroopam?
Going by the people's response, Thuppakki's conventional First Look campaign may have scored higher compared to the other two movies that experimented with Motion Posters on the May Day. Motion Posters are now the latest in-thing as Billa 2 audio teasers and Vishwaroopam first release were released as motion posters. Even though this technology has good potential, let us see whether the use of motion posters is justified in meeting the hype of Billa 2 and Vishwaroopam
Billa 2 Motion Poster for Audio Preview
Billa 2 Motion Poster with preview of all the songs looked amateurish at the best. First, the quality of the pictures were not great. Secondly, fans create excellent home-made videos with available pictures these days. So, the official motion posters created a lot of confusion as to whether this is really official and to make it worse, some even questioned whether the songs are really from the movie Billa 2. The use of motion posters for releasing the audio teasers appears to be a bad idea after the spectacularly successful teaser release. The song preview motion poster has unfortunately taken the focus away from Yuvan's music. A simple SoundCloud release would have been more effective to promote the song teasers ahead of audio release rather than the fancy motion poster.
Vishwaroopam Motion Poster for First Look
Compared to Billa 2, Motion Poster for Vishwaroopam is better conceived and executed. The poster starts with the dove flying, Kamal Haasan's outline forming against the New York background and some front light illuminating Kamal's identity and finally eyes light up a bit to show a touch of villainy is overall well done. The background song is in sync. the whole time with what is unraveling on the poster. The concept and theme of the movie is well served by this motion poster. But, some fans are disappointed partly due to the expectation mismatch spread by the media and people associated with the movie. The fans expecting a full-fledged one-minute teaser were disappointed. When people started comparing the Vishwaroopam motion poster with Billa 2 teaser, it became clear that the Vishwaroopam motion poster campaign mis-fired.
Tamil Movies and Motion Posters
Our Tamil movies' use of Motion Poster is an example of forced usage of new technology that is desperately searching for a "need". The purpose should have been established first before the selection of technology and which one is best suited for capitalizing on the huge expectations. So far, Motion Posters may have better potential for use as interactive posters displayed in vertical standard size/formats to replace the conventional static posters in theatres and other public places. However, it is a bad idea to release Motion Posters on Youtube and TVs. Certainly not the best option for anything that has huge expectations riding on it as proved by 5 movies trying to make an impression on May Day.
Interesting use of Motion Posters in Hollywood
Right-Click-->Play or Refresh your browser window to see a successful motion poster for Saw VI