Just as a warning, this week’s post
is not about live tweeting in the context that we generally refer to it. It’s more about the live tweeting of the
production of entertainment. And in that
broad of a description, what I’m saying makes zero sense. Let’s just get down to it.
For the
past four months, the reboot of Ghostbusters has been filming. If you aren’t someone who has been totally
excited about this film or following the director, Paul Feig, on social
channels, you may not know about his attempted control on what gets out about
the film while it is still being produced.
In
August of last year, it was announced, without the go-ahead from Feig or from
Sony, that the director was in talks to work on a Ghostbusters
project. From before he had signed on to
have any power over the film, the media had begun to take it away from
him. The trend continued as media
outlets exposed that Katie Dippold was then being discussed as a writer,
alongside Feig, for the film. Rumors
over which actresses were being discussed as possible ghostbusters began to
spring up as the year came to a close, and Sony’s hacked emails were sorted
through by people across the internet.
Feig
tried to change the pattern of how his film was being reported late in January
with a picture of the film’s four leads posted to Twitter. Then, entertainment reporting began to follow
his lead. In June, as filming
approached, Feig announced Chris Hemsworth’s casting as a receptionist. During the earliest weeks of filming, Feig
posted on Twitter pictures of Ghostbusters related props and costumes:
green slime, four uniforms hanging on a rack, a proton pack, the Ecto-1, and,
finally, the four women, in uniform, standing in front of the Ecto-1 about a
month into filming.
And then
the director’s control got lost. The
trick of filming a giant, studio film is that there are a lot of people
involved. Not everybody is going to get
the same warnings about what they should and shouldn’t say. Dan Aykroyd tweeted about his own cameo in
the film, clearly not having been warned appropriately about how secretive Paul
Feig wanted the details of the film. In
quick succession, the paparazzi and entertainment media caught word that Bill
Murray, Annie Potts, and Ernie Hudson had all been brought on for cameos in the
film. As news of Ernie Hudson’s
appearance was surfacing, Feig took to Twitter again, an attempt to break the
news before anyone else could. And,
finally, with the announcement of Sigourney Weaver’s cameo, Feig lamented that
he was “trying to keep surprises, but [it]was about to leak.”
While I
do understand the disappointment in paparazzi leaking who is on set, there is
so much more to going to see a film than just a leaked, still image of Chris
Hemsworth. And in reality, not a single
person is going to hear word that [insert name of cameo actor from the
franchise here] is in the movie and decide that they aren’t going to see
it. At the very least, to see that the
original cast are all going to have a hand in the new film, and must approve to
some extent, might soothe all of the middle-aged men who were so threatened
that the cast of this film would be women and make them stop whining about it
already.
In
total, Paul Feig is doing a great job working on a project for an existing
property. From the time that it was
announced that he was directing, he was sure to engage with Ghostbusters
fans across the country and is providing pictures and information about props
for the more heavily devoted fans (think people who make costumes for
conventions). That community that
already existed around his film a year before it will be released is a really
great plus, but the media attention is an unavoidable “negative”. Or its free, grassroots marketing. Either way, the director should just stick to
sharing his own news. With as much
demand for information as there is, he is holding all of the cards. As it sits, this production has been a chance
for him to get ready. If it does well,
the studio will definitely have him back to do more.
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