Emily Faulkner, Campus Carrier Managing Editor
On Wednesday, we were graced with the beautiful trailer to the upcoming film, “The Fault in Our Stars.” This film, based off the number one New York Times bestseller of the same name, is to be realeased this coming June.
Early Monday morning, the trailer was leaked online. Someone filmed the trailer on their laptop, using an outside camera and published it on YouTube. From there, the video was copied and released all over from Tumblr, to Facebook. I was one of the few people who got a sneak peek before 20th Century Fox blocked the video on YouTube and subsequently, all others online.
Many people complained for the next two days about the fact that the trailer was now ruined and basically society had crumbled because a group of people got a two munute sneak peek of a film being released the same year.
This film already has a cult following online because the author, John Green, is apart of the largely successful online video duo “The Vlogbrothers.” Fans on the book as well as “Nerdfighters” alike were up in arms arguing the “integrity” of publishing the trailer before its offical release.
I have read blog post after blog post on the idea that we’re ruining all the hard work that eveyone has put into making this film and trailer. They urged people to not watch on Monday because “that would not be what the director and other would want.”
I, on the other hand, think that it was a great thing to leak the trailer, at least from a marketing standpoint. People got to create a great buzz for the movie and even the release of the trailer a few days later.
Bloggers created gifs, text posts and the like to express their excitement of the film. Just like the book itself, the trailer really brought me to tears and that didn’t change even with a code being shown through the center of the frame.
As for the director and others being upset there aren’t any monetary issues with releasing the trailer, so why complain? People are happy.
John Green did have a more logical reponse to his opinion on the leak. He said this week that although he was upset, he’s mostly just upset over the idea that people’s first viewings on the film where not in the high quality that it deserves. That’s the most logical reposnse other than “I am just mad.”
I know at least for myself, I could see it through binoculers and I would be just as excited about the film as I would be with a highest quality possible. I don’t need anything fancy, I just to be able to expereince my favorite book being projected into a real like setting like I have wanted since I read the first page.
The internet can be a great tool to generate buzz about upcoming films, even if it comes from someone releasing clips on their laptop using a recording device. Any press is good press. We shouldn’t complain that people are excited to see an upcoming film, even if it wasn’t done the correct way. I still plan on seeing the film either way.