Lovely By Surprise

[Fellfrosch]

You may have already seen ads for this; rottentomatoes has it plastered all over the site right now. It looks like a traditional movie, but it's actually a collection of short films, all fully available on the Internet, that tell a serialized story about an author trying to write a book. I found it to be absolutely incredible, in writing and acting, and I wish there was more to it.

It is actually two different stories: the story of the book itself, a very absurdist thing about two brothers, called The Neverything; and the story of the author writing the book with the help of her former teacher, called Lovely By Surprise. The really weird part is that both stories are tied up in some kind of Lincoln Mercury ad campaign, but I can't imagine that this kind of thing is going to sell cars--it's too literate, too weird, and for some reason virtually devoid of cars. The major ad site is the one for The Neverything, and I haven't watched all of it because the site itself annoyed me. Lovely By Surprise, on the other hand, is astonishingly good, and very low key, and I highly recommend it:

http://www.lincoln.com/lovelybysurprise/movie.asp

Important Note: possibly because it was intended as an ad campaign, the site makes it very hard to actually view the movies in order. My first bit of advice is to skip the trailer--it gives away too much. The second bit of advice is how to watch them: this page links to chapter 5, which has three films, but there are four other chapters in the background, which you can link to by clicking on them. This is the only page I can find that links to all five chapters, so you'll just have to click chapter 1, watch them, then go back to 5, click chapter 2, etc. It's annoying, but I thought the film was worth the trouble. The first few films are ridiculously short, but after number 4 or 5 (there are 13 in all) they get longer.

I'm very interested to see what you guys think of the story. I was really impressed, and actually kind of sad to see talent like this wasted in some kind of inexplicable ad campaign.

[Harbinger]

Interesting and weird. I watched all of the Lovely By Surprise videos and liked them. It is a very interesting story, and well told. I've only watched two of the Neverything ones so far. It's too random for me to watch all in one go. I'll probably see them a few at a time over the next week.

I didn't have any problems viewing the films in order.

[Fellfrosch]

I wasn't as impressed by The Neverything.

[jane]

"Lovely By Surprise" and "The Neverything" are making marketing and cinematic history.

The director, Kirt Gunn, wrote a great explanation of his philosophy: see Max Lenderman's "My Best Blogging Experience (...so far)" at http://experiencethemessage.typepad.com/blog/new_marketing/index.html.

Gunn says, "I believe that marketers have dropped a crucial tenet of the implied contract with the viewing public--reciprocity. The fair deal that existed between the marketer and the audience began in the fifties with the concept of sponsorship. A program was 'brought to you by' the marketer, and therefore the bond between the audience and the content often became a bond between the audience and the marketer. There was some allegiance to the sponsoring brand due to the fact the sponsor provided value by subsidizing stories they believed in... ...It's not news to you that the sponsorship model has eroded from 'brought to you by' to 'interrupted by' as marketers disrupt popular stories and experiences by inserting themselves at a rate that is intolerable to any audience that is passionate about the content."

In other words, he's marketing by reverting to the old "implied reciprocity" agreement between sponsors and the public. Ford is giving the public something really special here and we're free to ignore the Mercury Milans and Lincoln Zephyrs if we choose to. It worked for me. My husband and I are on our fifth Hyundai, and Fords have never even been on my radar; now, because I admire the work in the series so much, admire Gunn's new approach, and admire Ford's courage and vision in believing in his approach, I decidedly think of Fords more often, and in a very positive way.

Marketing brilliance aside, these two related series contain the best writing, casting, directing, and acting I've seen in years. I'm astounded at the chemistry the characters of Austin Pendleton and Carrie Preston have with each other, and Kate Burton is a hoot. There are deep, dark secrets going on here. I haven't figured them out, but I have my theories, and I do know that "Lovely By Surprise" and "The Neverything" really do need to be watched and considered together. They're being combined formally into a feature film that will come out in the fall of 2006 if we're all lucky.

[Fellfrosch]

Interesting--an ad campaign based purely on good will. "We'll make a really good serialized movie, let you see it for free without annoying commercials or product placement, and in return you'll like us more and maybe buy a car someday." That's a kind of marketing I can get behind.