Selling Your Movie 101

A good rule of thumb is this: if your movie stars, say, Ryan Reynolds, then focus the film's first promotional material upon one of your star's better assets, like, say, his crotch. An example:

This was the first promo image released for Buried way back when, where Ryan Reynolds spends most of the film buried underground in a box trying to get out, and it was a good way to start. Does the camera spend the entire film looking at him from this crotch-eye-angle? That's what I want to know, says the consumer. And then they go and they buy a ticket and they watch your movie. Ta-dah!

Now a wise PR team would've used this image for the film's poster too. Perhaps lightened it up a bit, perhaps he could've dropped a match or a lighter between his thighs. But no, via here comes the film's next round of publicity material, specifically the poster. The first image is the actual poster being used, and the pair below that are concept images.

Hrm. Shoulda stuck with the crotch.

Buried is playing at Sundance next month.
It'll probably be out sometime this year, I'd wager.
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