Super8 teaser analysis
From Super8
Analyzing the Super 8 Teaser Trailer
|
Discovery
Bootleg Teaser Trailer
Shortly after midnight on May 7th, 2010 a YouTube video filmed on opening night of Iron Man 2 of the teaser trailer for Super 8 was found and posted around the web.
Trailer Leak
A couple of days before Iron Man 2 was released, a description of a supposed "leaked trailer" hit Super 8 related sites. The description was mostly accurate, supporting the claim that the trailer was in fact leaked.
The trailer starts with a black screen, that says Steven Spielberg is the producer. Then a small written narrative begins that reads something like this. “In 1970 [editor note: actually 1979 according to other sources] Area 51 was closed down and everything was shipped to an undisclosed location in Ohio”. Then you see a train carrying lots of cargo loads. Cut to a car driving down the road that jumps up on the tracks and heads straight toward the train. Cut to black screen and then the words “From Director J.J. Abrams”. Then back to the train and car colliding into each other, the the train derails, the camera slowly zooms in on one of the tipped over cargo cars of the derailed train, then something is punching on the walls inside the train cart trying to escape. Cut to black screen and then the title ”Super 8“. [editor note: actual text reads "Next Summer. It Arrives.... Super 8"][1]
Analysis
Reel text
Near the end of the trailer, a super 8 camera lens can be seen. Inside the lens, several letters can be seen moving past in a movie reel fashion. By analyizing each frame, the letters
S C A R I E S T T H I N G I E V E R S A W
can be seen.
- Analysis of the letters quickly let to the discovery of the website Scariestthingieversaw.com; the first viral website in the Super 8 Experience/ARG.
The Truck
- The pickup truck has Ohio license plates (number E 6425 K). By analyzing the black sticker found on the bottom left corner of the plate and the license plate number itself, it was determined the year and county of the truck was registered was 1980 in Summit county, Ohio. [2]
- A comparison has been made to the yellow truck driven by Roy Neary in the Stephen Spielberg movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the yellow/brown pickup truck seen in the teaser trailer for Super 8. In an interview with JJ Abrams, he said that he wanted to pay homage to the Stephen Spielberg movies that he grew up watching. The similarities to the yellow pickup trucks could be pure coincidence or perhaps Abrams paying homage to one of his heroes and the Producer of Super 8.
Frames from HD-Trailer
Notable Frames
Extracted directly from the 24fps HD Quicktime trailer:
References
- ? Super8news.com: http://www.super8news.com/2010/05/06/super-8-trailer-review
- ? Ohio county license plate codes: http://www.15q.net/ohco.html