On the eve of the first of the big Film Award ceremonies of 2010, the Golden Globes - in which Up in the the Air is nominated in several categories - it appears, according to an article in Variety, that this is the first year in which viral marketing will play a significant role in bringing a film to public attention and raising its award profile.
Several of the films playing at Borderlines 2010 get a mention: Moon, We Live in Public (a documentary whose very subject is social media) for the Twitter campaigns that have made up for meagre publicity budgets.
Then there's Up in the Air itself whose director, Jason Reitman has been tweeting as he travels around Europe, then across the US, promoting the film at festivals, movie theaters, on college campuses in a strange parody of the main character, Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) in his movie. Often his tweets are no more that airport destinations (SFO-LAX), many are pictorial featuring the protein-heavy food he consumes with relish and appreciation, airport lounges, radio, stations, fast food outlets and a bizarre Thanksgiving incident in which he's relegated to Economy Class because the best seats on the plane have been reserved for a consignment of presidentially-pardoned turkeys that are travelling to Disneyland.
Then there's the recurring appearance of the pie chart on which Reitman records the number of times he's asked a certain Question about the movie. Until the questions start to feature the pie chart itself.
The level of detail is involuntarily engrossing, promoting a degree of intimacy that doesn't actually exist. Except on that glocal level.
For more on a related issues, join us on Wednesday 3 March for Here Comes Everyone:) Citizen Journalism in the Digital Age where we explore and debate the effect new and cheap technological advances in media have had on the way we communicate and the frequency with which we exchange information.
POSTSCRIPT: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner won the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay for Up in the Air
