C2
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Saturday, March 17, 2012
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The Union
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Section C
SPOTLIGHT CALENDAR: Continued from C1 moments at weddings, family gatherings, and all special occasions. Grass Valley City Hall, W. Main St GV (near post office) (530) 9130679 LeeAnn Brook: Environments — Large format contemporary landscape paintings by Nevada City artist LeeAnn Brook New Moon, 203 York St., Nevada City Call 2656817. Sandy Lindblad Lindblad Studios Art Show at Club Sierra Sports and Fitness — Sandy Lindblad/Lindblad Studios is displaying her colorful impressionistic yet realistic, pet portraits and other subjects at Club Sierra Sports and Fitness. All art is on sale. W. Berryhill Dr Grass Valley CA 95945 Call (530) 913-0679. wendy spratt, art showing — wendy spratt showing her ‘red boarders’ acrylics on canvas series now thru march at matteo’s public, 300 commercial st., nevada city Call (530) 265-5807. Photo by Murray Close/Lionsgate
Promotional hype for the upcoming movie “Hunger Games” began even before Jennifer Lawrence was cast as protagonist Katniss Everdeen.
‘Hunger Games’ sets new standard in movie hype BY JEN CHANEY Washington Post
hen Warner Bros. released the first photograph of the new Superman, the studio clearly wanted to spark some advance fanboy and fangirl chatter. Superadvance. The picture of actor Henry Cavill, muscles rippling beneath his heroic pseudo-leotard, was unveiled online last August. But the movie in which he’ll wear that familiar ensemble, “Man of Steel,” won’t arrive in theaters until June 2013. That’s right June 2013. If the Mayans were even half-right about this whole doomsday thing, we’ll all be dead before then. (On the plus side, at least we’ll meet our maker knowing how Cavill looks in a cape.) This approach to movie marketing, one in which the buzz machine cranks up early and feeds the blogosphere often, is now commonplace. “The Dark Knight Rises,” “The Amazing Spider-Man,” the multiple installments in the “Twilight”
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saga and the soon-to-be-released “Hunger Games,” the adaptation of Suzanne Collins’s young-adult novel about a government-sanctioned teen death match, are among the many films engaging in varying degrees of something we’ll call movie publicity foreplay. For several months, sometimes a year-plus, the studios behind these projects titillate fans with provocative sneak peeks — casting announcements, photos, trailers, alternate reality games — until it’s finally time to deliver the full monty: the movie itself. “There is so much competing for audience’s attention that I think to go out there early and engage fans and make a project feel like an event is certainly an important thing to do,” says Heather Phillips, the chief marketing officer at Aspect Ratio, a movie marketing firm in Los Angeles. “But you don’t want to take away the mystery around it. You don’t want to give away too much.” The notion of engaging in a bit of premature audience seduction, particularly online, is hardly
new. (Didn’t “The Blair Witch Project” do that in 1999?) But as the power of social media swells, the intensity of these marketing efforts - as well as the need to activate them increasingly early — is changing the game, allowing a movie’s publicity campaign to often kick into gear well before production has even started. In the case of “The Hunger Games,” which hits multiplexes Friday after a dizzying year of hype, chatter began as soon as Collins’s books were optioned but ratcheted up more once actress Jennifer Lawrence won the role of bow-and-arrow-wielding protagonist Katniss Everdeen. Every subsequent casting decision — right down to the one involving Donald Sutherland — was announced and dissected online by fans of the series, who also analyzed the first widely shared photo of Lawrence in her Katniss garb and faithfully tweeted every trailer, interview anecdote and promotional tidbit that followed. But the devotees aren’t the only ones who pay attention to the blitz; independent Web sites
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and traditional media outlets are itchy to share this material with their readers, too. And that means the past year has yielded what has felt, at a conservative estimate, like 5,000 blogosphere mentions of “The Hunger Games” per day. “It becomes news when there’s a new poster,” says Anne Thompson, a veteran film journalist who now writes the “Thompson on Hollywood” blog for Indiewire. “It becomes news when you have the first look at art in a new movie, even if it’s in Entertainment Weekly or USA Today’s print edition [first]. It still goes viral very quickly.” Thanks to the wealth of film-related information on the Internet and years of consuming DVD extras, consumers are now accustomed to being included in all aspects of a film’s journey to the screen and crave any behindthe-scenes nugget they can find. Hence, they expect to watch Peter Jackson’s video blog from the set of “The Hobbit” well over a year before the movie comes out. And, they want to examine controversial still shots of Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman ears in “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Off Broadstreet Presents Classics - Where Were You in ‘62? — In this new musical comedy by OBS owners John Driscoll and Jan Kopp, two middle-aged daughters of local car club members are forced to auction off several of their parents’ vintage automobiles. 8:15 p.m. $23. Off Broadstreet Cabaret Dessert Theatre 305 Commercial St, Nevada City.john@offbroadstreet.com. 530-265-8686 offbroadstreet.com Salsa Dance on St. Patrick’s Day! — Let’s wear green! Come on out and dance in our beautiful new dance space. Fletchers has relaxing friendly atmosphere. $5 cover. Intro to Salsa lesson included. Bring dish to share if you wish. Fletcher’s Dance Hall, 542 Searls Ave., Nevada City (across from Plaza Tire) 7:30 pm - 10:30 pm Call 530-477-0767 Billy and Kellie at Apple Alley — A New York-Style steakhouse located at the Cedar Ridge Y. Enjoy great food while listening to the beautiful music of Billy Bensing and Kellie Garmire. Apple Alley Cafe, 13469 Colfax Hwy, Grass Valley 95945, 530-273-9266 4:00 pm - 8:00 pm Call 530-277-2187 Coufos Cellars Free Wine Tastings! — Free wine tastings Saturday and Sunday. Enjoy a large variety of Rhone style wines (i.e. Viognier, Syrah, and fabulous Rhone blends!) Visit the winery and vineyard located in the historic town of Rough and Ready. Just 5 miles from Grass Valley. (530-2742923) 10065 Rough & Ready Road, Rough and Ready 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm Call 530-274-2923 Celtic Session — Come celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at The Holbrooke
and enjoy the Celtic music and good company. 212 W. Main Downtown Grass Valley The Holbrooke, Golden Gate Saloon 1:00 - 5:00 pm 530-273-1353 Masterworks Concert Three: ‘Romantic Extravaganza’ — Three glorious Romantic icons of the Orchestral repertoire surround Lee Actor’s magically evocative Violin Concerto, with its dedicatee, renowned English violinist Pip Clarke, as soloist. Grieg: Symphonic Dance No. 1 Lee Actor: Violin Concerto - Pip Clarke, Solo ViolinTchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Fantasy OvertureRimskyKorsakov: Capriccio EspagnolGuest Conductor: Emily Ray Placer High School Auditorium, 123 Agard Street, Auburn 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm 530-823-6683 Nevada County Regulators — The best music in Nevada County! This is where you want to be for St. Patrick’s Day! Also enjoy $3 Guinness glasses and wear green from 3-7pm and receive FREE potato fries. *Limit one per customer. The Holbrooke Hotel, Golden Gate Saloon, 212 W Main St, Downtown Grass Valley 7:00 pm 11:00 pm Call 530-273-1353 Harold and Maude: Playing NOW @ The Nevada Theatre — Playing NOW @ The Nevada Theatre — A young man with a death wish and a 79-year-old high on life find love in Hal Ashby’s cult black comedy. Deadpan rich boy Harold keeps staging elaborate suicide tableaux to get the attention of his mother, but she keeps planning his brilliant future for him instead. Obsessed with the trappings of death, Harold freaks out his blind dates, modifies his new sports car to look like a mini-hearse, and attends funerals, where he meets the spirited Maude. Thursday - Saturday @ The Nevada Theatre, 401 Broad St., Nevada City 8 - 10:30 p.m. (530) 265-5492.
SUNDAY One en-chant”-ed evening in Lent. The Trinity Compline Choir chants Compline — The ancient office of compline with special music by Scheidt, Calvisius, Luther, Hallock, and Proulx. Oh, and plenty of chant. Trinity Church, corner Nevada & High streets, Nevada City. 7-7:25 p.m. (530) 478-5877 Rough and Ready Fruit Jar Pickers — Free every Sunday 10 a.m. until noon — sing along to the Fruit Jar Pickers music — old timey, Bluegrass, Country, Gospel. Across from Rough and Ready Market, follow the sign up the hill. 432-1501 Rough and Ready Grange, Rough and Ready Highway, in Rough & Ready Suzzy and Maggie Roche — $20 members, $22 non-members, The Center for the Arts, 314 W. main street 7:30 - 10:30 p.m. (530) 274-8384
attentiOn ALL BUSINESS OWNERS and would like to invite you to attend a
free lunch presentation
on social and digital media and how to use it to market your business. This presentation will provide you with tips, tools and fresh new ideas. Let us help you make the most out of your current Facebook, social media marketing and search engine marketing. Promote, interact and share your business the right way through digital media.
Contact us today to register. Lunch will be served.
March 28 2012
NOON-2 PM
Esterley Hall, Nevada County Association of REALTORS® Building 336 Crown Point Circle Grass Valley
Limited space. Call today. Please contact: Melissa Rhoden mrhoden@theunion.com or [530] 477-4268 for reservations.