When talking about storytelling, we often reference film. It's a good analogy. It can be easier to make people understand authenticity - would De Niro have got that Oscar if he hadn't learned a Sicilian dialect of Italian for The Godfather? It can help people understand the importance of all the detail - would Blade Runner have had such power without the strange announcements and dialects in the background and the giant video screens?*
Some po-mo filmakers will even tip a wink to the audience and carry out a bit of co-creation, rewarding the geeks. For example, the opening scene of Roland Emmerich's Independence Day features a sleepy monitoring station with REM's "End of the World As We Know It" playing in the background.
Which brings me to Mr. Emmerich's latest diaster film, 2012. Catch the trailer after the jump, then help me figure out what the hell is going on.
Looks interesting, eh? Very apocalyptic. And with a conspiracy and everything. Goody. What interests me, however, is the bit at the end:
Google Search: 2012
I was interested to see what this led me to, so dutifully I googled 2012 and got.........nothing. Well, I say nothing. Top result was about the Olympics in 2012. Which may well be a disaster, but I'm not sure Columbia Pictures are in the business of making political in-jokes with their marketing budgets. There's an imdb entry about 2012 (the film) which is as informative as you'd expect.
However, in the midst of these are a couple of references to 2012 being the end of the ancient Mayan calendar. This is something I didn't know, and I confess, I did read it. Now, my question is: Is this deliberate? Are they asking you to google 2012 on the basis that you'll find out about the Mayan legend yourself? This seems risky. After all, they must have tried it and seen that the Olympics is the top result. Are they hoping that interest in the film is such that the Mayan legend will move up the search rankings?
If so, it is a bravura piece of marketing. It shows a trust in the audience and an understanding of digital rarely seen. In allowing the 2012 disaster story to be told by independent sources, it sets up the movie brilliantly.
But....I can't help feeling it is a bit too clever. The link between the trailer and the fourth entry on a Google search is a touch loose. Does the narrative break? I'm of two minds.....