Teaser Trailer Tuesday: Birdman (2014)

Last week we took a look at Michael Keaton as Batman, now we take a look at a trailer with Michael Keaton as his great other superhero character...Birdman (2014).

Teaser Trailer Tuesday: Batman (1989)

So for today I was thinking "what makes a good teaser trailer?" Fun, short, and lacking major plot points are the standard fair, but what about not even revealing the film's title? This trend started in the 80's with early film poster featuring only a logo or teaser image with the words "Coming Soon" or "Coming to Save the World this Summer" or so on. These films, usually with a high profile, would also parlay this mystery into their teaser trailer as well. One of the best is today teaser: Batman (1989).

The Scarecrow Project

Hello, all you culturally significant people! Here at the CultSig we are big on film, learning, and nostalgia. And perhaps there's nowhere you can find more of the three than at Seattle's Scarecrow Video, making it one of the most Culturally Significant places on Earth!

Scarecrow Video is a video store with probably one of the biggest film collections in the world. They have over 120,000 titles across pretty much every type of physical media ever conceived. Now, we all know physical media is becoming more and more something just for collectors, and video stores are on their way out, with very few left in most places. Like it or not, there's not much we can do about that.

And yet, I don't think anyone could argue against the importance of preserving those pieces of film (and technology) history, as well as making the thousands of titles that haven't been brought into the streaming age available to the public. That's where the Scarecrow Project comes in. Scarecrow have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to turn the video store into a not-for profit video library. How cool is that?

Very cool, I'd say, since such places not only promote unknown films and education, they also bring people who love film together, which strengthens the creative community more than just about anything else could. Film is a collective medium, and in most cases even the most motivated filmmaker could not work, or even develop their ideas, alone. Without the Cinémathèque there wouldn't have been the nouvelle vague, for instance.  It's very important that places like this exist.

I have never lived anywhere near Seattle, but it's a city I have visited twice and of which I'm very fond. Even if that weren't the case, though, I would consider backing this project. I would like to know a place like this can still exist in this world, where I could turn to to find some elusive, obscure film, and where people can discover and fall in love with little-known works of art, as I did at my own neighborhood video store, years ago.

Below you can watch their video pitch, and you can go here to donate, if you choose to do so. The project seems to be in good shape to reach their goal, but with these things any extra money helps. Save Scarecrow!

Teaser Trailer Tuesday: Hook (1991)

As you read yesterday (if you did) I'm a big Robin Williams fan. The man was a classically trained actor and could own every scene he was in if he wanted to. Everyone has a particular Robin Williams film that they are a fan of but many members of my generation will think of either 'Aladdin' (1992), 'Mrs. Doubtfire' (1993), or today's Teaser Trailer Tuesday selection 'Hook' (1991).

League of Extraordinary Bloggers: Contrast and Compare

Well, we've done it. we've finally made it into the supper club of online writing in that this will be our first article for the League of Extraordinary Bloggers. If you're unaware (or unable to click above links) the League of Extraordinary Bloggers is a group of online writers who will discuss shared topics that usually involve popular culture and strive to share other members articles. I'm very excited to be a part of this great community and hope to make them proud (or at least entrain them in some small way).

Robin Williams (1951 - 2014)

 

This is the second memorial I've written since starting the blog last October and all I can say is that this sucks. I would gladly shut down this blog today if I didn't have to write about the passing of a influential figure in my life. But the thing is, he was a influence on me. He played a large role in my growth as a writer and, more importantly, a human being. 

Let's talk about how everyday is Halloween

Cult! Radio is Coming

Teaser Trailer Tuesday: Gone Girl (2014)

Last Tuesday I introduced a new segment called "Trailer Trash Tuesday" featuring trailers of a rather repugnant nature. I thought I was very smart...until I saw that there were already several other outlets doing a much better job of featuring trashy or genre trailers on Tuesday (with better names as such as "Trailer Park Tuesday").

So, I decided to change the focus from "trash" to 'teasers", those wonderfully short and enragingly cryptic trailers that give us little, if any, information about the nature of the film in question.

These trailers are noteworthy for usually being the first glimpse we get of a film, orchestrated to introduce us to the visuals we will expect to see while featuring no strong story or plot elements.

They show enough with us left wanting more.

So, let's us begin...

with the moody trailer to David Fincher's upcoming  Gone Girl (2014)