The Storybrooke Daily Mirror: OUaT in the Media, Cons and Other Real Life Encounters

[Curio]

I've heard multiple people say the show needs more lighter moments. You'd think with all the Disney stuff there would be at least some.

I think Adam & Eddy legitimately believe quick little moments like Charming teaching Henry how to drive the truck or Hook making a 5 second reference to bologna is enough to tide the audience over. Did the show fall apart when Emma and Henry played video games together? No. In fact, that was a very nice bonding moment between a mom and her son, yet it didn't detract from their precious (cue jazz hands) "lets-throw-a-fake-boyfriend-at-Emma-for-drama!" plot.

 

No one tell these two about Shonda Rhimes' shows, or Fringe, Sleepy Hollow, Game of Thrones, House of Cards, Downton Abbey, Doctor Who, etc.. Their heads might explode from disbelief that a show could incorporate happy or peaceful human moments (you know, with characters connecting like human beings) with *gasp* DRAMA!

 

No, no, FabulousTater. I say we all bombard Adam on Twitter with hundreds of examples where characters are allowed to have normal human moments. (Except I don't have a Twitter account... so... everyone else should go do it! :)

Edited September 16, 2014 by Curio

[Amerilla]

I think Carlyle was fairly happy through S2, but his pleasure level went down dramatically in S3. There were rumors during ComicCon that he wasn't happy with MRJ being written off, which is understandable given how much of his performance over the past couple years was wrapped around this idea of reunion with Nealfire - and how little he got to explore of that. And he's been in enough things, bad and good, to recognize a huge narrative clusterf*** when he sees it.

[FabulousTater]

Speaking of San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) interviews - After reading Adam and Eddy's interview above how fluff is boring, I think I now understand where Jennifer Morrison was coming from when in one of those SDCC interviews from July she talked about how it would be nice to watch a show where the characters are happy for a little while. Ha! If that's what she meant, then JMo totally gets it. 

Edited September 16, 2014 by FabulousTater

[KingOfHearts]

 

But and this a major but, they can't even write a real plot. There's no real story when you pick it apart. So yeah no beans.

 

I agree on that part. They can be fairly decent when it comes to kitchen sink moments. 2A had several of them. (Like the "making tacos" scene, Henry eating a cinnabon, Charming training Henry to be a knight, etc.) S1 had all the MM/Emma conversations, everyday town life, and such. The more they go PLOT PLOT PLOT the harder it is for casual watchers to follow. It's not necessarily because it's too fast, but because of the wacky structuring.

 

Lighter moments aren't necessarily exciting, but they keep the audience from getting overwhelmed. You can tell by the nutty scenes in 3B with Henry driving that the writers don't put much thought into it any more.

Edited September 16, 2014 by KingOfHearts

[maryle]

Well I'm disgutED after unfortuNaly read the huffington article and really disapoint at the  Huffington right now.  

I'm not following JMo So I only see a little bit of all the drama what come to me from here and some tumbl blog.

But at this point Adam and Eddy should make a statement in support of their lead actress.

She is doing actually a lot a promotion with social media and the bully just use it to harass her.

I'm really Wonder if there is a hidden agenda at play here. The gaymo aspect is really disturbing and its shyzo crazy in the same sentence they can call her homophobic and be in the closet.

So disgusting it definitely tarnish the relation I have with the show and the fandom.

[sharky]

Ugh that HuffPo piece. Replying in the Fandom thread!

[Amerilla]

I don't even care about the comic relief part of lighter moments. I just need to know why I should care about these characters, because they now mostly just scamper around like frantic little squirrels from crisis to crisis. I no longer have this sense of them as "real" people with hopes and dreams and lodgings and possessions. I don't know what they're working towards, other than stopping the Big Bad du Arc and v falling ass backward into the next "adventure". Seeing some human moments would go a long way towards giving the audience a sense of connection.

[Dani-Ellie]

I am, Dani-Ellie. :D I'm totally saying it. Give me my 42 minutes of (non-Woegina) fluff, dammit! ("Fluff Yes! Regina NO! Fluff Yes! Regina NO!"...this is my new chant.)

 

Haha! Well, okay, I am, too (seriously, a good many of my favorite episodes of things are the ones where the characters are all stuck together due to Random Plot Contrivance and have nothing to do but make the best of it), but I totally get how that's not always feasible. ;) So I would be more than willing to compromise and just spread the fluff out amongst the eps.

[Camera One]

That article is a stellar example of poor writing.  The main idea is ambiguous and the single example cited doesn't even support any of the possible main ideas.  Has she even watched "Once Upon a Time" before, since she seems to demonstrate no knowledge of the show whatsoever.  

[stealinghome]

True, but I don't think Robert will be hurting for work post this show. I wonder what the turning point was.

I think Carlyle was fairly happy through S2, but his pleasure level went down dramatically in S3.

Agreed. He's still the show's best actor, but imo his S3 performance can't hold a candle to his S1/S2 performance--and while part of that is material, for sure, I do think the turning point was the break between S2 and S3. If you think about it, Rumpel got some quality stuff even during the horrendous 2B (actually he probably got the most quality stuff of anyone in 2B), so I can see Carlyle being somewhat okay through the end of S2. But learning what the show had in store for him in S3 coupled with realizing--along with the fans--that the writing was still piss-poor? I can understand why he just flipped the switch to autopilot. Because you can just tell his heart isn't fully in it anymore.

 

Honestly, I think the only core-cast, original cast actors who have been able to keep their disdain for the increasingly poor writing under wraps are Josh Dallas and Lana Parrilla--and frankly, Parrilla probably has no complaints/disdain given that the show has turned into Woegina fanfiction. Jen Morrison is pretty subtle, but she's made a few pretty pointed remarks over the last 2+ years that indicate she sees some big problems with the writing/show; ditto for Ginnifer Goodwin. And Carlyle has pretty obviously checked out.

 

I don't even care about the comic relief part of lighter moments. I just need to know why I should care about these characters, because they now mostly just scamper around like frantic little squirrels from crisis to crisis.

See, and I could probably even roll with them running from crisis to crisis if I felt like each crisis impacted each character in a meaningful way. If I felt like Charming's poisoning debacle had meaningfully affected his relationship with Snow and Emma, I could roll with only getting two minutes of fallout. If I felt like Snow's suicide-by-Regina attempt and dark heart crap had changed something about her relationships with Emma and Charming, ditto. Etc etc etc. If they just allowed the relationships to grow and change, I could handle it. But it's the plot-plot-plot on top of re-setting each character every single (half-)season that I can't handle.

[Rumsy4]

Well... Carlyle was primarily left to interact with shadow-Belle and Peter Pan in 3A, and was literally and figuratively caged in 3B, mainly sharing scenes with Zelena. No wonder he checked out! 

[Camera One]

Don't forget crying at a doll.  That must have been really satisfying to play.  Actually, though, in hindsight, he was one of the few who got *anything* to play, so he should count himself lucky.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Camera One

[Jean]

Now that I think about it, I think Robert checked out after Miller's Daughter and saw the rest of the scripts with no Bae and Rumple. I do remember getting a vibe from him at that year's Paleyfest panel. He outright spoiled that there was no more Bae and Rumple stuff until the finale that was a game changer and they were all trying to shush him up. He was just like yeah I have no fucks to give. The Pan is his daddy thing was probably to pacify him except the material sucked.

Since A&E claim no one wants to watch happy normal stuff, what are they going to do with Snow and Charming?

I'll take the rest to the all seasons thread.

[Amerilla]

I start to laugh now every time the whole "they won't get rid of Dark Rumple because Carlyle doesn't want to" thing comes up. They stopped caring about what made Bobby happy a looong time ago.

[Serena]

It's a free country (well, I don't know where you all live, but I'm going to asume), but I think you're better off ignoring it. This isn't the front-page paid-journalist and -columnist side of HuffPo, it's the unpaid we-will-publish-anything side of HuffPo. It is basically on par with a tumblr post in terms of quality, legitimacy, and reader numbers (maybe even less). Generating conversation is just going to bring more eyeballs to the page.

This person apparently runs "Starry Mag" (yeah, never heard of it either) and they have press access - they were in the OUAT press room at Comic Con, interviewing the actors. So even if it's the "unpaid" part of HuffPo, this person calls themselves a journalist and should be called to task for shitty journalism. On this page, on the right, there is contact info of people handling OUAT's publicity and I think a quick email to let them know that a member of the press is encouraging harassment against the lead actress wouldn't be amiss.

[Dani-Ellie]

It is basically on par with a tumblr post in terms of quality, legitimacy, and reader numbers (maybe even less). Generating conversation is just going to bring more eyeballs to the page.

 

Maybe, but it feels like a piling on, and the fact that it's coming from the Huffington Post, regardless of which content side it's on, lends it at least the air of legitimacy. Tumblr posts can at least be recognized right away as a Tumblr rant, because, well, Tumblr. Given how many people continually fall for The Onion and recirculate their material as fact and not as the satire it is, I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that someone not deeply involved in the situation sees an article on the Huffington Post and treats it as fact rather than recognizing it as, basically, a Tumblr rant.

 

It's just ... at what point is enough enough? And I'm sorry, but when someone uses their press credentials to upload something that should have been on a personal blog to the Huffington Post, I think that person deserves to be called on the carpet. This isn't Watergate, this isn't cutting-edge journalism, and this isn't whistle-blowing. It's fandom whining, plain and simple, and I feel like the author of the article used the Huffington Post's URL to give her personal-blog-fandom-whine credence. And to completely misrepresent Jen's tweeting of Captain Swan things as because it's a male/female pairing and not because it's the pairing her character is actually involved with on the show was just low.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Dani-Ellie

[Serena]

Here's how you know the haters are just loud, but ultimately irrelevant: according to the Wrap, Jennifer is in the top 10 most liked tv actresses (#9). Lana is number #21. Strangely enough, Ginny isn't there.

[Camera One]

TV Guide Interview about Frozen

http://once-storybrooke.com/2014/09/tv-guide-gets-a-frozen-treatment-with-once-upon-a-time/

 

A few highlights:

 

 

 

Eddy: "Frozen is a phenomenon on an entirely new Disney scale... [it's] not the same as letting us borrow 80-year old Snow White.  But that didn't stop us from asking."

 

I guess this confirms they initiated it.

 

 

 

"The execs eagerly sent off their story pitch and waited until it passed through several divisions of the Mouse House."

 

Good news is they actually have some stuff planned out?  And people actually thought it was good?

 

 

 

"The theme of Frozen is the power of love.

 

At least this theme is really really vague, unlike the "There's no place like home" theme which they didn't even bother developing.

 

 

 

"Elsa knows nothing about cars and electricity and other modern things.

 

If it doesn't phase Hook or Robin Hood, why should it phase Elsa.  Talk about selective reactions.

 

 

 

Eddy: Our audience gets so mad when we don't let couples relax and be happy.  We're like "Really?"...

 

In other words, we don't care what you want so, get ready for plot plot plot.  The last line of the interview almost seems like a joke but it's totally not.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Camera One

[Serena]

Bill Willingham (author of comic book Fables) got to watch parts of the season premiere film and thinks Elizabeth Lail will be a huge star.

[RadioGirl27]

Good news is they actually have some stuff planned out?  And people actually thought it was good?

 

I'm not worried about the Frozen stuff. I'm not interested in it like at all, but I'm pretty sure Disney is controlling it very closely. I'm worried about everything else.  

Bill Willingham (author of comic book Fables) got to watch parts of the season premiere film and thinks Elizabeth Lail will be a huge star.

You don't need to be a good actress to be a huge star. I can name a long list of actresses (and actors) that are not very good and yet they are stars. I'm joking, but really, the short scene they showed in Comin Con wasn't very promising.

[Camera One]

I'm not worried about the Frozen stuff. I'm not interested in it like at all, but I'm pretty sure Disney is controlling it very closely. I'm worried about everything else.

 

Me too.  I mean, this makes it sound like Frozen was their first priority and the regular characters will be slotted in where convenient.  With Elsa being in present-day and flashbacks, this better not be Zelena 2.0.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Camera One

[Jean]

 

I mean, this makes it sound like Frozen was their first priority and the regular characters will be slotted in where convenient.

 

Yes but I do think how Frozen was controlled by Disney did affect the overall story and the Once characters. I'll put the rest in the spoilers post.

 

I guess this confirms they initiated it.

I never thought otherwise. It's hard to imagine a billion dollar franchise asking a tv show watched by 6-7 million people, and not great demos, to take on their material.

 

 

Bill Willingham (author of comic book Fables) got to watch parts of the season premiere film and thinks Elizabeth Lail will be a huge star.

 

I find that surprising. It's premature to judge but from everything released so far, Georgina to me looks like the standout. Still pictures aren't the same thing as motion but her pictures just scream presence already.

 

ETA:

 

 

Here's how you know the haters are just loud, but ultimately irrelevant: according to the Wrap, Jennifer is in the top 10 most liked tv actresses (#9). Lana is number #21. Strangely enough, Ginny isn't there.

I thought this was another internet poll and so didn't click on it at first but it's actually a publication of real Q scores. So yeah this is pretty relevant. It's the metrics that networks, producers, agencies, and most importantly advertisers use, you know the people who bring in the only thing that matters, money. I know talent agencies use the Q score as leverage for their clients.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Jean

[l star]

I thought some of those Q scores were really odd- they only poll 1800 people. I was confused because some of those stars way down the list have big endorsements which didn't jibe. It is awesome to see a Once Upon a Time actress (and my former fandom, a House vet) but Q scores appear to mean significantly less than they used to. I'm guessing that is the shift in marketing and media.

[Jean]

 

thought some of those Q scores were really odd- they only poll 1800 people. I was confused because some of those stars way down the list have big endorsements which didn't jibe.

 

Well that's generally how all measures/polls are done, through representative samples. For example, the Nielsen ratings are only extrapolation from the measure of thousands.

 

I don't think it's so odd. Q scores are based on recognition and likeability. So just by a glance, Tyra has the highest recognition score but she's pretty low on the list. That's probably due to the fact that her likeability factor isn't so hot. Advertisers might (probably) place a bigger weight on recognition than likeability. You see that a lot in the sports arena. Also for the most famous/high recognition people/brand, the scores are likely fluid since they are measured multiple times a year. A big event can swing it either way and once that is gone, it'll settle down again but that high recognition factor will always remain.

 

I am surprised Ginny isn't on there cause I'm sure she has the highest name recognition of the main cast besides Robert, but maybe they just didn't obtain her score. It's clearly not an exhaustive list.

 

Still I and I bet the industry consider Q scores way more valid than twitter ramblings or random internet polls.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Jean

[Jean]

 

Really? I've never even heard of her before Once

 

It's an assumption really and also based on a few things. Ginny is the leading actress of the show, even if it doesn't bear scrunity if you look at story. She's listed first and Robert gets the "and" distinction. That tells me that Ginny and Robert had some cachet to start with, compared to the others, to get that top billing. Even if you don't see Ginny as the lead actress, the fact that she gets top billing even if her character isn't lead, tells you that her name recognition is what they were after with the billing order. Or she had a really good agent and team and the others' agents sucked.

 

Of course we won't ever know for sure unless we get her Q score for comparison. Aslo what was true before the show began might no longer be true, but it's still in the contracts. If this show goes past the actors' first contract, they can be renegotiated

[yeswedo]

Reminder that this is the Media topic. I'm moving some posts over to the Cast in Other Lands / Roles topic.

[MaiLuna]

TV Guide interview and cover shoot with Georgina and Elizabeth:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvabHiRzfug

 

There's nothing spoilery in the video.

[l star]

I don't think it's so odd. Q scores are based on recognition and likeability. So just by a glance, Tyra has the highest recognition score but she's pretty low on the list. That's probably due to the fact that her likeability factor isn't so hot. Advertisers might (probably) place a bigger weight on recognition than likeability. You see that a lot in the sports arena. Also for the most famous/high recognition people/brand, the scores are likely fluid since they are measured multiple times a year. A big event can swing it either way and once that is gone, it'll settle down again but that high recognition factor will always remain.

 

 

Just to clarify what I said earlier- I meant that the Q score rankings didn't seem to align with the actual prominence and number of endorsements of the actresses. For example, Julianna Margulies just won her third Emmy and second lead actress Emmy for her current role and she has endorsements with L'Oreal, Chase Banks, and American Airlines just off the top of my head but she was ranked 44. Kate Walsh has a Garnier contract and was 29. Sofia Vergara has a Covergirl contract and a clothing line among many other things and was ranked 13. Kerry Washington was ranked 10 and she has several contracts as well as just generally being a big deal. Yet no one above Kerry Washington have any major endorsements and/or recent awards or other career highs that I can find. That doesn't mean that they aren't popular or that the scores aren't relevant, just that these scores don't seem to have much actual cause and effect so they don't seem as valuable to me. I wasn't trying to judge recognizability or popularity among fans. I have no idea how to really judge that.

[Jean]

 

I meant that the Q score rankings didn't seem to align with the actual prominence and number of endorsements of the actresses.

 

Well I've already tried to explain that there are 2 components to the Q score, recognition and likeability.

 

 

Kerry Washington was ranked 10 and she has several contracts as well as just generally being a big deal. Yet no one above Kerry Washington have any major endorsements and/or recent awards or other career highs that I can find.

And I bet she has one of the highest recognition scores of the top10. But I think Kaley Cuoco is ranked above her and she's not winning any awards but she is the highest paid TV actress with endorsements of her own. It's also not as simple as you're making it. What theWrap listed was the average Q score from the general population. You can sort the Q scores by demographics and that's more useful to advertisers. For example you look at Kaley and Kerry in the top 10 but you want to target the Black population. Well then you would sort the Q score by that demographic.

 

Or what if you wanted to hawk something to teenagers? Mariska Hargitay is near the top and Nina Dobrev was in the middle. But I bet it would look a lot different if you sort it by age and Nina is probably going to get that campaign. That's also too simplistic though. The fact is all those actresses on that list aren't in the same competition. People aren't just going to be picking out TV actresses randomly and comparing them except for purely comparison purposes. To make it more obvious an advertiser isn't going to be looking at Angelina Jolie's Q scores and comparing it to Kate Walsh's score. They're not even going to be looking at Jolie vs Taylor Swift.

 

Likeability is important but recognition is more important in the world of advertising. 3 or 4 years ago when Lebron James was despised and his Q score plummeted, he was still raking in the huge Nike contracts. Why? Well Nike doesn't care how well liked Mason Plumlee is by the people who know him, but practically the whole world has heard of Lebron. That's more powerful. But it gets trickier doesn't it when you look at Lebron vs say Kevin Durant? Nike might not care about likeability but maybe the company selling cereal does. There's also the market to consider. A company has the US market cornered and they want to move into the European market. Well then they're not going to go get Tom Brady, Christian Ronaldo would be the better bet.

 

 

 

just that these scores don't seem to have much actual cause and effect so they don't seem as valuable to me

 

Well they're not valuable to you or me. But they're valuable to the industry or they wouldn't be shelling out millions and millions for them for decades now. Nothing is ever a simple cause and effect or linear relationship, most especially in marketing. Then the market has to contend with the way entertainment industry works and that's another ballgame.

 

Q scores are like the SAT scores in college applications. It's a number and one component. When are they most useful? Initial sorting and categorization and when everything else appears to be equal. Is it flawed? Sure. Are there claims that they are useless? Sure. But you know what? They are still used in a big way by the "industry", still making millions, and still influencing their "market." But you don't have to take my word for it. Googling would give the info.

 

 

I wasn't trying to judge recognizability or popularity among fans

I wasn't either. Q scores has nothing to do with fans. It's not for them and not about them.  The company isn't surveying "fans." They're weren't polling Once fans or even ABC fans to get scores for JMo or Lana. It's about public perception of the general population.

Edited September 18, 2014 by Jean

[Artsda]

The TV Guide cover.

 

http://f.chtah.com/i/25/2075780111/20140918-rf2.jpg

[Serena]

I'm still pissed that two guest stars got the cover and a pretty photoshoot when the main Once cast didn't even get new promo pics. Whatever. And I even like both of them, but it's pissing me off.

ABC is throwing a premiere party. Dare we hope some of the actors will attend? Jen apparently left Vancouver, so if she's headed home in LA, and if she isn't needed on set on Monday, she may possibly attend. Once never had a premiere party before, but when Scandal and other shows did, I seem to remember the actors did the red carpet thing. Here's hoping.

[l star]

Jean, we obviously disagree on the relevance of Q scores. I think they are going the way of Nielsen ratings only without the efforts to modernize. You see it differently. I apologize if my post came off as confrontational. I didn't intend it that way but I am sorry if I missed its tone.

 

ABC is throwing a premiere party.

 

I feel stupid, but how do you know the premiere party is in LA? I assume at least part of the cast will attend. It seems pointless to have a premiere with only one or two members of the cast. I always thought getting the cast out to promote the show was the whole point.

[Serena]

I feel stupid, but how do you know the premiere party is in LA? I assume at least part of the cast will attend. It seems pointless to have a premiere with only one or two members of the cast. I always thought getting the cast out to promote the show was the whole point.

If you check the person's replies to asks on her Tumblr, she says the party is in California. I guess I don't know that it's in LA specifically, but I just guessed because it seemed the most logical option. It's also where all the writers live, so it would be easier to get A/E there for the press to interview them. 

 

Also, Adam answered "stay tuned" to people asking about New York Comic Con, so OUAT will probably have a panel. Last year A&E plus JMo attended.

Edited September 19, 2014 by Serena

[retrograde]

The premiere is apparently at the El Capitan Theatre, which is owned by Disney, and yes, in LA.

[Serena]

Well, I hope the main cast will be there and not just the Frozen people. 

[KingOfHearts]

Is there a typical time when the soundtrack comes out? I'd love to get my hands on Season 3's soundtrack.

Edited September 19, 2014 by KingOfHearts

[RadioGirl27]

Well, I hope the main cast will be there and not just the Frozen people.

They are doing this to promote Frozen, so I don't expect many actors there, apart from Elisabeth, Georgina, the guy playing Kristoff and probably Jennifer Morrison (they need someone from the original cast, and she usually goes to LA every weekend).

But maybe I'm wrong and they are doing this for the fans that have been following the show the last three seasons, and not because of a storyline that's going to last 11 episodes, and all the main cast is there.

Edited September 19, 2014 by RadioGirl27

[retrograde]

Well of course it's for Frozen -- it's a PR event to generate press, not a reward for fans. But as none of the Frozen actors are massive stars, I expect they'll bus in several of the main cast.

[RadioGirl27]

Well of course it's for Frozen -- it's a PR event to generate press, not a reward for fans. But as none of the Frozen actors are massive stars, I expect they'll bus in several of the main cast.

Yeah, I know. It just bothers me that their are putting so much effort in promoting a half season storyline, with this premiere (that they would not do if it wasn't for Frozen), the TV Guide cover for Anna and Elsa, etc. But they haven't done new promotional photos with the regular cast, not even a group pic.

 

Anyway, it seems that Josh and Ginny are going to the premiere.

Edited September 19, 2014 by RadioGirl27

[Stuffy]

I don't know about Jennifer going her Instagram made is seem like she was meeting up with old friends.  I don't know if it would be an LA meet up or Chicago.  

[retrograde]

I know fans like them, but honestly, I'm not sure if the ROI on doing a new promo shoot every season is there in today's media landscape. Again, they exist for the press more so than the fans. Once upon a time (hur hur), media outlets got sent a limited number of literal photos to run alongside stories about that show/actor/whatever. There was good incentive to send out fresh photos once a year. Then you started getting discs/CDs, which held more. Now the networks have huge online repositories of photos, and upload new stills every week, and any outlet with an AP or Getty or whatever subscription can get zillions of red carpet and other pics of any star. Plus so many TV centric media outlets are online now, where running the same photo multiple times doesn't seem to bother anyone anyway.

I could be wrong about this, and someone who works in tv or marketing might be able to offer the perspective from the other side, but from a press perspective, I kinda get why they might not see it as so necessary any more.

[stealinghome]

I would think a large number of the main cast would want to go, largely because they're all LA-based and this seems like a free trip to LA!

[Curio]

Plus so many TV centric media outlets are online now, where running the same photo multiple times doesn't seem to bother anyone anyway. I could be wrong about this, and someone who works in tv or marketing might be able to offer the perspective from the other side

Well, I can at least offer some marketing perspective. Ultimately, the amount of new promotional graphics and marketing materials created each year comes down to one thing: money. That’s pretty much it. In an ideal world, each season would be given a fancy new promotional photo shoot so that ABC’s marketing department can have new graphics to work from for all of their marketing content. And actually, now that we live in a digital age and so much of our entertainment content is online, it’s even more essential to update or refresh a brand more often because the web is constantly changing. You have to keep up with the medium. There’s a reason new phones, web interfaces, and other products get a facelift every year – people are more attracted to change. Consumers are now accustomed to getting an updated product each year or two, so it becomes odd when something doesn’t update consistently. And since Once is an annual/seasonal television show, it makes sense that viewers would expect to see some new images each season because they’ll subconsciously (or consciously… if the fans are like us who notice these details) associate certain images with specific seasons.

 

As an example, here are the promotional photos for Season 2, Season 3, and Season 4 of New Girl. While the aesthetic for all of these shots are very similar, just the fact that there are new images to use for each season’s promotional materials shows that the network a) cares about the show, b) has the budget to do yearly campaigns, and c) understands the importance of branding each season to be unique. At a certain point, if you’re not updating your marketing materials enough, you’re basically saying your product isn’t high quality. (So maybe ABC is on to something, here…)

 

When it comes to Once, I just don’t think ABC considers it their top priority. Sure, they’ll throw out some big bucks to promote Frozen, but that just comes down to the network taking a gamble that new viewers will flock to watch anything Frozen related. (We’ll see if their marketing campaign worked when we get the ratings for the first episode.) I honestly doubt we’ll get new cast photos until possibly the winter hiatus. And even then, it’ll probably be like last year’s black background photos that are primarily used for DVD artwork and stock images media websites can use for their articles.

 

I’m just surprised there wasn’t enough of a budget to even do individual photos of the main cast this summer. A simple, but effective, campaign for 4A would have been to take photos of each cast member and apply some icy wind/snow Photoshop effects over them to promote the Frozen theme. But no, we end up with the ABC graphics department scrambling to make each character’s main “item” look frozen instead. Like, honestly, that’s just lazy marketing.

 

I'm guessing it's not so much that new photos don't exist as it is that they haven't deigned to release them yet. Once is not the only ABC show that doesn't have them out yet.

I'd like to hope so. But I guess I'm also just talking in general about the lazy effort put into Once's promotional photos. Like the awful photos from last year or the recycled Season 2 promo image used for the Season 3 DVD artwork.

Edited September 19, 2014 by Curio

[l star]

I'm guessing it's not so much that new photos don't exist as it is that they haven't deigned to release them yet. Once is not the only ABC show that doesn't have them out yet.

[Serena]

I would think getting a few photos of the cast each year wouldn't be too expensive for a network like ABC (it's not like they have to hire Annie Leibovitz... and they have a photographer on set every week to take the episode stills, anyway) and they get publicity when they release them. The season 2 photos were beautiful and were featured in their own image gallery on people.com!

[retrograde]

Well, I can at least offer some marketing perspective. Ultimately, the amount of new promotional graphics and marketing materials created each year comes down to one thing: money. That’s pretty much it. In an ideal world, each season would be given a fancy new promotional photo shoot so that ABC’s marketing department can have new graphics to work from for all of their marketing content. And actually, now that we live in a digital age and so much of our entertainment content is online, it’s even more essential to update or refresh a brand more often because the web is constantly changing. You have to keep up with the medium. There’s a reason new phones, web interfaces, and other products get a facelift every year – people are more attracted to change. Consumers are now accustomed to getting an updated product each year or two, so it becomes odd when something doesn’t update consistently. And since Once is an annual/seasonal television show, it makes sense that viewers would expect to see some new images each season because they’ll subconsciously (or consciously… if the fans are like us who notice these details) associate certain images with specific seasons.

Some good points. I guess what I'm saying though is viewers -- casual viewers -- are only going to see that new branding if media outlets actually run those photos, and I think they do less and less. Most of the time, they use stills. Surely the number of fans who actually "look out" for those promo shoots as products in and of themselves are people like us? And we are only a small percentage of total viewership. It's not as if Once/ABC/Disney isn't doing a heap of Frozen-themed promotional stuff. Do the photos specifically really have much of an impact in terms of branding the season? (this is an actual question, not a rhetorical one).

[stealinghome]

The season 2 photos were beautiful and were featured in their own image gallery on people.com!

True, but don't forget that Once was HUGE in the S1-S2 hiatus. It was one of the most talked-about shows that summer, and the ratings hadn't yet fallen off a cliff--2x01 got a 3.9! It was the second hightest-rated episode for the show EVER (the pilot scored a 4.0).

 

aka, what I'm saying is, in the S1-S2 hiatus, ABC still had a lot of reason to throw money at Once and market it well. After the ratings fell off a cliff after 2B, not so much.

[Curio]

Do the photos specifically really have much of an impact in terms of branding the season? (this is an actual question, not a rhetorical one).

I really wish I could give you some hard numbers, Retrograde. But at some point, I just have to believe the investment is worth it. Otherwise, shows like Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead, The League, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, American Horror Story, Parks and Recreation, Modern Family, or Game of Thrones wouldn’t put in the effort to make new character posters and group promo shoots for each new season. If it were as simple as networks recycling old promotional materials from past years because they don’t think casual viewers will notice, every network would be trying to save money and just do that. But I feel like the trend now is to create interesting promotional photos of not only the whole cast, but also each individual character for each season. I just wish Once had a larger budget to do cool promotional photos again.

[retrograde]

True, but don't forget that Once was HUGE in the S1-S2 hiatus. It was one of the most talked-about shows that summer, and the ratings hadn't yet fallen off a cliff--2x01 got a 3.9! It was the second hightest-rated episode for the show EVER (the pilot scored a 4.0).

.

Actually one thing I will definitely agree is that if networks do promo shoots, entertainment websites will run then as slide shows, because it's basically free content. Do non-fans look at them? That I don't know. But even a pretty ordinary photo set will get a run on the likes of TVLine, TV Guide, E!, etc.

[Serena]

SHIELD just released a pretty cool new poster and People ran it. I don't believe SHIELD is bigger than ONCE - its ratings were all around disappointing, certainly not that much higher than Once if you factor out the overinflated premiere - so I have to believe ABC has just chosen to throw all its money at Frozen. Which will end up biting them in the ass in 412, likely.