Director Starts Viral Campaign for Film, “The Garlock Incident” Caleb Hamilton, June 7, 2012June 7, 2012 Evan J. Cholfin and his wife, Ariana Farina, have started a viral campaign for their film, The Garlock Incident. The film takes cues from The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, telling the story of a group of students who went out to make a film, but disappeared when they stopped in a ghost town in Garlock, CA. Using social media sites, the filmmakers are immersing their potential audience into this world, providing them with a prologue to the film.The viral campaign is set up using the point of view of concerned family and friends of the missing students who left Los Angeles in December 2011 heading to Las Vegas. They have created a page on Facebook, as well as set up Tumblr, Twitter and YouTube pages. The Families in Search of Truth pages provide players with clues, such as a text conversation posted on the Facebook page between Morgan Marcos, a friend of Sean Muramatsu, one of the missing students.Morgan had a text conversation with Sean the day he left. Two vital clues were found in the conversation he uploaded to the page. The students were “checking out this ghost town on the way [to Las Vegas]” and “El Burro lives”. Morgan had no idea what the last comment meant, but Evan quickly enlisted the help of the group by having them search ghost towns between LA and Vegas via a ghost town website using the clues provided. The group narrowed the search down to Garlock, CA, one-time home of “Burro” Schmidt, a miner who actually took dynamite and blasted a tunnel from one side of a mountain to the other to bring precious ore through. Legend said that his ghost still haunted the town.Evan and Ariana then began posting updates to the YouTube page. Their first major breakthrough came on April 25th. Then on April 27th, some footage from December 16th through 18th was posted.Many more videos have been posted since then, mostly just friends and family members posting videos asking for people to help in the search for the truth. If you’d like to help, just like the Facebook page. Thanks to MovieViral reader Chrissy Wilson for bringing this to us! ARGs & Campaigns Social Networks Viral Marketing Viral News The Garlock IncidentViral marketing
Cookie Monster Campaigns to Host Saturday Night Live November 24, 2010After a social network campaign successfully got Betty White a hosting gig on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, it’s no surprise that a trend has caught on to get obscure actors to host SNL. But, what about characters? Sesame Street continues their trend of cultural-savvy videos with an audition tape of… Read More
Viral Video Round Up: Looper, The Dark Knight Rises, The Newsroom, And More! September 2, 2012September 9, 2012The Internet is full of videos related to movies, whether they be fan made, studio made, or somewhere in between. We regularly bring you the best, most interesting, or just plain weirdest, and today we do it again. Check out the latest viral videos after the break. Read More
Funds Raised To Bring Robocop Statue to Detroit February 16, 2011Last week we told you about Detroit Mayor Dave Bing politely rejecting via Twitter the suggestion to build a Robocop statue in the Michigan capital. The story gained traction on the Interwebs, and now money has been raised to actually make it happen. Read More