Witnesses Trailer a Triumph

[kairos]

Does anyone know whether the movie will include showing the anthon characters so that the audience can see what Joseph Smith claimed was written on the plates? If they are included in the film it will be surety that the whole thing will blow up in their faces as comments will come that the caracters themselves are a hoax- Dan V. gives a detail account of how the caracters were put together.

it seems if the plates are always covered in the film, then an inquistive mind might ask "what the hell is written on the plates in this so called
reformed egyptian?

will this sink the film's credibility?

comments please

k

[Physics Guy]

That's going to be a tough call apologetically. If you show the plates clearly in the film, people will wonder why the original plates were never shown that clearly to anyone.

If you don't show the plates, though, it's going to be hard to avoid making them a mystery Maguffin like the Raiders Ark or the Pulp Fiction briefcase. Up to a point that'd seem okay, because a lot of people loved those movies and are ready to buy things like that. The problem is that people loved those movies as movies. Willing suspension of disbelief is not the same as belief; someone who says, "Cool, a heavenly relic like the Lost Ark from Raiders!" while popping in another handful of popcorn is moving farther from actually believing Smith's story, not closer.

The Witnesses people are probably going to be smartest to go with hiding the plates, though, I think. That would give them at least a chance of pulling off something viable, in a don't-fix-the-shark kind of way. They could for example have scenes in which the witnesses see something but the audience cannot see what they see—and there's no mysterious glow or weird sound effects. Then the witnesses say what they say and the film leaves it at that. That might end up working well.

[Lem]

That's going to be a tough call apologetically. If you show the plates clearly in the film, people will wonder why the original plates were never shown that clearly to anyone.

If you don't show the plates, though, it's going to be hard to avoid making them a mystery Maguffin like the Raiders Ark or the Pulp Fiction briefcase. Up to a point that'd seem okay, because a lot of people loved those movies and are ready to buy things like that. The problem is that people loved those movies as movies. Willing suspension of disbelief is not the same as belief; someone who says, "Cool, a heavenly relic like the Lost Ark from Raiders!" while popping in another handful of popcorn is moving farther from actually believing Smith's story, not closer.

The Witnesses people are probably going to be smartest to go with hiding the plates, though, I think. That would give them at least a chance of pulling off something viable, in a don't-fix-the-shark kind of way. They could for example have scenes in which the witnesses see something but the audience cannot see what they see—and there's no mysterious glow or weird sound effects. Then the witnesses say what they say and the film leaves it at that. That might end up working well.

In the shark article you referenced,a line jumped out at me:

Traditionally, high-profile movies opened in New York City or Los Angeles before slowly spreading to other cities and then trickling into small towns months later. Wide releases were generally reserved for duds; studios would cast a wide net to maximize ticket sales before negative word of mouth killed a film.

Isn't a "wide release" what is being recommended for the OP film, requiring $200k upfront for advertising? Maybe the proposed strategy is more strategic than we realized....

[Dr Moore]

Is this Witnesses movie a first of its kind?

By "first" I mean:
(a) "historic" recreation of events central to the restoration
(b) wholly created and sponsored by an organization other than the Church