Word: gimmicks
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...girl was waiting for a man who never came; in another elegant shot, the film cuts back to her waving goodbye to her lover as he ascends the airport escalator, Meloni and his companion descending the parallel escalator, still talking, just moments later. Far from being merely a gimmick, this technique highlights the implicit interactivity of the interviews—not only between interviewer and subject but between the subject and the different people he recalls in his attempt to capture a particular emotional moment...
...were TV's dysfunctional families Heene's only model. Even in professional careers, mere competence and craftsmanship is no substitute for a gimmick. You can be a brilliant chef and struggle to keep a restaurant afloat, or you can be a screaming chef - or, as on Oxygen's new reality show, a "naughty" chef - and be a media star. Real estate agents, tattoo artists, cake decorators - the only thing standing between them and fortune is the willingness to blow a gasket once a week on cable...
...marketing gurus for the series could hardly have dreamed of a better promotional gimmick when they started to investigate the backgrounds of the dozens of pop-star wannabes to root out the competitors' mushy stories of triumph over adversity that are a well-worn staple of the genre. Here was a tale guaranteed to attract eyeballs: a girl of mixed race, brought up by a single Chinese mother, struggling to gain acceptance in a deeply conservative, some would say racist, society...
...sunflowers, the entire film takes place in an Israeli tank holding four very nervous soldiers. The only view to the streets outside is through the gunsight aimed at insurgents and civilians. Which ones to shoot at? Which ones to save? Imprisoning the audience with the soldiers may be a gimmick, but it's an inspired one: the viewer wants both to stay inside - shielding them from harm, or from doing harm - and to get the hell out. The situation may be familiar from dozens of Hollywood foxhole dramas, but the treatment is original: What other movie has, as its exalting...
...Rivers Cuomo ’99-’06, of course, seems to call every other album “Weezer”. The motives for such a move are varied: often a return to roots, as in Pearl Jam’s case, or as a marketing gimmick to present the album as different and important. In naming their seventh album “Wilco (the Album),” Jeff Tweedy and the band seem to be announcing a realization of identity, defining their sound at an intersection of styles that they previously employed seperately. Unusually, this...