The Variant Logo's of A24
How creative branding makes all the difference.
Trailers are fascinating components of movie marketing. You are given 30 seconds in between some basketball game to emotionally woo the prospective viewer enough to come watch your movie. Trailers have to give the audience just enough information that audiences kind of know what they might be getting into, but also leave out enough detail that they are interested to see what could unfold. There is a delicate, amorphic balance to creating a trailer that few production companies strike as consistently as A24.
If you haven’t heard, A24 is an independent production company that was founded in 2012. After producing critically successful films like Ex Machina (2014), A24 has made a name being one of the riskiest and intriguing production companies in the business today. So what makes A24 so damn special?
WHAT’S THE DEAL?
While watching the trailer for Hereditary (2018), I noticed something. My forehead was unusually tense. My toes were clenched. I was squinting, and I was incredibly scared. For the entire two minutes and six seconds of the trailer, I dedicated the same focus and intimate attention as I do when reading a book.
But why? What was it about Toni Collette violently slamming her head into a door or Milly Shapiro cutting the head off of a dead bird that caused me to react like this? The secret is, I was completely immersed into that world. Ironically, the devil is in the details.
Around the 16 second mark of the trailer the camera descends, as Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, is lowered into her grave. While this is happening we get a variation of the A24 logo filled in with the dirt from the scene. There are what could be an unintentional, but fundamental subliminal messages A24 sends to its audience that was so key in immersing me in this world for the entirety of the trailer.
This creative way of branding their trailer gives a critical insight to their approach to filmmaking. A24 provides the resources, and the filmmakers fill up the space with their respective ideas and creativity. They come together to create a cohesive motion picture that spectators enjoy. Not every one of their movies get a tailored logo, however, for the ones that do, it helps differentiate them from any other trailer that I may come across. Thus, allowing me seek deeper into what I’m seeing.
Complimentarily, there is also a reason they chose to use the dirt to fill the logo. The aforementioned Ellen was the leader of the cult of Paimon. She was obsessed with having Paimon, one of the eight kings of hell, inhabit one of her grandchildren’s body. The trauma surrounding her actions and beliefs unfortunately trickled through her bloodline. Hence the title, Hereditary.
So, from her grave, Ellen effectively controls the narrative of the movie. All this being said, this variation logo is a subtle hint at the thematic elements the movie will ultimately provide. Now you probably have to watch the movie to figure all of that out, but teasing elements like these make me even excited to actually go to the movie and do so.
Here’s another example. From the trailer, we can surmise that Howard is an over-confident, degenerate gambler who’s debt puts his family in danger. However, the logo variation reveals much more.
In the movie, Howard is enthralled by a colorful opal that he believes he can sell for a fortune to cover his debts. A lot of the trouble Howard got in was behind his schemes for the opal. It just so happens that the space-y color pallet in the logo is also the color pallet that shows in the opal. This quietly hints at the effect the opal has on the movie as a whole.
COPYCAT LEAGUE
Since I began noticing the multitude of A24 variations that can be found here, I have also noticed other studios adopting the technique to give their trailers a sense of individualism. While I do appreciate the effort, they fail to pack the same punch as the A24 variants. Take this Warner Bros. (Dune inspired) logo variation as an example. Yes, it slightly breaks away from standard logo. But, nothing significant can be made of the variant version.
A24 is quite literally shaking up the movie industry. I could literally go on for days about why this indie studio is the best thing to happen to movies since The Social Network (2014). Very few production companies can build enough emotion from the trailers alone that fans prefer the trailer over THE ACTUAL MOVIE. So the next time you watch a trailer, especially an A24 one, be sure to see if the logo varies at all.
In the words of Heather Snowden, “While the distribution and production of intelligent, aesthetically beautiful films lie at the heart of the brand, the reason A24 has grown into one of the most influential studios in Hollywood can be boiled down to three key factors: intuition, authenticity, and — perhaps most importantly — mystery.”
I had no idea there were companied that specifically made logos. That never even crossed my mind, I guess I thought it was done in house. This idea that if changing the logo to match the movie is really really cool. I can't wait to read more of what you write!
This is not a new thing but I agree that A24 definitely perfected the idea, which is most suited for them since their brand is one of the last to have a quality reputation attached to it. I remember when Netflix and Blumhouse were both associated with similar levels of quality filmmaking, but since then they've both faded into every other studio and I hope A24 doesn't fall into the same pattern.