.045 - cloverfield: fresh or annoying?

Saw Cloverfield yesterday and as a director, it was the most amazing thing I'd seen in a while on a movie screen. Placing the complete use of a handheld personal camcorder aside, this film managed to succesfully place with the limitations it set on itself.

• the camera created its own character depending on who held it
• non-beautified civilian views of missile attacks...
• use of the idea single tape with multiple overlaid recordings to tell a backstory effectively without seeming manipulative

There are so many fresh techniques that opened up as result of the use of handheld camera, but did it get overshadowed by some people's annoyance with the film's constant shaking? Yes, but I still don't believe a thing should have been changed in the film. Instead, steps should have been taken to ease people in the experience.

1. "CLOVERFIELD: 8:00 9:00 10:25 - Note: May cause dizziness"
This definitely should have been posted on every sign, box office and maybe even before the movie started. Granted this probably didn't happen because of a desire to maximize box office sales.

2. Warn people this is a "different" movie experience so go in with no preconceptions about film style.
I knew this film would be different, but my friends didn't. They expected a point, a moral, and the use a steady camera (at least sometimes). My first instinct was to get annoyed by such expectations, but such is the case for ordinary American film goers. We're used to seeing certain conventions and when those conventions are diminished we get defensive and label the film as "suck". It would've helped in this case if viewers were told this would be a different type of experience. In the advertising taglines or even in a trailer voice-over. I think more people would've enjoyed this film if they knew the deal before going in.

This film is still fresh to me, but the way in which the groundbreaking style was presented worked to diminish the audience's trust. It was seen as an artistic, "film major's" film when I think it could have blown the socks off of everyone. The key lesson here is: your creative, fresh effort will be annoying if you don't orient your audience beforehand.