Wes Anderson Taps Online Video Trend

Before you head to the theater to see Wes Anderson’s new film, The Darjeeling Limited, you might want to see the prologue. For that, you would have had to go to the New York Film Festival last Friday (crap, we knew we should have posted about this last week…) OR iTunes! Yes, you can download the 13-minute short, Hotel Chevalier, which features Jason Schwartzman bedding (off camera) a naked (on-camera) Natalie Portman for free.

According to Variety, Anderson thought that Apple was his best bet if he wanted to get the film seen by a wider audience. “It’s not the most commercial idea in the world to say, ‘There’s another ten minutes you should see, but we’re not sure how,’” Anderson said. The video has since gone viral, landing on other video sites like Google and YouTube (especially the nude scene), so even international viewers can enjoy.

This marketing move taps into an increasing base of online video streamers. According to Advertising.com‘s latest Bi-Annual Online VideoStudy, 62 percent of respondents are viewing video online. 36 percent of consumers have increased their consumption of online video since last year, with movie trailers being their second choice of content to news clips. ComScore’s numbers show that nearly 75 percent of U.S. Internet users watched an average of three hours of online video during the month of July, with Americans viewing more than 9 billion videos online.

Watch Hotel Chevalier