• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, November 15, 2007

Americans were transfixed this summer when the final episode of "The Sopranos" suddenly ended with the screen fading to black. Although it only lasted a few seconds, people worried their cable had gone kaput. Others called the cable company. Even if viewers just sat still with mouths agape, the tactic got their attention.

Looking to generate a big opening gate for horror film "Saw IV," studio Lionsgate opted for a related tactic. Instead of a fade-to-black, Lionsgate called on two age-old TV staples, hoping to arrest channel-skippers: the test pattern with the collection of multi-hued bars that once signaled the end of a broadcast day, and the black-and-white fuzziness on the screen that occurs when a TV crashes.

At some level, the maneuver has roots in preventing the trigger-happy impulse to switch the channel as soon as a commercial break begins.

Leading up to the October premiere, Lionsgate was able to work with several networks--Comedy Central and the CW among them--to dominate a particular pod with three five-second and one 15-second spot. Initiative serves as the studio's agency.

As the show moved to break on, say, CW's "Supernatural," a test pattern immediately went up. That was followed by fuzziness and another quick test pattern shot--then a dark and blurry clip showing just a masked, creepy clown-like character from the film.

A regular ad for another marketer followed (Verizon Wireless in one case), then came another five-second snap with the ghoulish creature, along with haunting background sounds. The curious-spot-after-curious-spot wanted to build intrigue--maybe even generate questions about who was helming network controls.

After that came another run-of-the-mill ad, followed by a third "Saw" quick hit. (A Jeep spot ran during "Scrubs" on Comedy Central.)

And following one more standard spot for another marketer (Tide in one case) came a typical 15-second promo for the film that included a shot of the masked beast--presumably answering any viewer questions about what was going on--along with scenes from the film and the opening date.

Did the ploy work? One post on YouTube, where the pod still can be viewed, says: "I saw this TV at like 12:30 at night, it REALLY caught me off guard and it scared the crap out of me."

The final judgment is at the box office: "Saw IV" (Lionsgate now opens a new film in the franchise annually around Halloween) opened with a $31.8 million haul, according to boxofficemojo.com. That led the weekend.

But it failed to top last year's "Saw III" debut of $33.6 million.