Outlander season 3 and putting the world into motion

There are many things to appreciate already about the way that Starz is promoting Outlander season 3, including their new “motion photos.”

What do we mean by that? It’s still a relatively innovative technology, but basically it’s a way to add a little bit of sparkle to a promotional photo by putting a shot in the midst of a moving or interactive background. The phrase “motion poster” is certainly bandied about for many of them, but we’re not quite sure we’d call these new images, shared by Starz on Twitter, posters by any means — they don’t give you any information about the show or the September 10 premiere date.

Given that we are less than two months away now from the premiere and Starz has recently shared many of them, we thought it may be a fun exercise to take a look at some of these, their execution, and what we’re meant to draw from them as a viewer.

1. Claire’s longing – It’s obviously clear that Caitriona Balfe’s character is not altogether happy in her new life in Boston. She may love her daughter Brianna very much, but there’s that hole in her heart left by Jamie.

This image is really all about the placement of Claire’s eyes — even when she’s in front of a fire (a place that really should be indicative of comfort and relaxation), she still finds herself distracted from what is her task at hand. She’s looking, and waiting, for something to happy that may feel a bit like an impossibility.

2. Desperation from Jamie – You get a small sense of that in his own eyes, with the intense backdrop of war behind him. He knows that Claire is gone, and he does have to fight for his clan — yet, somewhere underneath the surface, we do like to think that he’s also fighting to see her again. Her first appearance in the world was an impossibility, so who’s to say that lightning will not strike twice? Anything here is very much possible.

3. Happy birthday, Brianna – Like with the other photos that we’ve discussed, you’ve probably seen variations on this for a while — this scene was also a part of the season 3 teaser. What stands out to us now that we’ve got it on freeze-frame is something that we’ve seen across multiple different photos now: Is there a single occasion in the season 3 press material where Claire is making eye contact with Frank? Often, she’s either looking towards her daughter or off into space.

Ultimately, the biggest thing that we have here is endless praise for Starz, who are doing very much a tremendous job at getting the word out on this season. Given that we have been rather hard on other networks for their perceived “support” of shows (look at NBC and The Night Shift or Syfy with some of their Friday programming), we’re not blowing smoke here when we actually celebrate a network doing something right.

What do you think about the way that Outlander season 3 is being marketed by Starz at the moment? Be sure to share below!