I have to go to a lot of movies for my job, at least once a week and sometimes as many as three or four. As a consequence I have to see the same trailers for upcoming movies over and over again, sometimes for months before they get released.
Lately, it seems like every other movie I go to has been showing a trailer for something called White Noise. The trailer is done in a pseudo-documentary style which purports to discuss a “real life phenomenon” it calls “Electronic Voice Phenomenon” (EVP). It’s basically all about people listening to static on radios and televisions and imagining that they can hear “voices.”
The trailer plays static-y sounds with voices whispering ominously while the narrator intones that the “person you hear” died in 19 whatever the fuck.
Then it segues into a couple of scenes from the movie which are more clearly fiction (Some bug-eyed lady warning some dude that “It is one thing to contact the dead, it’s another thing to meddle…and you are MEDDLING.” Utterly ridiculous tripe like that).
Now that trailer is slightly deceiving in that it clearly tries to lead the audience to believe that “EVP” is something that actually happens in reality and they compound the insult by inserting a tagline in their ads that White Noise is “based on a real life phenomenon.”
No it isn’t.
To make matters even worse, there is some little short running as a part of “The 2wenty” (a twenty minute reel of commercials and promos that runs before the trailers in some theaters) which is a promo for White Noise masquerading as an In Search Of… type of “investigation” which discusses this “EVP” crap like it’s real and at no point informs the audience that it’s bullshit made up for a movie.
I know this is lame but it bugs me because, frankly, people are stupid and they believe whatever they hear. They’re especially credulous about nonsense like this.
So to whoever is behind this ad campaign, please quit lying. Your movie is NOT based on a real life phenomenon, there is no such thing as “EVP” and your movie looks unbelievably bad.
I’m not quite sure what you’re ranting about, but if you do a Google search on “Electronic Voice Phenomenon”, you get a bunch of hits. So it may not be a * real * phenomenon, but Hollywood didn’t make it up just for this movie. And I’m not sure why you consider it such an unbelievable phenomenon – the human brain spends all its time trying to detect patterns in its sensory input. It stands to reason that occasionally you’re going to get false hits – e.g. things that sound like voices in static. And it’s just as obvious that there are people who will be willing to interpret those perceived voices as spirit voices from the beyond (because hell, there are people who will see the face of Jesus on a cheese sandwich).
Dio, I think you need to lighten up a little. The movie looks like fun. Stupid, demented fun, I grant you. Have some popcorn and suspend your disbelief.
I can’t find it but there was a thread this year I think about motors that emitted just the right frequency at just the right amount of variation that MANY people mistook it for a popular song or a conversation (all different songs/conversation.) It’s happened to me with air conditioning motors (sometimes they sound exactly, and I mean exactly, like the opening strains of the 1st movement of Beethoven’s 9th.)
It’s not too much of a stretch to say that happens sometimes with TVs and radios, since you are expecting them to “communicate with you,” but of course it might not be a “real illusion” like the aforementioned one.
It’s not so much the movie itself I’m pitting. It would be pretty dumb to pit a movie just because it has something impossible in it. I’m pitting the ad campaign that’s trying to sell this “EVP” as some sort of genuine supernatural phenomenon.
I admit it’s lame. I think I’m just cracking fom having to see the trailer so many times. The pseudo-documentary style grates on me. It’s the same kind of feeling I get when they do those baloney “paranormal” shows on the Discovery channel. It pushes my buttons for some reason. Maybe it’s just me.
Not a real life phenomenon? Well then, smart guy, maybe you can explain this:
When I put the Pink Panther DVD into my player and turn down the volume, if I listen closely, I can hear the voice of Peter Sellers… even though he died over 24 years ago!
What does your “science” have to say about that, huh?
If humans can pick patterns out of random speckles of light in the clear night sky, they are sure as hell going to be able to hear voices in any mass of random audible noise. They are going to use that ability to `prove’ what they most want to believe, that death isn’t final and that there are beings in the sky who love them and want to be loved in return. EVP is absolutely nothing new.
Nor is the practice of making money off of all the preceding. If you can dupe the shills with a cheap movie, that’s pretty much what you’re going to do. Especially if it doesn’t take any talent or skill or any other expensive attribute.
BTW, DtC, do you review movies? Can I read those reviews online anyplace? (I’m just trying to figure what your line is.)
I’m not a movie reviwer, no. That would be a nice job, though.
I do in-home services for people with disabilities which means that I take them out to do things, drive them around, take them to eat, to movies, plays, etc. My clients like movies so I end up seeing a lot of them, and I don’t always have much choice about what they are. I have one client who loves Adam Sandler movies as well as every other dumb ass comedy that comes down the pike. It’s not all sunshine and roses. Try sitting through Soul Plane sometime and see what that does to your spirit.
On the plus side, I also get to see a lot of good movies and usually will have seen most of the Oscar buzz films. I get to see a few IMAX movies as well, which is cool. Plus I get paid for it.
Well, there’s your problem. There are no genuine supernatural phenomena. But just about every single one of them have been used as the premise of a movie. Ghosts, UFO’s, Bigfoot, you name it. So naturally they’re getting close to the bottom of the barrel for new ideas. In a few years, I won’t be surprised if they co-opt this guy’s theories and incorporate them into a movie.
Gotta say, Dio, when I suggested you come up with a good cover for your porno-and-drugs to highschoolers racket, I didn’t realize you’d be so creative. Thats really good! (Don’t worry, I’ll be discreet…)
One thing I’ve had persistant questions about is…well, crazy people. I don’t think we pay enough attention to crazy people. I think we load them up with dope to keep them quiet, and warehouse them until…whenever. Now, mind you, I say this with full awareness that I haven’t the strength of character, wisdom or patience to deal with a full-blown schizophrenic. I just think somebody else should.
Why voices? Of all the things people could hallucinate, why voices? If insanity were a more or less random phenomenon, wouldn’t the symptoms be more random: wouldn’t people be as likely to smell things that aren’t there, or to see things that aren’t there? What little I’ve been able to gather on the subject suggests that, of all the possibilities, disembodied voices are the most common.
Just as a speculation, mind you: what if? What if people, some people, have a capacity to “receive” electro-magnetic pulses. Perhaps we all do, to a certain extent, and the physical changes that manifest in the brain of the schizophrenic accentuate this capacity. Or perhaps even the capacity may entrain schizoid patterns by reinforcement. After all, we tell people if they hear voices, they are likely crazy. If you start to accept the notion that you may be mentally ill, I suspect you are more inclined to slip the bounds that we “sane” people clutch so tightly. (I include myself in that group. This is not universally agreed.)
How much does our rationalism restrict our intake of sensation? Might it not be that the mentally ill person, relieved of the necessity to maintain those defenses, has access to sensation and phenomena that we haven’t. They shrug and accept what we firmly reject. But they cannot tell us, partly because they can’t and partly because we wouldn’t listen.
I’ve done it. It’s nowhere near as bad as you might think. They’re hardly ever dangerous and they say the most fascinating shit sometimes. Sometimes it almost makes sense. It’s like you don’t really understand what they’re talking about but it seems like it’s something profound and you’re just not quite sharp enough to get it…or maybe it’s just complete gibberish. You’re never entirely sure. It’s not unlike a Bob Dylan song in that regard.
Schizophrenics will also see and smell things that aren’t there. Epileptics will sometimes smell strong odors before a seizure. Sometimes real odors can be distorted. It’s the same with aural and visual hallucinations. It’s not necessarily that they will see or hear things that aren’t there at all but that their brains will distort real stimuli into something else. I guess hearing voices in radio static would be a possible example of that.
There are those who just hear voices and that’s that. I don’t know why. Schizophrenia is still not a very well understood disease. Everything I’ve read about it relates to brain chemistry, though. There’s usually a lot of talk about “receptors” before I doze off.
You would have to hypothesize a mechanism for “receiving,” which included a definition of exactly what is being received, how it’s being received and where it’s being received from. Your hypothesis would have to follow materialistic pathways (i.e. it would have to conform to the known laws of physics) in order for it to be explored or examined.
I think that Ockham precludes us from going in that direction for the moment because naturalistic, psychiatric explanations can be found for all the phenomenon. Much of it can even be induced in “normal” individuals (as I suspect we both know first hand ;)).
From a scientific standpoint, there is, as yet, no reason to look outside the meat as long as everything can still be explained within the meat.
“I hear that if you’re watching Hey Hey It’s Saturday* and you put Pink Floyd on and turn down the volume and switch the television off, it’s perfect!” - Tripod
Personally I like it when a scary movie tries to pass itself off as “based on real events” or what have you. It makes it even scarier, even when I know it’s a load of crap. I knew The Blair Witch Project was fiction, but letting yourself believe it was real made it creepy (no I’m not one of the too-cool-for-schoolers who like to bash the film. it was good if you let yourself get into it.) And the movie White Noise itself isn’t even selling itself as anything but a fictional movie, so the documentary-style trailers, IMHO, helps give it a creepy vibe ahead of time. Plus it’s gotten me to check out websites on EVP and give myself little shudders. I don’t believe, but I want to believe. Life’s more fun when you can’t explain everything.
FWIW Dio, I know exactly what you’re talking about, and it bugs the fuck out of me as well. When I saw the “documentary” on the 2wenty, I couldn’t figure out if they were presenting this as real or just a trailer. Of course, ten minutes later, I saw the trailer and said to my husband, “They shouldn’t do this…there are some stupid ass people who will believe it…”
I think, if possible, the movie looks more lame than the lame-ass trailers they use.
Can we also pit the lame-ass motherfucker who came up with the name “2wenty”?
GOD I hate it. Hate the name. Hate the concept. Congratulations, advertising industry! You’ve found tooooooowenty more minutes of my time that you can invade. You’re not really doing your job if you’re not assaulting my eyeballs toooooooowenty-four fucking hours a day. It’s sure a good thing they blast it at top volume so that I can’t chat with the folks I went to the movies with. 'Cause why would I want to talk to them? No, thanks, rather than having an actual intelligent conversation with human beings, I’d rather be bombarded with insipid “documentaries” about upcoming movies and television “events” interspersed with honest-to-god commercials.
And then the smarmy voice-over at the end makes it all out like they’re doing me a favor by bringing me all this exclusive material.
