Cloverfield

[IanEye]

Irreversible, according to a bullet point at IMBD:

# The first 30 minutes of the film has a background noise with a frequency of 28Hz (low frequency, almost inaudible), similar to the noise produced by an earthquake. In humans, it causes nausea, sickness and vertigo. It was the main cause of people walking out of the theaters during the first part of the film in places like Cannes and San Sebastian. In fact, it was added with the purpose of getting this reaction.

Gouda, that is exactly why I mentioned that particular film.

[orz]

There's nothing inherently sinister about shakey camerawork causing motion sickness. Can't say it bothers me personally, I can watch such footage with no problem. But just thinking about it it's surprising people can put up with it at all, I would think it's a profoundly unnatural experience for the brain to see the world moving in relation to the eyes without any physical movement being percieved by the body, inner ear etc...

[FourthBase]

There's nothing inherently sinister about shakey camerawork causing motion sickness. Can't say it bothers me personally, I can watch such footage with no problem. But just thinking about it it's surprising people can put up with it at all, I would think it's a profoundly unnatural experience for the brain to see the world moving in relation to the eyes without any physical movement being percieved by the body, inner ear etc...

If it's just a movie, how can a movie make someone physically ill?
There are other ways a movie can make someone physically well, I bet.
And I bet that's what is referred to as part of the "theatre experience".
Without even knowing that's what's being referred to.

[professorpan]

3:10 to Yuma is taken from an Elmore Leonard short story.

That Elmore Leonard -- should have known he was one of THEM.

[Seamus OBlimey]

If it's just a movie, how can a movie make someone physically ill?
There are other ways a movie can make someone physically well, I bet.
And I bet that's what is referred to as part of the "theatre experience".
Without even knowing that's what's being referred to.

Is smell the last uncharted territory in computing? Do we all harbour a secret desire to smell the roses of that gardening Web site or sniff damp cellars in our scary computer gaming?

Well that seems to be what the folks at AromaJet are hoping. Their new Pinoke USB device squirts smells at you on demand, triggered by the software driver employed at the time. Mmm, interesting. [via ZZZ]

http://www.redferret.net/?p=1003

SMELLYVISION

No offence intended to any poster past, present or future. Honest.

[orz]

If it's just a movie, how can a movie make someone physically ill?

What? I don't get what you mean. It's no mystery how a movie can make some people physically ill.

There are other ways a movie can make someone physically well, I bet.

That was probably a typo but definitely an interesting and worthwhile idea there!

And I bet that's what is referred to as part of the "theatre experience".

The "theatre experience" is seeing cinema in the theatre as it's intended. Don't know what you mean but you seem to be implying there's something wrong with that?

Certainly most films, especially hollywood, are full of all kinds of emotion-manipulating tricks which the average viewer would not be entirely aware of if done well.

[FourthBase]

If it's just a movie, how can a movie make someone physically ill?

What? I don't get what you mean. It's no mystery how a movie can make some people physically ill.

There are other ways a movie can make someone physically well, I bet.

That was probably a typo but definitely an interesting and worthwhile idea there!

Wasn't a typo.

And I bet that's what is referred to as part of the "theatre experience".
The "theatre experience" is seeing cinema in the theatre as it's intended. Don't know what you mean but you seem to be implying there's something wrong with that?

Certainly most films, especially hollywood, are full of all kinds of emotion-manipulating tricks which the average viewer would not be entirely aware of if done well.

I was suggesting that the "threatre experience" consists of more than just the film, the dialogue, the score. Tricks of the trade that maybe use between-the-lines, under-the-radar technology (visual, auditory, climate, food additives, subliminals, whatever) to emotionally stimulate/unsettle the audience. Would there be something wrong with that, if it's ostensible purpose was to enhance the viewing experience, and not manipulate the viewer? I don't know. I definitely wouldn't be comfortable with it, that's for sure.

[IanEye]

Would there be something wrong with that, if it's ostensible purpose was to enhance the viewing experience, and not manipulate the viewer? I don't know. I definitely wouldn't be comfortable with it, that's for sure.

pretty much all editing is manipulation. At the very least, manipulation of the media (film, video tape) itself.

I guess it is a question of intent. I often encounter parts of an interview where a person's words are unusable because they were scratching themselves and they hit the clip on mic etc. So, I have to find another instance where they use the same word with better audio and I slip that in. But my purpose for doing so is in fact better clarity.

But, if you are familiar with the movie "Used Cars" there is a scene where a video editor intentionally slips in a different word, and thus is being malicious.

also, in terms of tv it is much easier to slip in subliminal images into an interlaced picture than a progressive picture

[orz]

Tricks of the trade that maybe use between-the-lines, under-the-radar technology (visual, auditory, climate, food additives, subliminals, whatever) to emotionally stimulate/unsettle the audience.

Interesting idea but who would control any of these things and how!? Most cinemas seem to have enough trouble simply showing films in focus with decent sound. Nice sci-fi concept but I don't see how anything you listed, beyond what subliminals it is possible to embed in surround audio and 24 photos per second, would be remotely feasible in real life cinemas.

[FourthBase]

One of the crutches the smarty-pants psy-operators must use to influence people who don't think critically as they themselves do is to fall back on deploying methods by the book, like a recipe book, when they construct a product.( And I'd love to see it. Decades of honed 'lessons learned.') Because all psy-ops really is is product constructed for specific mnemonic effect, like a meal.

And what have advertisers (and presumably all other kinds of propagandists) had to contend with for at least a few decades now? Deepening and deepening cynicism among the "thinking set", even a knee-jerk unlearned cynicism (consumer saavy!) in the "unthinking set". The angles of psychological appeals advertisers have had to take in a multitude of (maybe most) ads has become ree-donkously oblique. Commercials which are nearly unfathomable, commercials which don't even "advertise" and barely flash a logo at the end, commercials which themselves consist entirely of cynicism reflected back to the "consumer target". The companies at this point are out-cynic-ing the cynics, out-decaying the decadents, most of the time anyway, because many of their attempts fall flat as the copywriters seem to be either phoning in their grasp of the zeitgeist or don't actually understand it beyond a recognition of the cynical phenotype. Anyhow...what is implied in Hugh's pleas to see it his way is that these seemingly retarded tactics like KH (or even the phonetical crap) are so stupid they disarm the discerning, who can no longer fathom that such retarded tactics would ever be on the table and are on the lookout (thoughtfully or unthoughtfully) for a minimum of cleverness, so the retarded tactics, if used, are virtually invisible. And possibly the only remaining effective tool to pierce the thoughtful cynic's defenses. Wouldn't that be ironic? Again: Not necessarily buying it. But it's plausible, in my opinion.

[orz]

Ballard's "Kingdom Come" has some interesting takes on the whole obtuse/grim/sinister trends in (UK, dunno if you get this kind of stuff elsewhere) tv advertising.

[FourthBase]

Tricks of the trade that maybe use between-the-lines, under-the-radar technology (visual, auditory, climate, food additives, subliminals, whatever) to emotionally stimulate/unsettle the audience.

Interesting idea but who would control any of these things and how!? Most cinemas seem to have enough trouble simply showing films in focus with decent sound. Nice sci-fi concept but I don't see how anything you listed, beyond what subliminals it is possible to embed in surround audio and 24 photos per second, would be remotely feasible in real life cinemas.

Well, I'm assuming the climates in chains are decided upon at a national HQ level, with directives to the individual franchises re: standard climate control. Also, that most of the "stimulants" (if you will) would be contained directly in the film (which is still film right?) and the audio feed (which I'm assuming is now digital) and would be handed to the theatre chains in finished form? No way do I think the theatre experience is being dialed up and down at the individual theatre level, by theatre employees. Have you seen theatre employees?

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

3:10 to Yuma is taken from an Elmore Leonard short story.

That Elmore Leonard -- should have known he was one of THEM.

A writer who generates useful devices will be given a career by "THEM."
That is, both people making money on product and people promoting psy-ops in product, two distasteful treats in one.

Yes, I noted his career of shoot-em-up westerns and the like going back to the mid-1950s.
Bold masculine action titles for movies of the same. Perfect Warrior Culture props.

Be Cool
Desperado
Killshot
Stick
Gunsights
Swag
Pronto

Seems to me that many of the Cold War propaganda themes are back to get recruits for the PNAC rerun of the movie Hitler was starring in.

Many Vietnam veterans said in interviews I've read that they got their ideas about war growing up on John Wayne movies .

Edward R. Morrow pointed out in 1958 that TV had become just a big western shoot-em-up and it horrified him.

Guess he was left out of the social engineering loop and kept on as a WWII news credibility prop and, therefore, a psy-ops device himself.
Even the sacred Edward R. Murrow was made head of the U.S.Information Agency by JFK to exploit his 'virtue branding' for Cold War purposes.

Morrow in his controversial 1958 speech at the Radio and Television News Directors Association-
"If Hollywood were to run out of Indians, the program schedules would be mangled beyond all recognition."

Now the movie is 'Cowboys and Arabs.'

[professorpan]

A writer who generates useful devices will be given a career by "THEM."
That is, both people making money on product and people promoting psy-ops in product, two distasteful treats in one.

Yes, I noted his career of shoot-em-up westerns and the like going back to the mid-1950s.
Bold masculine action titles for movies of the same. Perfect Warrior Culture props.

Be Cool
Desperado
Killshot
Stick
Gunsights
Swag
Pronto

You really are a boor. Leonard is an excellent crime fiction writer -- suggesting he is a propagandist is fucking asinine.

Why don't you write him a letter telling him what you think of his work? (And don't fail to mention that you've never read any of it.) I'd love to see him break open his "distasteful" "warrior culture props" on your cowardly ass.

Because that's what someone who slanders strangers via the Internet really is -- a coward.

[orz]

A writer who generates useful devices will be given a career by "THEM."

That old dodge again?