Afraid to go to sleep – Paranormal Activity hits US cinemas

October 13, 2009 - 10:49 AM by Nicky · 1 Comment
Filed under: Blogging, Movies, Pop Culture 

It’s the surprise hit of the year. Audiences across the US are afraid to go to sleep after watching a horror film made by Israeli filmmaker Oren Peli. The low budget movie reportedly cost just $11,000 to produce, but reviewers are calling it the most scary film ever made. Think Blair Witch Project, only worse.

The movie, Paranormal Activity , was filmed in 2006 over a seven-day period. It was set in Peli’s own suburban tract home with a crew of just three including his then-girlfriend Toni Taylor, and best friend (also Israeli) Amir Zbeda.

The film was released in fewer than 200 theaters, but raked in $7.1 million in one weekend – a record for a limited release film.

The film, about a couple who think their house is haunted, has now been picked up by Paramount Pictures . It bills itself as “the first-ever major film release demanded by you.”

Peli is not your usual blockbuster movie type director. He dropped out of school at 16, to set up his own software company. Three years later he immigrated to the US with Zbeda and began work developing animation and video game programs.

He got the idea for the film when he moved into a new home and found the sudden quiet of suburbia disturbing. The house was new and still settling, and at night he could hear the house shifting and groaning.

He wrote a script, fixed up his house a bit, held a casting session in Hollywood, and hey presto, shot a movie. He edited it on his own home PC, and then submitted it to Screamfest – a boutique festival for cult horror in LA.

The film was released in September with limited late-night showings at just 13 college towns, but the ball started rolling and the film became a web sensation on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. Critics also jumped on board giving excellent reviews.

Originally Paramount planned to reshoot the film with better-known actors, but studio heads – including Steven Spielberg – decided it could stand as it was, with only a few tweaks.

Peli is now onto his next movie, a thriller called Area 51, but in the meantime Paramount Pictures releases Paranormal Activity at cinemas across the US on Friday. Get ready for some sleepless nights.

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Twittering the war

December 31, 2008 - 11:23 AM by David · 7 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Technology, War 

After so many times of kicking ass on the battlefield, but losing the media war, various government bodies are paying much closer attention this time to explaining Israel’s positions and justification for their current operation in Gaza.

Fortunately, most people can think back longer than two minutes and understand the context here – that the air force strikes in Gaza were precipitated by years of Hamas rocket attacks in Israel’s southern cities and communities. But for those too blind to see the full picture – or for informed people who just want to receive more information, there’s some assistance and visual aids available thanks to our friends at both the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the IDF.

And these government officials learned the lesson finally, that most people aren’t getting their information anymore from the talking heads on CNN or from the oped pages of the New York Times… but from Twitter and YouTube.

On Tuesday, Israel’s New York consulate held a “live citizen press conference” on Twitter hosted by David Saranga, consul for media and public affairs. The conference saw thousands of on-line “attendees” who followed the consulate’s Twitter page during the two-hour discussion.

“This is a young audience that doesn’t want to hear history or long-winded stories. It wants clear, short and on-topic responses. That’s Twitter and that’s our goal: short and precise responses that answer their questions,” said Saranga.

“Since the start of the Gaza situation, we’ve noticed a very active discussion on Twitter that hasn’t been very complimentary to the Israeli side,” Saranga explained. “On Twitter, anyone can say whatever they think without giving a name, and they can present supposed facts and are believed. So we felt it was important to present a voice that is not anonymous, where people know the source of the information.”

YouTube Preview ImageMeanwhile, Saranga’s colleagues over at the IDF Spokesman’s Office have launched their own
YouTube channel, to disseminate footage of precision IAF bombing operations in Gaza.

“The blogosphere and new media are another war zone,” Foreign Press Branch head Maj. Avital Leibovich told The Jerusalem Post. “We have to be relevant there,” she said. “The important thing is to get the truth out there,”

I wonder, though, if footage showing an an IAF airstrike targeting a group of men the army says were loading rockets onto a pickup truck, to be driven to the border and launched into Israel, is going to win over and minds and hearts.

Those who support Israel will be gung ho, but those who feel that we’ve gone too far with this offensive might grudgingly admit that the men who were hit were about to launch an attack on Israel, but there must be some other way to prevent them from carrying it out… maybe like asking nicely?

Leibovich was’t too concerned that the footage might have some ’snuff film’ element to it. “The intelligent audience watching the footage will know that people killed did not have peaceful intentions toward Israel,” she told The Post. “I don’t believe they’ll be disturbed.”

With talk of a temporary cease-fire being bandied about, the online innovations adopted by the IDF and the Foreign Ministry may have to temporarily be put on hold. But it’s nice to see the opportunities are being utilized to aid our war effort in the just as important hasbara war.
I’m still not sure about those snuff films though.

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