Afraid to go to sleep – Paranormal Activity hits US cinemas
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.
Will we live in a Flat world?
With one in eight women likely to get breast cancer at one time or another in their lives, it’s a topic that makes an awful lot of women extremely nervous. Israeli film maker and breast cancer survivor Nitsana Bellehsen decided to take a different approach – humor.
Her film, Flat, which has been selected as the only Israeli finalist in the Breast Fest Film Festival in Toronto, tackles the subject of the rising rates of breast cancer with a sense of black absurdity that leaves you both concerned and amused at the same time.
In her short four minute film, Nitsana – who does many of ISRAEL21c’s video features on YouTube – leaps ahead to 2050 to see what the world will look like. It’s not pretty.
You can watch the movie here, and don’t forget to vote. Voting closes on October 15.
A teaser follows.
Israeli arms dealer goes Bollywood – uh oh
Sometimes, just now and again, a YouTube video comes along that is so crummy, that it’s almost a masterpiece. Dubbed the worst marketing movie ever made by the blogosphere, an honor it undoubtedly deserves, this piece by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has got to be one of the most ill advised advertisements an Israeli company has ever made.
Undoubtedly, if you’re a defense company it must be hard to keep coming up with new and interesting ways to sell your products. I mean how many ways can you sell a missile?
Rafael execs decided they had to do something different, and so for last month’s Aero India 2009 show, they took their weapons, sprinkled them liberally with a seasoning of Bollywood and voila! A Bollywood-style movie featuring a man (Israel), and four dancing girls (India) in full Bollywood costumes dancing between a range of Rafael’s phallic shaped missiles.
I guess most missiles are shaped like this, but it’s not usually something you think about until you see men and women skipping suggestively between them.
The women sings: “I need to feel safe and sheltered. Security and protection. Commitment and perfection. Defense and dedication.” And the man chimes in: “I promise to defend you, fulfill your expectations. Shield you and support you. Meet my obligations.”
And the unforgettable chorus to this meaningful exchange? “Dinga dinga dee…”
Oh dear, oh dear.
The truth is Israel’s defense relationship with India is pretty darn strong these days – Israel recently became the country’s main defense supplier. And the government-owned Rafael is in a particularly good position. Just last August Rafael and Israel’s IAI signed a joint $2.5 billion deal with the Indian Ministry of Defense.
After a period of circling one another tentatively, the two countries have realized they have much in common – particularly in the wake of the Mumbai terror attack last November.
But that still leaves us with a question. Whatever possessed Rafael to make this movie? It’s a question Saurabh Joshi of the Web site StratPost asked a company representative at the Rafael stall. He was told that the video was intended to “help build familiarity between India and Israel and Rafael.”
Not everyone sees it like that. On Wired’s Danger room blog, Noah Shachtman called it “the most atrocious defense video of all time.” While on the blog DEW line, Stephen Trimble, called it a “catastrophic collision of Bollywood and the arms industry, and dared his readers to watch the video “and, if you’re able, immediately erase the awful tune from your brain.”
It’s harder than you think. Dinga dinga dee.
Twittering the 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.”
Meanwhile, 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.
Israeli rock band animates YouTube
Filed under: Art, General, Movies, Music, Pop Culture, design
An Israeli animation is now creating a buzz on the Net. It got 160,000 views in just two weeks, and a special review at Aniboom – the world’s biggest animation site. It was also featured on YouTube Spain, Mexico, Ireland, Netherlands and Israel.
It’s an animation music video for the Israeli alternative rock band, Eatliz. Called “Hey”, the 3D animation took almost two years to make, with a crew of 15 animators.
The project is the brainchild of Guy Ben-Shetrit, a freelance animator who has worked for commercials, TV programs and computer games. Ben-Shetrit is the founder and composer of Eatliz, wrote the featured song, directed the movie, and was the lead animator. (He quit his job and took a year off work to complete the project.)
The video, which is going to be featured in the next issues of animation and design DVD magazines Stash and IDN, is a weird Sci-Fi fantasy journey taken by a little girl and her special pet friend, a huge toad.
This is the second animation music video by Eatliz – the first “Attractive” was directed by Yuval and Merav Nathan. The film won Best animation category in Israel’s annual animation festival, Asif.
Enjoy.
Yes we can? Really?
It all started when Likud leader Bibi Netanyahu completely ripped off Barack Obama’s website. And when I say completely, I mean completely. Not just the idea of integrating social media – but layout, graphics and color scheme as well. Purely shameless. That was just the beginning. Bibi, Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni and even Shas (also using Obama’s “Yes we can” mantra) have twitter accounts. Some really have the campaigns behind them, others do not. We’ve also seen, for better or worse, the introduction of “Livni Boy” a blatant rip off of the enormously popular (and hot) Obama Girl as well as “Asulin Girl,” an even more blatant rip off of the original which promotes Sagiv Asulin, a young leader of Likud who used the video to garner support in the primaries and consequently will most likely make it to the Knesset. 
Apparently when it comes to political campaigning, originality is not a strength in the Holy land, though silliness is. At least Channel 2 is doing something that can potentially involve Israel Israeli (like Joe Sixpack but Israeli) in the political process. They’ve teamed up with YouTube and are asking for Israelis to submit questions that will actually be answered live on the air by all three party leaders who are vying for prime minister. CNN did something similar during the primaries and proved to be really, really bizarre and surreal at times. I am of course referring to an actual snowman asking a question about global warming. Not sure how any Israeli can top that or if Channel 2 would even be courageous to broadcast a camel asking about the receding Dead Sea.
What Becomes of Ex-Presidents
Filed under: Business, General, Israeliness, Life, Politics
The may not much like soon to be former President George Bush in the U.S. – or in Iraq – and now that he’s leaving office, he may have a future in Israel – with his name emblazoned in lights on a business!
Most people will remember that Bush received a very high approval rating among Israelis when he came here at the beginning of 2008. Now, with Bush ready to leave office, Israeli commentators will be coming out with articles like this one looking back with nostalgia at the positive relationship between Israel and Bush.
Tough on the outside but sweet on the inside, Israelis are actually very sentimental – and have a good business sense, as well. So the chances of some ingenious Israeli adopting the name “Bush” for their business are good (maybe for a gardening service?). Admittedly, “Coffee Annan,” named after former UN Secretary Kofi Annan, was too obvious not to do something with. But other than having eaten it, Bill Clinton had little if anything to do with pizza – but that didn’t stop this Jerusalem entrepreneur from using the ex-president’s name to promote his slices. And chances are business will improve dramatically now that Hillary is going to be Secretary of State!
Lovin’ Livni
The object of affection
The foreign minister, Kadima leader and its candidate for prime minister in the February 10th elections has alot of other items on her resume, including Mossad agent, but until now sex symbol has not been one of them.
In ‘Livni Boy’, actor Liran Avisar wakes up over a poster of Tzippora, puts on a Livni Boy shirt and over a snappy hip hop beat, professes his love for the no-nonsense, happily married pol while dancing on the streets of Tel Aviv.
In a mixture of Hebrew and English, he sings lyrics like “Oh Tzipi, you’re what I wanted, all that I expected from a political leader,” “I don’t want Ehud. I don’t trust Bibi. Tzipi if you let me, I will be your man. Just tell me yes,” and “Not Golda, not Condoleezza, not Palin, not Michelle Obama, because no one can beat you, Momma.”
According to newspaper reports, the video was the brainchild of two young Kadima supporters who wanted to have some fun, and at the same time, drum up some street support for Livni.
“People think the video is a clever idea of [Livni strategist] Reuven Adler, but the truth is we did it at our initiative,” one of the duo told The Jerusalem Post. “Obama Girl inspired us to try to get young people here excited about Tzipi. Young people only connect to things that are really cool.”
After hearing about the video – or maybe even taking a gander – Livni reportedly called up her admirers to thank them. Now, the question is, if we’ll also begin seeing grassroots video tributes to Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, the other leaders running for PM. Perhaps ‘Bibi Babe’ featuring Pnina Rosenblum, or how about ‘Bonkers for Barak’ featuring, well, someone that likes him..
-
Subscribe
Subscribe to Israelity via email:
Social Media
Tag Cloud
Gaza Religion knesset israeli nostalgia IDF coexistence photography Music Tel Aviv Travel Green Prophet shopping Waltz with Bashir photograhy Kadima Paul McCartney photo succot vote israeli photography Israelis Art jerusalem Food Rosh Hashana hamas Environment tourism Israel Sderot Foto Friday photographers holiday election War photo exhibition Dead Sea festival Operation Cast Lead nostalgia Nostalgia Sunday Politics photographer Yom Kippur raceCategories
- A New Reality
- Art
- Blogging
- Business
- coexistence
- Crime
- design
- Environment
- Food
- Foto Friday
- General
- health
- History and Culture
- Holidays
- Immigrant Moments
- Israeliness
- Life
- Medical Breakthroughs
- Movies
- Music
- Nostalgia Sunday
- Picture of the Week
- Politics
- Pop Culture
- Profiles
- Religion
- Sports
- Technology
- Travel
- War
The Face of Israel Today
-
-
About Israelity
Free newsletter
Stories from ISRAEL21c.orgPopular Posts