Twitter, YouTube and flickr are just a few of the current social networking tools that have contributed to the massive proliferation of users online as well as making the world (and universe) a much smaller place through the use of their technological devices and the data that has passed through them. Likewise, the cinema has been a source of entertainment and inspiration for its viewers since the first image and accompaniment of light flickered on a movie screen. By combining communications tools via the power of the cinema, the results have been highly reactive in the present social and technological marketplace.
Pre-dating contemporary computer and electronic technology, the movie-going public as well as the characters embedded in the celluloid, would (and still do) engage in an archaic form of message-delivery: stone drawings, paper/letter correspondence, radio or Morse code/telegraphic communications. Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s A LETTER TO THREE WIVES (1949) would now easily reach three million within seconds via a mainframe and companion server. In Hitchcock’s THE LADY VANISHES, Dame May Whitty’s Miss Froy, could’ve texted of her capture in the train’s compartment or uploaded the “MacGuffin” folk song carrying top secret information to a YouTube account using her mobile phone.
What follows are a few examples of films that have exhibited similar techniques and design processes of these networking tools prior to their creation. What is key here is that data was shared through an interaction with another person(s) (or user(s)) as opposed to being kept to oneself which is the crux of social networking.
Photographs were taken by paparazzi in LA DOLCE VITA (Dir: Federico Fellini, 1960) and NOTHING SACRED (Dir: William A. Wellman, 1937) and by a photographer trying to solve a murder (BLOW-UP, Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966) and (REAR WINDOW, Dir: Alfred Hitchcock, 1954), but that the images weren’t shared by them through their cinematic communities, save for their respective newspapers or magazine editors, they must sadly be disqualified from any inclusion herein.
Although there is an exuberance of energy and powerful imagery present in films such as MAGNOLIA (Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999), JFK (Dir: Oliver Stone, 1991), SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (Dirs: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1952) or ANNIE HALL (Dir: Woody Allen, 1977) - - all of which and more like them are featured in clips (or in their entirety) online - - their entertainment may leave a lasting effect on one’s memory and feature a film (or game show)-within-a-film or film-viewing aspect, but any tool for the sake of social networking is for the most part, intangible.
Just think, if these filmmakers had played their cards right and had access to the technology that is currently available at our fingertips, these contemporary devices could’ve been welded in the furnace of their creative minds and like many of (YouTube’s) Chad Hurley’s contemporaries, in their basement.
Twitter/texting (Jack Dorsey, 2007; www.twitter.com)
Twitter asks one question, "What are you doing?"/"What's happening?" Answers must be under 140 characters in length and can be sent via mobile texting, instant message or the web. Twitter's core technology is a device agnostic message routing system with rudimentary social networking features. By accepting messages from sms, web, mobile web, instant message, or from third party API projects, Twitter makes it easy for folks to stay connected.
DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (Dir: Stanley Kubrick, 1964) In this “culturally significant” dark comedy masterpiece, Sterling Hayden’s General Jack D. Ripper, orders a B-52 carrying nuclear warheads into Soviet airspace through an onboard CRM 114 device utilizing brief three-letter code prefixed messages between themselves. The results are disastrous and equally hilarious.
E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (Dir: Steven Spielberg, 1982) The beloved science fiction blockbuster featuring the relationship between a stranded alien botanist and his earthling friend, Elliott, as they employ a “Communicator” device to “phone home”. By utilizing the Speak & Spell console (one of the earliest electronic handheld devices complete with a visual display) in addition to various household appliances, a tree branch and a little imagination, Spielberg has concocted one of the most elaborate communications tools (exhibiting less than 140 characters, albeit, in an alien language) in cinema history with enough reception to reach E.T.’s home in deep space.
REAL GENIUS (Dir: Martha Coolidge, 1985) Val Kilmer’s Chris Knight attempts to loosen up his fellow “Pacific Tech” classmate Mitch by throwing him a party during their many failed attempts at creating a chemical laser for their professor. Unbeknownst to Mitch, Chris lures him (and scores of students in the process) across the university quad by way of a laser light show to a “Tanning Invitational” hosted by dozens of scantily clad beauticians. An alternative precursor to Evite / Socializr, Chris types a brief phrase “Tanning Invitational” by way of computer which is eventually “spelled out” by an elaborate series of laser beams and reflective mirrors set up across campus.
THE ABYSS (Dir: James Cameron, 1989) The science fiction underwater actioner features a team of oil workers and Navy SEALs in a mission to salvage nuclear warheads from a sunken Soviet submarine before they detonate and an approaching hurricane topside impedes their objective. When one of the warheads falls over the edge of an undersea trench, Ed Harris’ Bud is fitted with a special diving suit as well as a wrist pad touch-type device to apprise the team (in brief messages) of his advances into the abyss.
YouTube (Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, 2005; www.youtube.com)
YouTube is the leader in online video and the premier destination to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience. YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs and email.
JOHNNY MNEMONIC (Dir: Robert Longo, 1995) Keanu Reeve’s Johnny Mnemonic takes the idea of a ‘thumb drive’ a step further playing a data courier who delivers sensitive information to clients through a storage implant in his brain by connecting to and uploading data and imagery via a television or visual display. A similar idea is featured in TOTAL RECALL (Dir: Paul Verhoeven, 1990) based on sci-fi maestro Philip K. Dick’s “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” when Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Quaid is ‘uploaded’ with memories - - or in this case - - images for a vacation on Mars.
HACKERS (Dir: Iain Softley, 1995) Johnny Lee Miller’s Crash Override first connects with Angelina Jolie’s Acid Burn when Override tries to hack into a television station’s computer network in order to watch an episode of The Outer Limits. Burn then (like current copyright infringement) hacks into the server and kicks him off.
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (Dirs: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez, 1999) The film takes YouTube’s tagline “broadcast yourself” a bit too far and although it is indirectly ‘broadcast’ by filmmakers other than those featured in the footage, it is nonetheless a forerunner in the idea of shooting oneself to become the subject of shared video and ‘viral’ programming for the masses to digest it.
JACKASS: THE MOVIE (Dir: Jeff Tremaine, 2002) The “feel-sick movie of the year” features MTV’s Jackass television performers (stars?) doing what they do best in front of the camera which has spread like ‘viral’ wildfire throughout the Web and become a pop-cultural phenomenon spawning imitations online, on television (MADtv and FAMILY GUY) and re-enacted most particularly by young boys aged 18-32.
Amélie (Dir: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001) Amélie Poulain’s Audrey Tautou mysteriously surprises “the Glass Man” with videotapes she has edited (and uploaded) with whimsical, random and ‘viral’ imagery (e.g. a naked baby swimming in a pool, a horse intruding on a bicycling tournament, etc.).
Flickr (Stewart Butterfield, Caterina Fake, 2004; www.flickr.com)
By securely and privately uploading images and/or video from the Internet, mobile devices, users' home computers and from whatever software they are using to manage their content, Flickr shares this data on the Flickr website, in RSS feeds, on one’s blog, by email, by posting to outside blogs, etc. Flickr also organizes photos and video as metadata in order to search and disseminate to others with ease.
PECKER (Dir: John Waters, 1998) Edward Furlong’s Pecker, an avid photographer and sandwich shop employee, becomes an art sensation when the photos he takes of his family and Baltimore neighbors catch the interest of a New York art dealer and professional art collectors.
Amélie (Dir: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001) Through the help of Amélie’s friend, a stewardess, Amélie devises a plot to have her travel the world with her father’s garden gnome and take pictures of it amidst the backdrop of worldly landmarks (e.g. New York City and Russia). Additionally, Amélie’s love interest, Nino Quincampoix, travels throughout Montmarte lifting discarded photos from photo booths which he collects and keeps in an album.
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