Film Theories

Hello movie fans, and welcome to the newest installment of Eccentric Spheres.

Today we're not talking about movies, we are talking about talking about movies.

I found a great channel on Youtube called The Film Theorists that amongst other things analyses famous movies and theories from a logical point of view.

The video that caught my eye and drew me in was Blair Witch's secret killers. It goes through the original Blair Witch Project and explains how there could very well have been no witch and how the whole film actually is an elaborate murder mystery.

I also learned that Neo from the Matrix isn't the chosen one and that it technically is possible for a tornado to dump great white sharks on Los Angeles.

There is so much more on this cool channel, and if that isn't enough, go check out the sister channel The Game Theorists, for you guessed it, video game theories.

I have to run now, but I'll leave the relevant links below. Until next time, have a great week!

https://www.youtube.com/user/FilmTheorists/featured
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo_IB5145EVNcf8hw1Kku7w

Altered Perception

Point of view.

Perception.

Small words in themselves but they carry none the less great power. I present to you today the power of perception and how it can be twisted.

Consider the following movies:

Monthy Python and the Holy Grail - Comedy

The Shining - Horror

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - Fantasy

Mrs. Doubtfire - Comedy

Right? This is what these movies are, these are undeniably their genres. But with some clever editing and sound work we get this:

Monthy Python and the Holy Grail - Historical Drama

The Shining - Comedy

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - Teen Comedy

Mrs. Doubtfire - Horror

I present to you the “alternative” version of these movies:

Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr2AGCPxQfU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmkVWuP_sO0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hynaL4K0Ods
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ckv_Dz-Sio

That's it for this time, and until we meet again, don't trust your eyes and have a great week! 

Is it really there?

Today's topic concerns trap streets and even trap towns. No, they're not intended to kill people, just to catch cartographical copycats.

In times past, long before Google Maps (and to be fair Bing Maps) a cartographer had to go and figure out where stuff was, and how far apart the stuff was from other stuff. Naturally this was, and is, both difficult and tedious. Obviously it could also be pretty dangerous. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that many mapmakers simply copied others and passed it off as their own work. Naturally this ticked off the real cartographers to no end so some of them started including imaginary places to catch plagiarists red handed. Otherwise it would be impossible to prove copyright. After all, an accurate map should be identical to another accurate map, right?

Sometimes it could be a fake bend in a river, or a hill that isn't there, but more often it's a street that only exists on the map. If you go there you'll only find a whole heap of nothing.

Kemp Avenue in Toronto, Lye Close in Bristol and Moat Lane in North London are examples of trap streets. But whats really fun is the town of Argleton in northern England. Argleton has never existed at all. Today it has been removed from Google Maps, but for a long time it appeared on many different maps. In reality there is and has always been only a muddy field there.

Even more fascinating is the town of Agloe in upstate New York. Agloe was first put on the map in the 1930's by cartographer Otto G. Lindberg and his assistant Ernest Alpers. They included Agloe for the reasons mentioned above. Then one day Lindberg saw Agloe on a Rand McNally map, and promptly cried foul.

The kicker is Agloe was really there, or at least a building with a large sign saying Agloe General Store. So the McNally mapmakers naturally included the town of Agloe on their version of the map.

What had happened was this: The store owners had bought a map from gas giant Esso, Lindbergs map in fact, and seeing that the map claimed the place where they built their store was called Agloe, it would be natural to name their store the Agloe General Store. After all, an official map bought from Esso had to be correct.

That's it for today, until next time, have a great week!

What We Do in the Shadows

I finally got around to watching What We Do in the Shadows (2014) last Friday.

WWDitS is a horror/comedy mockumentary about four vampires who share a house as flatmates in Wellington, New Zealand. They are constantly followed around by the camera crew as they try to explain the reality of their unlives.

The comedy far outweighs the horror, but if you are really sensitive, be aware that there is some gore in the movie. That said, it's not scary at all. The comedy on the other hand is top notch. I found it really on point and clever all throughout the film.

The four main characters in WWDitS poke fun at the traditional vampires in media. There's the 18^th century dandy, we have the medieval Transylvanian, the ancient Nosferatu etc.

A large portion of the comedy comes from the fact that although they are old and powerful, they still have to deal with things like doing the dishes and finding suitable victims in this modern world.

I really don't want to spoil this movie by overselling it or going into too much detail, but I laughed loudly several times. The general atmosphere is silly and dopey without being slapstick and “zany”. It's intelligent humor and it really sticks to the point. Although the vampires are stereotypes, WWDitS is more of a satire about the vampires and their condition than a spoof on other vampire movies.

Being a mockumentary, it's at times blurry and slightly shaky, but there's a good reason for this. It's not Found Footage shaky, which is a relief. Actually, I can't really find any proper faults here.

Bottom line, I really recommend What We Do in the Shadows. Unless you are truly allergic to vampires you really aught to see it. I will link the trailer below.

That is that for this time, so until we see each other again, have fun week!