Re: PR/was Transhumanism in The Outer Limits?

Christopher Whipple (byteboy@simons-rock.edu)
Mon, 2 Mar 1998 09:44:03 -0500 (EST)


Recently I've thought a great deal about the idea of a transhumanist film.
Pulling it off, however, is a lot tougher than expected. A few days
back I sat down and starting scripting out the audio/visual content second
by second - what seemed right at the time. It took me an hour and
forty-five minutes to get 4min. 22sec. of film scripted out.

Perhaps I'll put it on the net as soon as I get a half hour or so worth of
material and graphics (maybe even the soundtrack).

The marketing aspect was something that I'd thought about a long time ago
when my aspiration was to become the CEO of a philanthropically transhuman
company. My idea was to bring transhuman art to the population in a
humble manner. Imagine magazine advertisements in Newsweek or Time - just
one page with a piece of art on it, maybe a little company logo in the
lower right hand corner. Then come the TV ads - 60 second music videos
during popular television shows - to break the monotony of what television
has become. In the beginning you present this free art and free music -
free culture - to the society that's forgotten what culture even MEANS
anymore...

...and of course, that's when you subtley start throwing out some
products.

I don't know much about the logistics behind this actually working - or
any concpet of the money involved, but I still think it would be nice of
someone to implement this marketing technique... just so I can see if my
hunch was right.

-chris/byteboy

On Mon, 2 Mar 1998 mark@unicorn.com wrote:

> Technotranscendence [neptune@mars.superlink.net] wrote:
> >That's true. Now we only have to sell the idea to a studio or network
> >that is willing to invest in it. Of course, a good movie might turn into
> >a series too.
>
> Selling a new series to US TV companies is almost impossible these days
> unless you have a track record, and Hollywood doesn't seem too interested
> in movies with anything unusual to say.
>
> >Also, we might think of independent productions, which might create
> >a following, if they are done and marketed well enough.
>
> I think that's the only way, and some of us are already working on it. I'm
> working with a group who are trying to put together a kind of anti-Roswell,
> anti-X-Files comedy on a low budget (without direct parody). If it works
> out then hopefully I can start making more 'serious' transhumanist movies afterwards (I have a very rough idea for a pro-SI 'propaganda' piece, but
> we'd need a few million to make it properly).
>
> >We should also ry to penetrate other markets. The Latin American
> >TV market, from what I've heard, is the fastest growing. Potential?
>
> Now the Hong Kong movie industry seems to be going down the tubes,
> the Asian market might be another good idea. They certainly have
> a taste for the bizarre (e.g. this morning I was watching 'Sex and
> Zen', a comedy about a 16th century scholar who decides Buddhist
> abstinence isn't for him and gets a transplant from a horse) and
> Japanese movies often have a transhumanist bent. Of course the
> Chinese takeover of Hong Kong might destroy much of the market
> as well.
>
> Mark
>