WEBVTT - Listener Mail: Kuleshov Kul-Aid 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:05.280 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:11.280 My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:17.480 Listener mail. This is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:20.520 And today's the day we bring you messages that you've 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:22.960 sent in over the past couple of weeks. So today 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:25.200 we've got some messages about the Cool As Show effect, 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:29.000 about Vault episodes on Mushroom Foraging. But I think first 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:30.680 we're going to start off with the response to our 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:35.519 series on Tumbleweeds. Yes, now I have to say, and 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:40.040 this is something that you pointed out, we have fewer 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:45.160 messages than we usually have, so I'm going to try 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:50.560 and speak very slowly and Okay, if I pause enough, 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:54.600 we'll be able to go thirty minutes or so here. 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:59.640 Oh oh, that's a brilliant idea. Excuse me, that is 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:05.800 a brilliant idea. All right, I don't know if we 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.119 can sustain this. I'll probably go back to normal speed here. 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:11.679 They can easily defeat us by just going to the 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:14.039 two x speed or whatever on playback. That's right, they're 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:16.360 just and then but that then we'll cause like some 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.399 sort of whiplash if we go super slow and then 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:21.320 we start speeding up again, and we don't want to 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:24.160 We don't want to do that. We don't wanna do 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:26.920 that to the listeners. Folks. Have we annoyed you enough 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:36.480 today already? Or all right, let's jump into it. This 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:41.520 one comes to us from Bill. It's titled Tumbleweeds, Bill Rights. 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:44.800 Your show has edutained me for years, but I am 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:48.120 shocked that of all the fascinating topics that you have covered, 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:52.120 it is the seed spreading of dead flora that has 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.919 brought in the most email. I am in southern Utah, 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:59.200 which has a huge supply of Russian thistle that rolls 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:02.160 around the area, gets caught in the dust devils, which 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:04.880 elevate them hundreds of feet above the terrain, and of 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:08.959 course clog up drainage, ditches, slat canyons, and even damages 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:12.520 cars if the central quote unquote trunk of the bush 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:16.520 is large enough to damage the frail plastic of modern cars. 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:19.880 Some of these beasts can reach eight to ten feet 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:23.880 in diameter. My job throwing people off of cliffs keeps 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:28.160 me surrounded by these mesmerizing rolling nuisances as I hike 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:31.560 and climb through remote desert areas. Of all the places 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:35.240 where you don't want to tangle with these are in 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:39.000 some of the slot canyons of Lake Powell. There are 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:41.680 places where one has to wade and swim through a 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:45.240 hundred yards of lake soaked tumbleweeds that could easily be 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:48.239 five to ten feet thick from the lake bottom to 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.600 just below the surface. They quickly sink, but take quite 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:54.760 a while to fully break down. This leaves years, if 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:59.280 not decades, of submerged spiky residue to contend with. Keep 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:02.560 up your amazing content and delivery, Bill, Wow, what a 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:06.560 hellish scene you have described, so like slot canyons that 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:10.520 have water at the bottom, and then that water is 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:14.560 just full of like years of build up of of 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:18.480 slowly rotting tumbleweeds. Yeah, I love I love this detail. 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:21.880 We're learning more and more about the devastation wrought by 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:24.880 the Russian thistle. I'm assuming the job of throwing people 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:28.040 off of cliffs here is some sort of like bungee 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:32.680 cord related venture, bass jumping or something. Yeah, I don't know. 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:35.920 I hope this is not a confession from a serial killer. 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:39.600 In our He's just a crazed desert dweller that throws 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:42.440 people off of cliffs whenever he finds them, but he 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:46.480 does not clarify, so we'll just have to assume the 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:54.880 best quantum state. All right, are you ready for this 0:03:54.960 --> 0:04:00.400 message from Lauren on our Vault episodes about mushroom foraging. Oh? Yes, okay, 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:03.400 Lauren says, Hello, Robert and Joe. Uh, And then she 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:05.760 starts off by saying some some very nice things about 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:09.240 the show and talks about how she started listening to 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:11.920 us this past December and has been exploring a bunch 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:15.240 of our episodes ever since then. So Lauren begins after 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.560 listening to the second Vault episode about mushroom foraging. The 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:21.560 information about the two types of fruit flies made me 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:24.080 think about the times in my youth when I very 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:28.240 occasionally played Super Mario on the Nintendo sixty four, the 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:30.680 one where you jump through paintings to enter worlds with 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:35.480 goals to complete um. Now, for people who haven't revisited 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:38.680 the Mushroom episodes recently, we should probably do a quick 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:43.000 refresher on what the deal with the different foraging styles was. Basically, 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:46.640 the idea here is that research has identified a gene 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:49.920 found in a variety of animals called p r KG 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:54.279 one and found that in UH some very different animals, 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:57.240 though a lot of the researches in fruit flies, which 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:00.400 variant of this gene you have, which p r KG 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:04.800 one allele you have seems to correlate with preferences in 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:08.839 foraging behavior, and in fruit flies at least they identify 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:13.200 two distinct types of foragers that are called sitters and rovers, 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:17.480 and these two styles have various implications, but the simplified 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:21.280 version is that sitters tend to be more conservative in 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:24.120 their foraging patterns, so they will stick close to the 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:29.080 boundaries of established foraging areas and they have shorter paths 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:33.280 of exploration, whereas rovers tend to be more adventurous. They 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:37.080 tend to explore foraging environments with long search paths and 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:40.520 a greater tendency to dive right into the exposed center 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:43.240 of open foraging areas. So there are probably a lot 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:45.719 of implications to this, but it seems at least possible 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:48.200 that this may have something to do with risk. Aversion 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:54.240 right that sitters, by sticking to more established foraging regions 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:58.600 and sticking close to sheltered boundary areas of of foraging 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.880 zones UH, they take fewer risks, but of course they 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:05.840 also suffer opportunity costs compared to the rovers, which may 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.200 be you know, taking more risks by just sort of 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:11.200 venturing right out into open space. But they're also more 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:14.320 likely to discover new food sources by doing that. Uh. 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:17.920 There is some research to indicate that possessing different variants 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:21.480 of a foraging associated gene might also be correlated with 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:25.320 similar behavior preferences and humans. Though that that's the kind 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:27.679 of assumption that I'm always a little bit cautious about, 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:31.880 So I'd want really good research basis before before going 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:35.080 whole hog on that on that foraging gene type idea 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.000 in humans. But anyway, Uh, to come back to Laura, 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:41.280 and I remember she was talking about Super Mario sixty four, 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.200 which I I remember that game fondly. I love jumping 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:46.599 into the paintings too. You know, I don't think I 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:48.760 ever played this one, but I had to look it 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:51.279 up to see which one it was. I'm vaguely familiar 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:56.040 with Mario super Mario sixty four, but I was surprised 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:58.680 to see that it's apparently popped up in different peer 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:02.360 reviewed medical studies. Uh. Yeah, yeah, where they'll have they'll 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:05.039 be testing something or another studying some something or another 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:09.480 end they will have test subjects play super Mario sixty four. Now, 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:12.360 I'm not sure if there's something special about Mario sixty 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:16.080 four uh that that makes it the ideal thing to 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:20.480 make your test subjects do, but fascinating. Nonetheless, well, it's 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:22.440 a rather magical game. And you know, I wouldn't be 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.360 surprised if if somebody out there at some point found 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:27.600 that that a little bit of Super Mario sixty four 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:29.520 was was good for what ails you, at least to 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:32.880 maybe in dispelling certain types of dysphoria or something. I 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:35.040 don't know, but yeah, So it's it's a game where 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.640 you jump through paintings to go into different like sub worlds, 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:40.000 and so so Lauren picks back up in her original email. 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:42.840 When I'd enter a painting world for the first time 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:45.200 or for the first time in a while, I would 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:48.640 always walk or swim the perimeter of the world to 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:51.600 get a sense of the boundaries of the terrain. I 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:55.080 wanted to know which directions were worth traveling in, and also, 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:57.720 if I was going to search the entire terrain, I 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:00.520 thought it best to cover the small pockets in full 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:03.320 before expanding my search, so that I didn't have to 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:07.400 return later or repeatedly unnecessarily. I did this with Zelda 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.480 as well. After listening to this episode, I got to 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:14.400 wondering about the expectations of video game developers. If they 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:18.280 anticipate their players to have a quote, run into the 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:21.200 center and aim for the biggest attraction or enemy sort 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:24.160 of mindset, or if they expect players to behave in 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.040 other ways. I wondered if for certain games, I was 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:29.880 being set up for success or failure not based on 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:33.520 my intelligence, but on the preferences and possible genetics of 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:36.640 the video game creator who established these rules to the 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:39.720 game without considering the possibility that people hunt and gather 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:44.720 in different ways. Thanks again, Lauren, Yeah, I think this 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:48.160 is really interesting, Lauren, because you know, I don't know 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:51.640 what I think about a how strongly determined a single 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:56.280 foraging gene could be on the behaviors of humans. But uh, 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:59.080 for whatever reason, I think I am very much a 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:03.240 sitter fly when it comes to virtual environments and video games. 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:06.160 I you know, when I'm playing a video game, I 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:10.400 hate having to run into the middle of previously unexplored territory. 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:14.520 I'm I'm I'm a cautious explorer. I like to understand 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:17.839 the landscape before I enter. I survey it from from 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:20.880 the sheltered periphery, look at it from high ground, and 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:24.959 so forth. I mean, I guess different games, Um, they 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:29.199 reward different types of behavior, or they can. Some games 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:33.439 are certainly gonna maybe be broader in their approach and 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:35.880 play tested in different ways to where you can you 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.680 can take multiple strategies. Um. But this is a great 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.040 question I'd love to hear from anyone out there with 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:46.079 more familiarity with the game design world. It does remind 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:50.440 me a little bit of of the situation with if 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:54.480 I remember correctly, with Fallout seventy six when it came out. 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:56.800 I think the idea with that was they were like, 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:58.720 all right, we're gonna get all these people into this 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:01.719 virtual shared all out world and they're just gonna fight 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:03.480 each other, and they're gonna have a great time fighting 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:05.760 each other. And it turns out like most people playing 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:08.080 it didn't actually want to fight each other. They wanted 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:10.400 to do other things. And so there was a period 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:12.600 of time during which I was I was playing the 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:15.600 game where uh, even even though the game wanted you 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:18.800 to kill each other, people were tending to do the opposite, 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:21.000 and they were trying to do something more communal. And 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:24.960 then eventually the game uh developers, the game masters kind 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.800 of catch up with with that, uh and and kind 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:31.560 of shift the shape of the virtual environment to meet 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:35.040 the way people wanted to actually play the game. It's interesting. 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.679 I never played that game. The only thing I know 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:39.600 You've mentioned it a couple of times, but I think 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:41.320 the only other thing I've seen about it was that 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:43.480 for some reason people were mad about it, like was 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:48.320 it buggy or something? Um oh, I'm trying to even remember. 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.000 It may have been buggy at first, I mean, not 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:54.120 not catastrophically. So I enjoyed playing I must have played 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:56.280 it pretty steadily for for over a year. It was 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:58.679 kind of a kind of a comfort food for me 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:01.080 for a little bit there. Um, I gotta say, I'd 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:03.959 rather enjoy a buggy game sometimes, like a lot of 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:07.280 pleasure out of that. Yeah. I mean a lot of 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.720 these bugs become memes, right, yeah. Yeah. But I would 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:13.000 love to hear more more about this because I guess 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:16.079 nowadays you tend to have games that are created by 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:18.800 by large groups, and hopefully those groups will be linked 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:22.000 diverse enough in their mindset to where somebody at some 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:23.559 point will be like, well, hey, what if you don't 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:25.200 want to run into the middle of this room. What 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:28.000 if you want to you know, play more like a 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:31.400 rogue or something. Uh, should we make space for that 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:33.720 to happen? But then I wonder if that it was 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.640 was less likely during the era of you know, more 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:40.720 like a soul developer on a video game. M Yeah, 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.680 I wonder. Then again, I guess there might also be 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:48.600 just different types of games, uh, that that appeal more 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:52.760 to the sitter type personality versus the rover type personality. 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:54.680 Like I mean, there are certain types of games that 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.440 there are a ton of in our generation that I 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.240 just don't ever enjoy at all, like the like the 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:04.040 military shooter type games that hold like no appealed for me. 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:06.360 But it seems like maybe they'd be more appealing to 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:08.840 somebody with kind of more of a rover personality who 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:10.920 likes to just run in and start shooting at anything 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:15.200 that moves. Yeah. Yeah, though though even in those games 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:17.640 I remember, you know, back in the days of of Doom, 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:21.280 like the original Doom and the original Quake and those games, uh, 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.080 you know, you'd have people who wanted to to to 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:26.440 to camp out to just hang out in one spot 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:29.080 on the map and then just snipe people when they 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:31.880 moved in. Um, and I think some of these games, 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:34.840 like like Half Life. Eventually caught up with that and said, okay, well, 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.319 let's let's make sure they're different roles for these different 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:42.200 types of players within a given like death match situation. 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.760 Oh yeah, I guess, I guess they're usually you probably 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:48.120 can tell I don't play multiplayer games very much, but 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:56.600 they're usually like different player classes in those games. Right, yeah, 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.360 all right, should we move on to the next one here? Sure, 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:02.080 let's go. Uh. This one comes from Brenda and this 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:05.560 has to do with their episode on the Clushov Effect. Hi, 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:07.640 Robert and Joe. I'm a long time listener and love 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:10.800 your show. I'm currently recovering from COVID and as such 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:13.000 have had an unusual amount of free time as I 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:15.480 cannot go to work. I've been using this time to 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:18.600 catch up on my favorite podcasts, and yours always takes 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:21.720 the top spot. I just finished listening to the Kulashov 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:24.079 Effect episodes, and the thing that came to mind for 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:28.439 me was memes. We have a whole culture of intentionally 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:32.640 taking expressions and clips out of context and matching them 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:36.320 with whatever images or blurbs fit what we would like 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:40.280 to express the popular woman screaming and a cat name 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:43.160 comes to mind. Perhaps it is not a perfect connection, 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:45.040 but it seems to me that in the age of 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:48.720 social media, the edit is more important than the actor. 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:53.120 Thanks Brenda, Yeah, this is a good point. Uh, I 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.200 don't know. So there's one big difference I think with 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.640 the the the alleged Coolershov effect in the in the 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.520 origin as you can experiment, which was supposedly that it 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:06.199 was like an expressionless face on that the actor was using, 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:09.600 and then that was paired with whatever. Most I think 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:14.480 meme faces are not usually expressionless. They're they're like, I 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:16.800 don't know, they've got some kind of directed content. But 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:19.280 then you fill in a blank in the IMPLI in 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:22.720 the sentence that's implied by the meme with whatever the 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:24.840 subject of the meme is, you know, the thing it's 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:27.400 reacting to or the text you put on it, and 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:30.720 so forth. Yeah, I'm thinking I'm instantly thinking of a 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:34.200 lot of these meme faces where where yeah, it's pretty 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:37.760 obvious what the emotional impact is supposed to be. A 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:40.400 lot of times it's this versus that I guess the 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:44.520 woman making the the disgusted face and then the you know, 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:47.760 considering it face, or it's Drake saying no, he doesn't 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:50.080 want this and then saying yes, he does want this. 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:54.440 So it's there's not a lot of ambiguity. Maybe i'm i'm, i'm, i'm. 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:56.400 You know, I'm just not thinking of a good example. 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:59.040 But I off the top of my head, I'm not 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:02.760 thinking of any um any any meme faces that leave 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:06.120 a lot of room to imagine what that individual thinks 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.840 of the thing that they're supposedly looking at or considering. 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:11.560 But I do think, nevertheless, there's really something going here 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:14.280 because the meme culture, I think connects more to the 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:19.320 coolest Shavian vision of filmmaking, where you would just have 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:23.160 these sort of like endlessly rearrangeable building blocks that are 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:26.960 then the the editor uses them to make meaning and 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:30.680 endless combinations. So I mean, and memes are kind of 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:33.120 that way. It's not so much that you know, you're 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:37.040 seeing neutral faces that you're reading expressions onto because of 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:40.160 the context, but you are seeing things that are just 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:53.960 treated as building blocks that can be repurposed to any situation. Yeah, alright, 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:56.880 this next message is also about the Coolest jav Effect. 0:15:56.960 --> 0:15:59.280 This is from somebody. I'm sorry, I don't know how 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:01.680 to pronounce your aim. It's spelled d I O N. 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:05.800 That might be dion or dion. I'm not sure. I'll try, 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:10.200 uh Dion Dion says Dear Rob and Joe and stuff 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:12.600 to blow your mind crew, massive fan of the show. 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:15.640 I just had to make this contribution to your discussion 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:17.880 of the Coolest Shov Effect. I hope you find it 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:21.160 useful or interesting. It's worth considering the role of another 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:24.560 editing element of the modern film, and that is sound. 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:29.120 Cooleshov's work was done before fully synchronized sound, Although it 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:32.040 is worth noting that music almost always played a role 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:35.200 in cinema in the West, it's commonly cited that music 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:37.960 was used to cover up the sound of the noisy 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:40.920 film projectors of the day. Oh yeah, I can only 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:43.920 imagine what kind of clattering racket those things would have made. 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:47.120 But the email goes on. But beyond that, there are 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:49.720 many examples of sound being used in the same way 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:52.880 we use modern score, that is, to influence or manipulate 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:57.920 an audiences perceptions or emotions and ultimately drive the film narrative. 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:01.880 Michelle Chillon and this is the name of a French 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:06.480 filmmaker and composer, UH talks about a concept called added value. 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:10.919 Added value is where images on screen and sound combined 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:15.000 to create new meaning. This meaning is greater, different, or 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:18.080 more complex than the original meaning of each part. In 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:21.719 Isolation and then Deon gives the example of how you 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:25.000 can use like atmospheric sound paired with a shot of 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:29.240 an apartment interior to set very different kinds of scenes. 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:31.880 Like you might hear you might hear kind of birds 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:35.080 twittering and breeze blowing, in which case you assume this 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:38.080 apartment is is somewhere in kind of like a peaceful 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:41.720 countryside setting. Or you might hear like loud traffic and 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:44.960 horns honking and and the bustle of people and voices, 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:48.359 in which case you assume that the Uh, the apartment 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:50.720 is somewhere in the city and it's urban and things 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:54.359 are happening and busy. Dion writes, each scenario sets the 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:57.360 scene for a completely different narrative while the picture remains 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:00.920 the same. Actually, sound does this in a very economical way, 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:04.320 very quickly, without even drawing our awareness to it. I 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:08.440 recommend Shann's book Audio Vision, Sound on Screen, since you're 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:12.160 interested in this nerdier side of film. This was published 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:16.240 in English in n s Owen's work corresponds with the 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:20.760 availability of videotape, which simplified the repetitive study of filming 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:24.719 material in a classroom setting. Oh that's a funny detail. 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.280 I don't know if I've ever put that together before, 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:30.680 but I wonder if I wonder how the the advent 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:36.359 of home video changed trends in film criticism and film theory, 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:39.280 just because it suddenly would become so much easier to 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:44.520 rewatch films and seen from films. Yeah, yeah, I mean, 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:47.720 I certainly remember as a kid the films that I loved, 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:50.040 and of course I feel like oftentimes when you're a kid, 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:52.320 you do watch things over and over again. But I 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:54.280 would just I would put things on like slow motional 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:56.720 loops when possible. You know, it would be like the 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:59.399 melting scenes and raiders of the Lost Art. And it 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:01.320 wasn't enough to just watch it once. You know, you 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:05.480 had to slow it down. You you had to freeze 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:07.679 frame and all of this. So it's you know, thank goodness, 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:10.680 those effects who really saw it watching that Nazi turned 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:12.679 to soup. It made you the man you are today. 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:16.119 But yeah, I know, I know exactly what you're talking about. 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:18.480 But if I had had, you know, if I wanted to, 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.639 and I had more of an appreciation for for the 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:24.000 you know, the actual you know, art and craft of 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:26.040 sentiment at the time, that's the kind of thing I 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:27.520 could have looked to. I could have I could have 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.600 slowed it down instead of then and asked myself, well, 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:33.480 what is um you know, what is spiel we're actually 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:36.000 doing here? How is he how is he pulling me 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:38.520 in with this particular sequence, how is it cut? And 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:42.560 then how might I recreate the same thing? Absolutely? But 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:46.040 but to come back to the email, Dion rights to 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:49.199 bring this back to Kolashov's idea of the manipulation of 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:51.920 an image. I used to teach a subject about film 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:54.920 sound and we would do an exercise that was always 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:57.640 really effective. It went like this. You would choose a 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:01.360 short section of film, you choose music from a variety 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:05.320 of genres like horror, romantic, comedy, drama, et cetera, and 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:07.719 then you'd play back the scene with the new music 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:11.040 and discuss the results. Simple but effective. We would do 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:13.040 this in groups and I found over the years that 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:16.399 the driving to the Bates Motel scene in Hitchcock's Psycho 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:20.800 from nineteen sixty was very effective for this exercise. Uh. 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:24.400 And then Dion provides a link to the scene which 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:26.560 I did a little experiment with. I paired up the 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:30.280 Psycho scene with with Janet Lee with the silver shamrock 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:32.880 music from Season of the Witch, and it did indeed 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:35.080 produce a different effect, though I don't know if it 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:38.520 was uh. I mean, I guess the effect it produced 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:41.760 was was well within the wheelhouse of the movie Psycho already, 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:47.200 would you say that she appeared more irritated than yes, yes, 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.560 or maybe I would say that honestly, the idea that 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:53.280 came to my head was she was afraid that she 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:56.520 found herself hating her own children because they were singing 0:20:56.520 --> 0:20:59.720 this song so much. Yeah, yeah, I can. I not 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:02.040 try this myself, but just looking at it, I'm imagining 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:04.120 like some of the stuff you could drop in, uh. 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:06.200 You know, you could certainly drop in some some other 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:09.040 forms of tense music. You could also drop in something 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:10.960 that's maybe a little more emotional, you know, like I'm 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:14.000 thinking some some sort of modern I don't know, Lanta 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:16.840 del rey sort of music, you know, and it would 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:19.639 take on I think a different vibe. Well, I like 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:23.280 what Dion says, which is quote. I was always surprised 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:25.879 by the new possibilities without going into them all. I 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:29.120 recall watching the scene to a disco track, and this 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:31.280 had the scene taking on the sense of a cheesy 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:35.520 romantic comedy. All of a sudden, Janet Lee's nuanced performance 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:40.040 is turned into simply before date jitters. I can totally 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:41.720 see that, and I love it that that. I think 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:44.960 it works. Dion says, of course, the face remains the same, 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:47.159 but we attribute different meaning to it, as per the 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:50.880 Coolishev effect. I found the temporal nature of the results 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:54.479 interesting to some music choices would give the sense of 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:58.800 leaving something behind, while some would create tension about the future, 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:02.439 like the original score. And then Dion encourages us to 0:22:02.440 --> 0:22:04.840 take a few moments to try it for ourselves, like 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:08.160 the kind Diarity described this part. I thought was really 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:12.720 interesting that certain certain pairings would cause you to see 0:22:12.760 --> 0:22:15.800