I sat down few days ago and made a concerted effort to watch Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It’s a long, slightly flawed movie, but in the third act something interesting occurred to me. It wasn’t the fact that the alien spaceship was very cool, in that pre-CGI filmmaking way, nor anything else to do with the craft that Spielberg put into the film.
Instead, it was the fact that most of the new media artists I know would give their left tit to to make something that looked as kick-ass as the alien communication device. Which was made in 1976, but looks equal to Jenny Holzers latest.
In fact, the scene where they finally communicate with the alien spaceships has a lot in common with most new media gigs, shows and festivals I’ve been to. There is the epic lightshow with some minimal music (which isn’t really meant to be understood), there is a king-sized MIDI controller at the centre of the action, and everybody on stage is a man who is old enough to know better.
Also in common with most of these new media events is the crowd: it’s always a lot of men, standing around. Looking cool.
I was a bit concerned that the main character, Roy, decides to leave his family and run off to hang out with the aliens (it seemed unrealistic) but he had driven his wife and children away by building a large-scale model of a mountain in their front room. I actually thought the model was quite cool though, but perhaps the previous decade of living with artists has prepared me for living with batshit insane people. Hey, coming back to find a scale model of Devil’s Tower in the living room would be a pleasant surprise compared to some of the things I’ve seen flatmates drag back.
For anybody like me who made it to the end of this movie, I’ve created an iPhone ringtone of the five classic tones. Now you can use your iPhone to make peaceful contact with beings from another planet, show your appreciation for classic sci-fi that depicts a hopeful vision of humanity, or simply nerd out in an audible way. Simply right-click close encounters ringtone and select your operating system’s version of “save to disk” in order to download it as a hand-crafted* m4r file.
* it really is a hand-crafted ringtone, by the way. I spent about five minutes in Garageband making it. I have no idea what other devices an m4r file works on, so anybody not using an iPhone is on their own if they want to use this.
me thinks video ringtone…..
Oh dear Pete. Very nice try, it’s always a delight to see what you make.
First two notes are okay, maybe the last one is near, but do those last three again, please? And you have a funny little half-beat in there so the rhythm is off too. Make the notes the same length, and with the same space between them. As the play gets faster in the film the times change somewhat and the distance between the 3rd and 4th note gets shorter, but at the outset, and the iconic sound we all know and love, they’re of equal length.
My all time favourite film in so many ways. When it came out in cinemas here my firstborn was as curious as that small child and most certainly would have been keen to see what was coming up the chimney. It wasn’t just a film about men. Cutting edge for the time, really.
I’d love to see it again.
Hey Brenda!
The film itself wasn’t just about men, no, but as it goes on it becomes much more about men and less about family.
Sorry my ham-fisted fumblings didn’t meet with your musical ear. I used the tones mentioned here, and played it using the keyboard-to-notes thing in Garageband. I knew I should have uploaded the Garageband file for other to use, dagnammit.
The thing is, I’d much rather just get things out and express the idea rather than spend ages getting things just right. Once I’ve got this one thing out, I can move on and spend some time thinking about the next thing…
That woman looking for her child, climbed up that bloody mountain too, but yes, in the end it was all about the men. As usual.
I love it that you tried. I have Garageband on one of these computers, will give it a try myself, see if I can do it by ear. That fourth note is much lower than you think. If I had a keyboard I could let you know what notes they actually are. Someone will come along who knows.
Y’know Roy kisses that woman at the end? Really ruins the idea of Roy-the-family-guy. Spielberg even says so it during the DVD extras.
(Yes, I’m sad enough to watch the extras. It’s not like I’m busy here, y’know?)
Yeah but it wasn’t a snog-shag kiss, it was the affection of bonding, of shared experience. Nowadays they’d be shagging nekkid on that mountainside.
And yeah, thanks for the download!
Oh, ok: G, A, F, (octave lower) F, C – actually yes. I must heartily and most profusely apologise, it’s spot on! I just cranked up the sound and dropped it into a better machine. Kudos. Will download for my phone when I work out how to do it.
hey pete
- thanks for the download – great screengrabs too!
j
Hi Pete
I saw this and thought of you
PS Thanks for your technical support today.
PPS You’re right about the Jenny Holtzer looky likey thing.
Suggested edit from ‘men who look cool’ to ‘men who THINK they look cool’
Oh no I didn’t!
Oh yes…I did.
zing!
Ha! That would totally work normally, but a it’s a known fact that everybody looks cooler than me. Even guys who write PHP code for a living.
That’s the best thing I’ve read in a while. Word.
You’re a weird guy pete, but this is great. Currently emitting “LOLZ” in a room with only one other human present.