Film Research - Signs

 I decided to look at another film. I thought this one would be a nice change from the natural disasters and viruses of the four previous films I looked at. I thought it could help me view the 'end of the world' scenario from a different perspective and inspire me more.

The film I watched was Signs (2002) directed and written by M. Night Shyamalan. In Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a five-hundred-foot crop circle is found on the farm of Graham Hess, the town's reverend. More of these strange circles surface all around the globe. The circles cause a media frenzy and test Hess's faith as he journeys to find out the truth behind the crop circles.

I had seen this film before, but not in a few years so it was worth watching it to refresh my memory of the enitre storyline. Although it is not directly about post-apocalyptic living it does have apocalypse themes and the phrase 'end of the world' is mentioned many times.

In the last 20 minutes or so of the film a few very short scenes gave me a brilliant idea.

The theory behind these tin foil hats comes from the scientific book on aliens that Morgan Hess, the young boy, reads while all these strange events are occurring. Supposedly the tin foil is to protect you from the aliens trying to read your mind and therefore stop them from predicting your next move. So he and sister make and wear them, and eventually their uncle gets one too when he becomes as paranoid and terrified as they are.

I did some research on tin foil hats and found they were not unique to this film. They are apparently an essential piece of kit for any modern day conspiracy theorist who believes among other things that aliens and/or the government are trying to probe their brain.

 

I also remembered another occurrence of tin foil hats I had seen on the television as well. This picture below shows a screen shot from a special episode of Futurama by Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons. Here the reason behind the tin foil hat is slightly different but it is a comical nod on the creators part to the renowned madness of conspiracy theorists reasoning for this type of head gear.

There's also a Wikipedia page about them. It even outlines possible scientific evidence for them being effective. But then again it is Wikipedia...

Joking aside, I think this is a really good idea for me to work on. I'll first need to detail the specific circumstances that cause the apocalypse. As well as the events afterwards that mean everyone needs a tin foil hat of some sort to protect their brain from being infiltrated. I'll obviously need to make them a lot more aesthetically pleasing than the three examples above if I am to theoretically market them or expect people to want to wear them. So I will probably look in to historical and contemporary hat design. I could approach it in two ways. Replicating, to my best abilities, some of the most popular hat designs in tin foil to give the people normality whilst also protecting their grey matter. Alternatively, design completely new hats to start new fashion crazes that will appeal to people's vain side but still function as a brain probe deterrent.

I also have to write a short piece outlining my specific idea and apocalyptic circumstances and upload it on to Moodle by Thursday 26th January. So I will be getting on with this whilst continuing my research and possibly making initial designs.