there’s a relatively easy way to give the audience a chill during a film: slip in a shot of a deserted city centre, a city centre that’s notoriously busy in real-life, the scene preferably culminating in the camera panning out to prove the crew didn’t just manage to clear 10ft of road for 5 seconds.

it’s a guaranteed talking point. look at vanilla sky: the film was bordering on atrocious but the one thing that always gets mentioned (apart from cameron crowe losing his grip) is the ‘how the fuck did they manage to clear times square?’ bit. if i was a director i’d have a deserted city scene in every film, regardless of the movie’s plot.

here are my 5 favourite goosebump inducing ‘empty’ scenes.

5. philadelphia - twelve monkeys, 1995 (imdb)

the opening shot of terry gilliam’s top-notch ‘twelve monkeys’ is superb, bruce willis’ character coming above ground in a post-apocalyptic philadelphia to be faced with a world deserted but for wild animals roaming the streets. gilliam’s crew were given a corner of the city hall to work with, built a lip around the area to hide surrounding traffic and added snow to make it feel ‘more desolate’.

4. los angeles - omega man, 1971 (imdb)

‘omega man’ was the 2nd film based on the novel ‘i am legend’, the 1st being ‘last man on earth’ and the 3rd being ‘i am legend’, to be released in a few weeks. after coming to terms with the fact that a huge set would be too costly the producer realised prior to filming that l.a. was surprisingly quiet early in the day at weekends so all of the deserted city scenes were shot at that time of the week. the scene below even includes a pan-out for added despair and the echoes of ringing payphones.

3. madrid - abre los ojos, 1997 (imdb)

the gran via in madrid was completely closed off to film the scene below, the inspiration for vanilla sky’s big budget version in times square. it may not have the flashing billboards and an a-list star to run down the street like a maniac but the street’s architecture more than makes up for it. this clip is actually the first 10 minutes of the film, the initial 3-4 minutes being the ‘deserted’ section.

2. manhattan - vanilla sky, 2001 (imdb)

this remake of ‘open your eyes’ was largely disappointing, this scene being the best part of it. the crew were given 3 hours to shoot the times square sequence early on a sunday morning and crowe was determined not to use cg to remove any signs of life. the whole process included lenghty discussions with the new york mayor’s office, the new york film commission and the police department. the result is incredible.

1. london - 28 days later, 2002 (imdb)

it took 6 days to shoot the ‘deserted’ sections of this brilliant film on mini-dv cameras, the crew only able to get permission to close off entire streets in london for minutes at a time, and the effort was worth it. for the empty motorway scenes, they even managed to persuade the traffic police to close off a 10 mile stretch of the m1 for a very short period of time. warning: the clip below has been subjected to a shit soundtrack by the youtube user. turn the volume down.

sources: 1, 2, 3

a stunning photo of tokyo from inside a skyscraper.

(the photo was sent to me by ‘gummy’. cheers to ‘anewname’, the photo now links to the source’s flickr account)

however each illusion relies on some form of architecture and all create an effect which deserves to be mentioned.

1.

this incredible picture was captured by a flickr user in california whilst at work. a fog descended just as the sun set behind the building in shot. the result - one of the spookiest photographs of a building you’ll ever witness.

2.

the lichtenstein house is an extremely deceiving illusion created by roy lichtenstein.

as the angle upon which it’s viewed changes, the house shifts in an unusual way by playing with perspective. the best way to try and understand it is by watching the video clip below the photos.

3.

the following selection of buildings have the uncanny ability to look 2d simply due to the angle of one of the building’s corners.

the effect is some extremely fragile looking constructions, seemingly impossible to enter for a human being.

unknown building, paris…

bossone research centre, philadelphia…

unknown building…

john hancock tower, boston…

unknown building, hamburg

4.

the stairway to nowhere.

an art exhibit in munich, this stairway reminds me of m.c.escher and looks just as mental from the side.

5.

not strictly an illusion but a great photo of the olympic stadium in montreal.

so who copied who?

6.

the next illusions were created by swiss artist felice varini and are really fucking clever. the required result can only be viewed from one place in the room and the illusion is created using a projected image which is then painted onto the relevant surfaces.

here’s an example on film…

7.

one of the classic optical illusions has bizarrely been applied to the building shown below.

in case you’re unaware of the trick, all of the orange lines are parallel.

8.

this is the painted floor of sunshine city in tokyo.

it just illustrates the power of shading. one of the simplest illusions to create but also one of the most effective.

9.

a car park in seattle.

are the levels of the car park horizontal or sloping?

they can usually be found in waterparks around the world, surrounded by young kids attempting to destroy the hidden pole that holds it up.

well late japanese-american architect isamu noguchi took this family favourite one step further and created an incredible looking set of fountains for the world expo in osaka, japan.

the effect is stunning and surreal, the boxes seemingly held in the air by the force of the water.

these were the only photos i could locate on the intertubes. if you know of any others please let me know.

sources: 1, 2

it’s called a multi-mini roundabout and was designed in order to defeat congestion problems and lower the amount of accidents that were occuring when it was an unsafe, normal roundabout. it gives me a headache just thinking about giving way to that many streams of traffic.

it’s ok though, i found a diagram showing the best way to tackle it depending on your driving skills…

hilarious.

[update] just been made aware of this video of someone using the roundabout. pretty scary but at about -31secs i swear to god someone drives past in a driving instructor’s car. i hope to god the driver isn’t having a lesson or test on that monster of a junction.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/WrfdQIg4ap0]

diagram from here.

in order to combat regular flash flooding in kuala lumpur (sometimes twice yearly) caused by two overflowing rivers in the north of the city, engineers decided to construct a huge stormwater tunnel to drain the water from it’s source to a reservoir, underground. they then thought, ‘why not kill two birds with one stone?’, went back to the drawing board and managed to alleviate another of the city’s problems: major traffic congestion.

in a circular nutshell, here’s the amazing solution…

the whole tunnel system is 9.7km long - only the 4km of tunnel that runs under the heavily congested roads of the city is split into the three sections you can see above.

this system has three modes of operation.

mode 1: no storms - the tunnel is used purely as an underground motorway on the top two levels.

mode 2: moderate storms - traffic is still permitted to use the top levels and any flood water is channeled through the lower level.

mode 3: major storms - all traffic is cleared from the tunnel and water surges through all 3 levels.

the pic below illustrates these modes… (click for bigger)

i’m guessing they have a foolproof system in place to ensure that the watertight gates can never be opened until every last vehicle has left the tunnel.

the project cost a whopping £335million to design and build, another perfect reason to open a toll-road in the middle of it, and the motorway section was opened 14 may this year. the opening of the stormwater system followed in june.

scarily, the tunnel began to leak shortly after opening to the public. watch the clip below of some mentalists who decided that the best thing to do after spotting a potentially life threatening situation is to get out of the car and press record…

you can watch the beginning of a discovery channel documentary on the smart tunnel below…

and finally, here’s a news report from the opening day…

links:

- the smart tunnel website

- tunnelling experts mott macdonald’s smart page

nice furniture huh?

well this is actually outdoors. it’s called the stadtlounge (city lounge) and it’s situated in the centre of st.gallen in switzerland.

here are more photos. remember, this is outside, amongst the buildings in the city centre.

and in the daytime…

fucking brilliant.

this ‘look’ was the result of a design competition to create a ‘public living room’ in the financial district of the area and since 2005 it has stayed, the red ‘carpet’ seemingly flowing over all furniture, roads and even some fake cars littered around the streets.

if only all local governments were this adventurous.

(pics from here and here)

so i thought i’d share some of my favourite videos that display some kind of awe-inspiring timing or planning.

tracy thorn video:

starlings swarming:

synchronized swimming:

synchronized fireworks display:

the mass games:

samsung dance:

red arrows flying display:

incredible timed driving:

xmas lights:

group popping locking:

trained goldfish:

synchronized trampoline:

here’s a collection of some of the best.

the yes men - dow chemical hoax

‘On December 3, 2004, the twentieth anniversary of the Bhopal chemical disaster, Andy Bichlbaum appeared on BBC World as “Jude Finisterra”, a Dow Chemical spokesman. (Dow is the owner of Union Carbide, the company responsible for the chemical disaster which killed thousands and left over 120,000 requiring lifelong care.)

On their fake Dow Chemical Website, the Yes Men first said as clearly and emphatically as possible that Dow Chemical Company had no intention whatsoever of repairing the damage. The real company received considerable backlash and both the real Dow and the phony Dow denied the statements, but Dow took no real action.

The Yes Men decided to pressure Dow further, so as “Finisterra” went on the news to claim that Dow planned to liquidate Union Carbide and use the resulting $12 billion to pay for medical care, clean up the site, and fund research into the hazards of other Dow products. After two hours of wide coverage, Dow issued a press release denying the statement, ensuring even greater coverage of the phony news of a cleanup.’

here’s the channel 4 news report following the actual interview which you can see below…

the hoax interview itself…

orson welles - war of the worlds

although technically not a hoax i’m including this as it’s generally known as one by millions of people.

‘A wave of mass hysteria seized thousands of listeners who were led to believe that an interplanetary conflict had started with invading Martians spreading wide death and destruction in New Jersey and New York. The broadcast disrupted households, interrupted religious services, created traffic jams, and clogged communications systems. Thousands of telephone calls reached CBS stations, city authorities, newspaper offices, and police headquarters in various cities testified to the mistaken belief. The broadcast became a rumor that spread throughout the country, with many people standing on street corners, hoping for a sight of the “battle” in the skies’.

you can listen to / download the original radio broadcast here or stream it through the shambolic monster we know and love as youtube…

flemish independence hoax

seems like a slightly dangerous way to ’spark debate’ to me but that’s exactly what happened late december 2006 when belgian tv station rtbf aired a fake news report claiming that the dutch-speaking half of belgium had declared independence.

‘The French-language TV channel interrupted regular programming with an apparent news report, announcing that Dutch-speaking Flanders had unilaterally declared independence and that Belgium as a nation had ceased to exist. It showed “live” pictures of cheering crowds holding the Flemish flag, huge traffic jams leading to Brussels airport, and trams stuck at the new “border”.

“It’s very bad Orson Welles, in very poor taste,” said a spokesman for Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.

The broadcast came amid an apparent growth of separatist sentiment in Flanders.’

good timing chaps.

bbc panorama’s spaghetti tree hoax

back in 1957, the geniuses at the bbc broadcast one of the funniest hoaxes ever and duped thousands into believing that pasta could be grown on trees.

‘The last two weeks of March are an anxious time for the spaghetti farmers. There’s always the chance of a late frost which - while not entirely ruining the crop - generally impairs the flavour, and makes it difficult for him to obtain top prices in world markets. But now these dangers are over, and the spaghetti harvest goes forward’.

following the airing of the programme the bbc switchboard recieved hundreds of calls from viewers wishing to grow the mysterious trees, to which the bbc replied:

‘Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”

here’s a slightly rough recording of the report….

alan abel

serial hoaxer alan abel has been labelled as the ‘best hoaxer on the plant’ by many and since the 1950’s has been fooling people on a huge scale. a recent documentary about him, made by his daughter, called ‘abel raises cain’ recently won the ‘best documentary’ award at the slamdance festival.

‘Alan Abel’s radio and television appearances include Today, Tonight, BBC, Good Morning America, 20/20, 48 Hours, National Public Radio and CNN Financial News.’

here are some clips from some of his hoaxes:

alan’s ‘ban breastfeedin’ hoax…

the ‘females for felons’ hoax…

his infamous ‘howard hughes’ hoax…

the big donor show

in may 2007 the creators of big brother, endemol, announced a new show called ‘the big donor show’ in which a terminally ill woman would select one of three patients to receive her kidneys live on tv. obviously the public thought this was a step too far and went fucking mental. it was quickly all over the worldwide news with members of every possible government condemning the programme.

however, the programme went ahead and in a twist at the end the host revealed the participants to be actors, the idea being to highlight the growing shortage of organ donors throughout the world.

job done.

joey skaggs

mr skaggs is another serial hoaxer who fittingly runs the sit pranks.com, an online resource for all things devious. he’s been duping the media for decades. in 2000 he proposed ‘a combined funeral company, virtual graveyard and theme park. It was meant to satirize showmanship in places like Forest Lawn cemeteries. Some investors were actually interested. Final Curtain’s website is still functioning.‘.

a couple of reports on skaggs…

hitler diaries

in 1983, konrad kujau created the ‘hitler diaries’ and later sold them as an authentic piece to ’stern magazine’ for 9.3 million deutschmarks. he was later jailed for 4 and a half years for forgery. the diaries were ‘peppered with personal comments such as “must get tickets for the olympic Games for eva” and “the little dr goebbels is up to his tricks again with women”, (but) the works still fooled many of those who came in contact with them.‘

fucking hilarious.

harvard - “we suck” hoax

‘On November 20 2004, at the annual Yale-Harvard football game, Yale students used a card stunt to trick more than 1,800 Harvard fans into holding up placards that spelled “WE SUCK.”

Michael Kai and David Aulicino, two Yale students from the Class of 2005, created and coordinated the plan. Disguised as the “Harvard Pep Squad,” they and twenty classmates handed white and crimson placards to fans in the central area of the Harvard side of the stadium, which comprised primarily Harvard alumni, as well as a few faculty, students, and other fans. The group told the crowd that by lifting the placards they would spell “GO HARVARD.” The placards were actually arranged to spell “WE SUCK.”‘

extras:

- bbc article on hoaxes

- top 100 april fools hoaxes at the briliant museum of hoaxes

- a gigantic list of hoaxes at wikipedia

- pc world’s top 25 web hoaxes and pranks