“What if telekinesis were real?” asks the publicity team for Carrie, who set up a telekinesis prank at the ‘Snice Cafe in NYC’s West Village. Sony paid to outfit the coffee shop with a remote-controlled tables, spring-loaded picture frames and books, and — as Mashable described it — “a fake wall and pulley system to create the illusion of a customer flying up into the air.” Then an actor pretends to spill his coffee on another actor’s computer, and she reacts with telekinesis. As one does.
This could have been so much better, though. I really wish studios would stop casting suspiciously attractive people who over-act for these sorts of pranks. The combo of TV good looks and hammy acting make it an obvious set-up, especially when these pranks are invariably filmed in cities where people know filming is constantly done. How much more convinced would the spectators have been if none of the actors were good looking and this was happening in a smaller city?
To make it even worse, they fell into other bad habits: showing the same scene over and over until it loses all impact, shaking the camera for no reason, mixing the music too loudly, and just generally over-editing and overproducing everything to the point where something that could be awesome becomes as bland as every other reality show. Do the people who cast, film, and edit these videos learn their Reality TV production style in the same learning annex? If so, I’d like to go there and reenact the third act of Carrie.
Uhh, here’s the video anyway. And Carrie opens October 18th yadda yadda you know the drill. GRRR, VIRAL VIDEOS!
[Thanks to Jason for the tip.]