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借聲還魂
White Noise
故事大綱
出色的建築師莊尼芬利華斯（米高基頓飾）是一個很有理性的人，一向不會贊同任何有關與鬼魂溝通的理論，直至其深愛的妻子安娜（珊娜韋絲飾）突然離奇死亡……
莊尼芬自妻子逝世後一直鬱鬱寡歡，一天一個神秘男子雷蒙派斯（伊恩麥尼斯飾）突然找上門，原來這名男子專門研究所謂的「電子音聲現象」（Electronic Voice Phenomenon，簡稱EVP），他向莊尼芬表示，他能夠聽到其死去的妻子安娜的聲音，他問莊尼芬是否想聽安娜的聲音，而更匪夷所思的是，莊屁芬所聽的聲音竟是安娜遇害以後才錄下，再加上另一女子莎拉（狄寶娜卡拉安芝飾）也透過EVP與她陰陽分隔的未婚夫再次接觸，在悲痛及好奇心的驅使下，他被神秘男子雷蒙的說話打動，欲借助EVP與亡妻重聚。
強烈思念安娜的莊尼芬為了和妻子溝通，開始沉迷鑽研EVP現象，他嘗試用電子儀器錄下安娜的聲音及影像，後來他與亡妻取得聯絡，安娜表示她是被一個殘暴的精神變態者殺害，她要求莊尼芬拯救將會受害的人。然而莊尼芬自己卻懵然不知，當他愈沉迷與身處另一世界的安娜接觸，他遇到的危險愈大……
製作花絮
甚麼是EVP？
Electronic Voice Phenomenon，簡稱EVP，指的是在任何接收／錄製媒介─磁帶、數碼錄音機、收音機，甚至是電腦或電話上，所捕捉到的預期外的聲響或聲音，亦即是White Noise。從靈異的角度看，可解釋為靈體透過現代電子設備的靜電干擾和雜訊，藉由聲音及影像向我們傳遞訊息。舉一個例子，當你用錄音機在錄音的當下，四週明明寂靜無聲，但是卻錄了一些明顯，而且有意義、能夠分辨出來的聲音；這種聲音平常一般人的耳朵聽不見，只有用錄音機的磁帶重播時才聽得到。
自從上述媒介問世以來，這種聲響在世界各地便一直存在著。在EVP以外還有一個名詞Instrumental Transcommunication，簡稱ITC，可譯作「儀器輔助式通靈」，泛指任何運用科技捕捉到的預期外的聲音或影像，當然也包含EVP在內。在許多試圖解釋這些現象的假說之中，「Survival Hypothesis」（生存假說）是目前最具影響力的回答。 1982年，Sarah Estep成立了The American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomenon簡稱AAEVP，也就是美國EVP協會，現在協會的負責人是Tom及Lisa Butler夫婦，Lisa憶述當年她首次接觸EVP的情況：「當時我母親已過世了五年，但是有一天我重播錄音時竟聽到我母親的聲音：『我很想念你，麗莎』，我感動得哭了！自此之後，我希望運用先進電子儀器設備去幫助更多想念往生者的人」。
誠如二人在著作《There Is No Death and There Are No Dead》中描述：「EVP是被收集在數位或類比錄音媒介上的預期外的聲音，現今的物理原理無法做出解釋。它們普遍出現在世界各地，實驗者可以在任何環境下，用任何一種可以錄下人聲頻率的裝備收集它們。事實上，它們會因為實驗者、錄音環境與技巧的改變而有所不同。通曉多種語言的人收集到的EVP，通常混合了他們說的各種語言。有紮實音樂素養的人，則多半會錄到比話語更多的歌唱片斷。」他們又表示：「請將EVP視為一種與已經不居住在物質世界的人們直接溝通的形式。EVP與ITC接收了來自存在體的資訊，顯示我們也能接受來自地球以外的訊息。這些存在體說明了他們居住在我們認為的現實以外的次元。」 AAEVP的成員藉由錄音機、電話、電視、電腦與攝影機，錄下許多死去親友的超自然聲音、影像與訊息。「生存假說」解釋道，我們是非物質的存在體，我們可以存在於現實的物質面，是因為我們擁有軀體，但當軀體死亡，我們就會轉向非物質的現實。然而，即使這些訊息的真實性可以被証實，來源卻不可知。因此該協會的研究目標之一，就是試圖解開此來源之謎，並瞭解這個現象的成因。
米高基頓演活角色
本片監製十分欣賞戲路甚廣的資深男星米高基頓（Michael Keaton），因此特別誠邀他擔演男主角莊尼芬，米高最初坦言對故事中主角與另一世界接觸的主題並不感興趣，但當他與監製及導演商談，二人提及自己失去父親的往事，並表示如果有機會再與死去的父親接觸，他們一定毫不猶豫抓緊機會，而米高便是被這個意念所吸引而答應演出。
對於演繹經歷喪妻之痛的莊尼芬，米高有其獨特的見解，他小心避免演得過份戲劇化或經常哭哭啼啼一臉傷感，他說：「我有少許擔心這變成了一個感性和易受傷的男人的故事，不過莊尼芬這角色是一個好人，我要令他易相處和討人歡喜，觀眾才願意跟隨這個角色的步伐。」
莊尼芬後來開始與靈界交往，性格亦逐漸作出轉變，導演謝菲薩斯（Geoffrey Sax）大讚米高的表現：「片中很多場面他只是坐在房中，看著電腦螢光幕，但他雙眼及面容是何等生動，簡直能夠把故事說出來，我們也感覺到他的傷痛，這實在對我的拍攝工作很有幫助。米高在綠色屏幕前拍攝及對著空氣演戲也表現得非常熟練。」
運用色調別出心裁
由於導演謝菲明白到片中的感覺最為重要，因此在場景的佈置及設計特別花心思．以突顯莊尼芬的心情，而且為了進一步闡釋其情緒及精神日益惡化，本片攝影師基斯薜查（Chris Seager）特別運用獨特的色彩表達莊尼芬心境上的變化，無論是燈光、場景的顏色及演員的衣服，都盡量用比較陰沉單調的色彩，謝菲解釋這是因為開始時莊尼芬與妻子安娜過著幸福生活，因此他們的寓所也用上溫暖柔和的色彩，但隨著安娜去世，莊尼芬的生活因悲痛而急劇轉變，而且他搬到新屋只沉迷鑽研EVP，令原本已冷冰冰的室內變得骯髒及雜亂，因此拍攝時也逐漸把光明及快樂的色調演變至暗淡無光的色彩。
而莊尼芬經常身處的EVP房間，正好反映了主角的混亂的心情，因此謝菲特別在某些場面用上手提攝影機拍攝，以在視覺上營造有趣的效果，他們也在片場中利用攝影升降機從多個角度分鏡拍攝。
特效營造嚇人鬼影
米高基頓與其他演員們拍攝本片時，遇上的其中一個困難是經常在綠屏幕前對著空氣演戲，雖然觀眾在本片會看到一些從另一個世界而來的靈異陰暗影象，在畫面上飄移，但事實上演員拍攝時根本甚麼都看不見，可算是對他們演技的一大考驗。這些靈體全部都是電腦特別效果，由專家在後期製作時加入片中。攝影師基斯說：「我們用綠屏幕方式拍攝，之後再加上靈體，我們利用數碼技術製作出數十個不同面部表情的影像，在畫面上若隱若現。」
演員簡介
米高基頓（Michael Keaton）
現年53歲的米高基頓於美國賓夕凡尼亞州出生，70年代後期已開始在電視節目中演出，80年代開始拍攝電影，88年他更憑《Clean and Sober》及添布頓（Tim Burton）執導的《Beetle Juice》兩片，榮膺全國影評人協會頒獎禮最佳男主角。翌年米高再與添布頓合作，主演電影《蝙蝠俠》（Batman），此片在全球大受歡迎，其事業得以推上高峰，92年他再主演《蝙蝠俠再戰風雲》（Batman Returns），第二度扮演蝙蝠俠，電影依然大賣。米高其他的作品還有《危險關係》（Jackie Brown）。
狄寶娜卡拉安芝（Deborah Kara Unger）
現年三十八歲的狄寶娜卡拉安芝在溫哥華出生，她在維多利亞大學主修哲學及經濟學，之後她入讀澳洲國立藝術學院，成為該校歷來首位加拿大學生。88年畢業後，狄寶娜演出處女電視劇，便與妮歌潔曼（Nicole Kidman）合作，其後她更主演過《心理遊戲》（The Game）、《起尾注》（Payback）及《黑罪風雲》（The Hurricane）等多部為人熟識的作品。
導演簡介
謝菲薩斯（Geoffrey Sax）
英國導演謝菲薩斯與很多英國著名導演如《四個婚禮一個葬禮》導演米克紐維爾（Mike Newell）及《迷幻列車》導演丹尼波爾（Danny Boyle）等一樣，都是經由英國廣播公司（BBC）訓練出來，繼而進軍大銀幕。雖然本片是謝菲首部執導的電影，但他以往執導的電視作品也不乏佳作，其中電視劇《The New Statesman》就曾榮獲91年英國電影及電視藝術學院頒獎禮最佳喜劇連續劇。
| 演員： | 米高基頓 （Michael Keaton） |
《危險關係》（Jackie Brown） 《蝙蝠俠再戰風雲》（Batman Returns） 《蝙蝠俠》（Batman） 《Beetle Juice》 |
||
| 狄寶娜卡拉安芝 （Deborah Kara Unger） |
《黑罪風雲》（The Hurricane） 《起尾注》（Payback） 《心理遊戲》（The Game） |
|||
| 導演： | 謝菲薩斯 （Geoffrey Sax） |
《Othello》－電視劇 《The New Statesman》－電視劇 |
| 上映日期： | 3月10日 | |
| 發行﹕ | 泛亞影業有限公司 | |
| 片長： | 待定 | |
| 級別： | 待定 | |
| 院線： | 嘉禾港威、紐約、嘉禾旺角、嘉禾荷里活、嘉禾青衣、UA時代廣場、UA沙田、UA德福、UA太古城、UA黃埔、UA東薈城、旺角百老匯、荃灣百老匯、葵芳百老匯、奧海城百老匯、元朗百老匯、數碼港百老匯、嘉湖銀座百老匯、銅鑼灣JP、康怡、將軍澳、華懋、巴黎倫敦紐約及馬鞍山 |
Production Information
Electronic Voice Phenomenon-EVP-is the process by which the dead, through sound and image, communicate with the living through the static and white noise of modern electronic devices.
By modest estimates, there are nearly seven billion audio and video recording devices in homes around the world…and every one of them is a portal.
For two decades now, a quiet worldwide movement has gained momentum among the growing number of people who believe in EVP and who themselves have captured extraordinary recordings of communications from the dead. These transmissions, recorded with simple household electronic devices, force us to question our basic notions about life and death and seem to confirm what many of us have dared to believe: it is possible for the dead to communicate with us.
All we have to do is listen.
Now, for the first time, this otherworldly occurrence stands at the center of a motion picture paranormal thriller-White Noise.
Until the sudden and mysterious death of his beloved wife, architect Jonathan Rivers (MICHAEL KEATON) considered himself a decent, rational man, one who would not ordinarily subscribe to any theories about communicating with the dead. But now, a stranger, Raymond Price (IAN McNEICE), has entered his life, claiming to have heard Jonathan's wife, Anna (CHANDRA WEST), through EVP. Fueled by his grief as much as curiosity, Jonathan soon finds himself swayed by Raymond's claims, validated by the recordings of Anna as well as the testimonial of Sarah Tate (DEBORAH KARA UNGER), who herself has found closure with her deceased fiancée through EVP. Jonathan comes to believe when Raymond says of the dead, "I can hear them, I can see them and I can record them."
Then, the unthinkable-Jonathan himself captures Anna's voice and image through recordings he has made; she has established direct contact. Anna's message: for Jonathan to save the future victims of the brutal psychopath who took her life. But his dead wife's communications are often fuzzy, challenging to decipher. And Jonathan, in his growing obsession with reaching Anna, fails to notice signs of impending danger, summed up by Raymond's assessment of the souls who cross the divide from the other side: "They can't all be nice."
What Jonathan hopes to be true is, in fact, possible: our departed loved ones can reach us… but if they can come through, who, or what else, can also come through?
White Noise marks the American feature film directorial debut of distinguished British television director GEOFFREY SAX (Othello), from an original screenplay by NIALL JOHNSON. PAUL BROOKS (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and SHAWN WILLIAMSON (House of the Dead) produce, with NORM WAITT, SCOTT NIEMEYER, STEPHEN HEGYES and SIMON BROOKS serving as executive producers.
Behind-the-camera talent includes director of photography CHRIS SEAGER, B.S.C. (Ashes and Sand), editor NICK ARTHURS (Othello) and production designer MICHAEL S. BOLTON (Final Destination 2), along with costume designer KAREN MATTHEWS (They). The music is by Cirque du Soleil music director turned film composer CLAUDE FOISY (2001: A Space Travesty).
ABOUT ELECTRONIC VOICE PHENOMENON
For two decades now, there has accrued a great deal of documentation and speculation about a method of tracking and recording voices of those who have passed on; these transmissions, captured by audio recorders and other everyday electronic devices, are known to the believers as Electronic Voice Phenomena, or EVP. The contact from the departed is accomplished through television, radio and computer frequencies-commonly referred to as "white noise"-which is then received and interpreted by people still living in the physical world.
EVP is much more than just a premise created by Hollywood filmmakers for the purpose of producing a supernatural thriller like White Noise. It is a highly researched, increasingly widely practiced yet little exposed paranormal phenomenon with devotees around the world. A search on the Internet for "EVP" will result in thousands of hits and web sites, many of which include photographs or audio and video clips from EVP encounters.
Research is being conducted on EVP within a variety of organizations around the world that use EVP for such purposes as hauntings investigations and grief management. According to these groups, thousands of people are recording evidence of communications with the dead on a daily basis. They also claim that in addition to the voices being captured through the white noise of television sets and radios, images of the people to whom these disembodied voices belong are regularly captured in photographs via a process known as Video or Photographic Instrumental Transcommunication. The common thread among these various groups is the firm belief that those in other dimensions are desperate to communicate with us and are using modern technology to do so.
More than likely the first web site one finds on a search for recordings and evidence of EVP sightings is that of the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena (www.aaevp.com). The site is managed by Tom and Lisa Butler, directors of the Association, a married couple who happen to be spending a great deal of their time and energy in the universe known as the paranormal.
How did they get involved in the world of psychics, mediums and spirits from another dimension? "Well, actually," says Lisa about what happened when she and her husband relocated to Kansas some 15 years ago, "we were corporate workers-Tom was writing a book, I was upper management-living in Kansas City, which is the kind of a town where you had to be quiet about paranormal things. But it's also not California, it's very humid, and there are only two months out of the year of really good weather, so you do a lot of reading and things like that.
"I came across a book called Voices Of Eternity by Sara Estep and I read it. And I thought, I knew it was real-I had a gut feeling that you could record paranormal voices on tape. And now that I look back at it-I was a corporate person, why in the world would I believe something so preposterous?-but I believe it and I will say it took about a year for me to get up the nerve to record because I wasn't sure if I was going to bring something unwanted into the house."
Lisa began by following the path taken by the book's author, Estep, who recorded for seven days. On the third day, Lisa deciphered a voice captured on the tape. From then on, she became a believer. "That was the first EVP that I got. I'm glad it was Saturday, because I didn't sleep the next day! Now we've been doing this for probably 15 years, and we still come across some thrilling things and it's still very interesting…but that first one, there is nothing like that, because it changes your reality. What is this, how could this voice be there?"
Tom, the more technically oriented of the two (and hence would have been the more skeptical), joins in: "Lisa is pretty much the navigator for me in fields like this. I am an electronic engineer and at that time was very deeply engrossed in working on things for the corporation that employed me. And when she told me about the book and EVP, it was more like I didn't have that sense so much as that I trusted Lisa's sense. I knew there was some modulation in the sounds she was playing for me. As an engineer I knew what modulated sound and knew it shouldn't have been there, but it was. I couldn't really make it out until later. In time, after I heard the first voice, I tried to become more and more supportive. And it gets to a point where it's such perfect proof that you survive-so many other things that unfold out of that, that it becomes not so much about EVP as it is a way of life."
While Lisa herself acknowledges the shocking power of hearing that first voice, it was a much later recording that struck closer to home: "I lost my mother about five years ago, and she didn't even know we did this. She had very different religious beliefs and we respected them-I didn't want to upset her so we literally did not tell her about our involvement with EVP. Tom and I were presenting at a spiritualist convention. Before presenting we often conduct a recording session and ask questions that might interest the people attending and try and make EVP more accessible and exciting for them. And in the end of every session, I always ask, 'Is there anything else you want to say?' And when we played back the recording, there was my mother's voice saying, 'I miss you, Lisa.'"
Tom remembers, "Lisa brought the recording out and told me to listen to it, without telling me what it was and I heard it plainly. Not only did I understand the EVP but I recognized immediately it was her mother's voice."
Lisa continues, "We had been recording for about 12 years by then-and she came though more than once. There were some very emotional issues surrounding her death and it was really important for her to reach me. It provided some incredible healing for me."
Since that first recording session 15 years ago, EVP has become a way of life for the Butlers and to hear them describe it, the urge to communicate with beings "on the other side" is a concept that has taken hold of people's imaginations.
"If you Google EVP," Tom says, "almost every larger community has one or more ghost hunting clubs, and they all have samples-and sometimes very good samples-of EVP on their web sites. We're not that large; the AAEVP has about 300 members in the U.S. and 15 other countries, because there are other outlets available, such as ghost hunting clubs. The German group has 700, the French group has 1,700 and a group in Brazil had 3,000. In the U.S., there are also a lot of closet EVPers who will not subscribe to a website but continue to record on their own."
The link between nearly all of the seekers of the paranormal is the desire to contact a loved one. Tom says, "When people get involved with EVP there is often an element of grief management, where you are communicating with a loved one. In this field, you have a very important tool for communicating with the other side.
"As an engineer, I would explain the phenomenon this way: it's voices in the recording media that are not going to be explained by known physical principles. It's being done all over the world because the average person can do it-it doesn't replace methods like using mediums, it's more of an adjunct to that. But there are no guarantees that you can pick up a recorder and you're going to contact long lost Uncle John. On the other hand, a lot of people have picked up the recorder and have been able to make a recording…maybe it might be 'I miss you' or 'I love you' or the name of a lost loved one that's on the other side.
"That's one of the things that we have learned-one of the most important things that spiritualism does for the congregation-is to teach us to expect that we do survive. You can think of it as being an inoculation against becoming earthbound. Well, in our association, we try really hard to make sure that everybody understands that EVP is a fundamental proof of survival. And that if the implication is that we do survive, then what? We hope that in subtle ways that it helps people understand that there is much more to their reality than what they are experiencing at this minute. If, in the global mind change, we come to understand, both intellectually and emotionally, that we do survive and that there is a continuation of life-that would probably call us to behave accordingly."
When trying to explain EVP in the face of a pantheon of the governing laws of the acknowledged sciences, Tom simply says, "A lot of the rules that we consider normal seem to be violated by these voices."
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
When the writer Niall Johnson first set out to create the story that was to become White Noise, he started with the idea that if it were possible to contact someone you had loved and lost, the average person would pursue these avenues even at great personal risk. The further he delved into background for his writing, he discovered that a fairly significant culture of EVP enthusiasts has existed for quite some time and is highly organized and scientific about its findings. Albert Einstein professed an open-minded view of the possibility that life has echoes through time and space and Thomas Alva Edison believed that electronic impulses could be passed on from generation to generation.
This basic premise took on a much more resonant life for the writer once he began to elaborate on it, surfing the Web and meeting some of the EVP gurus like the Butlers and Sarah Estep, whose research and findings helped Johnson as he constructed his script.
* * *
Producer Paul Brooks is no stranger to a compelling script, having executive-produced the phenomenally popular My Big Fat Greek Wedding and been on the ground floor of what was (up until recently) the highest grossing independent film ever made. Brooks remembers, "My brother brought me the script for White Noise around Christmas two years ago and I had planned to read a few pages after dinner and pick it up again the next morning. But I changed my tact once I opened it and began reading-I couldn't remember the last time I'd been so disturbed reading a piece of material. It was fascinating. And I immediately saw it as an audience member would-it was a great page-turner and had a shot at being an intriguing movie. The particular landscape of the story was just so extraordinary. I have to admit that I became obsessed with it, which is my nature once I get into a really interesting script."
Already in "terrific" shape, Brooks and Johnson spent a few months fine-tuning the script of the paranormal tale of Jonathan and Anna Rivers-during which time, the producer had caught the beginning of a contemporary re-telling of a towering Shakespearean classic. Says Brooks, "I saw the first seven minutes of Geoffrey Sax's Othello, made for British television. I say seven minutes because I was so blown away by that first part of the movie that I hired him at the end of that first part of the film. We still have a running joke that I haven't even seen the rest of the film!"
When he first read Johnson's script, director Sax was not aware of any of this scholarly research-he just thought it was a good plot device. "Jonathan Rivers' obsession comes from a quite simple premise," he says. "What would you do if you were given the chance to contact somebody that you've loved and you've lost? That was the notion that really drew me to make this film, because what would you do? And I think that probably 99 out of 100 people would say, yes, give me more.
"Even if you knew, whatever the cost, say, to spend 30 seconds with that person whom you've lost, might you give a year or life? I mean, I don't really know how far people go, but I certainly would do that for anyone I've lost. If I had a chance to contact them again, I would grab it." Sax was pleasantly surprised when he congratulated Niall on his invention of so enticing a hook in his screenplay. "I had no idea that EVP actually existed as a phenomenon. I praised Niall at one point for coming up with it. I said, 'Electronic Voice Phenomenon is really, really a great idea and concept. How did you think it up?' And he said, 'Well, actually I'd found it in my research. There are sites. Go and have a look.' And I was astonished how many sites there are, how many images you can see. Some of it is questionable, but some of it is very, very scary. And that's what makes it really interesting."
One of Johnson's pivotal scenes-in which Jonathan visits a clairvoyant to compare notes about the contact he has made with his late wife via EVP-is taken directly from his the screenwriter's experiences. In that scene, Jonathan consults with a psychic counselor, who happens to be blind, and the medium recoils at his spiel, delivering a withering warning which he does not heed. "EVP is not good," she says, jumping up. "We spend years with our guides so we can protect you. It is one thing to contact the dead. It's another thing to meddle, and you are meddling!"
"And that was taken from Niall Johnson," says Sax. "He actually went to see a clairvoyant, during the research phase, and the clairvoyant did say those words…'Don't meddle with this stuff. You don't understand it.' And that's what kind of gave him the whole idea for the story. If you meddle with what you don't know, you could end up in a lot of trouble. And that's precisely what happens to Jonathan Rivers."
Deborah Kara Unger, cast as a woman who contacts her fiancée through EVP, agrees that there is a dark side of this phenomenon, that it's not all light and hope. "What is fundamental to this story is the truth that people do pass over 'as is.' And, you know, we don't have a lot of halos running around the streets as we speak-there are a few tarnished ones on the other side as well. So, unfortunately, in our attempts to access our loved ones, those that we care about on the other side, we meet a few people along the way who are terrifying."
* * *
For the leading role of the recently widowed architect who begins a surprising journey into the unexplainable, Brooks knew the actor he immediately wanted upon reading White Noise that previous Christmas: "I have always been a huge fan of Michael Keaton. I remember particularly his performance in Pacific Heights, which is a superb exercise in measure and balance. We had mutual colleagues and friends in the business, and so I sent him the script. And fortuitously, he came back straight away and said, 'Yes, I want to do this.' It was a bit of a blessing from the start, because I was completely convinced about the script, the director and the actor. Geoffrey and I had one meeting and we just shook hands and were making the movie two months later. It all came together brilliantly."
Keaton, who admittedly had not given the subject of communication with the other side much thought prior to reading the script for White Noise, recalls a conversation he had Brooks and Sax: "It's something I had never really given much consideration, but as I talked with Paul and Geoffrey about making the film, they were telling their own personal stories about losing their fathers, how close they were to them, and what they would do to be able to somehow be in contact with them again. And they said they wouldn't think twice, even if they only had three seconds, they would jump at the chance. I was kind of fascinated by that, and as I started to think about it, I realized that this is probably a universal response."
"I think it's something that has to be taken seriously, despite any skepticism, some of it mine. Certainly, though, one has to wonder that if even one percent of the reported cases are true then something clearly extraordinary is happening," comments Sax.
Producer Brooks observes, "My thinking was, what if EVP is actually a step beyond the Ouija board phenomenon-a sophisticated portal to another plane? This is particularly disturbing when one reveals the countless examples of seemingly authentic and terrifying encounters on the Ouija board over the years."
Unger doesn't offer a specific opinion on EVP as a means of reaching out to those who have passed over, but does state that she thinks it's "reductive and maybe a little bit arrogant of us to assume that we know as much as we think we do, to make that kind of conclusion. I think we're very naive about energy and mass and about time and space and consciousness."
Unger, a confessed sentimentalist, can relate to Keaton's assessment of the desire we all have to stay in contact with those we love, even after they've died. "I hate saying goodbye. It's horrible. I never say goodbye to people. I'll make up any scenario in my imagination where I may potentially see them again. As foolish as it may sound, my mind is happier there."
While Sax, Keaton and Unger all have a deep and complete understanding of what drives people to attempt communication with the other side, their opinions on the methods they employ, specifically about EVP, differ slightly. Keaton categorizes himself as open-minded and says that EVP is "without doubt, extremely intriguing."
In addition to the makings of a gripping, chilling paranormal thriller, Keaton saw within the White Noise script the chance to tell the rather timeless story of an ordinary man on an extraordinary journey, searching for answers in uncharted and potentially dangerous territory. What made this character especially compelling to him was the deterioration and almost complete destruction he faces once circumstance sets him on his path.
"One of the initial reasons that I wanted to do the film is because it's such a page-turner," he says. "I like the genre, the supernatural thriller anyway-and that is now a genre, the paranormal thriller. When I think of a horror film, I think of something else. This is scary, but it's smart scary. And it gets into speculation.
"But what really attracted me to it is that it's about a character that you see degenerate throughout the piece and become more and more obsessed with something his architect-trained mind cannot come to terms with, yet he knows it to be a reality. And it was this journey that really drew me to it."
The slow but steady decline of Jonathan Rivers was a character arc that intrigued Keaton, and he knew that an audience would be compelled as well. "You have this guy starting a new life after the demise of his first marriage. Now he's found the woman he's meant to be with, he's at the start of a happy second marriage, and just when things are starting to work out, his wife passes away. So it's a second loss to him in not a very long period of time. He's living a pretty normal life when it happens and you see his degradation through what he's willing to do to not take that big hit again, that second loss. That's when it slowly starts to unravel and that's where the terror begins-as he fights to gain access to the next world while clinging to the last vestiges of his sanity."
Brooks interjects, "Michael is able to articulate all of the levels of Jonathan's character-his analytical side, his emotional side and his intuitive side. He absolutely got the tightrope walk that Jonathan executes-he's clinging onto the world that he knows and yet is being drawn into another world that he can't recognize and yet has to recognize, because there is an absolute actuality to it."
Deborah Kara Unger's character, Sarah Tate, joins Keaton on the journey and becomes an integral part of it. What initially brings the two together is their common loss of a loved one-Jonathan's wife, Sarah's fiancée. Says Unger: "And therein we share a common goal: a desire to perhaps help others who are feeling helpless and to share this gift of light, of hope. We're very much mistaken, however, and we don't know what we're playing with. Our white noise is actually fire we shouldn't be playing with."
And so Jonathan's journey takes an unexpected and horrifying turn….
* * *
In order to get audience members to embark on this rather arduous trip, Geoffrey Sax knew it was crucial for them to actually care about Jonathan Rivers, or at least come to care about him at some point during the course of the film. As he observes, "The big thing for me is the central character. You've got to invest in that character. You've got to like him and be willing to go with him wherever he's going, even if it's a downward spiral. If you don't care about the character, you don't have a movie."
For Sax, and for producer Paul Brooks, the right person for the part was Michael Keaton. Brooks observes, "You care about Michael because he's a consummate actor, and he's able to make you care about him. He absolutely becomes his character. During one scene in the film, Jonathan is alone in his room, well after his wife's funeral. Up until this point, he hasn't displayed much emotion about her death. And even in this scene, there isn't a lot of hand-wringing or head-clutching because we felt that we could easily get buried in a mire of self-pity if we did that. Interestingly, I think a lot of people are actually very still when they're dealing with grief. Michael understood that and portrayed it beautifully."
For his part, Keaton approached the role of Jonathan Rivers with specific ideas about how he would play it, being careful not to over-dramatize or enter into the arena of the maudlin. He comments, "I worried a little about this being the story of the 'sensitive guy.' That gets real old, real fast and it also becomes self-serving. What I liked is that you feel for this guy because you'd feel for anyone in his situation, and because he's a good guy. I needed to make him relatable and likable so that an audience is willing to get into his shoes to go for the ride."
Sax knew that the look and feel of White Noisewas a key element in telling the story, in setting up the character arcs and in keeping with the supernatural, otherworldly premise of the film. He turned to the production design team, under designer Michael S. Bolton, to visually translate Jonathan's gradual undoing (the dark and dangerous leg of his journey) to the sets and, ultimately, bring it to the screen. White Noise was not to be a film laden with an overage of costly special effects, so his approach to the overall production aspect had to be more carefully tuned and subtly crafted.
To further illustrate Jonathan's emotional and mental backslide, to carry that premise into the production areas of the film, Sax, Bolton and director of photography Chris Seager manipulated the color palette. The lighting, the paint colors used on the sets and the characters' clothing were all subjected to a backwards ride on the color wheel. Sax explains: "At the beginning of the film, Jonathan and Anna's house is very warm pastel colors-they're also wearing the same colors and everything glows, because they're the ideal golden couple with everything going for them…beautiful home, beautiful everything. But what we did was suck all of the color out of the film as we went along so that, as the color drains from Jonathan's life, the color drains from the movie. By the time he's moved into a new apartment and is in the midst of his EVP obsession, it's all very geometric and angular, very cold. As his obsession grows and the place becomes more untidy, he starts to become more unkempt. And we manipulated the pictures a great deal after we shot to make the colors go from nice and bright and sunny to much colder grays."
A good deal of the movie takes place within the confines of Jonathan Rivers' increasingly private internal struggle with a paranormal universe personified by the "EVP room" he has equipped with TV monitors, state-of-the art speakers and recording devices. The actual room was built on a special soundstage so that the movie's tech crew could wire it with the electronic impulses, audio and visual, that Rivers studies in his struggle to improve the fleeting contact he experiences with his deceased wife. "There's an awful lot of the movie that takes place in this particular EVP room," says Sax, "where he's amongst his machines as his obsession is growing and growing. My feeling was to try and treat each scene differently to reflect his continuing isolation from his family and friends, so the room gets gradually darker. During daylight, for instance, he'll pull the curtains so that it's darker and gloomier in there. Sometimes we just see the light from the monitors, so that the room has a blue feeling about it, and the camera work gets more edgy as Jonathan's psyche becomes more fragmented." The filming of the room reflects the protagonist's inner turmoil. "We go to handheld cameras for certain scenes, and just to keep it visually interesting, we use a crane in the set and break it up with different angles." Visually reflecting the main character's gradual disintegration and his interaction with spiritual "ghosts" and unreal beings required a special dimension from Michael Keaton as an actor, says Sax. The director explains, "Michael has such a terrific range. A lot of his work in this film is done sitting in a room, just looking at monitors. His eyes and his face are so alive-he's able to tell a story with just looks and we see his pain. It's quite wonderful really and it helped me considerably in the shooting. He also very accomplished at working with green screen and filming with things that aren't really there during shooting."
The demands of filming included significant green screen work for Keaton and some of his fellow actors. The electronic shadows of past lives do begin to take on corporeal attributes as they move about in sound and visual fury, appearing momentarily on a screen that the audience-but not Rivers-sees. With the appearance of the gray-toned images of these diaphanous beings, "you know something's going to go awfully wrong," says Sax. "And then he begins to get these warnings and he still doesn't heed them, wrapped up as he is in the struggle. It's like 'Beware the Ides of March,' and he still doesn't heed them. And that is what sends him on his path to ultimate destruction."
The beings (who are meant to be the spirits of the dead) are manipulated via special effects, added in post-production, as are all the images that are seen on the many screens in the film along with the "white noise," the static electric images that come to grip Jonathan Rivers. Per cinematographer Seager: "We shot using green on the screens and generated the 'white noise' afterwards. And then we manipulated that digitally so we end up with dozens of images of people with their faces in various expressions, which were layered and manipulated, giving them an otherworldly, surreal appearance as they fade on and off the screens. We then feed those images back into the TV screens.
"In order to bring the realism back into it, we also shot reflections that would appear in the glass of the television," he adds. "We layer that back on top and we get a look of what is going on around Jonathan in real time."
By building the EVP room set on a soundstage which could be controlled by the production crew, the filmmakers were able to accomplish a production design that fully reflects the inner turmoil of Jonathan Rivers. Sax continues: "The only really truly internal space for Rivers is his own EVP room, which is within his apartment. By building the set, we can accommodate all of the differing camera angles-also, all of that computer equipment is driven by a huge set-up, which had to work within the space as well."
While acknowledging the compelling inner journey taken by the film's main character, the director and his team were cautious in their choice of shots. Sax quips, "I thought that if we weren't careful, we were going to be buried inside four walls for a good part of the film. So I always tried to find locations with windows to give the story some expanse and the viewers some place to look out.
"For example, Jonathan's apartment has massive plate glass windows. My idea was that I always wanted to see life outside. While he's going on with his madness, outside ordinary life's going on. You can see people in the background watching their TVs, that sort of thing."
The director sums it up with the observation that, although the lives of the characters in White Noise are constantly impacted by the souls of the dead, "It's kind of a motif of the film that there's always life going on."
And for producer Brooks, the growing interest in EVP is likely to raise questions about just how we perceive that life experience: "It's very tough to be dismissive of something that a lot of people are experiencing on a very personal basis. And once more and more instances are recorded, then it's literally, 'Well hang on a second, this is actually becoming a reality.' I don't want to sound sort of ridiculous about this, but I'm just trying to entertain the possibility that we may be on the verge of something culturally extraordinary."
Universal Pictures and Gold Circle Films Present A White Noise (UK) and Brightlight Pictures Production In Association with Endgame Entertainment: Michael Keaton in White Noise, starring Deborah Kara Unger, Chandra West and Ian McNeice. The casting is by Maureen Webb. The music is composed by Claude Foisy. The costume designer is Karen Matthews; the production designer is Michael S. Bolton. It is edited by Nick Arthurs. The director of photography is Chris Seager, B.S.C. The executive producers are Scott Niemeyer, Norm Waitt, Simon Brooks and Stephen Hegyes. White Noise is produced by Paul Brooks and Shawn Williamson; it is written by Niall Johnson and directed by Geoffrey Sax. c2004 Universal Studios www.whitenoisemovie.com
ABOUT THE CAST
An actor of incredible range and emotional depth, MICHAEL KEATON (Jonathan Rivers) gained national attention in the hit comedy Night Shift, followed by starring roles in such films as Mr. Mom, Johnny Dangerously and Dream Team.
In 1998, he earned the Best Actor award from the National Society of Film Critics for Clean and Sober and Tim Burton's Beetlejuice. Keaton re-teamed with Burton to play the title role in the international blockbusters Batman and Batman Returns.
Keaton also starred as Robert Weiner in HBO's critically acclaimed Live From Baghdad. He received a Golden Globe nomination for his role in the film, which was based on a true story of the CNN crew who reported from Baghdad during the Gulf War.
Most recently Keaton completed a starring role as the President of the United States in First Daughter for 20th Century Fox Studios. Keaton is a member of American Rivers.
A British Columbia native, DEBORAH KARA UNGER (Sarah Tate) studied philosophy and economics at the University of Victoria before becoming the first Canadian to be accepted into the highly regarded Australian National Institute of Art. After graduating in 1988, she turned her attention to acting and landed her first role in the award-winning TV drama Bangkok Hilton, starring alongside Nicole Kidman. She made her feature film debut in 1990's Prisoners of the Sun and has since had featured roles in The Game with Sean Penn and Michael Douglas, Sunshine with Ralph Fiennes and The Salton Sea with Val Kilmer, among others. Most recently, Unger gained attention for her riveting turn in the critically acclaimed Thirteen, with Holly Hunter and Evan Rachel Wood, and opposite John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson in A Love Song for Bobby Long.
CHANDRA WEST (Anna Rivers) has been keeping herself busy in both feature films and television. She is currently seen as Jennifer Devlin, the troubled girlfriend of Mark-Paul Gosselaar's Detective Clark, on the ABC series NYPD Blue. Previously she starred in the short lived but critically acclaimed NBC series Mr. Sterling, with Josh Brolin, and in the edgy drama Water's Edge, with Nathan Fillion and Emmanuelle Vaugier. West also starred with Val Kilmer in Castle Rock's character-driven thriller The Salton Sea, which received wide praise from critics.
Other feature film credits include 20th Century Fox's The First Twenty Million Is Always the Hardest, with Adam Garcia and Rosario Dawson, and The Perfect Son, which was an official selection in the Toronto and New York Film Festivals in 2000.
In television, West's credits include such popular and diverse favorites as CBS's CSI and the television movies The '70s, produced by Denise Di Novi, and Revenge of the Land, directed by John Smith.
Originally from Edmonton, Canada, Chandra currently resides in Los Angeles.
Before breaking into British television and film, IAN McNEICE (Raymond Price) spent two years at the Salisbury Playhouse and attended the highly respected London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. After graduating from LAMDA, he began an extensive theater career, including four years with he Royal Shakespeare Company. His tenure with the Company concluded with a Broadway run of Nicholas Nickleby.
McNeice then went on to a starring role in the BAFTA award-winning British television series Edge of Darkness. His American film breakthrough was playing opposite Jim Carrey as Fulton Greenwall in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. His lengthy and impressive list of feature film and television credits on both sides of the Atlantic also includes From Hell, A Life Less Ordinary and most recently, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
GEOFFREY SAX (Directed by) comes from a long and venerable line of award-winning BBC-trained directors such as Mike Newell, Danny Boyle and Roger Michell, who have moved from the upper echelons of British television into features. Just prior to directing White Noise for Gold Circle Films, Sax had completed a much lauded contemporary version of Othello for British television, followed by the controversial period drama written by Andrew Davies for the BBC, Tipping the Velvet. Next up for Sax is the comedy thriller Flypaper, again for Gold Circle Films.
NIALL JOHNSON (Written by) studied film and drama at Bristol, graduating with a first class BA honors degree in 1987. Johnson spent the next decade working in various capacities in the British film industry until 1998, when he wrote and directed The Big Swap for Intermedia. Since then, he has focused mainly on writing, having scripted the TV movie The Ghost of Greville Lodge and the TV series Legend of the Hidden City. Switching his focus to features he wrote White Noise on spec in 2002, which was optioned and made in 2003 by Gold Circle Films. Johnson now has a number of film projects in development including Before, a supernatural thriller for Mostow/Lieberman Films; Trunk and William Tell for Tusk Productions; The Gatecrasher for Meteor Pictures; and Angel Face for New Town Films.
PAUL BROOKS (Produced by) left London University with a Humanities degree in English/Philosophy/Psychology and Sociology and then went into real estate development before moving into film.
With over 13 years producing and distributing films in both the U.K. and the U.S., Brooks founded Metrodome Group, a U.K.-based production company and distributor that he took public in the mid-'90s. As a distributor, Brooks' films include the likes of Buffalo 66, Palookaville, Chasing Amy and Chopper. As a producer, Brooks' credits include such films as Shadow of the Vampire and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, both of which received OscarR nominations (Best Supporting Actor and Best Screenplay, respectively), as well as the upcoming romantic comedy The Wedding Date, starring Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney; the off-beat comic murder mystery Jiminy Glick in Lalawood, starring Martin Short; and the outrageous comedy The Long Weekend, starring Chris Klein and Brendan Fehr.
He is currently President of Gold Circle Films.
SHAWN WILLIAMSON (Produced by) began his entertainment career in 1983, working in live theater. He then turned his attention to production management, with credits including Floating Away (Showtime), Five Desperate Hours (NBC) and Lambchop's Play Along (PBS). After producing The Charlie Horse Music Pizza, Shari Lewis' final series for PBS, Shawn served as president of Vancouver-based Shavick Entertainment, where he was in charge of production.
Most recently, Williamson executive-produced the Canadian feature Punch; line-produced Try Seventeen and Jiminy Glick in Lalawood; and produced House of the Dead, based on the Sega video game. He is currently executive-producing the TV series Alienated and developing the feature film adaptation of the popular video game Alone in the Dark.
With over 15 years of entertainment industry experience in production and distribution, SCOTT NIEMEYER (Executive Producer) has been involved with the successful production of more than 75 feature films, including such titles as Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin and the recent blockbuster hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding-until recently the most successful independent film of all time.
Niemeyer has held various executive positions with such prominent companies as Motion Picture Corporation of America, Orion Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. As an executive producer, Niemeyer's credits include the upcoming films The Wedding Date, Jiminy Glick in Lalawood and The Long Weekend.
Along with his brother, NORM WAITT (Executive Producer) formed Gateway Computers, Inc., which began as a dealer in computer components and evolved into a worldwide multi-billion dollar company. After working with his brother for five years, Waitt left his active management role with Gateway Computers, Inc. and shortly thereafter formed Gold Circle Entertainment and Waitt Media, which collectively own and operate more than 70 radio stations, five TV stations and more than 600 billboards.
Gold Circle Films was formed to produce high-quality films in a wide range of genres for domestic and international distribution. Since commencement, Gold Circle Films has amassed a library of over 20 titles, anchored by the mega-hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
As an executive producer, Waitt's credits include films such as The Man from Elysian Fields, starring Andy Garcia, Mick Jagger, and James Coburn; My Big Fat Greek Wedding, also produced by Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson and starring Nia Vardalos and John Corbett; Poolhall Junkies, starring Chazz Palminteri, Rod Steiger and Christopher Walken; and Sonny, starring James Franco, Brenda Blethyn and Mena Suvari. His list of upcoming projects includes The Wedding Date, Jiminy Glick in Lalawood and The Long Weekend.
For the last 10 years SIMON BROOKS (Executive Producer) has been alternating between his property interests and his involvement in feature films. He was a producer on some of his brother Paul Brooks' Metrodome Group films and is particularly involved in sourcing scripts, working with writers and agents and the casting process, as well as the finance side. He brought White Noise, the UK/Canada co-production thriller, to Gold Circle Films. The film has already been sold to many world territories. Brooks has a number of projects in development with Gold Circle Films including the comedy Endgame, the action film Once a Pilgrim and the remake of Zulu.
STEPHEN HEGYES (Executive Producer) has partnered with many of Canada's most prominent directors and talent, producing Bruce Sweeney's features Last Wedding, which opened the Toronto International Film Festival in 2001 and was voted one of the festival's top ten films; and Dirty, which screened at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals. Hegyes also produced Mina Shum's first feature, Double Happiness, released by Fine Line Features, and Drive, She Said, starring Moira Kelly. Hegyes is currently executive-producing the TV series Alienated and is developing future feature projects.
Following gaining his diploma in film and television from Guildford School of Art in England, CHRIS SEAGER, B.S.C. (Director of Photography) began his career in educational television at Wessex TV, sequeing to BBC-TV as a trainee studio camera operator in technical operations. He then joined the BBC Film department at the world famous Ealing Film Studios, where he progressed rapidly from camera assistant to lighting cameraman. His early cinematography credits during this period include many of the critically acclaimed 40 Minutes documentaries; the BAFTA-winning Arena - Arts' Programme Scarfe on Scarfe; feature length films of the comedy series Just Good Friends and Fools and Horses; episodes of the drama series Bergerac and South of the Border; and the award-winning telefilms Skallagrigg and The Vampyr Opera.
In 1994, Seager, having completed the shooting of the late John Schlesinger's much acclaimed movie Cold Comfort Farm, resigned from the BBC and became a freelance director of photography. His many credits since becoming freelance have included the following features: Stonewall, Beautiful Thing, Alive and Kicking, Fever Pitch, Vent de Colere, Ashes and Sand and White Noise. His television drama credits have included A Dance to the Music of Time, Madame Bovary, Lorna Doone (BAFTA-nominated), A Frenchman's Creek (Royal Television Society nomination), The Way We Live Now (BAFTA-nominated), Lenny Blue and State of Play, a six-part BBC1 political thriller, which garnered him the Royal Television Society's 2003 award for Lighting, Photography and Camera.
NICK ARTHURS (Editor) previously worked with White Noise director Geoffrey Sax on the television movie Othello, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Editing and enjoyed the BANFF Rockie Award for Best Made-for-Television and Global TV Grand Jury Prize. Other credits for English television include Margery and Gladys; Gypsy Woman; Caught in the Act; Suspicion; The Debt; Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels; Romeo and Juliet; and Picking Up the Pieces; as well as episodes of Clocking Off (series I and III) and Cutting It.
Among his numerous other credits in this field, MICHAEL S. BOLTON (Production Designer)'s work includes Final Destination 2, Out Cold, Saving Silverman, Romeo Must Die, The Sixth Man, Homeward Bound II, Look Who's Talking Now, The Crush, White Fang and The Fly II. Television audiences have seen his work as the designer on such diverse programs and telefeatures as It's A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, Hostage Rescue Team, Noah, Goldrush, A Christmas Star, A Hero in the Family and Stranger in My Bed.
KAREN MATTHEWS (Costume Designer) has numerous film and television credits on her resume as a costume designer, including They, Out of Order, Jack, Stealing Sinatra, Return to Halloweentown, Voyage of the Unicorn, Fishing with John, Love in a Small Town, Captains Courageous, Tears and Laughter and the Highlander series. Most recently, she served as the costume designer on The Long Weekend for producers Gold Circle Films and Brightlight Pictures.
Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, CLAUDE FOISY (Music Composed by) completed, with honors, a Bachelor's degree in classical performance at the prestigious Ecole de Musique Vincent d'Indy, as well as a Bachelor's degree in jazz performance at world renowned McGill University. After graduating, Foisy worked as musical director in Canada and throughout Europe for a number of Canadian artists such as Veronique Beliveau and Marie-Claire Seguin.
In 1992, Foisy was asked to take over for the musical director of the internationally acclaimed Cirque du Soleil on its tour throughout Switzerland, as well as in Santa Monica, California, with the production of Alegria.
Since moving to Los Angeles in 1995, Foisy has written the scores for over 200 television episodes and movies. He has collaborated with, among others, Francis Ford Coppola, Renny Harlin, MTV, Showtime, MGM TV, Sci-Fi Channel, Trilogy and the ABC Family Channel. Foisy recently scored Leslie Nielsen's feature, 2001: A Space Travesty, recording his music in Russia with the Moscow Symphony.
Foisy lives in Hidden Hills, California, with his wife, Kim Long, and their two daughters, Eve and Alexandra.
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