From Neuromancer to eXistenZ, Videodrome to next year’s Inception, science fiction authors and filmmakers have long been fascinated by the prospect of jacking into the brain to elicit specific emotional reactions. Thanks to glimmer for plugging us in to this Wired article explaining how the art of mindfucking has been elevated to a science. MindSign Neuromarketing runs test subjects through an MRI to measure their brain’s emotional response in the amygdala to scary scenes from a movie.
GeekDad: How do you see the fMRI technology changing how films are made?
Peter Katz: Movies could easily become more effective at fulfilling the expectations of their particular genre. Theatrical directors can go far beyond the current limitations of market research to gain access into their audience’s subconscious mind. The filmmakers will be able to track precisely which sequences/scenes excite, emotionally engage or lose the viewer’s interest based on what regions of the brain are activated. From that info a director can edit, re-shoot an actor’s bad performance, adjust a score, pump up visual effects and apply any other changes to improve or replace the least compelling scenes. Studios will create trailers that will [be] more effective at winning over their intended demographic.
Creepy, sure, but with enough funding the research might prevent trailers like this. Who else wants to fondle your amygdala? Mr. Revolutionizer of Cinema himself:
GeekDad: What is the general “Hollywood” view on using the fMRI technology to supplement marketing already in place?
Hubbard: We just read [James] Cameron’s Variety interview in which he says, “I believe that a functional MRI study of brain activity would show that more neurons are actively engaged in processing a 3-D movie than the same film seen in 2-D.” We’re testing that now (the cheap paper goggles are MRI-safe) and will have an answer in a few days. Since we have our own scanner it doesn’t take us the weeks and months that academic scanner projects take. We are also working with a virtual reality company on “total immersion” goggles that can be worn in the scanner.
Katz: It is a new frontier. Most people in the film industry haven’t heard of these techniques. Try searching film + neuromarketing or neurocinema on Digg.com. There are little to no articles on this subject.
Yeah, nice try. I’m not falling for that. Try searching film + neuromarketing or neurocinema and that needy bed-head chick from Ringu will come crawling out of your laptop screen. That’s how they get you, man!
“It knows my fears, it knows my secrets! Gets inside your head and… it shows you!”