Did Robin Williams have Evangelion written into the film One Hour Photo? I contacted the director to find out!

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Did Robin Williams have Evangelion written into the film One Hour Photo? I contacted the director to find out!

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Postby The Eva Monkey » Mon Nov 14, 2016 9:47 am

Hey everyone, I produced I video reviewing One Hour Photo and examining the use of Evangelion within the film's plot. I even contacted the writer and director, Mark Romanek, to get to the bottom of whether or not the Mass Produced Evangelion figure was written in by Robin Williams.

Please check it out, and if you enjoy it, give me a sub, like, comment, etc.

I'm planning to release videos along these lines on a regular basis, so please show me your support. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei8JnepMRoM

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Re: Did Robin Williams have Evangelion written into the film One Hour Photo? I contacted the director to find out!

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Postby hui43210 » Mon Nov 14, 2016 11:19 am

Well, that would explain why the toy's backstory in the film is completely wrong.
I mean, predictability is the central attraction and the narrative hook that we've all come to expect from the Evangelion franchise. How come Anno can't realize this? Twice? - FreakyFilmFan4ever

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Re: Did Robin Williams have Evangelion written into the film One Hour Photo? I contacted the director to find out!

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Postby SoryuUberAlles » Mon Nov 14, 2016 11:56 am

That's some good art journalism. What kind of journalistic skullduggery do you do to get those contacts - or do you just, like, call and assistant and wait forever?

It's interesting to see that this would make the reference most like the one in Michael Clayton - very prominent but superficial. You see the toys but they aren't explained at all, nevermind an inauthentic way.

Or maybe it does? I've always been sympathetic to the way Evangleion reconfigures Christian mythology in a way that's unintentionally quite appropriate. The idea of angels being strange and often threatening rather than hallmark cherubs. Maybe the director naively intuited this from the weird way the 'harpies' seem to mix up the traditional angel iconography of pure white with black crow-like wings and hideous faces. As I've said before the West has 'popularised' Christianity and we make films about Asteroids The Size of Texas (or possibly Rhode Islan) and call it 'Armageddon.'

That or, the reference point is that Eva fans are all insane, obviously.
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Re: Did Robin Williams have Evangelion written into the film One Hour Photo? I contacted the director to find out!

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Postby The Eva Monkey » Mon Nov 14, 2016 12:32 pm

View Original PostSoryuUberAlles wrote:That's some good art journalism. What kind of journalistic skullduggery do you do to get those contacts - or do you just, like, call and assistant and wait forever?

Thanks. It was actually really easy. I just dropped him an email at the address listed on his website, and he literally got back to me a half hour later. Despite having done a lot of high profile music videos, he's not a famous Hollywood director, so he seems fairly approachable.

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Re: Did Robin Williams have Evangelion written into the film One Hour Photo? I contacted the director to find out!

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Postby Reichu » Mon Nov 14, 2016 12:43 pm

An enjoyable view, though I didn't really think the use if chiptunes worked here. Thanks for doing the research on this one. Valuable stuff.
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Re: Did Robin Williams have Evangelion written into the film One Hour Photo? I contacted the director to find out!

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Postby The Eva Monkey » Mon Nov 14, 2016 1:12 pm

View Original PostReichu wrote:I didn't really think the use if chiptunes worked here

It's partially my own personal taste, and partially their availability. I don't want to use the original soundtrack because of YouTube's content ID system. I do have a musician friend doing some original arrangements for me.

Thanks for the feedback. :)

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Re: Did Robin Williams have Evangelion written into the film One Hour Photo? I contacted the director to find out!

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Postby NemZ » Mon Nov 14, 2016 1:15 pm

Well, that's something. Disappointing, but it is what it is.
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Re: Did Robin Williams have Evangelion written into the film One Hour Photo? I contacted the director to find out!

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Postby The Eva Monkey » Mon Nov 14, 2016 1:52 pm

View Original PostNemZ wrote:Disappointing, but it is what it is.

Disappointing in that "Don't believe everything you read on the internet" kind of way?

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Re: Did Robin Williams have Evangelion written into the film One Hour Photo? I contacted the director to find out!

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Postby NemZ » Mon Nov 14, 2016 2:22 pm

Yeah, pretty much. Not any discouragement of your efforts, just the results.
Rest In Peace ~ 1978 - 2017
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Re: Did Robin Williams have Evangelion written into the film One Hour Photo? I contacted the director to find out!

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Postby SoryuUberAlles » Wed Nov 16, 2016 7:52 pm

So I notice on the subreddit you say you're going to put out a new one every fortnight or so. Any advance notice for your loyal evageeks pals?
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Re: Did Robin Williams have Evangelion written into the film One Hour Photo? I contacted the director to find out!

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Postby The Eva Monkey » Wed Nov 16, 2016 8:21 pm

View Original PostSoryuUberAlles wrote:Any advance notice for your loyal evageeks pals?

What kind of advance notice are we talking about? Expected release date? Topic?

At the moment, I'm still getting in my groove. Still getting used to doing this. I don't want to make any hard commitments at the moment as far as schedule goes, but ideally, what I want to do is get to the point where I can have a video ready to go, every other Monday at 11am.

That's the ideal, and I may find a topic that's expansive enough that I may want to do something long form, and that may mean a month in-between videos. I'm a big fan of the Gaming Historian, and sometimes he takes longer between episodes to tackle big topics, and I think the wait is worth it.

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Re: Did Robin Williams have Evangelion written into the film One Hour Photo? I contacted the director to find out!

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Postby Sykes III » Thu Nov 17, 2016 5:19 pm

It makes a LOT of sense to find out that the "Robin Williams put the MP Eva into the movie cuz he's a huge otaku" was yet another piece of ADV disinformation. I mean, there's so much wrong with it's portrayal in the movie, from the mispronounciation, to the declaration that it's a "good guy", to the fact that what the fuck is a Japanese import toy of an (obscure in America) movie doing in a fucking offbrand Wal-Mart? It seems totally more reasonable the idea that the director picked it because it looked cool and fit his themes. Good job clearing up yet another of the myriad misconceptions of Eva fandom, which, like so many others, has it's origin in Matt Greenfield's bullshit.

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Re: Did Robin Williams have Evangelion written into the film One Hour Photo? I contacted the director to find out!

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Postby SoryuUberAlles » Thu Nov 17, 2016 6:07 pm

Actually, if you watch the video it demonstrates that the available evidence at the time made it seem very credible. In the extras on the OHP DVD Robin Williams actually plays with the toy during cast meetings. Apparently the original script/storyboard said it would be an Animorph toy so it was definitely inserted with some meaning.

However, the video reveals the Director's 'fiat' interpretation. It's not that OHP's director just 'misunderstood' the role of the Harpies ('Instrumentality is Good End!') but that he had a specific image in mind he wanted it to display in the film - a terrible avenging angel. He might explain it wrong as a 'real' toy when it's just a plot device but when it appears with a symbolic/artistic role later on it takes on that meaning because that's the one he picked out for it.

It's not even 100% wrong as I see it. As I mentioned up thread, I think this is an interesting parallel to the way Shinseiki makes creative use out of Christian mythology it only half understands. By mixing up the traditional symbolism of angels it can take them away from the common vulgarised greeting card cherubs westerners know and make them something I think could even be called authentic. I think the director of OHP did pick up on the same mixed-up symbolism but just settled on the more familiar idea of 'scary angel'.

On the associated reddit thread The Eva Monkey asserts that Robin Williams' references to anime in his IAMA makes it seem credible he knew Evangelion. So, even if Robin Williams knew EVA better, the director actually wanted the toy to be seen as a 'good guy', so ironically perhaps the most famous Western EVA fan wouldn't have been able to put authentic Evangelion into of the few movies where it's referenced by name. More than anything I'd call that 'frustrating.'
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Re: Did Robin Williams have Evangelion written into the film One Hour Photo? I contacted the director to find out!

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Postby Director Black » Fri Nov 18, 2016 7:48 pm

Great video. I do wonder how many people got into Eva through this.

I also have no shame in admitting that the MPE action figure was the only reason I was interested in it; pretty shallow reason, but hey, I at least got a solid psychological thriller from one of my favorite celebs of all time (Wish I could've seen him in more dramas).
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Re: Did Robin Williams have Evangelion written into the film One Hour Photo? I contacted the director to find out!

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Postby Joseki » Tue Sep 26, 2017 1:49 pm

Zelda Williams just tweeted about it

SPOILER: Show


SPOILER: Show



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