Ryan ChartrandIf stalking people on Facebook isn’t giving you that creepy, disturbing satisfaction that your freakish self so desires, perhaps the HBO Voyeur Project is just what you’re looking for.
Although Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller “Rear Window” is over 50 years old, it has already been given tribute to twice this year: once with the film “Disturbia” and now with HBO’s daring new project from director Jake Scott (son of famed director Ridley Scott).
The HBO Voyeur Project, which launched last Thursday, is a new kind of “miniseries” in that, instead of simply watching the show, you now must become a “watcher,” or more specifically, a voyeur (i.e. someone who pulls out binoculars, watches people from afar, eats Cocoa Puffs and dresses in Spider-Man pajamas).
Although the series is shown on the HBO Channel, the real experience is found by going to the project’s Web site, HBOVoyeur.com. Viewing it online allows you to see all of the stories and, almost like a game, fall into the fictional city’s world and navigate through it however you wish. (And, unlike HBO, it’s free.)
Normal, sane people usually don’t sit and look through other people’s windows, meaning that once the project gives you the power to watch the lives of others unravel without any consequence, it can become quite addicting.
Nevertheless, it can also be somewhat unsettling the moment you realize you are alone looking through windows into the lives of people whose names you don’t know, whose voices you can’t hear and whose lives you might not even want to know about.
You can either watch a four-story apartment building with several interconnected stories playing at once, or you can view four different connected stories separately for a more intimate experience.
From the moment either experience begins, you are completely confused and uncomfortable as the people you are watching go about their lives. Whether they’re simply eating dinner or watching television, you can’t help but watch as you observe and analyze their every move. As the stories progress, you can expect some shocking twists and turns to keep you on the edge.
What kinds of stories are you watching exactly? The stories range from a woman serial killer flailing knives at people to a woman giving birth at a strip poker party because two guys moving a couch down a stairwell are blocking her exit. All the while, an ambient soundtrack that is usually slow, somewhat dark jazz adds an entirely different and unnerving tone to the mix.
The most satisfying part about the project is when you start to realize how each story is connected and that it’s essentially a new, innovative and ingenious way to make a television show. Even though it’s technically a series of silent films, they are far more unique and engaging to watch in the site’s environment than a lot of television shows on the big networks.
When you look at the filming itself, you will see that the project is quite daring and exactly the “new media art” style that HBO is trying to capture. Since you can’t see anyone’s face very clearly and can’t hear what anyone’s saying, the actors have to sell the stories through full-body motions in very intricate sets that are then set on a very wide stage. It’s the originality that entertainment fans are dying to see during the dull, rerun-filled summer.
The HBO Voyeur Project isn’t simply a Web site with a few videos, however. The stories have also been projected on the side of a building in New York City, which the project’s blog described as “an IMAX screen glowing on a building in high definition.” HBO is also rumored to be trying to connect it to the real world in some way and has already set up fake phone numbers of characters that you can call.
It is unknown whether more stories will be added to the site in the near future, but considering the rather unfinished plot, it will most likely continue.
While some have called the project no more than viral marketing and filler time to make up for the end of “The Sopranos,” it is a truly uncanny experience that anyone who loves interconnected stories similar to that of “Lost” or whose neighbors are too uninteresting to watch is sure to enjoy.