Bookmark Liv Films
Liv Films' YouTube Channel
Liv Films' Metacafe Channel
Liv Films' MySpace Page
How to Make a Tinfoil Hat
aka “Sexy Tinfoil Bikini”: A beginner’s guide to conspiracy theorist haberdashery.
Credits:
written & directed by: Jed Gillen
featuring: Mona Gillen & Jed Gillen
video editing/cinematography by: Mona Gillen
music & sound editing by: Jed Gillen
It ain’t that bad yet—but it’s goin’ thataway fast. It’s folks like y’all that keep this nation thinking.
And thinking out loud helps keep us free.
Good thinking! And the tinfoil bikini keeps Superman from peeping with his xray vision!
Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude…hilarious concept! I hope the tin foil helmet types have good senses of humor.
Sound advice from an always-reliable source. I’m folding tinfoil at this very moment.
Yes, some of them are crazy and even a little scary, but you’ll find that in any group. A lot of supposed “conspiracy theories” are just called that because people are clueless about them. Most of them are easily proven through official sources.
Ron Paul is a good man and most of his supporters are great people. I’m sad to see you talk about them the way you do these days just because a couple idiots emailed something you didn’t like.
I thought the Ron Paul stuff was pretty cool. I admired you for the courage you had before your heads got so big. I’m guessing you gained a lot of fans because of it too. That’s how I found you guys anyway.
Good luck in your endeavors. Have fun and enjoy life. After this vid and the crack on Ron Paul I’m probably done following you guys.
You make an assumption here– that we got emails from “a couple” of idiots. In reality, we got emails from literally hundreds. We made several popular videos in support of a candidate that we liked, and hundreds of people who identify themselves as his supporters send us nasty emails?? As the kids say: WTF?? Yes, as people have pointed out, there are crazies in any group. I have been involved in activism of various kinds all my life, and the overzealous nutcase is quite familiar to me. Never before in my life, however, have I encountered anything close to this. And what has been most disappointing is how few people have been willing to stand up to these idiots and how many have done exactly what you are doing: essentially, blaming the victim. It’s bullshit, and I’m not afraid to call it that. I’m not going to be bullied into silence. Funny how standing up for oneself doesn’t fit into your definition of “courage”…
Now, to be clear:
We are libertarians. We were libertarians before Ron Paul’s presidential bid, and we will be libertarians long after he is gone. We supported him because he was in favor of many of the same things we were: smaller government, no income tax, etc.
But we are also trying to make a name for ourselves as filmmakers– specifically, the makers of comedy videos; not just political propaganda. Yes, you and many others found us through Ron Paul Girl– but there are many others, however, who found us through Miracle Beer Diet or other videos. For the record, the people who primarily enjoy the comedy or sexy aspects of our videos have been nothing but polite about our political ones; on the other hand, many, many members of the Ron Paul community have behaved horribly when we have dared make anything that wasn’t political. We just don’t need the headache anymore.
I agree with you that the majority of Ron Paul supporters are probably good people. Unfortunately, they are not the ones who tend to email us constantly…
Thanks to the Ron Paul supporters who share or at least understand our frustration, and who understand the concept of humor. I know that there are a lot of you out there, even if you don’t post as often as the humorless crackpots…
Beautifully put, Jed!
David said that he admired our “courage”, I’m assuming, because he thinks it took “courage” for us to speak out in support of Ron Paul… I don’t see it that way at all. In fact, you could count the number of negative responses that we got, from people opposed to Ron Paul, on one hand. We even actually got a lot of positive response from people who weren’t Ron Paul supporters but thought that what we were doing was cool!
When you contrast that with some of the overwhelmingly negative experiences that we’ve had with Ron Paul’s supporters, it’s easy to see why we might want to distance ourselves from them…
And, seriously, in all honesty, anybody who doesn’t have enough of a sense of humor to be able to make fun of themselves probably wasn’t ever really a fan of ours anyway.
Some guys at MIT did a joke study on the effectiveness of tin foil hats. Check it out, it’s pretty funny, in a geeky sort of way:
http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/
That said, some of the things that conspiracy theorists look into are legitemate coverups and/or crimes on the part of the government. Other things are adittedly quite nutty indeed. The big problem with this material is that a large portion of people willing to keep an open enough mind to really do their homework on it are, shall we say, socially inept. These people have found a voice and a common cause online, but are still too nerdly to figure out how to relate to their fellow human being politely. In some cases, they don’t have the discernment to separate fact from fiction, and start believing things that are obviously false. Partly because of that, they’re so used to being ostricized that they become irate quite easily; hence the negative, and probably viscious feedback to some of your videos.
I consider myself a conspiracy factist - I stick to provable things. J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller and company had to conspire to get the Federal Reserve and income tax passed. JFK was killed by insiders (hence, conspirators) within the government, a fact based on analysis by professional snipers, film footage of the events leading up to the hit, and confessions by those involved in organizing the murder. There are many factual inconsistancies in the official 9/11 story that show there were key individuals within the government that had to conspire in order to allow the event to take place. This difference is that I (and many other less rabid seekers of the truth) have the discernment to leave something alone if it is based on wild speculation.
I’m also a filmmaker, and have enjoyed many of your films since seeing the first Ron Paul Girl clip. I think you’re justified in retaliating in your humorous way against the negativity that you’ve received from the more paranoid individuals in society. However, I encourage you to keep an open mind, despite the kooks out there. Evil people gravitate towards power, and their crimes don’t stop at killing presidents or installing unconstitutional taxes. It’s important that they be brought to justice, and Ron Paul’s refreshing honesty and integrity inspired hope in a lot of passionate people seeking the truth.
Keep up the good work! And may we one day have more politicians we can trust, like Ron Paul.
Thank you. This comment is both intelligently-reasoned and respectful, and therefore very much welcome and appreciated.
Strong movements are ones with a broad base of support– i.e., people from diverse backgrounds coming together for a common cause for their own individual reasons.
Bullshit movements are those dominated by cannibalistic idiots who continually seek to purge their ranks of anyone who agrees with them 99% but dares to hold an individual opinion about the remaining 1%.
In our experience, unfortunately, the Ron Paul movement has been mostly the latter– something which strikes me as particularly absurd given that we joined it because we are libertarians (i.e., because we believe that people should have more freedom to do and believe whatever they want).
Anyway– thanks again for the post. Perhaps you should teach classes in effective communication with other humans.
Thanks for the compliment. I was compelled to respond because I respect what you are trying to achieve with Liv Films. I’ve shot a b-movie and a few shorts, so I know what it’s like, and you are fortunate to have been able to establish yourself in this way.
Being Canadian, I’ve been largely insulated from and ignorant of the actions of Dr Paul’s supporters. I’ve seen his messages on YouTube and I bought his “Foreign Policy of Freedom” book, both of which have convinced me that it is indeed possible to have an honest man in politics. I’ve gone from a left-leaner to a libertarian inspired largely by what Ron Paul has had the guts to say for decades.
I find it tragic that this infighting took place within the movement, especially since the campaign took pains to distance itself from the issue of 9/11 investigations. Unfortunately, our society is obsessed with obsession. In fact, one could argue that the West is populated with more extremists than the middle east - we’re just more diverse in our obsessions. Moderation in action and discourse becomes intolerable under these circumstances, and everyone winds up shouting themselves into irrelevancy, regardless of the validity of what they have to say.
Again, thanks for the entertaining videos, and send my regards to Mona - she’s a natural on camera. I’d love to audition her for Maggot Man 2, but I live a little far from you and have no budget as yet.
“Maggot Man 2″– is that a romantic comedy? Post a link to MM 1 if it’s online anywhere; we’d be interested in checking it out.
“Maggot Man” is an action/comedy/science fiction b-movie with the reanimated dead, mad scientists, gratuitous partial nudity, black magic, gumshoe detectives, a Neutron Flux Cannon and ninjas. All the nessecary elements for cinematic excellence except a budget.
This official site is here: http://departure-productions.com/maggotman/
and there’s a few minutes of the intro on Metacafe here: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/962202/maggot_man_3_minute_intro/
The total run time is 47 minutes, so I haven’t uploaded it anywhere yet. I’ll probably slice it up into chapters and stick it on Metacafe and YouTube when I’m ready to release part 2. I can send you a DVD if you’re interested.
“Maggot Man 2: Night of the Kevinator” continues the story, and will have an element of a romantic comedy… the twist being that the male involved is in the process of becoming an evil cyborg.
Both films rely on a campy script and do not take themselves seriously in any way, which is the way B-movies ought to be in my view.
Thanks for letting me plug my wares on your site