Aug 07 2012
Two Skeptical Videos
Google Talk
Last month while I was on the West coast at TAM 2012 the other SGU co-hosts and I were invited to visit Google and Pixar. At Google we were invited to give a talk, along with Richard Saunders from the Australian Skeptics, and you can see that talk now on YouTube. The topic is – Being s Savvy Health Consumer. Obviously, there is a great deal of material to potentially cover in such a talk, and we had two hours. That sounds like a lot of time, but it went very fast.
I started off with a basic discussion of critical thinking, mechanisms of deception, the nature of evidence in medicine, and similar topics. My colleagues then covered some specific areas of current popular interest, with a few demonstrations.
Google as a company has a very nurturing culture. They provide educational lectures free for their employees, among other perks. Many of those lectures are on health topics and, I am told, that while they are well-meaning some recent presentations have been less than science-based. Fortunately there is a group of skeptics at Google and they decided to bring us there to inject a dose of critical thinking into the health lectures at Google. Charlie Ross was our host (he is the one who introduces us at the beginning of the lecture), and was very gracious throughout our visit.
Occ The Skeptical Caveman
My production company, SGU Productions (which produces the Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast), also has a video production unit and we have made a few videos over the years. (Here is our YouTube channel. ) The idea is to produce short funny skits that have a skeptical theme. They are primarily meant to be entertaining, but hopefully there is a lesson in critical thinking along the way. Our latest video is Occ the Skeptical Caveman – Occ is a bit ahead of his time and finds himself surrounded by superstition and ignorance of every type.
Our goal is to produce a web mini-series based upon this character. We already are in the process of writing the next four episodes. We have created a Kickstarter campaign to help fund these episodes. Video is a great way to reach out to new audiences, but they are expensive and time-consuming to produce. Therefore we’re asking for a little support. The way Kickstarter works is that you set a goal, which is the minimum amount you need to complete a project (including the fee Kickstarter takes off the top, plus the cost of the givebacks you provide to donors). If you do not make the minimum, however, then you don’t get any money. There is no upper limit, however, once you make your goal.
So – please help us reach our goal. We have lots of plans for skeptically-themes videos. Funding the Occ series will help us also to produce other educational videos. We have the content, the crew, the actors, and the motivation. Now we just need your support.
15 Responses to “Two Skeptical Videos”
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Loved the video and loved the cave painting homage to Randi and Sagan! That’s worth a donation.
Good message, acting, and production quality. Nobody asked for my opinion, but I think the sense of fun is lacking, and instead it seems pompous and jerky. The hick-bashing doesn’t come across too well for me.
But I support the endeavor, and hope to see good things develop.
I hope I don’t sound pompous and jerky. I’m an SGU fan and just wanted to share my first impressions.
I agree with rpotter1000: the “stupid” cavemen are probably represented by the exact demographic that these videos, in large part, are trying to target–”hick” America. It might actually be better to have the “snobby” other cavemen “so sure of themselves,” and have a hick-ish main character as the only one with his head on straight. This would subtly allow people to overtly bash the educated liberals, but give them a sense of superiority in that they get the real message. And, of course, the real message is exactly what we’re trying to drive home.
The protagonist comes off a bit know-it-all, and instead of sympathizing with him, I found myself slightly annoyed.
I agree with the last commenter, and at the risk of sounding pompous myself i would like to offer a suggestion. The skeptical caveman needs some flaws written into his character to balance the “hick-bashing” and also because self deprecation is the hallmark of credible comedy. perhaps some interplay between characters that shows the evolutionary advantages of hyperactive agency detection. Anyway the SGU youtube movies are a pleasure to watch!
If you are to serialize,or sit-com the project,have the clans living in different man-caves.Show the different man-cave poarches,front lawns and interior decoration.Then present each episode at a historical pivotal,watershed moment.
I love you guys at SGU, and that’s why I’m giving some honest feedback. The production values in the Occ video are very good. Well done. However, you haven’t quite reached your goal of being primarily entertaining. I was totally engaged at the start but it just didn’t go anywhere and well before the four-minute mark I was bored and ready to call it quits.
Suggestion: show, don’t tell. Instead of talking about the failure to apply logic, *show* the failure in action. There’s lots of opportunity for humor in that. If you took that route, you wouldn’t even have to have a smart guy giving lectures (this video feels like a barely disguised lecture). You could have sympathetic characters learning something by failing in a funny way. Or overcoming the mistake and succeeding in a funny way. And those are just two of many directions you could take.
One other tip: in my opinion, pee jokes lose their appeal fairly quickly, especially if you watch more than once.
“I agree with rpotter1000: the “stupid” cavemen are probably represented by the exact demographic that these videos, in large part, are trying to target–”hick” America.”
I disagree somewhat. I don’t think the general public will relate to Jay- I mean Cooter- but I agree that they will not relate much to Occ either. I thought the video was pretty entertaining, and was very well done.
I don’t think having the fairly extreme stereotypes of Occ and Cooter are a problem, as long as in later videos there are characters that are in between. Having these in-between characters navigate the logic of Occ and arguments of Cooter could work quite well. They could eventually realize that Occ is correct, but perhaps these characters could then use better techniques to convince others.
That was just my unsolited 2 cents. I thought the video was great and more entertaining than I expected
Unfortunately, the dialogue sounds like it’s being read out of a text book on critical thinking.
I was not motivated to pass it on.
I agree with a lot of the existing comments. Occ is too far ahead of his time. He needs to he a little less so, and we also need to see him struggling to carry out science and not just enjoying the knowledge he gained from unseen methods. We need to see him experimenting and noting that a sharp rock at the end of a spear works, while a bundle of grass does not. We need to see him trying to burn rocks and carefully noting the results. And we need to see him, on rare occasions, taking a turd bath with the others.
And in the future, he will need a go-between character (perhaps the extra character helping Occ with the fire is already planned for that role?), who kinda gets it but not really, to spend time with both Occ and the hunters, while not really fitting in with either side.
Jay’s character is perfect.
I don’t think the sceptical caveman needs to strugel with his critical thinking. He does need to strugel w/having a sceptical- rational mindset in a culture in time not conducive to such thought. I know I could relate with his situation as I live in a very bible heavy rural town.
G’day Steve, I’ll throw in my 2 cents as well I s’pose. Production, acting (Jay-excellent work, love the mullet. Mr Sobon was awesome as usual) and concept were all top notch. I guess if I had a complaint
I’d say it was a little too didactic, and could use just a little tightening. Just my opinion…
Having said all that, I think any complaints we make are only made because we know how clever you guys are, and therefore have exceedingly high expectations! I remember watching the first few eps of ‘The Simpsons’ & ‘Seinfeld’. They were pretty damn good, but very soon graduated to pure genius.
No pressure there!!
I’ve been a reader and fan of this blog for about a year now and have gotten used to the constant criticism of non-experts commenting on fields/area of study where they have no extensive training or expertise.
The constant refrain seems to be–if you aren’t trained, if you aren’t an expert–shut up.
So now, as a filmmaker with an undergraduate and graduate degree in film, and nearly two decades of professional experience writing and directing and editing commercials, music videos, and feature films I’m wondering why this standard doesn’t apply to bloggers and scientists thinking they can just go ahead and make a movie. Or, for that matter, to non-experts or professionals voicing their opinions in this field.
Filmmaking, storytelling and writing are arts, yes, but they are above all else–skills that require practice and training.
ZooPraxis – Thanks for the comment. While we are novices, we did produce several videos before launching into this project to gain some experience. We have several very experienced technical consultants. Our director actually has a directing degree, and most of our actors are trained professional actors.
We certainly have no delusions as a start up small video production company, and we are open to constructive input from those with experience in the field. We are simply trying to put together people with the training and experience so we can get our message out in this format.
Eek, ZooPraxis. Just eek. That sounds so wrong that you are suggesting people should refrain from expressing themselves through film, whether it’s done purely for fun or for educational value, because they’re not “experts.” That’s just so insanely pretentious and wrong to me. I don’t see how that could have much of anything to do with the problem of non-experts expressing opinions on technical subjects as if those people were experts.
Yes, of course the more experience a filmmaker has, the better his or work is likely to be, but come on, man. Come on.
Dr. Novella, I really don’t think you should feel like you have to apologize or try to justify attempting to produce quality educational videos.
Come on.