Tuesday, February 22, 2011

A Bigfoot Filmography May Hold The Key To Some Sightings

Author Dave Coleman's The Bigfoot Filmography: Fictional and Documentary Appearances in Film and Television (due out this fall) is an exhaustive compendium, chronicling the cinematic exploits of the big guy. From the works of such pioneers as Willis O'Brien and George Melies through to modern films and documentaries, the list includes 100s of photos, interviews, and synopses. This looks to be a must-have for Biggy enthusiasts.

However, there may be another reason to check out this book.

I've long held the belief that at least some flaps, rashes, and sightings can be attributed to imaginations running high either in anticipation of or following the release of bigfoot-related films. In fact, I would further speculate that this holds true for ALL phenomena. However, since we have at our ready a lengthy and thorough list of such features and when they were released, we can use Coleman's book to examine any relationship between spikes in sightings and the films that may have inspired them. By crunching the numbers, we might see patterns that better support futher research into these elusive hairy hominids. At the very least, it would afford us a way to tune out some of the "noise" in all the reports, allowing us to focus more intently on accounts that would seem untainted by cinematic influence.

3 comments:

Sharon Day said...

This is great. Leave it to him to be practical and give us what we want which is to review the collective info in one place--yahoo! I agree that these things have popularity. I'm sure after Close Encounters there were a lot of new sightings. Sometimes, though, it can be a real sign of something genuine. I admit that triangle UFOs have been very popular the last several years and in 2008 I saw one with my ex husband and son and it was a crazy sight. It was a popular thing, but then there's a reason--more people are seeing this particular craft. It's hard to tell what's popular excitement and what is genuinely a pattern.

Cullan Hudson said...

You are exactly right, which is why we cannot rely solely upon these data. Instead, they must be added to others from which we can derive a better picture of the whole phenomenon.

MARILYN A. HUDSON, MLIS said...

Yes, this is beneficial. I did something similar with UFO's - very simple and informal - and then looked more closely at the events preceding the media hype. Those were interesting - revealing triangular craft reported as early as the late 1960's. The tickler will be : which comes first the event or the media exploitation?