Close Encounters ? - Hand signal
Eric Mariah Mariah Duchin
idea implanted somewhere in his mind that the 5 hand gestures of greeting
corresponded to the 5 tones of greeting. That I can accept. But somehow
he also stipulates that the hand gestures are sign language for the letters
H-E-L-L-O. I've checked and it's not american sign. Any theories about
this?
While I'm on the subject, immediately prior to the real tonal conversation,
a technician says something to the extent of "If everything is all ready
here on the dark side of the moon, play the ____ tones". What's ____? It
sounds like "puck", but is it? if so, does that have any real-world meaning
or is it just technobabble?>
Help me, rec.arts.sf.movies... You're my only hope,
Cory
Doug Tricarico
Boy, is *this* ever a call-back!
To the best of my recollection, the hands signals were from the Kodaly
hand signs. That's Zoltan Kodaly (yes, that's a guy's name). That's
all I remember, so you'll have to do more research on your own.
Doug
Jeffrey Wheeler
> I appeal to you to settle an intense debate regarding "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" . A friend of mine got the
> idea implanted somewhere in his mind that the 5 hand gestures of greeting
> corresponded to the 5 tones of greeting. That I can accept. But somehow
> he also stipulates that the hand gestures are sign language for the letters
> H-E-L-L-O. I've checked and it's not american sign. Any theories about
> this?
For the hand gestures and music, John Williams created a musical
language even before Spielberg had finished the script. This language
does Now go play the five notes on a keyboard:
D = H
E = E
C = L
G = O
So if you play the entire theme, you get HELLO out of DECcG. The hand
gestures a simply the corresponding hand signs for each note, says so
in the movie, and they are real hand gestures for 're' 'me' 'do' 'do'
'so' (as in the song sung in the "Sound of Music" for those who aren't
musically inclined)
You can do this with all the themes that the spacecraft emits (but
notice that each note in the film has about three fellow notes [like a
telephone], so it's a matter of finding the right sequence that makes
a word). It's fun!
Is it any wonder why this is John Williams' favorite score?
> While I'm on the subject, immediately prior to the real tonal conversation,
> a technician says something to the extent of "If everything is all ready
> here on the dark side of the moon, play the ____ tones". What's ____? It
> sounds like "puck", but is it? if so, does that have any real-world meaning
> or is it just technobabble?>
He says "five."
Jeffrey Wheeler
sha...@mem.net
Kevin Field
mar...@citrine.cyberstation.net (Eric Mariah Mariah Duchin) writes:
> I appeal to you to settle an intense debate regarding "Close Encounters
of > the Third Kind" . A friend of mine got the idea implanted
somewhere in his
> mind that the 5 hand gestures of greeting corresponded to the 5 tones of
> greeting. That I can accept. But somehow he also stipulates that the hand
> gestures are sign language for the letters H-E-L-L-O. I've checked and it's
> not american sign. Any theories about this?
As someone previously mentioned, they are Kodaly's hand signals for
musical notes. They are _not_ sign language for "hello," but in this
case, they mean the same thing -- the aliens used that five-tone signal as
a greeting signal, meaning (basically) "Hey, we're coming and we're coming
in peace!" (Yes, it's corny, but that's the gist of it.) Truffaut's
character uses the hand signals to "say" the message back to the alien.
How the alien knows Kodaly's hand signals is beyond me, but hey, it's an
effective moment.
Kevin
Mike Allegretto
If thats the case then what is the spacecraft saying in the movie?
I don't know musical notes.
Jeffrey Wheeler
>If thats the case then what is the spacecraft saying in the movie?
>I don't know musical notes.
I don't know, I never sat down for several hours to find figure it
out, I just toyed with the five tones and that was it. Somebody here
with a few days of free time willing to do that? Didn't think so.
You might try asking Spielberg or Williams themselves... but I would
be very surprised if that happened, I've been trying for two years and
no luck (though I did get both their *pre-signed* autographs, blech).
But I do know with 100% assuredly that the hand signals are part of
the HELLO with direct connection to the five notes. Watch the movie
again and you'll see. You'll probably find this boring or old news,
but I find it kinda neat: near the end when Lacombe is demonstrating
the hand signs to the alien, you can even hear John Williams slip the
five tones in the underscore to correspond with movements.
Jeffrey Wheeler
sha...@mem.net
Phillip Burgess
> How the alien knows Kodaly's hand signals is beyond me, but hey, it's an
> effective moment.
and Mike Allegretto asks:
> If thats the case then what is the spacecraft saying in the movie?
> I don't know musical notes.
The latter is explained in the scene with the scientists all packed in
the trailer. The signals were originally received from space; their
frequencies contain positional and temporal information for a point of
rendezvous.
As for the hand signals... because nothing is known about the aliens,
whether they have eyes or ears or anything, several auxilliarary methods
of communication are prepared. That's what the "light organ" at the end
is for... if they can't hear information being conveyed via tones, maybe
they can see the different frequencies of light, or their different
positions on the board. Maybe it did radio frequencies as well. But
failing all this; say, if the aliens turned out to be lumps of protoplasm;
they might fall back on the Helen Keller method with the hand signals.
And initially, the aliens DON'T know the hand signals or the tones or
colors. The "song" starts out by returning the same five tones as an
"ACK". Once a mutually compatible communication method is established,
they build on it. The hand signals turn out to be unnecessary; they're
just used for that one "touchy-feely" scene.
Rex Jackson
>Watch the movie
>again and you'll see. You'll probably find this boring or old news,
>but I find it kinda neat: near the end when Lacombe is demonstrating
>the hand signs to the alien, you can even hear John Williams slip the
>five tones in the underscore to correspond with movements.
>
>
>Jeffrey Wheeler
>sha...@mem.net
Williams isn't "slipping" those notes in. Those notes correspond to the
hand signals. The hand signals come from a French type of sign language
used to teach deaf children the half-step intervals in the chromatic
scale. Each note that sounds is accompanied by it's hand signal in the
introduction. The one sign that repeats (if you'll watch closely) does
so because two of the notes are the same note an octave apart.
--
shred
je...@u.washington.edu (Kevin Field) wrote:
: How the alien knows Kodaly's hand signals is beyond me, but hey, it's an
: effective moment.
You know, I've often wondered this myself. Did the aliens go to
Julliard? It would've made more sense (albiet worse cinema) to have
simply shouted out the frequency (vibrations per second) of the notes
played. But even that would require some knowledge of Earth culture, I
guess.
My feeling is if they're smart enough to know old Zoltan's hand signals,
they should be able to mount a megaphone to the outside of the mothership
and speak English.
- shred
Grant Mc Donald
loganva...@gmail.com
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH2nyhc3kOpmNLSAQ8EyryL1xzHR7-ZqU
Have a nice day!!
quiarai...@gmail.com
Not in a greedy way...but when you have a bottle of milk.
The second part not sure...maybe grabbing the bottle...
And bringing it to himself...
Important stuff and beautiful stuff or...how we appear...
Give me.
Either way..its honest .
