That Time JSC PAO Let Fake Student Film Makers Shoot at NASA
How Do You Make the Fake NASA Documentary Operation Avalanche? Hire a Really Good Lawyer, Wired
“As to NASA, well, the agency isn’t too happy. In a statement, it says the “the film project was misrepresented” to the Science and Entertainment Exchange and to NASA, which supports more than 100 films each year. “We are disappointed the filmmakers would exploit the openness and transparency of those involved,” the agency says. That might explain why no one at NASA accepted Johnson’s invitation to see the film when it played at South by Southwest.”
The director who fooled NASA into helping make fake moon-landing movie ‘Operation Avalanche’, Mashable
“After making a name for himself in the independent film world with The Dirties, Canadian director Matt Johnson is back with Operation Avalanche, a faux documentary about four CIA agents who go undercover inside NASA, where they make a startling discovery about the space agency’s ability to put a man on the moon. And the way they did it is some real tinfoil-hat stuff: Johnson and his cohorts told NASA they were student filmmakers looking to do a documentary on the Apollo program. NASA was all too happy to oblige, giving them access to NASA officials conversations that were recorded and edited to fit the secret concept and facilities. Operation Avalanche debuted at Sundance earlier this year and has been making the rounds at film festivals. Lionsgate Premiere releases the low-budget thriller (the largely improvised film is presented in grainy 16mm to make it feel more authentic) on Friday, and it’s worth a look, if only to see how Johnson and his collaborators talked their way inside the hallowed walls of NASA.”
‘Operation Avalanche’: A Fake Documentary About A Faked Moon Landing, NPR
“To film this adventure, Johnsonwith collaborators Owen Williams and Josh Bolesreally did infiltrate NASA, telling the agency he was a student filmmaker shooting a documentary about the space race. No one at the research-rigorous center bothered to Google him, apparently, or they would have found a man with a history of video pranks. (The candid-camera approach may help explain why no one in the film talks like they’re in the 1960s. Johnson and company likely had to keep up appearances in front of present-day NASA staff.)”
Sneaking into NASA and other money-saving strategies from the set of ‘Operation Avalanche’, Business Journal
“Think about it: Just from a raw economics point of view, how the hell are we going to rebuild all that [stuff] in a credible way?” he told me. “There’s no way that we’re going to rebuild the outside of Shepperton Studios or even anything that looked like Shepperton studios. We just would have had to cut it from the script. The same with NASA.”
Oh great; that’s just what we need – more fertilizer for the bleating Conspiracy Sheep. Anybody with an ounce of common sense and a modicum of knowledge about the history of Space Exploration and history in general should boycott this execrable nonsense.
An effective democracy depends on an informed and responsible electorate. Unfortunately common sense is not all that common. It’s easier to believe everything we do not like is a conspiracy.
Who was it who said you should not attribute another’s actions to malice, if the actions could be equally well explained by stupidity? Conspiracies theories are mostly about attributing stupidity to malice (the original Roswell event being a good example.)
As we have seen with Oliver Stone – if you represent fiction as reality many people will accept it as reality. We now will never convince people that the evidence in the movie JFK was almost entirely invented.
Looks like a lot of fun although at least two generations will take it as factual.
There’s a podcast on iTunes in 6 parts that ‘covers’ the Soviets making the first moon landing. Also damn entertaining.
Reminds me of one my favorite videos: https://www.youtube.com/wat…
This means the imposition of increased screening for people who would like to use government files – more red tape for people who could use NASA video and photos for innovative projects. People complain about the red tape but they SHOULD complain about the people who gain access under false pretenses, etc.
It seems very reasonable for government agencies to insist that people tell them the truth about what they intend to use government facilities, files, etc for.
Expect more of this nonsense as we have seen for nearly 50 years how difficult it is to go back to the Moon. Especially with dysfunctional govt we have these days it can’t be believed Apollo program was successful. Oh the auto-ads, like this one with Von Braun. Oh well, maybe this will become a classic like Capricorn One.
What is with everyone wanting to reference Kubrick as the special effects man for faked moon landings? I think such filmmakers can be more creative by using name of one of several visual effects team from 2001 (imdb lists these people). Kubrick had virtually all props destroyed after production of 2001 which otherwise these could have been used in “Capricorn One” productions? Another auto-ad on my browser shows Kubrick exhibit at CJM in SF through Oct 30.
I met a European who said all Moon landings were faked. He was quite serious about it, “Everyone in Europe knows people never went to the Moon because American schools don’t teach there is a extremely radioactive belt that will kill astronauts that pass through it.” I didn’t bother to argue as I saw his mind was impossible to change. Perhaps we can stop sending rovers to Mars and send some to the Moon for high res photos of Apollo landing sites. No, no, no, they don’t have to disturb these historical sites. High resolution photos can show materials degradation through the years which provide useful data for research of lunar bases.
When dealing with Moon landing conspiracy theorists I think there’s a joke that goes: “Yes, the moon landing was faked. But Stanley Kubrick was such an obsessive perfectionist that he forced NASA to film it on location in the Sea of Tranquility.”
Apropos of nothing:
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
The cynic in me believe that the whole event would have ended differently for the directors if they were Iranian or Chinese. Good for them.
I would not take it too seriously. I remember coming to work one day and saying “Wow, NASA’s really gotten some impressive technology.” Then I realized they were just filming “Armageddon”.