by William Arntz

What the BLEEP – Down the Rabbit Hole… Is there anyway to put a label on it? Probably not. So let me tell you how it came about.

During Q&A sessions for the original What the BLEEP Do We Know!? people began requesting more. It seemed what they wanted most was more information, more knowledge, more interviews. At some point the idea occurred to us, “We have 60 hours of interviews in the can, let’s release them.” But just putting raw interviews out didn’t seem to be the way to go. It’s the building of the interviews that creates so much of the effect in WTFDWK.

Enter the Rabbit Hole version. What if we took those interview sections, like for example on “Wave/Particle Duality,” and instead of having two interviews about it, have eight! I’d been reading the specs on the operating system for DVD players (late night nerd reading) and thought we could program the DVD players so the viewer could specify “how far down” they could go. AND, with the random number generator built into the DVD player, we could switch on a quantum random version so that the film would be different every time they watched it! And thus the Quantum Random Rabbit Hole version was born (but not yet released on DVD).

I had always wanted to have A LOT more interviews in the original BLEEP - But there wasn’t enough time. So when I sat down to cut the Rabbit Hole version together I thought – “Finally I get to put all the good stuff in.” But suddenly there was even MORE good stuff. You see the project had started to morph into something different altogether.

Two months before all this started, there was the first BLEEP conference in Santa Monica, CA. All but three of the original interviewees were there, so we decided to re-interview everyone. It was like a grand re-union. We were able to ask them questions that had been asked of us at all those Q&A’s that we hadn’t really been able to answer. We also got interesting feedback on the film and responses to it. All in all, 30 hours of it. There was even more MORE.

Meanwhile the creative juices were flowing. An animated section that was scripted but never produced in the first movie suddenly re-asserted itself. Mark thought of introducing Doctor Quantum as a real character. Betsy came up with a news-reel opening. An Amanda scene rose from the cutting room floor. Dr. Quantum grabbed another scene and we were in the quantum foam again!

As the film shifted to a more scientific perspective we decided to go into some of the experimental evidence that supported suppositions made in WTFDWK. From what we could tell, the leading researcher was Dean Radin from the Institute of Noetic Science (IONS), so we interviewed him, and now there was even more.

But now I had a 3½ hour movie that still didn’t have all the great stuff in it. So, like an amoeba, it divided into two. You see we had also been bombarded by viewers wanting a film that they could publicly screen so that they would have the experience of viewing it in an audience. (For those of you who haven’t experienced this, it is quite different.) So we set about making two new films: What the BLEEP – Down the Rabbit Hole, a 2 ½ hour film that stood on its own, yet somewhat revisited the dramatic flow of the original BLEEP; and the 5 hour Quantum Rabbit Hole which will be available only on DVD (with all the marvelous random features that medium allows us).

In editing the 2 ½ hour version, I worked on invoking a vague persistent feeling of déjà vu in people. All the dramatic scenes had been re-edited and tweaked. With different interviews and concepts surrounding them, and different voice-overs, we wanted to invoke in the audience an experience of how context and assumptions change perception. For instance, some people have found Down the Rabbit Hole basically the same, while others have found it really different. Funny, hunh?

So what do you label years of living with the original concepts, and some new concepts and many new implications … what does it all add up to? A film that’s more scientific… longer … and better hopefully…

All I know is it became something else during the creative process. Like the original BLEEP which didn’t fit in a category, the Rabbit Hole movies don’t easily fit into a slot either. Whatever, we hope you find the journey into these Rabbit Holes exciting and interesting.

Will

What the BLEEP!? – Down the Rabbit Hole
Extended Director’s Cut

It’s the same … AND it’s different (superposition?)

What the BLEEP – Down the Rabbit Hole is an extended Director’s Cut of What the Bleep Do We Know!? It includes new scientific findings that supplement the original movie, and it goes more deeply into the concepts explored.

We still follow Amanda as her uninspired life unravels and reforms, but in the Director’s Cut the storyline is slimmed down and the interviews are lengthened. A full 95% of all interviews is new, never before seen footage exploring the links between quantum mechanics, neurobiology, human consciousness and day-to-day reality. In addition, laboratory research into psi effects is also explored.

Three of the four new characters are two scientists and a journalist, whose interviews are woven through this new version of the film.  They are –

      •  Dr. Masaru Emoto, the researcher whose experiments with water were a favorite feature of What the BLEEP!?.

      •     Lynne McTaggart, award-winning author of the best-selling book The Field.

      •     Dean Radin, Ph.D., Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS); adjunct faculty at Sonoma State University and on the Distinguished Consulting Faculty at Saybrook Gradaduate School in San Francisco.

The fourth new character is the animated Dr. Quantum who leads viewers through an exploration of quantum physics including the Double-Slit Experiment.  The original film made a case for the emerging convergence of science and spirituality, but was criticized by some as lacking sufficient scientific evidence. We have addressed this critique in RABBIT HOLE by adding the scientifically sound (but mind-blowing) information on Entanglement and the Double-Slit Experiment, as well as new interview material from all our distinguished interviewees.

WHAT THE BLEEP?!  DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE is a “bite-sized precursor” to the planned five-hour, multi-DVD version of the film with “ way more interviews” according to Arntz.  To meet fans’ demands, the new film is being shown in a variety of theatrical and non-theatrical settings.  “People like seeing this film in a group,” says Arntz.  “It definitely provokes interaction.” The film is showing in theaters and various group-sponsored locations. 

… there’s more to see