quote:

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Dear Exhibitor:

It has come to our attention that some lighting effects in Incredibles 2 may affect photosensitive viewers. Out of an abundance of caution, we recommend that you provide at the box office and other appropriate places a notice to your customers containing the following information:

"Incredibles 2 contains a sequence of flashing lights which may affect customers who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy or other photosensitivities."

Please provide this notice as soon as possible to your patrons.

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I remember going through exactly this same thing not long ago with one of the Twilight movies.

I guess nothing was learned from that.
 

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Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 06-16-2018, 08:12 PM:
 
I don't think it's that a lesson wasn't learned. I think it's that people who are not affected by this don't think about things in these terms. In reality it is a very tiny fraction of the population who is affected by this, and many of them already avoid going to the movies just because it is a highly amplified sensory environment.
 

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Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 06-16-2018, 11:36 PM:
 
It still seems to me like something that could easily be avoided and that the folks who make movies should be aware of.

Health warnings aren't what I would good publicity for the movie, even if the warning actually applies to very few people.
 

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Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 06-17-2018, 04:22 PM:
 
It's a standard warning that comes with any video console and with practically every computer game ever made. Maybe you should put it into your terms of services, just to be on the safe side.

There are also strobing light effects in the last Blade Runner movie, I don't remember the studio pushing out a similar warning.
 

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Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 06-18-2018, 07:22 AM:
 
Not every flashing in a movie will have this effect. For those who are concerned, it doesn't work like a flip-switch. Duration, flashing sequence, frequency, etc. all comes into play, and not all people suffering from this sensitivity react in the same way. I guess many block-buster movies contain footage that can trigger it, but it's not always noticed or being published in the way it has been done for Incredibles 2 or the birth-scene in 'Twilight - Breaking Dawn' (last movie I remember which came with similar caveat).

As such, it is complicated, artistically limiting (and unnecessarily over-protecting) to try to keep such footage out of movies. They can usually not identify critical passages before they release the movie, typically, they will only notice this when the movie is seen by audiences and there is a noticeable number of cases reported with people fainting during a particular movie.

- Carsten
 

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Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 06-18-2018, 06:01 PM:
 
This is not about fainting. Affected people can have a full on epileptic seizure - very dramatic. I've seen one and it was not pleasant, the boy was flopping and flailing around on the floor for some time before passing out for several minutes.
He had stared into a strobe light used in a highschool project, nobody knew he was susceptible.
The strongest trigger is bright flashes at around 3 flashes/second. I think that can be avoided in movies.
 

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Posted by Dave Bird (Member # 490) on 06-18-2018, 11:03 PM:
 
We had a 5-yr old girl have a seizure at the drive-in this past Saturday night. I wasn't on-site, but her mom contacted me today hoping we'd add a warning to our site (I'm going to chat with our studio contact tomorrow for the official wording). She said they had heard the warning, but hoped being able to light up their interior of the car would combat the effect so they chose to come to the drive-in. It didn't work, and the girl had a mild seizure and fell asleep, missing the very end of the movie. She said this has never happened during any movie they've watched before, so we didn't think this was any kind of a widespread problem, just a bit of a fluke with this one I guess.
 

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Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 06-18-2018, 11:24 PM:
 
I included the official wording in the initial post above.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-18-2018, 11:30 PM:
 
For some reason we never got the email.
 

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Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 06-19-2018, 12:50 AM:
 
Here is the notice for anyone who missed it.


 

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Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 06-19-2018, 06:36 AM:
 
At what runtime approx. does this occur? One could also put up a slide before the movie (DCP-o-matic) to give an additional hint just before the movie starts.

- Carsten
 

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Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 06-19-2018, 06:20 PM:
 

quote: Dave Macaulay

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This is not about fainting. Affected people can have a full on epileptic seizure - very dramatic. I've seen one and it was not pleasant, the boy was flopping and flailing around on the floor for some time before passing out for several minutes.

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quote: Dave Macaulay

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The strongest trigger is bright flashes at around 3 flashes/second. I think that can be avoided in movies.

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quote: Carsten Kurz

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At what runtime approx. does this occur?

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quote: Adam Martin

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One of the bad guys uses the effect to hypnotize other characters. The effect is used heavily in several scenes throughout.

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quote: Michael Gonzalez

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We had a young adult female have a seizure last night but they were in Deadpool not IC2. I think we had 4 cases of seizures during Breaking Dawn pt1. I also once had a customer (who actually later became an employee) pass out in the bathroom after leaving the auditorium during the first Hostel movie (and yes because of his reaction to the content).

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quote: Marcel Birgelen

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A few years back it happened to a colleague of mine back at the office. It's indeed a pretty shocking sight and besides calling the ambulance and ensuring the victim doesn't get hurt anymore there's little you can do at that moment.

Nobody, including him knew he was susceptible to it and we never really managed to identify the cause. He just collapsed in front of his desk and continued to have some pretty spastic seizures for a couple of minutes before finally passing out.

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