Paranormal phenonema comes under scrutiny in a new programme called X-Testers, helmed by a duo who will also show viewers how to spot the fakes. DENNIS CHUA writes.
DON?T you just love ghost stories? Whether perceived to be real or an utter hoax, few can deny their fascination with them.
Clark James and Pat Denver of the United States are just as intrigued, going a step further to to test paranormal phenomena in a weekly television adventure called X-Testers beginning this month.
Clark and Pat are not just out to disprove such phenomena ? they want to show viewers their encounters with the paranormal.
They also want to educate viewers to be wary of individuals who conjure up imagined ?ghosts and monsters?.
Clark has been creating magical illusions and fabricating custom visual effects and props for over two decades.
He is well-versed in the mechanical and electrical aspects of such illusions, as well as the physics and engineering behind them. His background also includes puppetry, miniature model design and pyrotechnics.
His projects include special effects for Dante?s Peak, Titanic, The Fifth Element, AI, Terminator 3, Spider-Man 2, Mr & Mrs Smith and War of the Worlds.
An electronic music graduate from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he also holds a diploma in theatre craft and music from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston.
Pat, the son of the late Gilligan?s Island television series star Bob Denver, has designed visual effects for major Hollywood films such as War of the Worlds, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, The Sum of All Fears, Behind Enemy Lines, Bicentennial Man, Anna and the King, The X-Files Movie and Titanic, as well as visual effects for music videos for singers Sir Paul McCartney and Eminem. He is also a trained puppeteer.
X-Testers attempts to recreate specific mysterious incidents in order to reproduce both the evidence and actual events that took place, in a fun-filled and visually exciting manner.
The duo will travel to the sites of perplexing paranormal mysteries and put these unexplained events to the test.
The X-Testers meet the people involved in each case and examines photographs, videotapes and objects.
Each event will be re-created in different ways, including a ?low-technology version? that might have been used by a trickster, a ?most effective version? and finally, a ?souped-up version? where they try to enhance the original effect.
They will also test popular theories and try to challenge phenomena that have previously been accepted as real.
While they call themselves ?open-minded cynics?, Clark sees himself as a sceptic.
?I?ve never seen anything that I believed was a ghost,? he said.
Pat added: ?I believe in the supernatural but never really seen anything that I personally was convinced was a ghost.?
The programme, however, was not their idea. Clark and Pat were found through talent searches by the producers. They ?hit it off great? and found themselves ?just the right people for the job?, according to the producers.
According to Clark, it was a dream come true when Mike Mathis Productions approached them to do the show.
Patrick said: ?We were eager to be involved with this project. We had a chance to recreate, for example, spontaneous human combustion which has fascinated us since we were children.?
Clark, meanwhile, started getting interested in magic and the paranormal when he was about six or seven.
They also admit to having personal encounters with the paranormal.
Patrick said: ?I?ve had some in my childhood.?
Is there anything that they have failed to explain thus far?
Clark said: ?There?s nothing that we?ve failed to recreate though there are a couple of things that lacked evidence to prove conclusively.?
Their websites speak of their encounters with the paranormal. Patrick?s is theothersideoftheisland.com, which is a reference to his father?s work on Gilligan?s Island ?because all the cool monsters came from the other side of the island?. Clark?s website is clarkjames.com.
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