Concept Trailer for new film "The Square Root of One Percent"
website: http://www.whatfilms.com/vbw/full-length/ YouTube version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-D6Ct-pBEM -- Film to Document Power of People Creating Peace by Virginia Hancock / Staff Writer "The power of a nuclear reaction comes from the splitting of a single atom. A small group of sports fans gets an entire stadium crowd doing the wave. One infection starts a worldwide epidemic. The formula for change isoften far simpler than we expect." ~from the website of the upcoming film: The Square Root of One Percent Filmmaler Ross Weinberg is excited about a simple formula's potential to change the world - excited enough to make a movie about it. With his new film The Square Root of One Percent, the Hollywood producer hopes to captivate mainstream audiences with "the unusual, entertaining, international history of world peace assemblies - focusing on the studies and people that speak to the effectiveness of those involving Transcendental Meditation." Slating the 110-minute, $1.5 million budget feature film to hit theaters across the nation next fall, Weinberg is going all out, determined to make his movie an Academy Award contender for 2007. Combining the scale of his post projects with a powerful team line up including executive producer David Lynch, soundtrack artist Donovan, editors Harvey Rosenstock (Scent of Woman, Tombstone) and Peter Trivelas (Martha Stewart Living, NBC's Today Show, ABC's Good Morning America) editing, and special effect artist David Crawford (What Dreams May Come, Titanic), he just may have a chance. Although only 28, Weinberg has already racked up solid credentials in his brief, though lustrous career. He produced and directed a $2 million feature film in 2005 that starred Jessica Biel and Jason Statham. Weinberg also did film editing for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for : Astrophysics Science Media Group in Massachusetts and filmed and edited in the commercial industry in Los Angeles, following a degree from Boston University in film and economics. His previous involvement in documentaries included a 10-minute short, for which he won statewide recognition at age 17. Recently, Weinberg put together a TV show that "is in development right now at the E! Channel. They bought my idea for the show concept." When working 16-18 hour days on the 2005 feature film, "A friend stopping by commented to me that I looked stressed out." Knowing he needed to relax, Weinberg agreed to go with his friend to see a movie. "The movie we wanted to see was sold out, and we ended up seeing What the Bleep is Going On." [i.e., What The Bleep Do We Know] When Harvard physicist Dr. John Hagelin appeared on-screen, his friend turned to him. "Hey, I know that guy," he exclaimed. Weinberg's friend had worked with Hagelin during a peace assembly in Washington DC and gave an incredulous Weinberg, "a run-down of the research done on TM -- in prisons, in schools, for health, in war zones," he says. "He told me about the Maharishi Effect -- multiple studies showing that only the square root of one percent of a population needs to meditate together to significantly, dependably, decrease crime rates in any area." Curious, and with the inkling of a film idea, Weinberg began to further investigate the research on TM, with an-eye for visually representing the Maharishi Effect. Discovering the book Victory Before War, by Dr. Robert Keith Wallace and Jay B. Marcus, he began to feel this was a story just waiting to be told on the big screen. "The further I read, the more my inspiration for the film intensified." "Barely anyone knows that two-hundred independent research institutions, including Harvard, Stanford, and UCLA Medical School, have conducted over 600 scientific studies on Transcendental Meditation and have verified its benefits in the fields of crime prevention, health, and conflict resolution. When The Square Root of One Percent comes out, everyone will know. I want to take this film as far as it will go, hopefully internationally," says Weinberg. In his film, Weinberg plans to incorporate groups practicing different forms of meditation all over the world to introduce the broad concept of peace assemblies. "Then I'll zero in on Transcendental Meditation, which has been better-documented by scientific studies than any other meditation." In October 2005, on his way back from the Montreal World Film Festival, Weinberg stopped in Boston to personally meet Hagelin, who taught him more about the Vedic peace technologies. To access the wealth of TM research accumulated over the past 40 years, and to meet with other leaders in the Transcendental Meditation organization, -- Hagelin sent Weinberg to Fairfield, where he began "raiding the MUM library." Upon arriving he met Lila Wallace, whose father, Dr. Robert Keith Wallace, is a prominent neuro-physiologist, founding president of Maharishi University of Management and co-author of Victory Before War. Excited by his vision, Wallace joined Weinberg as co-producer of the film. "When producers first started making documentaries, industry agents warned that it would be 'career suicide.' But now, with March of the Penguins and An Inconvenient Truth, plus about ten more coming out in the next few months, film documentaries are huge," Wallace says. Currently, the film is self-funded. Some money comes from Weinberg's other pending project at the E! Channel, while, "A couple of individuals made generous private investments in the film, which is what we are actively seeking." Wallace and Weinberg put together a catchy concept trailer at http://www.whatfilms.com/vbw/full-length/ which demonstrates the film's vision to prospective viewers and investors. Although Weinberg has several connections to Hollywood studios, he and Wallace agree that private investors are best. "It is important to minimize studio control. That way, the final product will remain in the producers' hands, which can be key to staying true to our intention." Weinberg is now in Vlodrop, Holland, the international center of the TM organization, filming interviews with many peacemakers assembled near founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's house. He'll return to Los Angeles in November to begin editing footage. He also plans to go to St. Louis, Maryland, and Florida to interview scientists and professionals familiar with the Maharishi Effect. Thanks to Tim Hawthorne's "generous donation of 20 studio hours at Hawthorne direct," says Weinberg, local biochemists, neuroscientists, and research statisticians have already been interviewed. Having shot 25 full interviews so far, "I'm talking to anyone with information that explains how silent action at a distance works to create peace," he adds. One September day, Weinberg and his MUM student friend Jonathan Cohen conducted short interviews with many of the 1100 course participants currently on the Invincible America course. "There are people of every ethnicity and, every religion doing this. From England, The Dominican Republic, Chicago, New York, California." He envisions an on-screen mosaic of the individuals, the history, the press coverage, the research, that brings out the range of individuals who feel it is important enough to meditate in a group together. A regular Transcendental Meditator himself for two years now, Weinberg posits, "Group meditation for peace might seem far-fetched and unorthodox. At first I thought meditation was just something that helped people relax. But there is so much more to it. TM's quiet effect that works at a distance is not only an ancient knowledge for societal peace; today it is a more practiced, more researched method than we know. Right now, meditation is more popular than Yoga, but it's happening behind closed doors." Weinberg wants The Square Root of One Percent to swing the doors wide open, exposing the facts. With our nation hungry for peace, "Everyone will want to know about this," he says. Weinberg and Wallace invite anyone with visual material documenting international peace assemblies, such as newspapers, magazines, studies, videos, and personal photographs to submit it, information on sending materials is available at the film's website, or by emailing < contact @ whatfilms.com > A portion of the film's profits will go to world peace assemblies happening now. -- [ my corrections/additions to this article ]: IMdb.com, the Movie Database, lists Ross Alan Weinberg as an associate producer (but not director) for the film "London" (2005) at -- http://imdb.com/title/tt0449061/fullcredits/ and the London movie poster is at: http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/821/london5qf.jpg the page on whatfilms.com has links to a YouTube version of the trailer, with code for pasting that into your blogs, etc -- To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
