Saturday, March 14, 2009

World Builder

By Bruce Branit.

8 comments:

Paul Kierstead said...

Fantastic. Youtube has generally ruined my attention span for even short video, but this one easily held me and left me wanting more.

Tommy said...

I agree, it certainly held my attension. I'm just trying to figure out the point of it. Any idea?

Anonymous said...

This makes me think of Farmer Hoggett's song in the movie Babe:

If I had words to make a day for you
I'd give you a morning golden and true
I would make this day last for all time
Then fill the night deep in moonshine


I think I understand what's supposed to be happening in the video, but I'd hate to spoil it for anyone who hasn't yet watched it.

Tommy said...

OK, fair enough Michael...

Everyone else, please watch this so that Michael will share his thoughts on it.

Anonymous said...

I doubt that I have any unique insight to share; I only thought that I understood the plot. It's one of the virtues of this film that it doesn't explain, but lets you figure out what's happening as you watch it.

Having said that, the following may contain spoilers:

We're in a future science-fiction world, like something from the old Twilight Zone TV show. Computers (and watches) have 3-D holographic interfaces.

The man is looking at old pictures of himself and a woman at various places, when his watch sounds an alarm and starts a one-hour countdown. He has one hour to prepare for some scheduled event.

He creates a 3-D virtual world, first in crude shapes, then adding details to make it more and more real. He does these things with a skill that indicates he's done this many times before.

He gets a second alarm with one minute to go. He touches up a few details of the virtual world, paying particular attention to a flower, then he hides in a doorway. When time runs out, a woman in a hospital gown comes through a door and wanders around the virtual world, taking obvious delight in it. She is particularly pleased with the flower.

He notices a part of one building that isn't as detailed as the rest of the virtual world. I think he's worried that the woman will see it and realize that this world isn't real.

After a while, the woman looks sad and leaves. When she is gone, the virtual world fades out of existence. The man holds onto an image of the woman admiring the flower.

Then he goes to a room in a real-world hospital, labelled "Neuro holographic recovery unit." The woman is lying in a bed, unconscious. He kisses her forehead and leaves a flower like the one in the virtual world in a glass of water beside her bed.

I think she's been in a coma for a long time. Using the technology of this future world, she can be given "dreams" created in the virtual world of the computer. The man found the flower in the real world, and wanted to give it to her, so he devoted special attention to it when creating this particular dream.

It's not clear whether the virtual world he created was a reconstruction of a memory, or a new place designed solely to delight her.

I think he "made a day for her," which is why it made me think of that song.

Maybe all this is perfectly obvious, or even wrong, but it's what I thought when watching the film.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Sounds about right.

I doubt it has many hidden meanings, it's like a love poem.

Anonymous said...

It's beautiful.

Tommy said...

Michael, I thank you for that. I hadn't noticed the sign on the door. I also want to believe that he is very much in love with her and misses her deeply. Therfore he builds this world for her.