This page mirrors my original Substack article for the John’s World section of EricRhea.com. The original remains available at advisoryhour.substack.com.
The video in this post rattle’s my nerves. The AI video models can be little weird works. It’s so real that it’s unreal, if that makes any sense at all.
There’s an audio track to this video, which amplifies the soft horror of the scene. I’ll caution you now. I’ve watched it several times to make sense of solving a problem that I thought was buttoned up. Each time there’s a level of realism that frankly creeps me out, in a spooky yet familiar way that I can’t describe.
I’ll tell you the setup, and then you can watch the video and come to your own thoughts on what might be going on here.
The Setup
In a prior post on John’s World: 1995, I explained how I was giving more attention to small details like buttons and timing. Was it possible to better connect button clicks to action on a screen? I noted the button presses on the controller were out of sync, just enough, to drive me insane. And the gamepad didn’t make sense.
After a bit of work, a path was figured out. However, the entire worldspace lost coherence in the process. So I could get buttons, but only if I sacrified the world at the same time. You know that feeling you get when you play a game console and how the rest of the world seems to disappear?
I’m starting to wonder if there’s more to that feeling, such as what this clip illustrates.
The Big Idea
The idea I had was that Danny, who is the star of John’s World:1995, would be in his basement watching television surfing the television. He’d be pressing buttons on his remote control. Then, at some point the silent film star Vivienne would appear on the screen.
If you’re having a memory lapse on Vivienne, then let me catch you up quickly. Vivienne is the famous hollywood star from 1925 silent film with famed director Mercor. Check my post history on substack for more. It’s quite an interesting story.
Vivienne’s character studies Chekhov’s Gun.
Back to 1995.
Danny, right, is sitting in his basement.
His life consists of his basement and employment at the mall record’s Sam Goody. Danny doesn’t aspire to more than this. Right now? He’s channel surfing. He’s just rolling thru the channels when this unusual film starts up on the screen. This catches his attention-and he stops, orders a pizza, and continues to watch the film.
I thought: “Hey, this is my first cross-over!”
The reality is far more complicated. I’m still not sure what to make of this. It’s enough to have a man sit back and watch the paint dry on a wall. It’s when he picks up the telephone receiver and… I won’t spoil what happens next.
I don’t have any strong conclusions here.
On the plus side? Progress. I feel like buttons are “good enough” for this generation of model, and will no doubt be solved by a new generation of them. Part of me feels it might be safe to move on and explore other corners, or to just go back to world-building.
Still, there’s just something… off about this video.
I do appreciate though that the SNES that Danny was playing earlier? It’s on the floor
in the scene still. Game cartridge still loaded. Some things are definitely working great.
Maybe it’s the pizza order. That was a very specific pizza order.
Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.