Short film adaptation of the essay “The Simple Truth” [eng sub]
I run a channel on YouTube. One of the directions is the shooting of short feature films about rationality. Previously, we shot a video based on Scott Alexander’s essay “ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS”. This time we present to you an adaptation of “The Simple Truth” by Eliezer Yudkowsky. The video is in Russian, but we have added English subtitles using parts of the original text.
What essays would you be interested in seeing adapted in this way?
link to video:
https://youtu.be/3Ccj9G3jRm4?si=BhbGEMxQ1VdsPynA
link to original essay:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/X3HpE8tMXz4m4w6Rz/the-simple-truth
Most essays in the Sequences are not suitable for epic movies, but there are the “beisutsukai” stories:
Initiation Ceremony
The Failures of Eld Science
Class Project
The Ritual
Final Words
Some stories from Slate Star Codex / Astral Codex Ten:
It Was You Who Made My Blue Eyes Blue
Samsara
Sort By Controversial
…And I Show You How Deep The Rabbit Hole Goes
I think I would like to see Samsara, that would be fun!
A script is already ready for the film adaptation of «It Was You Who Made My Blue Eyes Blue». But we will most likely start shooting next year, because it involves working in nature (and it’s snowing here).
About «Sort By Controversial», we started working with a screenwriter, but we can’t come up with a good concept for adaptation yet.
About «Samsara», I’ve been reading this for a long time, and I need to reread and think about it.
This week we will shoot a satirical essay by a Russian author on the topic of what would happen if the judicial system used clairvoyant visions as evidence, and “expert” conclusions of palmists and astrologers as evidence.
I would imagine “Sort by Controversial” as someone telling the story and having “flashbacks” to what happened. Not sure if that would work ok.
With “Samsara” the point is how the protagonist changes (unknowingly to him) from a normal person into a hardcore spiritual guru (while trying to be the opposite). That should be reflected by gradual changes in how the person dresses, walks, talks, etc. Even the “douchey/slutty” dress code for his followers should be suspiciously uniform-like (e.g. all having exactly the same color). I imagine examples of specific (anti-)spiritual exercises: “imagine a red car… it is a Porsche… very expensive… now focus on the front wheels… inhale… exhale… now focus on the back wheels… inhale… exhale...” said in the hypnotizing voice. (Or maybe with a tone of excitement at the beginning of the movie, but the calm hypnotizing voice later. The point is how the wannabe anti-guru converges to a regular guru anyway.
I imagine that the Blue Eyes might benefit from adding a short visual explanation (a bit like a Khan Academy video) for how exactly e.g. three people would in three days figure out that they have blue eyes. What I am trying to say is that sometimes a picture explains an idea better than a dramatic dialog.
OK, looking forward to your videos!
What do you think the overall point of the essay is?