That Moment When Time Stopped
“So long. Life ain’t short. It’s long. It’s long, god damn it. God damn. What did I do? What did I do? What did I do? What did I do? Phil, Phil, help me. Please. What did I do?”
–Jason Robards, Magnolia
When you were young.
You remember: the way the park looks in moonlight. The feel of the galvanized chains in your grip as you enjoy the swing. The warm summer nighttime air.
You played. Here. As a child. You miss those days. Those days before you knew as much world as you do now. But for a moment — for just a few hours — you get to recapture some of that old magic: your friends are here with you.
You’ve grown up with them. After so many years of classes and sports and tears and rites of passage, of walking home together and pretending to be grown-ups together when you got your licenses, you’re all finally on that cusp of adulthood.
It’s a bittersweet moment. You’re all about to go your separate ways. And despite the promises to stay in touch, the yearning to preserve the fading sunset of that glorious time…you all know the truth: you will probably never see each other again, or at least for a long time. And when you do, the fondness for the past will be there, but the moment will be gone.
And the irony is that these are the moments which make life worth living.
Because as you get older, and you realize that you don’t have your entire life and youth spread out in front of you any more, like a banquet to be savored, you close your eyes and focus really, really hard on trying to remember those magical moments. They feel like they’re from another lifetime. They feel more than real. And contrasted to the dull overcast all around you now, the technicolor brilliance of those memories is enough to make you silently cry.
It was a wonderful time. Your body didn’t ache. Your head didn’t whisper to you at night and keep you up. Your heart was still an optimist.
And everything was still so new. So exciting. Life was a hell of a lot of fun when you didn’t have to worry about surviving it.
And so you close your eyes and you remember. As much as you can. God, you want to remember more. You wish you’d held onto more of it. Because as you get older, the years have blurred together and you realize there just isn’t as much worth remembering. And even if your life has gone well, you want nothing more than to be half your height, a fraction of your age, and innocently enjoying the eternal scent of sunlit grass once again.
You remember. You remember that wonderful last night with your friends. When you were young.
This is why the Midnight Glade, in Home, is so special to me. Because it’s the first private estate in Home I’ve encountered which elicits such a strong emotional response. And considering the feedback the Glade has received since its launch, I’m not alone in that sentiment. It seems this space just takes people back to their youth, or to some special, timeless memory.
The last time I saw something on my TV screen which hit that same spot was Volkswagen’s “Milky Way” commercial, featuring “Pink Moon” by Nick Drake. I know that sounds silly: a car commercial eliciting such a response? But it’s true. Watch it on YouTube. That ad somehow managed to perfectly capture the emotion of a memory. The timelessness of a special moment in time, before the rushing currents of life scattered it.
And this is why, when Terra and I both saw the Midnight Glade for the first time, we both kinda exclaimed, “My god, it’s Pink Moon!”
If you follow this publication, then you know that Terra and I are very much in love. And this is why Home holds a special place for me: because it’s not a video game. It never was. Home is the means by which I met a woman whose merest recollection, even in my darkest moods, makes my heart pound in my chest.
So when we first saw the glade, we both talked about the absolute necessity of recreating Pink Moon in it. This was a space which required a tribute video, and we were confident someone in Home would do it.
Thing is, though…nobody did.
And with Valentine’s Day fast approaching, we decided to do it ourselves.
I’m nowhere even close to being a proficient filmmaker in Home. There are far better machinimists on the HSM team, and obviously I can’t match the level of technological whizbangery that Home’s more dedicated filmmakers can pull off. But that’s not what this is about. This is about getting something out of my head because it had to be told. If you notice, virtually all of my own personal machinima under the HomeStation banner has but one goal: to hit you in your emotions. Because damn it, that’s what this is all about.
And so this video, which you’re about to watch, exists.
Special thanks must be given to Terra, who spent an eternity putting near-as-makes-no-difference one-hundred trees into the glade. And to Jersquall and tbaby84, who were gracious enough to step away for a few minutes from their Home activities to indulge a babbling Scandinavian’s amateur filmmaking.
This video is a tribute to Lockwood, for making a truly amazing estate.
This video is a nod to that shared experience, described in the first half of this article, which we all had.
And this video is a love letter. On Valentine’s Day.
How do I think people will react to this video?
Well, if I’ve done my job correctly, it should be a very sweet experience. Young and awkward and passionate and bittersweet and funny and optimistic. So much said without being said. The joy of good times spent with good friends.
And, if I’ve done my job correctly, you’ll hopefully feel wistful.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
Do me a favor. If this video hits you the way I hope it will, share a snippet of a Pink Moon experience you had when you were young.
February 14th, 2012 by NorseGamer | 15 comments
NorseGamer is the product manager for LOOT Entertainment at Sony Pictures, as well as the founder and publisher of HomeStation Magazine. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he holds a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and presently lives in Los Angeles. All opinions expressed in HSM are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sony DADC.
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I have had several pink moon experiences. long ago, Cuddled in blankets on the back of my dads bayliner on the Sacramento river just pass midnight with my girlfriend (at the time) and seeing the moon shining on the calm glass like water was mesmerizing.
I can *totally* relate to that. My dad had a Bayliner when I was growing up, and we would often go up the delta. There were times, when the moonlight was just right…it was amazing.
Yes. Delta right up to downtown Stockton port of. lost my Vuarnet tortoise shell Sunglasses the next morning looking over the back of the boat! >.< delta owes me a pair..
Very nice imagery in the video and the piece is very nicely written. Great job on both counts. The video and the story compliment each other perfectly.
I hadn’t seen the commercial before, but I think I get the moments you are talking about.
One of the most moving for me took place at the top of Haleakalā on Maui a few years back when a group of friends and I went to the top on a night when a full moon was rising in the East and the sun was setting in the West.
It was one of the most incredibly beautiful things I had ever seen and it felt like both the moon and sun were almost within my reach. Both were reflected on the water for miles and we all sat in silence just slowly watching the brilliant light change and the million points of light as the stars became visible. It’s an experience I’ll never forget.
Memorial Day weekend, 1996. I was at an artists’ retreat on Deer Isle in Penobscot Bay here in Maine. It was a cold, clear night, and I was on my way back to my cabin from one of the studios with another student. I saw my first aurora borealis that night.
It was one of the last few moments in my life where I still had boundless optimism for the future.
That reminds me of another unforgettable experience… waking up before dawn to climb Cadillac Mountain and watch the sun rise. Then lunch at the Jordan Pond House. Made for a memorable day.
Yes, I’ve been there quite a few times. The way the first rays of sun hit the pink granite is simply spectacular. I hope to take Norse up there one day.
My parents have a collection of old movies that are (for the most part) real “yawners” to me. But they have a movie with this guy Steve Martin called “LA Story” that I love. It’s funny, sweet and romantic. These pink trees with the blossoms falling all around, always remind me of the scene where the couple in the movie walk hand and hand under falling blossoms and become innocent children again.
It just gets better Norse! Very Cool! I like the cherry trees. I used to go to the cherry blossom festival here in Georgia. That coupled with a full moon really does set the mood. Keep em coming.
Nice setting and video guys. I love the way you are learning this process with each new video you produce. Happy Valentines Day to everyone and I hope to see you all at the party in Sodium one tonight.
Nice article Norse and great article. I just watched the youtube commercial and I think you did capture its essence so well done! Your videos do trigger emotions and thoughts and your right, that is what it is about. I do think you do them well though and so I think you should give yourself more credit, regardless if you just started. It was an honor to help you create this piece to help you communicate your message. Happy Valentine’s Day to you and your love Terra, and to everyone at HSM. Muahz!
@Julie: Haleakala is an amazing experience, isn’t it? Despite the hypoxia and frigid temperatures, there’s something about that place which is amazing — and the vistas, on occasion, are stunning.
@Terra: To this day, I’ve never seen an aurora borealis. I’ve been far enough north in my travels, but never had the good fortune to catch one. And though neither of us have the boundless optimism we had as youths, we have each other now.
@Kassadee: “L.A. Story” is one of my all-time favorite movies, and it’s on my top-five list of favorite comedies. I remember seeing that film when it first came out, and it artfully blended some wonderful satire of the Los Angeles lifestyle *and* somehow managed to be an incredibly moving love story.
@Godz: I just googled “Georgia Cherry Blossom Festival”, and all I can say is *wow.* That looks amazing. You’re a lucky man to have experienced that.
@Burbie: While HSM’s core product will always be its journalism, it’s important that we branch into machinima as well. 2011 saw a couple of tentative steps in that direction, but 2012 is when I believe HomeStation will really move forward with this.
@tbaby: My personal theory with Home filmmaking (which I admit is still evolving) — because it’s an inherently soulless medium with limited methods of expression, there are really only a couple of ways to get the audience engaged. And while there’s tons of Home machinima out there, most of it frankly isn’t very interesting.
So I’m out to hit people in their emotions. My stuff will probably never be filled with insane amounts of technological whizbangery, but that’s not what I’m after. There are other filmmakers in Home who are already far more proficient at that. I’m just determined to tell stories and convey images that people still remember and want to talk about a year from now.
This is a beautiful video. It makes me look at Midnight Glade in a whole new way. I still havent figured out how to decorate it. But from watching the video, it is apparent there is love between you both, even with no spoken words. The way u run thru the pink trees and sit by the fire is so care free as if u were children without a care in the world.
I was in Hawaii a few years ago, i did the Haleakala bike/sunrise tour and it was an incredible experience. Riding on the bike down the endless mountain was my Pink Moon experience and as I rode down, i could only think how incredible I felt.
Great article and beautiful video! Happy Valentine’s Day!!!!
Decades ago when one of the few times I paid attention to the Northern Lights I sat out on the porch and heard a sound that reminded me of wind whistling through leaves on the trees. But there was no wind. I walked next to the trees and no leaf movement.
I’m convinced the sound had something to do with the Northern Lights. What an experience.
I wouldn’t have posted this except that Andy Williams recording of Canadian Sunset started playing.
I am not Canadian. Take this for what it’s worth.
I have to say that I love the scene starting at about 0:30 where Jers glances at Trish’s av, then quickly looks away, and shortly after, just as the scene ends, she does the same.
It’s very reminiscent of a similar scene in the original commercial.