“3 Ways To Clone Yourself Before You Die” By Brandon Tyson
A person who fears death creates three clones of himself to test which technology can best preserve the people he loves and help those who grieve them. And to see if these clones are sufficient simulacrums of himself, he has his fiancée, who knows him best, converse with them.
Brandon is a documentarian, who after turning 30 and finding out someone he loves has become sick, worries about how his loved one will be preserved and if he can hold onto them. The answer comes to him “grief tech,” a new industry dedicated to digitally cloning people in order to let the living to talk to the dead.
Grief tech comes in many forms though, like text chatbots, video holograms, and virtual reality, and Brandon wants to know which one is best for him. He sets out to create each one and meet with their founders, but when it comes to evaluating which clone is best, he needs someone who knows him best to talk to them: his fiancée Sarah. Throughout the documentary, Brandon creates three clones and with each one, Sarah evaluates how it would or would not help her if she were to lose Brandon.
FROM THE DIRECTOR
"Death and grief are ordinary parts of the human experience, yet to talk about them feels wrong, and to disrupt them with technology certainly feels taboo.
Science fiction cautions us that people who use technology to speak, see, or be with their lost loved ones will depend on these simulacrums and eventually prefer their digital relationships over their physical ones. Why do we prefer the most terrifying stories over the discomfort of not knowing?
This is my own flaw in "3 Ways To Clone Yourself Before You Die." I'm looking to fabricate a narrative, some kind of secular faith, in preparation for the death of a loved one, utilizing elaborate technologies, roping in people to fantasize about my death, and documenting it all, rather than accepting the ultra-ordinary human experience that grief will come in an unknown form, and that’s OK.”
- Brandon Tyson
Credits
Director // Brandon Tyson
Executive Producers // Chandler Tuttle / Brandon Stewart / Michael E. Wood
Editor-in-Chief // Robert Chapman-Smith
Supervising Producer // Erik Spink
Production Manager // Mead Baldwin
Cinematographers // Thomas Schnaidt / Michael Rossetti / Martin Trabalik / Brandon Tyson
Production Sound Mixer // Tomasso Pompei
Editor // Dan Steinmetz
Motion Direction // Vicky Chao
Motion Design // Peggy Aw
Deputy Director of Editorial Operations // Maggie Linder
Post-Production Manager // Briana Azar
Assistant Editors // Peggy Aw / Brandon Cotter / Janelle Pitts
Copy Editor // Chris Cox
Sound Design & Mix // Nick Karlin
Colorist // Nick Vega
VP of IT & Infrastructure // Seth Goldin
IT Associate // Abdul Bangura
Music courtesy of Universal Production Music
Courtesy of Artgrid, Barbara Alper, ClassicStock, Constance Bannister Corp, Eddie Gerald, Fred Van Schagen, Joe Sohm/Visions of America, Keystone, Mirrorpix, Smith Collection/Gado / Getty Images, Joshua Barbeau, Storyblocks, Storyfile
Additional Footage
Aisiri Amin / 'Grief tech: Digital eternity might change the way we grieve'
Charlotte Jee / 'Technology that lets us “speak” to our dead relatives has arrived. Are we ready?'
PORTL CEO David Nussbaum live HoloPortation demonstration' / Proto Hologram
'PORTL CEO David Nussbaum’s parents interact with his artificial intelligence StoryFile hologram' / Proto Hologram, Sophia Laurenzi / 'After-Loss Tech Wants to Ease the Logistics of Death'
'Tupac Hologram Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre Perform Coachella Live 2012' / SnoopDoggTV
'Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for PTSD and VR Resilience Training' / Skip Rizzo
'[VR Human Documentary] Mother meets her deceased daughter through VR technology' / MBClife
Max Halberstadt, NBC Television / Wikimedia Commons
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