SolSeed: Pick a Future is a six-minute music video created by Ben, then abandoned because we couldn't get proper permission to use the music track, "Down to Earth" by Peter Gabriel, which played over the credits of the movie WALL-E. We also wanted to play the last verse of "After the Gold Rush" by Neil Young during the credits.
Script
Visuals Text Voice
Fade in
Earth from space
Dissolve to ruined Earth from WALL-E
Axiom-class ships fly toward and past us
Dissolve to cover of Parable of the Sower
Dissolve to Earth as a tree with spaceship-seeds
Pull back to show roots are rays from the Sun
Dissolve to galaxy pullback
Flash to galaxy with scattered green flares
Zoom in on a green flare
Flash to sunrise from space
Iris to animated SolSeed symbol and logo
Dissolve to yin-yang of Earth and ruined Earth
with main title
Silhouette with feet tied down by vines
Pan up to show silhouette reaching for stars
Blur-dissolve to skyscrapers at “night”
Pan to reveal darkness is smoke from a factory
Pan-dissolve into wilderness,
zoom in toward hikers on forest floor
and fade in first three floating lines of text
Dissolve to sillhouette in cubicle farm
Iris to skyscrapers, pan up to a jet flying, text fades
Pan down as next three floating lines of text appear
Pan down to a green, walkable community
Slide in yin-yang: coal plant vs. solar & wind
Radial wipe to yin-yang: smoggy city vs. electric cars
then glacier after vs. before melting,
then river with vs. without pollution,
then brown fields vs. green ones with lots of trees,
then pesticide sprayer vs. organic farm w/ birds,
then slums vs. eco-village,
then shopping mall vs. people talking at Seed 2009
Overlay timeline moving backward,
clock-wipe to medieval farm with workers,
blur-dissolve to workers in cubicles,
pan to people shopping in a grocery store
Zoom on a TV: ad with “All New!” in big letters,
change channel to Obama ad, then to a news report
Dissolve to books: Live More, Spend Less,
on a library website, cursor clicks Cancel
Pull back to silhouette with lots of papers on desk
Zoom back in to SolSeed website, scrolling down
Zoom on Brandon holding Seed 2009 sign at lodge
Slide in yin-yang: meeting vs. people writing on floor
Blur-dissolve to yin-yang: agenda page vs. agenda wall
Dissolve to Seed 2009 breakfast, zoom on snowy view
Willamette River with RCC participants on bridge
Iris to SolSeed Society logo with Earth-tree, pull back
to show other URLs, links extend out to them, pull back
to Internet overlaid on Earth from space,
Internet fades out
Overlay timeline moving backward, zoom into ocean
Prehistoric fish swimming around the base of a tree
Pan up the trunk, see ancient lizards on shoreline,
mammals on one branch, winged dinosaurs on another,
silhouette at end of first branch
looking at a bird taking flight from the other
Flash through toxic waste, clearcuts, smokestacks
Pullback from Earth with timeline moving forward
Earth grows red, then fades to WALL-E's trashed Earth
Spaceships fly away, then everything stops
and runs backward as timeline returns to the present
Crossfade to low-orbit photo,
then people hiking with a grand mountain vista,
then people sitting by a beautiful river,
hold to emphasize the relaxedness of the scene
Bird singing in a tree
People planting trees
Person blowing seeds from a dandelion
Follow one of these as it gradually settles to the ground
Crossfade to Brandon, Shelley, and baby Sequoia
White-flash dissolve to:
PowerPoint slide on a screen
Concepts starting in one stack flip over
to form an inverted stack
White-flash dissolve to:
Fancy car idling and spewing exhaust,
yin-yang wipe to bike with "One Less Car" flag
Huge lawn w/ sprinklers running & distant mountains,
yin-yang wipe to water project in Africa
SUV at a fast food place,
yin-yang wipe to urban food gardens in East Portland
Aerial view of suburbia,
yin-yang wipe to SolSeed eco-village being built
Pan up to show Portland skyline above ecovillage,
oval iris to world with network spreading from Portland
to other eco-villages and intentional societies
Zoom into Damanhur and Temple of Humankind
Flash to future city built inside and around huge trees,
wipe to a spaceport, where
a seed-shaped spaceship is lifting off using antigravity
Yin-yang to "Conquest of Space" poster in sepia tone,
yin-yang to "Mother Earth Wants YOU" hologram
with image of Gaia with Earth as her pregnant belly
Dissolve to little ship docking with asteroid above Earth
Asteroid is a giant "life-ship" that goes to Mars,
then releases more seed-shaped vessels that descend
Cut to a seed landing on the surface, burrowing down
Cross-section view, tunnels spreading out like roots
Greenhouse, then lichen on rocks, then life takes over
Pull back past Sol to life-ship arriving at another star,
docking at alien space station above inhabited gas giant
where we get permission to terraform its dead moon
Pull back to galaxy already dotted with green flares,
with starship icons spreading out to "plant" new ones
Fade out to green-white
"Earthseed, book 1" on cover
replaced with SolSeed logo
Living Worlds Productions presents...
An animated collage by Ben Sibelman
SolSeed: Pick a Future
Part One: To Be Worthy of the Stars
Life is Precious
Change is Eternal
Chaos is Inevitable
Empathy is Transcendent
Wisdom is Effective
Self-Love is Motive
Human Needs 1: Air
2: Water
3: Food
4: Shelter
5: Family and Community
Part Two: Joining the Community
FEAR, Spending Needed to Save Economy
DEADLINES (on page tacked to wall)
SolSeed: A Community of Life
Do you want to join? Either way,
you're invited to our next gathering!
Water.org, LocalHarvest.org, EcoVillage.org,
Plantetary.org
Part Three: Back to Our Roots
Big red "?" next to Earth
Part Four: Redefining Our Priorities
Econ. Growth, Innovation, Gov't, Consumers/
Human Resources, Natural Resources
Life, People/Communities, Governance,
Technology, Economy
Air
Water
Food
Shelter
Family and Community
Church of the Upward Spiral, Spiriata
Spirituality
Riverbank Neighbors, Eco-Village at Ithaca,
Damanhur
Harmony with Nature
Purpose, SILVER SEED (on side of ship)
subtitle: "to help bring life to new worlds!"
Part Five: Spreading the Seed
Settlement Rights (with alien text on document)
Music starts. My narration:
“There are two ways we could emigrate from Earth.
A few of us could flee as refugees,
from a home that we
accidentally set on fire.
Or, many of us could go out across the stars
as gardeners, serving our Mother Earth
by planting and growing new living worlds.
But first,
we would need to come back down to Earth,
put out the fires,
and reconnect with the living world
that gave us birth.”
Lyrics start:
Did you think that your feet had been bound
By what gravity brings to the ground?
Did you feel you were tricked
By the future you picked?
Well, come on down.
All these rules don't apply
When you're high in the sky
So come on down,
Come on down.
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow up on the mountains
We've got rivers down below.
We're coming down to the ground
We hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send our seeds on the breeze.
Did you think you'd escaped from routine
By changing the script
and the scene?
Despite all you've made of it,
you're always afraid
of a change.
You got a lot on your chest
Well, you can come as my guest
So come on down,
come on down.
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow up on the mountains
We've got rivers down below.
We're coming down to the ground
We hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send our seeds on the breeze.
Like the fish in the ocean,
We felt at home in the sea.
We learned to live off the good land,
We learned to climb up a tree.
Then we got up on two legs,
But we wanted to fly.
When we messed up our homeland,
We set sail for the sky.
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow up on the mountains
We've got rivers down below.
We're coming down to the ground
We hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send our seeds on the breeze.
We're coming down - coming down to Earth
Like babies at birth - coming down to Earth
Redefine your priorities
These are extraordinary qualities
(Down...Down to Earth)
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow up on the mountains
We've got rivers down below.
We're coming down to the ground
We hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send our seeds on the breeze.
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow up on the mountains
We've got rivers down below.
We're coming down to the ground
We hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send our seeds on the breeze.
Redefine your priorities
These are extraordinary qualities
To find on Earth.
Coming down
Coming down
Coming down
Coming down
Coming down
Coming down
Coming down
Coming down!