Three months ago my 1 Second Everyday - Age 30 video found itself on the Front Page of the Internet, Reddit.

When my friend John Cook first alerted me that it was there, I started reading & answering some of the early comments.  But once it hit the front page and the comments started arriving in the hundreds, I ran for the hills.  

As a long time Redditor who checks in daily to see the newest best stuff on the internet, I know that Redditors are brutally honest.  And being the sensitive schmuck that I am, I decided to stop reading them before I read something negative.  My Reddit Inbox also filled up rather quickly, so I decided to ignore those too.

This week I finally took some time to stop ignoring that glowing red Reddit Inbox and prepared myself for the worst.  

I was honestly shocked by the messages I received!  

Thought I'd share 3 of them here :)

Thank you Brandon Forant for your truly diligent work!

there are literally thousands of incredible experiences happening at any given second at Burning Man… it's impossible to convey… everyone's experience ends up being totally different… I wanted to share one of my absolute personal favorites… biking way outside Black Rock City for several miles & stumbling on a movie theater at the farthest depth of the deep Playa… 

I assumed it just "looked" like a movie theater… but when I tried to open the door, it did open… and I was immediately greeted by a bellhop that asked "can I interest you in some concessions for the movie?"… I said "ummm… wow… sure… ah… Snickers?"… he handed me a KING SIZE snickers bar and said "Enjoy the show!"… I crawled under a tiny set of black theater drapes… and inside was a movie screen that rivaled those of indie movie screens in NYC… better in fact… I caught the 4am showing of The Wizard of OZ… when the movie ended, we walked out and the sun had just started rising in the distance… it felt like real life magic…

REBIRTH of GAEA - A Brief Overview from Jesse Michael Newman on Vimeo.

click on image for the full reddit thread

for 1 week, 60,000+ people will build the 4th largest city in Nevada... Black Rock City... in a desolate waterless uninhabitable desert... even though it's temporary, it's said to be the most educated city in the world... there's nothing to buy... no one sells anything... no corporations allowed... everyone brings gifts... no phone/internet... walking & bicycling are the only modes of transportation... an experiment in community, art, radical self-expression, and radical self-reliance... When it's over, we'll leave no trace we were ever there... goodbye world, I'm off to Burning Man!

Way back in 2004... in the dark days before youTube, DSLRs, & Nolan's Batman Begins... Fanboys like myself loved this $18,000 mock trailer by John Fiorella.  Like most fan-films, he never made a cent from it, since he didn't have permission from Warner Bros.  The gargantuan passion/dedication he put into this, is admirable.   

image courtesy of wallpapers.eu.com

Personally I'm against adding music to my 1 Second Everyday project.  Being able to listen to any particular moment is crucial to remembering it.  The sound of my dad laughing... Tina Fey's Bossypants audio book while I'm driving through Tennessee... even the sound of slapping my cousin hello brings me back, haha :)

Not to mention that music directs you towards a certain mood.  And some of these seconds can switch from joy to sorrow, then back to joy in literally a heart beat.  

To quote my friend Paris Mavroidis who eloquently defended my decision to a vimeo commenter:

"I'm glad he didn't cheapen it by adding music. If his intent was to create a sexy ad about how great his life is then ok, maybe a life-affirming song in the background would have worked better. But this feels more like he's documenting his life, and the use of the real audio clips makes it more honest; it speaks to the fact that life includes funny moments, sad ones, boring ones and everything in between. Just throwing a song with a single mood over the whole thing wouldn't do his year justice, it would just whitewash everything and a lot of the nuance would be lost. I don't think he's trying to promote his life or make the video as entertaining as possible for an audience and I appreciate that. It's a record of his life that is meant for him to reassess how he lives it and encourage the viewer do the same, and i think it works really well."

All that being said.  A Brazilian, Jaryson Lima, sent me this today.  He took the liberty of adding music to my video.  I really enjoyed watching it like this.  It's not something I'll be doing to my yearly videos for the reasons stated above, but I'm all for remixing anything!  I'm honored he took the time to do this.

Years ago I gave up on Hollywood marketing.  They basically show you the entire movie now in a desperate effort to get you to go watch their movie opening weekend.  Worst of all they'll show you all the best parts in an onslaught of marketing.  

My simple rule is:  If I already want to see it, I won't watch the trailer. 

One of my all time best movie experiences came on July 16th 2008.  My friends and I were at the midnight showing of the Dark Knight along with thousands of other New Yorkers.  Half way through the movie, every one of us started freaking out when we realized that the Batpod (Batman's bike) was actually INSIDE & part of the Batmobile itself!  Non of us knew this.  The audible gasps of joy and surprise in the movie theater could be felt from New Jersey.  It was a fantastic movie experience.

Two years later, I had already begun my habit of avoiding trailers.  I had spent many months avoiding everything about Iron Man 2.  The midnight showing was only 2 days away.  When suddenly… I'm checking out the front page of my favorite tech site, Gizmodo… and BAM!  I read a headline that said: 

"Watch It: the Iron Man 2 Briefcase Suit Scene."

I FREAKED OUT.  I was so upset.  Months of closing my eyes.  Ruined by a single headline.  So when I watched the movie 2 days later… I didn't have some brilliant movie experience when I saw a suitcase being driven to Tony Stark.  I already knew.  No surprise.  It was still cool.  But I knew it was coming.

I've avoided every Trailer/Review/Interview/Clip/Tweet/FB status relating to Avengers.  I couldn't be more excited to see my childhood comic books come to life.  And every single second will be brand new to me.  I am now evacuating the internet until after I see it on Friday to avoid spoilers.

To quote Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall-E) on Jeff Goldsmith's brilliant creative screenwriting podcast:

"When I was going to school... In high school and loving movies I remember teasers truly teasing me... And I remember E.T. Was just 3 fingers going around a door & a date... & i feel like We've become such an impatient society... And we want our cake 2 years before its time to have our cake... that you're losing a lot of romance & ammunition out of making people have to wait... And making them want to know more... and anticipating something…"