BA Hons Final Major Project404: page not foundShort BlurbArthur Lawson wishes to remove himself from the Internet, after meeting the Internet himself and some hard persuasion, his existence is removed. However he soon realises that a world without the Internet is not quite as good as it seems. Arthur returns so confront the internet but is left to fight back for his online existence.
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Final Finished Film
Treatment
A man wearing only his underwear and shoes runs through a dense forest, cold and confused. This is ARTHUR LAWSON and he falls to the ground, upset and in pain, clutching his head and half remembering his past, including woman very special to him named CHARLOTTE. He vaguely recalls situations in which objects around him started vanishing. He keeps running, so many questions in both his mind and ours…
One day earlier, Arthur has finished his day teaching at a local secondary school and has a destination in mind, feeling tired of the constant invasion of his privacy that hes experienced since using the internet. He arrives at a run down council estate. After waiting around for a friend he is supposed to be meeting – someone who will apparently help delete his online presence – Arthur discovers an inviting door marked ‘404’ in standing alone in the middle of a plaza. He steps through it only to find himself suddenly inside an enormous warehouse on the other side, almost as if he has travelled through a gateway. The warehouse, sized like an aircraft hanger, is sparsely filled with more ancient machinery lit up from the other end by a huge spotlight silhouetting a man at a desk in the distance.
Baffled, Arthur begins to walk towards the light and the man, picking up a ticket labelled ‘#42’from a dispenser along the way. When Arthur makes his way over he is told to seat himself by the mysterious man. An intense conversation establishes that the man is ‘THE INTERNET’, an incredibly powerful individual; he sees all, knows all and has power at his fingertips. The Internet describes to Arthur how he essentially invented networking computers, and the two debate the positive and negative effects on people and society that the World Wide Web has made. The Internet eventually offers Arthur a unique opportunity to actually remove Arthur’s entire online profile – from the dating website on which he met Charlotte, the online banking, Facebook and such – but warns of the consequences, especially “There is only one person that is not online Arthur and that is me.”
Nevertheless, Arthur accepts and his hand is moved by the Internet like a puppet into slamming down onto the ‘Delete’ button. In a puff of ones and zeros, Arthur vanishes into thin air, ready to be reborn without technological influences in his life. The Internet man appears satisfied by this outcome.
Amongst flashbacks of people and things vanishing from Arthur’s life, reflecting the deletion of anything that happened online, Arthur appears in a forest from the beginning. The Internet’s booming voice describes the place as a metaphorical “Recycle Bin”. The place everything deleted from cyberspace goes to fester. Forgotten. In fear, Arthur runs, but his memories of Charlotte begin to leave him, painfully ripped away as he trips across the digital forest. The inescapable power of technology now demonstrated, the Internet provides Arthur with a choice. He can remain here or step back through the 404 door accepting his fate.
Making his choice and his way back to the warehouse through the door, angrily intent on confronting the man who caused these issues, Arthur discovers that the internet has vanished from his desk. Instead the computer atop it is asking Arthur by name to sign in and prepare for training. It’s mandatory. Again, almost without thinking, he complies.
Suddenly Arthur is wearing the Internet’s suit and hairstyle, sipping the filtered coffee in a calm and collected manner, whilst watching web activity reports on a screen. This twist ending implies that Arthur has taken on the mantle of being “The Internet”, his experiences being an education in the responsibilities and inescapable impact on life that technology now offers.
A man wearing only his underwear and shoes runs through a dense forest, cold and confused. This is ARTHUR LAWSON and he falls to the ground, upset and in pain, clutching his head and half remembering his past, including woman very special to him named CHARLOTTE. He vaguely recalls situations in which objects around him started vanishing. He keeps running, so many questions in both his mind and ours…
One day earlier, Arthur has finished his day teaching at a local secondary school and has a destination in mind, feeling tired of the constant invasion of his privacy that hes experienced since using the internet. He arrives at a run down council estate. After waiting around for a friend he is supposed to be meeting – someone who will apparently help delete his online presence – Arthur discovers an inviting door marked ‘404’ in standing alone in the middle of a plaza. He steps through it only to find himself suddenly inside an enormous warehouse on the other side, almost as if he has travelled through a gateway. The warehouse, sized like an aircraft hanger, is sparsely filled with more ancient machinery lit up from the other end by a huge spotlight silhouetting a man at a desk in the distance.
Baffled, Arthur begins to walk towards the light and the man, picking up a ticket labelled ‘#42’from a dispenser along the way. When Arthur makes his way over he is told to seat himself by the mysterious man. An intense conversation establishes that the man is ‘THE INTERNET’, an incredibly powerful individual; he sees all, knows all and has power at his fingertips. The Internet describes to Arthur how he essentially invented networking computers, and the two debate the positive and negative effects on people and society that the World Wide Web has made. The Internet eventually offers Arthur a unique opportunity to actually remove Arthur’s entire online profile – from the dating website on which he met Charlotte, the online banking, Facebook and such – but warns of the consequences, especially “There is only one person that is not online Arthur and that is me.”
Nevertheless, Arthur accepts and his hand is moved by the Internet like a puppet into slamming down onto the ‘Delete’ button. In a puff of ones and zeros, Arthur vanishes into thin air, ready to be reborn without technological influences in his life. The Internet man appears satisfied by this outcome.
Amongst flashbacks of people and things vanishing from Arthur’s life, reflecting the deletion of anything that happened online, Arthur appears in a forest from the beginning. The Internet’s booming voice describes the place as a metaphorical “Recycle Bin”. The place everything deleted from cyberspace goes to fester. Forgotten. In fear, Arthur runs, but his memories of Charlotte begin to leave him, painfully ripped away as he trips across the digital forest. The inescapable power of technology now demonstrated, the Internet provides Arthur with a choice. He can remain here or step back through the 404 door accepting his fate.
Making his choice and his way back to the warehouse through the door, angrily intent on confronting the man who caused these issues, Arthur discovers that the internet has vanished from his desk. Instead the computer atop it is asking Arthur by name to sign in and prepare for training. It’s mandatory. Again, almost without thinking, he complies.
Suddenly Arthur is wearing the Internet’s suit and hairstyle, sipping the filtered coffee in a calm and collected manner, whilst watching web activity reports on a screen. This twist ending implies that Arthur has taken on the mantle of being “The Internet”, his experiences being an education in the responsibilities and inescapable impact on life that technology now offers.
One day earlier, Arthur has finished his day teaching at a local secondary school and has a destination in mind, feeling tired of the constant invasion of his privacy that hes experienced since using the internet. He arrives at a run down council estate. After waiting around for a friend he is supposed to be meeting – someone who will apparently help delete his online presence – Arthur discovers an inviting door marked ‘404’ in standing alone in the middle of a plaza. He steps through it only to find himself suddenly inside an enormous warehouse on the other side, almost as if he has travelled through a gateway. The warehouse, sized like an aircraft hanger, is sparsely filled with more ancient machinery lit up from the other end by a huge spotlight silhouetting a man at a desk in the distance.
Baffled, Arthur begins to walk towards the light and the man, picking up a ticket labelled ‘#42’from a dispenser along the way. When Arthur makes his way over he is told to seat himself by the mysterious man. An intense conversation establishes that the man is ‘THE INTERNET’, an incredibly powerful individual; he sees all, knows all and has power at his fingertips. The Internet describes to Arthur how he essentially invented networking computers, and the two debate the positive and negative effects on people and society that the World Wide Web has made. The Internet eventually offers Arthur a unique opportunity to actually remove Arthur’s entire online profile – from the dating website on which he met Charlotte, the online banking, Facebook and such – but warns of the consequences, especially “There is only one person that is not online Arthur and that is me.”
Nevertheless, Arthur accepts and his hand is moved by the Internet like a puppet into slamming down onto the ‘Delete’ button. In a puff of ones and zeros, Arthur vanishes into thin air, ready to be reborn without technological influences in his life. The Internet man appears satisfied by this outcome.
Amongst flashbacks of people and things vanishing from Arthur’s life, reflecting the deletion of anything that happened online, Arthur appears in a forest from the beginning. The Internet’s booming voice describes the place as a metaphorical “Recycle Bin”. The place everything deleted from cyberspace goes to fester. Forgotten. In fear, Arthur runs, but his memories of Charlotte begin to leave him, painfully ripped away as he trips across the digital forest. The inescapable power of technology now demonstrated, the Internet provides Arthur with a choice. He can remain here or step back through the 404 door accepting his fate.
Making his choice and his way back to the warehouse through the door, angrily intent on confronting the man who caused these issues, Arthur discovers that the internet has vanished from his desk. Instead the computer atop it is asking Arthur by name to sign in and prepare for training. It’s mandatory. Again, almost without thinking, he complies.
Suddenly Arthur is wearing the Internet’s suit and hairstyle, sipping the filtered coffee in a calm and collected manner, whilst watching web activity reports on a screen. This twist ending implies that Arthur has taken on the mantle of being “The Internet”, his experiences being an education in the responsibilities and inescapable impact on life that technology now offers.
A man wearing only his underwear and shoes runs through a dense forest, cold and confused. This is ARTHUR LAWSON and he falls to the ground, upset and in pain, clutching his head and half remembering his past, including woman very special to him named CHARLOTTE. He vaguely recalls situations in which objects around him started vanishing. He keeps running, so many questions in both his mind and ours…
One day earlier, Arthur has finished his day teaching at a local secondary school and has a destination in mind, feeling tired of the constant invasion of his privacy that hes experienced since using the internet. He arrives at a run down council estate. After waiting around for a friend he is supposed to be meeting – someone who will apparently help delete his online presence – Arthur discovers an inviting door marked ‘404’ in standing alone in the middle of a plaza. He steps through it only to find himself suddenly inside an enormous warehouse on the other side, almost as if he has travelled through a gateway. The warehouse, sized like an aircraft hanger, is sparsely filled with more ancient machinery lit up from the other end by a huge spotlight silhouetting a man at a desk in the distance.
Baffled, Arthur begins to walk towards the light and the man, picking up a ticket labelled ‘#42’from a dispenser along the way. When Arthur makes his way over he is told to seat himself by the mysterious man. An intense conversation establishes that the man is ‘THE INTERNET’, an incredibly powerful individual; he sees all, knows all and has power at his fingertips. The Internet describes to Arthur how he essentially invented networking computers, and the two debate the positive and negative effects on people and society that the World Wide Web has made. The Internet eventually offers Arthur a unique opportunity to actually remove Arthur’s entire online profile – from the dating website on which he met Charlotte, the online banking, Facebook and such – but warns of the consequences, especially “There is only one person that is not online Arthur and that is me.”
Nevertheless, Arthur accepts and his hand is moved by the Internet like a puppet into slamming down onto the ‘Delete’ button. In a puff of ones and zeros, Arthur vanishes into thin air, ready to be reborn without technological influences in his life. The Internet man appears satisfied by this outcome.
Amongst flashbacks of people and things vanishing from Arthur’s life, reflecting the deletion of anything that happened online, Arthur appears in a forest from the beginning. The Internet’s booming voice describes the place as a metaphorical “Recycle Bin”. The place everything deleted from cyberspace goes to fester. Forgotten. In fear, Arthur runs, but his memories of Charlotte begin to leave him, painfully ripped away as he trips across the digital forest. The inescapable power of technology now demonstrated, the Internet provides Arthur with a choice. He can remain here or step back through the 404 door accepting his fate.
Making his choice and his way back to the warehouse through the door, angrily intent on confronting the man who caused these issues, Arthur discovers that the internet has vanished from his desk. Instead the computer atop it is asking Arthur by name to sign in and prepare for training. It’s mandatory. Again, almost without thinking, he complies.
Suddenly Arthur is wearing the Internet’s suit and hairstyle, sipping the filtered coffee in a calm and collected manner, whilst watching web activity reports on a screen. This twist ending implies that Arthur has taken on the mantle of being “The Internet”, his experiences being an education in the responsibilities and inescapable impact on life that technology now offers.