In the last couple of years, I have produced what I call "The Dead Mall Series," 32 short films and counting about dead malls. Now, for those of you who are not familiar with what a dead mall is, it's basically a shopping mall that has fallen into hard times. So it either has few shops and fewer shoppers, or it's abandoned and crumbling into ruin. No sale at Penny's.
Zadnjih par godina, radio sam na serijalu "Beživotni centri", od zasad 32 kratka filma o beživotnim centrima. A sada, za one koji nisu sigurni što je zapravo beživotni centar, to je zapravo trgovački centar koji je zapao u teška vremena. Zbog toga ili ima sve manje i manje trgovina, ili je napušten i pretvara se u ruševinu. Nema rasprodaje u Penny's
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
I started producing this series in early 2015 after going through kind of a dark period in my life where I just didn't want to create films anymore. I put my camera away and I just stopped. So in 2015, I decided to make a short film about the Owings Mills Mall. Owings Mills Mall opened in 1986. I should know because I was there on opening day. I was there with my family, along with every other family in Baltimore, and you had to drive around for 45 minutes just to find a parking spot. So if you can imagine, that's not happening at the malls today.
Ovaj sam serijal počeo raditi ranih mjeseci 2015. nakon što sam prošao mračno razdoblje svog života u kojem jednostavno više nisam želio raditi filmove. Ostavio sam se kamere i jednostavno prestao. I tako sam 2015. odlučio napraviti kratki film o Owings Mills Mall-u. Owings Mills Mall otvoren je 1986. To znam jer sam bio tamo na dan otvorenja. Bio sam s obitelji, kao i svaka druga obitelj u Baltimoreu, i morali smo voziti oko parkinga 45 minuta samo da bismo pronašli mjesto. Stoga, ako možete zamisliti, to se danas više ne događa.
My first mall job that I had as a teenager was at a sporting goods store called Herman's World of Sports. Maybe you remember.
Prvi posao u centru koji sam imao kao tinejdžer bio je u trgovini sportske opreme zvanoj Herman's World of Sports. Možda se sjećate:
(Singing) Herman's World of Sports.
(Pjevajući) Herman's World of Sports.
You guys remember that?
Sjećate li se?
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Yeah, so I worked in a lady's shoe store. I worked in a leather goods store, and I also worked in a video store, and not being one who was very fond of the retail arts --
I da, radio sam i u trgovini ženske obuće, u trgovini kožnih proizvoda, i u videoteci, također, i sve to ne bijavši na ti s prodavačkim umijećima.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
I got fired from every single job.
Bio sam otpušten sa svakog od tih poslova.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
In between these low-paying retail jobs, I did what any normal teenager did in the 1990s. I shoplifted. I'm just kidding. I hung out with my friends at the mall.
U slobodno vrijeme, između tih nisko plaćenih poslova, radio sam sve što i normalan tinejdžer u devedesetima. Krao sam. Šalim se. Družio sam se s prijateljima u centru.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Everyone's like, "Oh my God, what kind of talk is this?"
Svi misle: "O bože, kakav je ovo govor?"
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Hanging out at the mall could be fun, but it could be really lame, too, like sharing a cigarette with a 40-year-old unemployed mall rat who has put on black lipstick for the night while you're on your break from your crappy minimum wage job.
Druženje u centru znalo je biti zabavno, ali je znalo biti i jadno, kao na primjer dijeljenje cigarete s četrdesetogodišnjim uličarom koji je večeras stavio crni ruž dok ste na pauzi svog jadnog, minimalno plaćenog posla.
As I stand here today, Owings Mills has been gutted and it's ready for the wrecking ball. The last time I was there, it was in the evening, and it was about three days before they closed the mall for good. And you kind of felt -- they never announced the mall was closing, but you had this sort of feeling, this ominous feeling, that something big was going to happen, like it was the end of the road. It was a very creepy walk through the mall. Let me show you.
Dok stojim ovdje danas, Owings Millsu uništavaju interijer i spreman je za rušenje. Zadnji put sam bio tamo, za vrijeme večeri, tri dana prije nego što su ga zatvorili zauvijek. I nekako se osjećalo -- nisu nikada objavili da se zatvara, ali je postojao predosjećaj, koban preosjećaj, da će se nešto veliko dogoditi. Kao da je bio kraj puta. Bila je to jeziva šetnja kroz centar. Dopustite da vam pokažem.
(Music)
(Glazba)
So when I started producing "The Dead Mall Series," I put the videos up onto YouTube, and while I thought they were interesting, frankly I didn't think others would share the enthusiasm for such a drab and depressing topic. But apparently I was wrong, because a lot of people started to comment. And at first the comments were like -- basically like, "Oh my God, that's the mall from my childhood. What happened?" And then I would get comments from people who were like, "There's a dead mall in my town. You should come and film it." So I started to travel around the mid-Atlantic region filming these dead malls. Some were open. Some were abandoned. It was kind of always hard to get into the ones that were abandoned, but I somehow always found a way in.
Kada sam počeo raditi na ovome serijalu, Stavljao sam snimke na YouTube, i smatrao sam da su zanimljivi, ali, iskreno, nisam mislio da će i ostalima biti zanimljiva tako mračna i depresivna tema. Ali, očito sam bio u krivu, jer je velik broj ljudi komentirao. Prvi komentari su bili u stilu -- uglavnom kao "O moj Bože, to je centar iz mog djetinjstva. Što se dogodilo?" Zatim bih dobio komentare ljudi koji su bili kao, "U mom gradu je beživotni centar. Trebao bi doći snimiti." Tako sam počeo putovati po Srednjoatlantskoj regiji snimajući te beživotne centre. Neki su bili otvoreni. Neki pak napušteni. Nekako je uvijek bilo teško ući u one koji su bili napušteni, ali sam uvijek našao način.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
The malls that are still open, they always do this weird thing -- like the dead malls. They'll have three stores left, but they try to spruce it up to make it appear like things are on the up-and-up. For example, you'll have an empty store and they bring the gate down. So at Owings Mills, for example, they put this tarp over the gate. Right? And it's got a stock photo of a woman who is so happy and she's holding a blouse, and she's like --
Centri koji su još otvoreni uvijek rade te čudne stvari -- kao beživotni centri. Imat će tri trgovine otvorene, ali će probati to dotjerati tako da se čini kao da je situacija odlična. Na primjer, ako imaju praznu trgovinu, spustit će pregradu. Tako u Owings Millsu, na primjer, stave ceradu preko ulaza. Je li tako? A ta cerada ima otrcanu fotografiju žene koja je sretna i drži bluzu, a sva je kao --
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
And then there's a guy standing next to her, with, like, an espresso cup, and he's like --
Te je tu onda i muškarac koji stoji pored nje sa šalicom kave, i on je kao --
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
And it says, "What brings you today?"
A natpis kaže, "Što vas dovodi danas?"
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
I wanted to be scared and depressed. Thank you.
Htio sam biti prestravljen i deprimiran. Hvala vam.
So the comments just kept pouring in on the videos, from all over the country, and then all over the world. And I started to think, this could really be something, but I had to get creative, because I'm like, how long are people going to sit and watch me waddling through an empty mall?
I tako se komentari nizaju na snimke, iz cijele zemlje i iz cijeloga svijeta. I počnem razmišljati, ovo bi stvarno moglo biti nešto, ali moram postati kreativan, jer razmišljam kao, koliko će dugo ljudi sjediti i gledati mene kako se gegam kroz prazan centar?
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
So the original episodes I filmed with an iPhone. So I'd walk through the mall with an iPhone, and, you know. Like that.
Originalne sam epizode snimao Iphoneom. I tako bih šetao centrom s Iphoneom u ruci i tako, znate. Samo tako.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
And security -- because malls, they don't like photography -- so the security would come up and be like, "Put that away," and I'm like, "OK." So I had to get creative and sneaky, so I started using a hidden camera and different techniques to get the footage that I needed, and basically what I wanted to do was make the video like it was a first-person experience, like you are sitting -- put your headphones on watching the screen -- it's like, you're there in the video, like a video game, basically.
A osiguranje -- jer centri ne vole fotografiranje -- bi došlo meni i bili kao, "Spremi to", a ja bih na to, "OK" Zato sam morao postati kreativan i lukav, pa sam počeo koristiti skrivenu kameru i druge tehnike kako bih snimio ono što trebam, te je zapravo ono što sam htio bilo napraviti snimku koja je iz ljudske perspektive, pa da sjedite -- stavite slušalice gledajući na ekran -- i da bude kao da ste u samoj snimci, kao u video igrici, zapravo.
I also started to use music, collaborating with artists who create music called vaporwave. And vaporwave is a music genre that emerged in the early 2010s among internet communities. Here's an example.
Također sam počeo koristiti i glazbu, surađivajući s glazbenicima koji stvaraju glazbu zvanu "vaporwave". "Vaporwave" je glazbeni žanr koji je vidio svjetlo dana ranih 2010-ih među internet zajednicama. Evo primjera.
(Music)
(Glazba)
That's by an artist named Disconscious from an album he did called "Hologram Plaza." So if you look that up, you can hear more of those tunes. Vaporwave is more than an art form. It's like a movement. It's nihilistic, it's angsty, but it's somehow comforting. The whole aesthetic is a way of dealing with things you can't do anything about, like no jobs, or sitting in your parents' basement eating ramen noodles. Vaporwave came out of this generation's desire to express their hopelessness, the same way that the pre-internet generation did sitting around in the food court.
To je napravio glazbenik zvan Disconcious, a nalazi se na albumu zvanom "Hologram Plaza". Stoga, ako potražite to, možete pronaći još ovakvih melodija. "Vaporwave" je više od umjetničkog žanra. To je pokret. Nihilističko je, tjeskobno, ali je nekako utješno. Cijela estetika je način nošenja sa stvarima u vezi kojih ništa ne možemo, kao nedostatak poslova ili sjedenje u podrumu roditelja jedući Ramen rezance. Vaporwave je proizišao iz želje ove generacije da izrazi svoju beznandnost, na isti način kako je generacija prije interneta sjedeći u odjelu za hranu.
One of my favorite malls I've been to is in Corpus Christi, and it's called the Sunrise Mall. When I was a kid, my favorite thing to do was watch movies, and I used to watch movies over and over and over again. And one of my favorite films was "The Legend of Billie Jean." Now, for those of you who have seen "The Legend of Billie Jean," you'll know that it's a great film. I love it. And Helen Slater and Christian Slater -- and if you didn't know, they are not related. Many people thought that they were brother and sister. They're not. But anyway, Sunrise Mall was used in the film as a filming location. The mall is exactly the same as it was in 1984. We're talking 32 years later. Let me show you.
Jedan od najdražih centara u kojima sam bio je u Corpus Christiju, a zove se Sunrise Mall. Dok sam bio dijete, najviše sam volio gledati filmove, te sam gledao filmove više puta ispočetka. I jedan od najdražih mi je bio "Legenda Billie Jeana". Sada, za sve koji ste gledali "Legendu Billie Jeana", znate da je odličan film. Obožavam ga. A Helen Slater i Christian Slater -- i ako niste znali, nisu u rodu. Mnogi su mislili da su oni brat i sestra. Nisu. Ali svejedno, Sunrise Mall je korišten kao lokacija za snimanje filma. Centar je identičan kao što je bio 1984. Govorimo o 32 godine kasnije. Dopustite da vam pokažem.
(Video) Dan Bell: And here's Billie Jean running across the fountain, being chased by Hubie Pyatt's friends. And she jumps over here. And you can see the shot right here is what it looks like today. It's pretty incredible. I mean, honestly, it's exactly the same. And there they are falling in the fountain, and she runs up the stairs. This is a nice shot of the whole thing here.
(Video) Dan Bell: I evo Billie Jeana kako trči kroz fontanu, naganjan od Hubie Pyattovih prijatelja. I skoči tamo. I vidite da je ovaj kadar ovdje isti kao danas. Doista je nevjerojatno. Mislim, iskreno, potpuno je isti. I evo ih ovdje, padaju u fontanu, a ona trči uz stepenice. Ovo je prekrasna snimka cijelog prostora ovdje.
Dan Bell: I love that so much.
Dan Bell: Toliko to volim.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
I always think in my head, if I owned a dead mall -- why don't they embrace their vintage look? Put in a bar, like, put vegan food in the food court and invite millennials and hipsters to come and drink and eat, and I guarantee you within three weeks H&M and Levi's will be banging on the door trying to get space. I don't know why they don't do this, but apparently, it's only in my mind, it goes all day.
Uvijek razmišljam u glavi, da posjedujem beživotni centar -- zašto ne prihvate njihov stari izgled? Naprave bar, kao, stave vegansku hranu u odjel za hranu te pozovu milenijalce i hipstere da dođu piti i jesti, i garantiram vam da bi kroz tri tjedna H&M i Levi's kucali na vrata tražeći prostor u centru. Ne znam zašto to ne naprave, ali očito je to samo u mojoj glavi, i tako cijeli dan.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Anyway, in closing --
Uglavnom, da završim --
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
When they first asked me to do this talk, I said, "Do you have the right person?"
Kada su me pitali da održim ovaj govor, rekao sam: "Imate li pravu osobu?"
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
These talks are supposed to be kind of inspiring and --
Ovi bi govori trebali biti inspirativni i --
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
I remembered something, though. I put my camera down three or four years ago, and it took going to these malls for me to be inspired again. And to see my audience and people from all over the world writing me and saying, "God, I love your videos," is incredible. I don't know how to even explain it, as an artist, how fulfilling that is. If you would have told me a year ago that I would be standing on this stage talking to all of you wonderful people, I would have never believed it. I am humbled and so appreciative.
Sjećam se nečega, doduše. Odložio sam kameru pred tri, četiri godine i trebao mi je odlazak u ove centre da opet budem inspiriran. A vidjeti svoju publiku i ljude diljem svijeta kako mi pišu i govore, "O Bože, volim tvoje snimke", je nevjerojatno. Ne znam kako bih to objasnio, kao umjetnik, koliko je to ispunjavajuće. Da ste mi rekli prije godinu dana da ću biti na ovoj pozornici pričati svima vama, predivnim ljudima, ne bih vam povjerovao. Ponizan sam i toliko zahvalan.
Thank you very much.
Hvala vam lijepa.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)