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Chris Milk uses cutting edge technology to produce astonishing films that delight and enchant. But for Milk, the human story is the driving force behind everything he does. In this short, charming talk, he shows some of his collaborations with musicians including Kanye West and Arcade Fire, and describes his latest, mind-bending experiments with virtual reality.

Chris Milk使用最先进的科技来创造惊人的电影。但是对于Milk而言，人类的故事是他所做的一切的动力。在他简短有趣的演讲中，他会展现与Kanye West和Aracde Fire关于他最新的，惊人的虚拟现实实验的合作。

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- Transcript -

Virtual reality started for me in sort of an unusual place. It was the 1970s. I got into the field very young: I was seven years old. And the tool that I used  to access virtual reality was the Evel Knievel stunt cycle. This is a commercial for  that particular item: (Video) Voice-over: What a jump! Evel's riding the amazing stunt cycle. That gyro-power sends him  over 100 feet at top speed.

我第一次接触虚拟现实 是在一个不大寻常的情况下。 那是十九世纪七十年代， 我在很小的时候就接触了这个领域： 那时候才七岁。 我用于进入虚拟现实的工具 是Evel Knievel特技摩托车模型。 在当时它的广告是这样的： （录像）旁白：跳的好！ Evel正在表演惊人的摩托车特技。 陀螺仪的能量将他 以最高速送上了100英尺的高度！

Chris Milk: So this was my joy back then. I rode this motorcycle everywhere. And I was there with Evel Knievel; we  jumped the Snake River Canyon together. I wanted the rocket. I never got the rocket, I only got the motorcycle. I felt so connected to this world. I didn't want to be a storyteller  when I grew up, I wanted to be stuntman. I was there. Evel Knievel was my friend. I had so much empathy for him.

Chris Milk： 这就是我那时候快乐的源泉。 我“骑”着它到处跑。 我和Evel Knievel一起跳过了蛇河峡谷。 我想要那个火箭。 我从来没有得到过那个火箭， 只有这个摩托车。 我感到我和这个世界紧紧相连在一起。 我不想长大后成为一个讲故事的人， 我想成为一个特技表演家。 我就在那里， 而Evel Knievel是我的朋友。 我和他心有灵犀。

But it didn't work out. (Laughter) I went to art school. I started making music videos. And this is one of the early music videos that I made: (Music: "Touch the Sky" by Kanye West) CM: You may notice  some slight similarities here. (Laughter) And I got that rocket. (Laughter)

但是事实并没有朝 我期待的方向发展。（笑） 我去了一个艺术学校。 我开始制作音乐视频。 这是我最早期制作的音乐视频之一： （音乐：Touch the Sky -- Kanye West) 你们也许注意到了一些相似之处。 （笑） 而且我得到了那个火箭。 （笑）

So, now I'm a filmmaker, or, the beginning of a filmmaker, and I started using the tools that are available to me as a filmmaker to try to tell the most compelling stories that I can to an audience. And film is this incredible medium that allows us to feel empathy for people that are very different than us and worlds completely  foreign from our own.

所以，现在我是一个制片人， 或者说，新手制片人， 我开始使用一些用于制作电影的工具， 向观众展示那些最引人入胜的故事。 电影是一种不可思议的媒介， 能让我们 和非常不同的人， 不同的世界产生共鸣。

Unfortunately, Evel Knievel did not feel the same  empathy for us that we felt for him, and he sued us for this video -- (Laughter) -- shortly thereafter. On the upside, the man  that I worshipped as a child, the man that I wanted  to become as an adult, I was finally able to get his autograph. (Applause)

不幸的是， Evel Knievel没有对我们产生 像我们对他那样的共鸣， 他起诉了我们这个视频， （笑） 就在不久以后。 不过往好的方面想， 这个我从小崇拜的男人， 这个我曾今想长大后变成他的男人， 我终于拿到了他的签名。 （掌声）

Let's talk about film now. Film, it's an incredible medium, but essentially, it's the same now as it was then. It's a group of rectangles that are played in a sequence. And we've done incredible things with those rectangles. But I started thinking about, is there a way that I can use modern and developing technologies to tell stories in different ways and tell different kinds of stories that maybe I couldn't tell using the traditional tools of filmmaking that we've been using for 100 years? So I started experimenting, and what I was trying to do was to build the ultimate empathy machine. And here's one of the early experiments: (Music)

现在来谈谈电影吧。 电影，是个不可思议的媒介， 但是基本上从过去到现在 它并没有改变很多。 它只是一组按顺序播放的长方形。 但是我们用这些长方形 做出过非同凡响的事情。 但是我开始思考， 我可不可以用现代不断发展的科技， 通过不同的方法讲故事， 讲述不同的故事， 而这些用我们已经使用了100年的 传统的电影制作工具 却无法实现？ 所以我开始进行试验， 我想造出一个能最终实现共鸣的机器。 这是我最初的试验之一： （音乐）

So this is called "The Wilderness Downtown." It was a collaboration with Arcade Fire. It asked you to put in the address where you grew up at the beginning of it. It's a website. And out of it starts growing these little boxes with different browser windows. And you see this teenager  running down a street, and then you see Google Street View and Google Maps imagery and you realize the street he's running down is yours. And when he stops in front of a house, he stops in front of your house. And this was great, and I saw people  having an even deeper emotional reaction to this than the things that  I had made in rectangles. And I'm essentially taking  a piece of your history and putting it inside  the framing of the story.

这个叫做The Wilderness Downtown。 是跟Arcade Fire合作的项目。 它一开始让你输入你长大的地方。 它是一个网站。 开始后你会在不同的浏览器中 看到这些小盒子。 你会看到这个少年在街上跑， 然后看到谷歌街景和谷歌地图， 你会意识到他沿途经过的街道， 正是你成长的地方。 当他停下来的时候， 是在你的房子前。 这很棒，我看到人们表现出 更剧烈的情感波动， 相较于我在长方形框框里 创造出来的东西。 我基本上是拿出来你的一段过去， 把它放入一个故事当中。

But then I started thinking, okay, well that's a part of you, but how do I put all of you inside of the frame? So to do that, I started making art installations. And this is one called  "The Treachery of Sanctuary." It's a triptych. I'm going to show you the third panel. (Music) So now I've got you inside of the frame, and I saw people having even more visceral emotional reactions to this work than the previous one.

然后我开始思考， 好吧，这是你的一部分， 但是我怎样才能把你的一切 都这样呈现出来呢？ 于是，我开始制作装置艺术。 这个叫做“对神圣的背叛”。 它是个三联场景。 我要展示一下第三部分。 （音乐） 所以我把你带入了这个画框， 与之前的作品相比， 我看到人们的情感 受到了更多的触动。

But then I started thinking about frames, and what do they represent? And a frame is just a window. I mean, all the media that we watch -- television, cinema -- they're these windows into  these other worlds. And I thought, well, great.  I got you in a frame. But I don't want you in the frame, I don't want you in the window, I want you through the window, I want you on the other side, in the world, inhabiting the world.