What's Inside These Boxes of Dreams?
Published March 19, 2021 · 4:06 · 262,698 views
About This Video
Van Neistat opens four military cases he has been carrying across the country for over a decade, each one holding the physical residue of a different dream.
The cases are military surplus. Van calls them "little houses with good solid roofs" that "tolerate neglect and protect their contents no matter how fragile or how precious." He has schlepped them through multiple moves, multiple lives. What's inside is not organized by function. It is organized by aspiration. One box holds filmmaking gear: obsolete cameras, non-camera camera equipment, reflectors, old tapes, an unopened drone. Another holds tools and hardware for maker and repairman work. A third, the ephemera box, contains what Van describes as "residue of the dreams of old," including a poster for a movie his friends made, a movie he was in, from so long ago he frames it as a future hope: "one day, god willing, he might live in a big enough house to hang this poster."
The fourth case carries the present tense. Van calls it the "dreams pending" box. Inside: toys his son plays with when visiting dad's studio, the waxer Van uses to make his art, and the reward prototypes for The Spirited Man's Kickstarter campaign. The Kickstarter was active when this video posted in March 2021, funding the continuation of the series itself. A box containing the physical components of the dream you are watching him live. The recursion is the point.
What makes the video land is the taxonomy. Past, present, future. Dreams lived, dreams ended, dreams pending. Van does not sentimentalize any of it. The obsolete cameras get the same calm narration as the toys his son plays with. The poster he cannot hang gets the same weight as the Kickstarter prototypes. That evenness is the argument: a dream is not a feeling, it is a collection of objects. You can hold one. You can put it in a case. You can carry it across the country for a decade and open it on camera in four minutes and six seconds.
What Van Uses: Military surplus cases (unbranded, multi-decade service), Canon cameras (obsolete models, unspecified), DJI drone (unopened), waxer for art-making, Kickstarter reward prototypes for The Spirited Man series.
Related: Van Neistat's Tool Kits, The Machine Dream Was Never Real, My Dream Is to Make This Channel Mr. Rogers for Adults
FAQ
What does Van Neistat keep in his military cases? Four categories, each in its own case. Filmmaking gear including old cameras, tapes, and an unopened drone. Tools and hardware for building and repair. An ephemera box with memorabilia from past projects. And a "dreams pending" box with his son's toys, art supplies, and Kickstarter prototypes.
What is Van Neistat's Kickstarter campaign? Van ran a Kickstarter in early 2021 to fund continued production of The Spirited Man series on YouTube. The campaign offered rewards including prototype items Van shows in the video. It was successfully funded by backers and patrons.
Why does Van Neistat use military cases for storage? Van describes them as "little houses with good solid roofs" that protect their contents through neglect, moves, and rough handling. He has carried the same cases for over a decade across multiple relocations, valuing their durability and weather resistance over any organizational system.
Transcript
let's begin now this spirited man has been schlepping
these military cases across the country for over a decade now
they're like little houses with good solid roofs they tolerate neglect and protect their contents
no matter how fragile or how precious what for what's in them
it has recently very recently occurred to this spirited man that in short
these boxes contain little bits of his dreams past present and future
obsolete cameras and non-camera camera equipment reflectors old tapes an unopened drone
little bits of his filmmaking dreams past present and future
this box now essentially empty is for tool and hardware transport tools and hardware to facilitate his
maker and repairman dreams past present and future the ephemera box
dreams already lived little bits of residue of the dreams of
old one day god willing he might live in a big enough house
to hang this poster a poster for a movie his buddies made
a movie he was in actually so long ago alas dreams end and this one why this one is the dreams pending box a box for the little bits of the dreams he's living right now some toys that his little boy plays with
when visiting dad's studio the waxer he uses to make his art
and and the reward prototypes for his kickstarter campaign
up and running for the next couple of weeks his now thanks to many of you successful
kickstarter campaign a kickstarter to raise money so he can continue making this series you're watching right
now a dream he is blessed to live today in real time
the kickstarter campaign is not yet over and more money directly translates
into more episodes as of this posting there's a bunch of
rewards still available this spirited man wishes to thank you for backing the kickstarter to thank you for subscribing to thank
you for watching as they say in norway two's and talk twos and talk for martin tooth and tuck for martin you
Products & Tools Mentioned
- Kickstarter uses