WATCH: Bruce Branit's "World Builder" Remains One of the Best Depictions of Why the Metaverse Matters

Here's a Friday flashback to watch today or over the weekend: Bruce Branit's moving short film "World Builder" from 2009. I wrote about it back then for NewTeeVee/New York Times after metaverse art maven Bettina Tizzy sent it my way, saying "This is what Second Life should be like (and sometimes is)."

It definitely remains among the very best depictions of why the Metaverse matters — dynamically creating powerful immersive experiences we can share with each other. I sorely wish media articles about the topic used visuals like this, rather than yet another picture of people in VR headsets.

While he created "World Builder" while still an amateur filmmaker, Bruce Branit has since become an Emmy-nominated effects developer who's worked on acclaimed shows like Breaking Bad and Westworld.

As for the Metaverse/virtual worlds, his original inspiration for the short was more direct:

"I had heard long ago about a concept where workers or builders physically worked to build our world and our reality in the moments before we experience it," Branit told me back in 2009. "I always loved that concept with hard hats and equipment and painters working against the clock just to get our reality ready. But one day it occurred to me that our new digital tools would be a much better representation of this."

As for people comparing it to Second Life: "It's funny," he told me. "I have seen that too and gotten a lot of comments and questions, particularly from the Second Life community. I have never used or looked into Second Life, myself. I think I'll have to check it out now as there seems to be some intuitive connection."

Then again, the HBO show he later worked on, Westworld, has also been compared to Second Life.