FADE IN:

1. THE CITY OF EAST HELSINKI - LATE WINTER - 2019

The City glimmers under us in its blue nightlight.

Here and there we can see big advertisement boards, which are as tall as the houses beside them. They promote different products, but we notice that there are a lot of them..

The ApartmentBlockHouse nr. 334 sleeps soundly, except for the apartment on the top floor.

2. THE CORRIDOR ON TOP FLOOR

In the dirty and worn-out corridor of the top floor sounds muzak that oozes through the apartment door. On the door theres an animation-ad that messages:

3. THE APARTMENT OF ERNO FRIIKUS

is a messy bachelors apartment. The furniture is kinda old, but they have intelligent features added to them, which the colorful lights suggest.

There is a faint newscast that we can hear:

Erno, a little over 30, enters his living room from the kitchen, where he was doing something. Erno, who is skinny and absentminded-looking, watches the walls, as if he was anticipating something bad to happen. Around his neck he has virtualglasses of some sort and a headset for audio.

The snow crash on the walls changes into Mindsaver logo. That is replaced in turn with a northern landscape, which conveys the feeling of intense arctic coldness.

Erno grins and returns to the kitchen.

4. ERNO'S KITCHEN

The windows are covered, but between a crack in the drapes a light penetrates. Just like a searchlight. The light hits the backwall and draws some letters on it:

Erno attaches the heavy and clumsy virtualgoggles over his eyes and picks up the lightpen from the table. He works in deep concentration and with great care on the virtual surface of the hand. When Erno and Shirley speak, we can sense the emotion they have towards each other.

And then there is the loud noise, from over the next door muzak-maker, full force. Erno removes the goggles and raises from his chair to bang the wall in order to stop the loud music.

The noise doesn't stop, but the tune changes.

5. THE LIVING ROOM OF ERNO

Erno enters the living room, but hesitates to go to the corridor.

Behind Erno's back the Mindsaver screen changes into a virtual woman, and she is angry.

The Woman looks Erno into the eyes, angry as hell.

The muzak dims out, bit by bit, as if the machine playing was faulty-

Erno returns to the doorway by the kitchen, but hesitates to approach the table, on which the black box lies.

There appears a red light on the side of the black box: Sleep. The humming from the box dims out.

Erno looks very lonely, standing by the door. The searchlight through the window draws words accross Ernos chest:

6. ON THE CITY STREET

Erno is dressed into his cover clothing that has his id on it. It is a luminous barcode.

The concrete roads and walls are full of dark shadows and all the visible parts are covered by ads.

Behind him, in the dark, something neoncolored flashes by.

Erno stops to look over his shoulder, towards his windows upstairs. He hears noises all around him, like a bunch of kids playing hide and seek with him.

All of a sudden, there is a car coming fast towards him. It stops just a few feet from him. The windshield has words on it:

Behind Erno's back something approaches. It is a big shape, and it illuminates his backside. Erno turns towards it and is totally hypnotized by it. We can not hear what it tells him. All we see is the letters on the shape:

7. THE STORE - LATER

Erno stands alone in the store. There are no shelves, but there is a complex panelsystem that gives you choices on merchandise to buy. The walls are covered with Mindsavers.

Erno pushes the button, and an arrow lights up, which instructs the direction to take. Erno follows the arrow.

The teller, where you pay, is a box that is covered. We cannot see the person inside.

Erno's product comes to the teller. He has his paycard in his hand. A womans hand comes through the hatch by the box. It reaches towards Erno.

Erno looks at the hand like hypnotized.

The hand waits for Erno to give the card.

Erno's hand lowers onto the womans hand-

All of a sudden, breaking the sensuous moment, there materializes an ad of the store, floating in the air between them and announcing:

The hatch of the box closes shut. The womans hand has disappeared, same as the advertisement.

Erno watches the box for a second, but the glass is inpenetrable to human vision.

8. THE APARTMENT OF ERNO - LATER

Erno sits again at the kitchen table and works on the virtual hand. The humming of the black box is audible in the otherwise silent room.

Behind Erno there is the parcel he brought from the shop. The cabinet above it is filled with the same product: Foam bath ingredient.

9. OUTSIDE OF THE BUILDING

runs a few ads, stalking the first victim of the morning.

The City awakens.

FADE OUT.