Materials

2040 - Don't expect relaxing entertainment...

2040 is a look at the year 2040 and how our lives may change. The movie focuses on crime, education, business trends and the importance of creativity in the workplace. It is directed, written and produced by Edward de Bono.

2040 is absolutely unlike any other movie that anyone has seen. 2040 does not rely on plot or character - it has no plot or character. The only star is Edward de Bono himself - his face is not seen. The camera is fixed on a sheet of paper as Edward de Bono draws figures with coloured felt pens while describing the future. He envisages public executions staged for Saturday morning TV, a viewer tax on TV violence, mutual obsession induced by the synthesised 'vole factor', multiple parallel lives instead of one integrated one and "you masks" instead of deep soul-searching.

The 90 minute film was shot in a single morning at the Nordisk Studio in Copenhagen.

Just as Edward de Bono de-mystified creativity by showing it to be the behaviour of self-organising pattern making systems, so he is now exploring the field of 'interest'. Of the 25 types of 'interest' most films use the same three or four modes. This film uses a rare, but very powerful form of interest, which carries the brain with it moment by moment instead of relying on the general frame of plot and character. It uses a type of interest that depends upon the way brain patterns are necklaced moment to moment in compulsive attention.

Acting out a concept in a film is so slow that usually no more than four or five concepts can be covered - in 2040 35 concepts are covered - concepts that are likely to happen in the next 45 years.

Edward de Bono's dialog is the melody, the underscore is the accompaniment.

The Music

Ron Jones, composer and conductor of Star Trek: The Next Generation, wrote the music for 2040. The new type of underscore provided by Jones is aptly described as parallel music. The music was specificalluy composed to help the audience take in the volume of information and concepts put forth by Edward de Bono.

Ron Jones writes: "I had been reading Edward de Bono's books on lateral thinking as a hobby, to increase my ability to understand what's going on here in Holliwood...through a friend I was invited to have lunch with Edward de Bono...That's how we got to know each other. I am very much into creative processes and use a lot of the techniques he's put out...When I was asked to look at the project by the producers they asked me to watch it from start to finish without stopping...What I saw was the power of his ideas, his thinking in raw form...2040 strips everything down to the power of ideas, imagination and possibilities...if I were to compose a film score for this unique film how could I support the film without distracting from the power of de Bono's ideas. I had to design a new type of underscore. This new form I will call Parallel Music...Normally a composer starts with a blank score pad and composes notes which will end up as melody, harmony, rhythm and orchestration. Instead I started from a full composition which played the scene and then decomposed or erased elements. Then I found the areas I wanted to hit and plugged the music elements in to the picture in real time. Another task the music had to do was to help the audience take in the volumes of information and concepts which are presented and help to facilitate learning. I employed music techniques developed by famed superlearning expert Dr Georgi Lozanov....Melody is not important, de Bono's dialogue is the melody the underscore is the accompaniment".

Of the film he advises, "Your brain is going to be squirming like a little frog...it is like world chess time..You have to let go.."

The film is available as a video or as a 35mm film. It is promoted by the McAllistter Group.

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