When Jeremiah McDonald was 12, he wanted to talk to himself in the future.
Flash forward 20 years to 2012 and Mr. McDonald has managed to reconnect with his precocious apple-cheeked self.
Through clever editing, the 32-year-old filmmaker has taken bits of a VHS video from 1992 and filled in the gaps with deadpan humour to create a lighthearted conversation.
Since going up on YouTube yesterday, the video is fast approaching 800,000 views.
Just shy of four minutes long, the conceit is part time capsule, part riff on the classic talk show question, "If you could give your teenage self one piece of advice …"
Most likely, Mr. McDonald was probably limited by 12-year-old Jeremiah's original content, so the film mostly ends up being about the family pets (all dead, RIP), Star Wars and various sound effects.
Mr. McDonald briefly explains the Internet to young Jeremiah as something that's going to "completely take over your life."
Jeremiah likes the idea of knowing about his own future. That future, at least if the video's backdrop is accurate, includes half-consumed whisky bottles, a framed print of a Vincent van Gogh self-portrait and, most ironically, an old school record player.
While some have questioned whether the Portland, Me.-based filmmaker recruited a child actor, Mr. McDonald is quoted on the Daily Mail website, confirming that the boy in the Boston Bruins sweatshirt is, indeed, him.
The About Me section of Mr. McDonald's website reveals that he also an actor and associated artist with the Comédie de Caen theatre in Normandy.
The uneven shelf of bangs is gone and facial hair has appeared but, clearly, Mr. McDonald has not outgrown his love of hamming it up. Ditto the Dr. Who memorabilia.
What would you say to your 12-year-old self?
Amy Verner