Subsynchronous Whirl

Electroheadfilms.com, 2004
DVD-r with menus and extras, length : 15.32 minutes.

The movie :
This short movie is primarly made by 'Lolo' Laurent Marques (various visual designs), Daniel Hartlehnert (3D graphics/animation), Patrick Malinguaggi (music & sound design) and David Della Rocca (3D graphics/animation).
The visuals have this 'old movie' style, there's some noise here and there, the lightning is not constant and has high constrast, sometimes i even had the impression the movement is somewhat jerky, as if the filmcamera is old and not working as it should. It's probably an effect that's been added afterwards since some of the 3D animations have the same effect. This style sure fits in the atmosphere, reminds me of old silent horror movies. The effect is somewhat similar to the video with the horses and chair, seen in 'The Ring'.
The most important thing in the movie is not some famous actor, but the combination of visuals and sound design, and here lies the strength of this movie. The visuals consist of a series of abstract shots, often fading into each other, creating a very smooth and calming, yet mysterious, dark and sometimes treathening atmosphere. Several elements return a few times, like the elevator, reversed or slowed/speed up seas, waves and clouds.
There are only a few sounds in the movie and when they're used, there's mostly a number of sound effects applied to them, so they basically become a part of the sound design, for instance the sound of waves of the sea that slowly emerges from the sound design and fades back into it, almost unrecognizable, but in combination with the visuals it works very well. This trick is used several throughout the film and the entire sound design track is amazing, amplifying the shift from reality to dreamworlds. It's dark and droning, but not 'pure' sound design all the time and sometimes contains some distant 'musical' elements. The entire sound design track has a dark ambient feel to it, some elements remind me of dark ambient projects like 'Raison d'etre'.
Twice in the movie there's 'real' music, the first time, at about 6 minutes, it creates a very different atmosphere. A rather simple and clear tune, played on somekind of electric piano emerges and results in a very emotional change for about 30 seconds, and then fades back into the layers of heavy drones. The visuals during this short piece are edited along the rhythm of the piano and consist out of a series of stills, at the rate of one still per note, with a short fade to black before the next one is shown. At this point in the movie it seems to me that this represents somekind of window looking out on reality from the dreamworld, probably some memories of the main character. As soon as the piano fades into the sound design and the more realistic images become abstract again, we're back in the dream/coma world. The same tune is used at the very end of the movie as we fly away from planet Mars. A similar event occurs 6 minutes later, again we have more realistic visuals, but this time they're deformed and the music here is somewhat metal-like. Same feeling as earlier, but with a dark underlying feel...

The story :
The movie starts in an emergency room, seen from the point of view of the person lying on the surgery table, who's been put on a mask and falls asleep. Then i'm taken to the surface of Mars and fly into a deep canyon. From there on, the abstract visuals and the sound design start. There's no 'real' story here, the viewer receives all freedom te create his own meanings, sometimes the audio-visual combination gives some hints, but for the most part you're on your own. This doesn't mean the creators didn't add a story to it, there is one, and a short synopsis on the DVD will clarify the actual story. The fact that the story is not upfront allows you to enjoy only the audiovisual combination in itself.
There are two ways to experience this piece of art, either you actively try to create meanings from what you see and with each time you see the movie, you try to add more details to your story or you simply let the visuals and sounds wash over you and enjoy it as the pure abstract piece of art it is...Either way it's very addictive and soon you'll understand the genious of this short movie...

Wide awake right now...when i should be, need to be...unconscious. (c) Toby Thain - 21 Feb 2000, 3.25am

The extras :
Since it's on a DVD i kind of expected that they included some extra stuff. The menus all have the same theme : the elevator from the movie takes you to the different sections, accompanied by similar sounds as during the movie. Next to the movie itself there's a biography section with some info and extra artwork (stills and 3D) of the 4 people mentioned above as wel as several short audiovisual samples.
Extracts from tracks by 'The Ethereal' were used during the synopsis and during a short piece called 'Poetry of the Sea' which also displays some extracts of lyrics by 'Shape Of Despair'. On top of that there's even an almost 9 minute long music clip in the same style as the main movie, with 'From Funeral Skies' by 'The Ethereal' as music track.

written 13/11/2004 by S.V.C.

Web site : electroheadfilms.com