INTEGRATED MEDIA, FILM ESSAY –‘Best Spent’ 2010

Ellen Rule (s3433590) tutor: SETH KEEN

“This project relies on an extensive series of quotes to contextualise the videos,” begins the description for 2010 sketch film ‘Best Spent,’ which details the routines,  tasks and interactions which guide a collection of individuals through their daily lives. While the quotes, which appear periodically below the film’s Snus have clearly been compiled with much consideration for both diversity and meaning (including everyone from Ghandi to Fatboy Slim), they quickly become superfluous, the candid rhythms of the day speaking in their own endearing poetry.

Due to the nature of the Korsakow platform which the film employs, Bogost’s suggestion that “Lists, divide or leave divided the things they include … offer(ing) only the relationship of accumulation” (Bogost, 40, 2012) becomes particularly pertinent. What is depicted in the film is effectively an unrelated ‘list’ of actions, the viewer may only deduct meaning from this list as the number of reference points they are given accumulates, assuming connections based solely on the fact that each has been grouped with the others. When considering this,  if viewed without prompting, any of the film’s Snus could be grouped or rationalised into a vast array of categories. As such, the film’s success in communicating  message or ‘content,’ comes in some large part from a complex understanding and application of notions of ‘pattern’ and ‘interface.’

By the very nature of the film and its medium, no obvious pattern is initially apparent in the piece without consideration for the explanation provided by its creators.  Rather, the viewer might note reoccurring characters, styles and aesthetics being provided by various group members. While one displays a preference for shooting objects and scenes (pots boiling on a stove,  washing machines) another prefers to record her housemates and friends (charades).  As the characteristics of each group member’s style becomes increasingly evident, each example of this interacts with and may be differentiated from clips provided by other members, providing in itself a pattern of sorts.

‘charades’

‘washing machine’

Further viewing displays more notable patterns, for example, each group member appears to have recorded one or more clip based on various shared routines (‘Every day: brush teeth,’ pictured). This could be considered a device employed to highlight fundamental parallels existing in lifestyle and mindset, not only between group members, but within a wider society or humanity.

“Every day: brush teeth”

As Bogost suggests, “Lists disrupt being, spilling a heap of unwelcome and incoherent crap at the foot of the reader. In doing so a tiny part of the expanding universe is revealed through cataloging” (Bogost 41, 2012), that is to say, that while what is displayed in the film could be seen to have been selected on an arbitrary basis, there is no denying it proves fundamentally, albeit benignly relatable to a vast group of people, prompting the viewer to consider further patterns or points of connection.

Notions of ‘pattern’ within the piece rely intrinsically on the construction of an ‘interface,’ both as it appears physically in the aesthetic of the film, and in its metaphysical construction–the webs of unseen connections which are drawn in order to create a sense of transition or indeed progression within the piece. While the film sports a relatively linear format: a grid of up to nine thumbnails alongside a larger window in which Snus are played, it affords the viewer a diverse array of options beyond the capacity of many of its counterparts. This stems in some respects from the sheer number of clips available to the viewer at any given time, but could more interestingly be attributed to the complex transitions which have been encoded into the piece. While some Snus might retrieve a full grid of related results, others deliver a smaller set, added to this, certain Snus appear on higher rotation than others, being linked using multiple or more common keywords. This forms the primary basis of the film’s construction, allowing it to branch out into increasingly complex avenues. For example, keyword links attached to certain Snus are programed so as to shift over time, previously viewed selections link to entirely different clouds when revisited (this proved particularly frustrating when trying to screenshot example clips!).

Decisions made in the construction of the piece’s interface further infuse it with a sense of pattern and intent. A pair of clips, more conceptual in nature, appear within every grid combination (pictured), these highlight the purpose of their more mundane counterparts, elevating their creative value and reminding the viewer that the Snus presented have indeed been selected, not randomly, but with the intention of proving a point or creating an aesthetic. Similarly, in allowing thumbnails to run parallel to each other in the grid format, the film’s creators reenforce a number of the thematic concepts around which the piece revolves, each thumbnail might be viewed in a manner similar to a montage, highlighting in one stroke differences and similarities in time, space and lifestyle.

“Basic Interface”

more conceptual SNUs

When considering the overall ‘content’ of the piece, one might take into account not only the effective combination of ‘pattern’ and ‘interface,’ but the extent to which these have created a working sense of narrative. Judging by the criteria Ryan provides for classifying this, one might fairly say they have not. The film fails to instill any sense of ‘closure’ or ‘causality,’ no ‘significant transformations’ are undergone by the film’s subjects (one might not even call them ‘characters’), nor is any greatly ‘meaningful’ information communicated to the recipient (Ryan, 2006). Rather, the routines depicted could be seen to span on and on, developing only with the subtle motion of time: from morning to evening, day to day, childhood to adulthood.

While Ryan stresses that the lack of certain narrative factors in a piece does not automatically negate its narrative status, its this which forms the very basis or ‘macrostructure’ of Best Spent. One might go so far as to say that the forces of narrative and realism were directly opposed within the piece, any effort to instill a sense of the former proves to degrade the latter and vice versa. This is evident when considering the editing of certain Snus. While doing so might add a certain sense of purpose or self-contained narrative complexity, it destroys the almost voyeuristic experience which is otherwise instilled by the nature of the clips and activities depicted.

Perhaps Best Spent might be most appreciated where its pattern and interface contribute to a soothing cacophony of mundanity, highlighting parallels of human relationships and dynamics rather than exposing fundamental truths or dramatic transformations. This is the primary advantage of the non-linear medium, while its counterparts rely on the heavy delivery of connections and conclusions, work in such a field may be subtly infused with these, unfolding so as to allow audiences to chance upon them of their own accord.

Word Count: 1,130

REFERENCES:

• Bogost, Ian. Alien Phenomenology, or What It’s Like to Be a Thing. Minneapolis: University Press of Minnesota, 2012. Print

• Ryan, Marie-Laure. Avatars of Story. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006