Review: Testfilm #1 (2020)


Experimental Films, FEKK (Ljubljana Short Film festival), Festivals, Shorts / , /0 Comments

courtesy of FEKK

As we are informed in opening title cards, Testfilm is a series of projects and experimental films by the collective Telcosystems in which people involved want to examine the technological development and its implications for the artistic cinema. The intended first installment of the project premiered at Rotterdam earlier this year and has just won the Grand Prix in the ex-YU regional competition at FEKK.

Although it is called #1, three of the installments (#2, #3 and #4) were completed and released before. The reason for that is that #1 was the most ambitious project of the series aimed at examining the artistic manipulation possibilities of the DCP format. Newsflash: there are none, the whole system is completely binary (either something works or it does not) and closed-off in a way that it shuts down if something is perceived as wrong and not according to the given parameters.

Testfilm #1 is an attempt at documenting the project and its related testings that people from Telcosystems undertook. The footage of the space the experiment takes place in is alternated with the footage of the DCP player, its monitor, and the abstract material the collective wanted to use to test the machine with, while the whole sound scheme consists of noise. There are no dialogues, so the viewer is informed about the process via the subtitles.

courtesy of Bonobo Studios

Year: 2020
Runtime: 14’ 20’’
Countries: Croatia, The Netherlands
Language: No dialogue, title cards and subtitles in English
Image: Telcosystems
Sound: Telcosystems
Text: Telcosystems, Mirna Belina
DCP advisor: Miodrag Gladović
DCP mastering: Mario Kalogjera
Sound mastering: Bojan Kondres
Produced by: Vanja Andrijević
Production companies: Bonobo Studio, Spatial Media Laboratories
Supported by: Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), Creative Industries Fund NL