sonotope platform

Norbert Paffenbichler´s “Notes on Film 08: Camera” starts with a view on the bare interior of a hospital room without windows or doors. The only physical protagonist is a male patient trapped in the paradoxical situation after awakening, finding himself followed by the inexorable eye of the surveillance camera: each attempt to avert is sabotaged, triggering slowly but steadily various stages of human aggression and despair. The spiral of paranoia is fed, but also contrasted and ignored by Stefan Németh´s soundtrack, which culminates in a cacophony of processed voices, sounds from the film shooting and pure electronic noise. Several edits have been layered on top of each other, resulting in a stochastic interaction of parallel strands. Interspersed silence questions the function of sound in film, as well as the central issue of the movie questions the convention of the invisible camera. No longer is the audience a passive observer or images simply a result of a neutral device – borders between well accepted standards in narrative film become seriously blurred and thwarted. [sonotope]www.norbertpfaffenbichler.com/