Copy Shop

Peculiar irregularities such as dog ears on the edges of images and streaks arouse the suspicion that the content of Virgil Widrich’s Copy Shop is not quite able to master the form. Misleading conventions dominate at first: A man, Alfred Kager, wakes up, arranges his hair and goes out into the street on his normal way to work. After he arrives, he xeroxes his hand (and his identity) and the world goes to pieces.
The man continues to make copies of the film frames—first one Doppelgänger appears, and then an infinite number are produced. The first few scenes are sufficient for Widrich to show his hero’s growing confusion, and to gradually deepen the bewilderment felt by his audience. By skillfully altering certain shots—such as when an objective shot suddenly moves into a subjective point-of-view—and driving a fable into a state of paranoia, he blurs conventional narrative techniques and modes of identification.
Grainy black-and-white images and the soundtrack, which comprises solely music and sound effects, give Copy Shop a grotesque flavor, something of a pastiche of a Kafkaesque scenario in which the disappearance of all originality thanks to the various media is announced with a hint of irony. The film reflects this from the other direction by starting with the production process: Originally shot on videotape, the images were printed out on a computer and then shot again with an animation camera. (Dominik Kamalzadeh)


--> www.widrichfilm.com/copyshop

Orig. Title
Copy Shop
Year
2001
Country
Austria
Duration
12 min
Director
Virgil Widrich
Category
Fiction
Orig. Language
No Dialogue
Downloads
Copy Shop (Image)
Copy Shop (Image)
Copy Shop (Image)
Credits
Director
Virgil Widrich
Script
Virgil Widrich
Cinematography
Martin Putz
Music
Alexander Zlamal
Sound
Alexander Zlamal
Editing
Virgil Widrich
Compositing
Marku Gasser, Ronald Anzenberger, Regine Müller
Actor/Actress
Elisabeth Ebner-Haid, Johannes Silberschneider
Art Direction
Joachim Luetke
Production
Virgil Widrich
Production Manager
Gabriele Kranzelbinder
Available Formats
35 mm (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
1:1,66
Sound Format
Dolby stereo
Frame Rate
24 fps
Color Format
b/w
DCP 2K flat (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
1:1,66
Sound Format
5.1 surround
Color Format
b/w
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)
Festivals (Selection)
2001
Nantucket - Film Festival
Clermont-Ferrand - Festival de Court Metrage (Best Sound&Musik)
Hong Kong - Int. Film Festival
Graz - Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen Films
Singapore International Film Festival
San Diego Int. Film Festival
Washington DC - Int. Film Festival
Montecatini Terme - Mostra Int. FILMVIDEO
Krakau - Int. Short Film Festival
Ludwigsburg - Filmfest
Melbourne - Int. Film Festival
Hamburg - Int. Kurzfilm-Festival & No Budget
Bamberg - Kurzfilmtage
Teplice - Int. Art Film Festival Trencianske
Karlovy Vary - Int. Film Festival
Vila do Conde - Festival Internacional de Curtas-Metragens
St.Petersburg - Message of Man Festival
Berlin - Interfilm-Festival
Rotterdam - Int. Filmfestival
Aukland - New Zealand Int. Film Festival
Genf - Cinéma Tout Ecran - Rencontres Int. du Film
Strasbourg - Forum du Cinema Européen
Sao Paulo - Short Film Festival
Lleida - CINEMAGIC - Festival Int. d'Animacio
Leeds - Int. FilmFestival
Uppsala - Int. Short Film Festival
Toronto - Worldwide Short Film Festival
Madrid - Semana de Cine Experimental
Brest - Festival du Film Court
Cork - Int. Film Festival
Umea - Film Festival
Barcelona - L’ALTERNATIVA - II Mostra Internacional de Cinema Alternatiu
Winterthur - Kurzfilmtage
Chicago Underground Film Festival
Leipzig - Dok Leipzig - Int. Festival für Dok.- u. Animationsfilm
Ankara - Festival of European Film / Festival on Wheels
Montréal - Festival International du Nouveau Film et de la Video
Augsburg - Kurzfilmwochenende
Luzern - VIPER - Int. Film und Video Festival
Olympia - Film Festival
New York - Expo of Short Film & Video
Amiens - Festival Int. du Film
New York Shorts International Film Festival
Philadelphia - Festival of World Cinema
Cannes - Festival de Cannes
2002
Tampere - Film Festival
Bruxelles - Festival du Film Fantastique, de Science-Fiction et Triller
Würzburg - Int. Filmwochenende
Osnabrück - EMAF - European Media Art Festival
New Jersey - Black Maria Festival
Hiroshima - Int. Animation Festival
Athens - Film Festival
Kassel - Dokumentarfilm- & Videofest
San Francisco - Golden Gate Award Int. Film Festival
Washington DC - Int. Film Festival
Los Angeles - LA Freewaves
Triest - Alpe Adria Cinema - Film Festival
Stuttgart - Filmwinter, Expanded Media Festival
Manchester Int. Short Film & Video Festival
Istanbul - Int. Short Film Festival
Wunsiedel - Grenzland Filmtage
Toronto - IMAGES - Independent Film & Video Festival
Dresden - Filmfest
Belo Horizonte - Festival Int. de Cortas Metragens
Odense - Int. Film Festival
Warsaw - European Avantgarde-Filmfestival
2003
Wiesbaden - exground on screen
Rotterdam - Int. Filmfestival
Bruxelles - Festival du Film Fantastique, de Science-Fiction et Triller
Sao Paulo - Short Film Festival
Warsaw - European Avantgarde-Filmfestival
Dresden - Filmfest
Ann Arbor - Film Festival