established

Accompanied by atmospheric music, fuzzy dots of light cover the picture, resembling the opening credits of a film which is just starting. But this film-within-a-film – actually a film-within-a-video – remains no more than an announcement, its establishing shot slowly peeling from the background in a long pan past façades of skyscrapers, rows of windows, steel skeletons, familiar structures.

Gradually the dots of light give way to a grid, its increasingly fine lines covering the picture. The levels block each other with their overlapping movements, the spaces encroaching upon one another. This repeats, still to the music´s accompaniment, which begins and then plays the same theme over and over as if in a loop. The music eventually returns to its beginning: Accompanied by a cello pizzicato, images of tall buildings which appear in a staccato rhythm are followed by a final zoom to the edge of a façade, and then it´s over.

The establishing shot – the very first in a film – defines the narrative space and provides us with a look at a new world, like a filmic "ur-scene." established removes the spell from this magic moment, but through its title rather than repetition of the shot. Everything has already been laid out in this world, everything conforms to a predominate order, the reason why established – the film – does not need to begin at all. (Claudia Slanar)

Translation: Steve Wilder

Orig. Title
established
Year
2003
Country
Austria
Duration
4 min
Category
Avantgarde/Arts
Orig. Language
No Dialogue
Downloads
established (Image)
Credits
Director
Thomas Aigelsreiter
Music
Christof Rothaler
Sound
Konsorten TM
Available Formats
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)
Sound Format
stereo
Frame Rate
25 fps
Color Format
colour
Festivals (Selection)
2003
Berlin - Interfilm-Festival
Graz - Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen Films
2004
Zürich - VIDEOEXperimental; Video & Film Festival
Osnabrück - EMAF - European Media Art Festival
Odense - Int. Film Festival
2005
Augsburg - Kurzfilmwochenende
Edinburgh - International Film Festival