DIS \ CONNECT

An internal conflict, a subject that deals with (un)happiness in the social media/technological age and a stylized aesthetic featuring wooden puppets compose this short by London-based artist Doug Hindson, who produced it as his graduation film at Kingston University.

Voice-over narration drives the story forward, expressing the character’s conflict through a continuous internal monologue. It also provides the emotional content for the film, through which the visuals are read. A sparse, urban staging is used up to the end of the film, in which the main character leaves for nature.

A lot of work has been dedicated to staging, framing, composition and lighting. The puppets’ gestures help transmit the patterned and superficial behavior the characters display when they’re “connected”. The aesthetic functions in an especially interesting way, due to how it contrasts with the topic covered by the film. The stylized semi-abstraction of the characters and props serves the narrative really well, as it helps perceive the various situations more clearly, re-contextualizing the digital world, as is the case of the shots showing the puppets’ hands moving continuously over the wooden mobile devices.