CINEOSIS LAB · THE LAB · THE RECURRING CAST · A DESK AFTER ADAM CURTIS'S METHOD

THE TALK-BACK DESK

A voiceover carries an argument across footage that belongs to other stories. Here the footage gets to argue back. Every line of narration is answered four ways, and what comes back can change the line, the order, how long a shot runs, or who the film follows. The narration is a draft.

MATCHThe picture nearest the words. What every lab film does now: illustration.

TURNAn archival voice on the same subject that doubts, refuses or asks, heard in its own picture and sound.

LONGThe matched footage left running into the clips that follow it in its own film, past the useful moment.

ELSEWHEREThe nearest picture among the image types the lab's films leave out, from clips no film has used.

WHAT THE ARCHIVE CHANGED

The method follows how Adam Curtis has described his own work: research changes the premise, unedited footage changes the duration, the material can change the form. This desk is not affiliated with him, and its four narrators (one for each move) are synthetic Kokoro voices, not imitations of anyone. For a film built up from the footage instead, use Rushes. Built by lab/curtis/build.py: pictures searched by CLIP over 15,149 archive clips, voices from 12,000 whole sentences archival people said, image types and use counts from the Recurring Cast. Lines you rewrite are asked again in your browser (the reader is a one-time 62 MB download).