Some have said that the death of cinema came when they started calling cinema, “content.” What Max Z. S. has managed, in a small way, with his short Shutter Star, is the possibility of reversing this thinking by simply transforming content back into cinema by making it more cinematic.
Shutter Star kicks off like some type of TikTok show-off iPhone photography reel, combining stills in the foreground the sparklingly sharp motion footage of idealistic postcard scenery. Mike Tober’s anonymous digital creator is out and about, applying his trade whilst practicing his art, snapping all the glory about him with a tap of thumb on the screen.
“Something in the background of one photo stops him in his tracks.”
Following a balletic collage of pristinely captured moments, our photographer protagonist is chillin’ in the front seat of his car, scrolling through the images collected, quietly critiquing and admiring when something in the background of one photo stops him in his tracks.
Suddenly, the car is moving and we are traveling to the location of the strange siting. There, in a forest setting bathed in dappled autumnal tones, is the source of the strange anomaly in the photographer’s picture. So, he snaps away.
Max. Z. S. has brought in a tight, though fascinatingly epic little film that has an Abrams’ Super 8 vibe to it. Perhaps Shutter Star and its maker are the current equivalents of returning to that once-rollicking Spielbergian fable-like quality. With that in mind, I dug this. It felt like an extremely short episode of Amazing Stories.
"…returning to that once rollicking Spielbergian fable-like quality."
