Film – disConnect
Director – PETER CM CHIN
This film is truly relevant in today’s times and a great watch. While social media is filled with influencers, we have time and again witnessed how influencers come and go! However, the audience doesn’t really know what influencers need to go through on a daily basis. The process of constantly gaining followers and maintaining their fanbase is what really causes them to stress. They need the followers to connect with brands as that’s from where the income comes in. This movie is a short film and the actor enacts the stress-distress and how the situation is actually grim behind the camera.
The sad reality is that the influencers lead a pretty unhappy life and that’s what the director Peter has brought in front of us. Joe is a fitness influencer and although his body is fit and he claims to be freaky about his fitness, reality is far from the truth. Not only does he lie in front of the camera, but he is actually stressed out and trying to make ends meet – quite literally.
Influencers lead a life where they are more bothered about their number of followers, likes and how many reels have gone viral. That’s the real truth of their lives and Joe portrays the character too well. He is shown to lead the real life of an influencer, as his morning starts with the home and he is actually hooked to the device that gets him the money, popularity and everything. However, this dependency on the unreal world of social media has made Joe a cranky, hyper and mentally unhappy individual who spends days thinking about his crypto loan and how he can get more and more followers back onto his page.
The dialogue delivery is superb as he uses every word with emotion and his eyes and speech project how he feels from the heart. The director uses a lot of techniques to portray Joe’s emotions. For example when he is delivering his speech,. He uses his breath to portray how dissatisfied and stressed he is about the situation and the ongoing circumstances. The director does his job well by focusing on the pace of the character, and also ensuring that the audio and camera work isn’t compromised at any cost. The digital world is a malicious and manipulative environment and the primary focus is entertainment as Joe is failing at that, it leaves him frustrated and penniless.
The director is good at understanding the situation of Joe, the influencer and the dilemma he is in. The director very beautifully portrays how Joe feels and uses every aspect to give the situation a realistic touch. Peter is not only the director, but also the writer and producer of this remarkable short film that is very much relevant in today’s world. The digital space is a dicey one and anyone can win or lose by just gaining or losing a certain percentage of followers. To increase his brand value, Joe had brought fake followers, using crypto, which again backfired and from having 30,000 followers he came down to 5,000 – thereby losing brands and not being in the top league anymore.
Although the story of Joe is truly a remarkable movie and is worth your time, the sad reality portrayed by the director can’t be ignored. While most of us are unaware of what’s going on behind the camera, Joe’s character very beautifully shows the actual truth that cannot be ignored.
This short film is a masterpiece made by Peter and is worth the time especially if you love social media and love what influencers do. Their lives are not as good or as smooth as depicted and this movie shows what’s real, what’s true!
