Four of the series in Russia was created and released during the isolation: experimental format screenlit was salvation for the Russian cinema during the quarantine. How will this affect the development of the film industry in the future?Maria Lesheva the Number of films shot on a smartphone today, it is impossible to calculate, but at first it was perceived only as a “tool” for young filmmakers who have no money for a full shoot, or just as a fashion toy. However, soon the venerable and Directors began to abandon the cumbersome equipment and go to mobile format. The Oscar-winning Steven Soderbergh shot the horror “out of it” (2018) and “flying high” (2019) on the iPhone, and then 80-year-old Claude Lelouch, the author of the iconic “Man and woman”, created the film “the Best years of life” (2019) with the help of mobile technology. Screenlit format (a movie, all the action takes place on a computer screen) is like the second stage of synthesis of film and digital technologies. Again, it is not known who in the history of cinema first made a video in screenlit format. However, the first who reacted to the format seriously and brought it to the big screen, became a Russian producer Timur Bekmambetov. Produced them screenlit horror “Remove from friends” (directed by Leo Gabriadze) released worldwide in 2015 and brought to the creators of 62 million dollars in spent million. Throughout the film there is an image of a Skype conference a few friends and a mysterious killer sets tricky questions and killing interlocutors online. And although after the first successful experiment Bekmambetov released several screenlit films, new cinematic language until recently, again, she didn’t take it seriously, but only as a fun experiment with the form. Everything changed when came the quarantine.Isolation, as we now all know, was hit hard by the entertainment industry: during the quarantine, theatres and cinemas in all the countries closed the first. Shooting new projects, rehearsals stopped, the output of the announced films and performances have suffered at least a year. Caught locked up Directors and actors were forced to think about how to make a movie without a professional crew, camera operators and cameras. And then the invention Bekmambetov was the main help, completely the relevant tasks of filmmaking during the quarantine….In April 2020, on the second month of isolation, several Russian Internet platforms, competing with each other, has released their own screenlife series. A completely new form of presentation of video content, as it turned out, perceived by the audience without the slightest tension; it is perhaps even more familiar to the eye of the modern consumer and does not require d��additional explanation. Because it is such a picture — a virtual conference, many of the working remotely and see today from morning to evening on their mobile and computer screens.In that moment, when the next series of screenlife series aired, the actors and the Director has removed the following: in the online reality, the dynamism, relevance and speed of production is more important than strategic planning and financial risks. For example, four of the premiere Russian TV series, filmed in the trendy format, consider how this model works.”Bezumie”Digital platform “IMDb” directed by Alexander Molochnikov. Starring: Kristina Asmus, Igor Vernik, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Maxim Matveev, Aleksandr Molochnikov, Evgeniy Stychkin, Aglaia Tarasovskaia Comedy, brutally ridiculing theater — contemporary and classic, caste and painful narcissism of the actor’s environment. Bored quarantined “the great actor Stychkin” (according to his own definition) calls the messenger “young and arrogant” Director Milkmen (all the characters speak under their own names) and offers a major role in the best provocative performance. Already confirmed their participation colleagues — as the mastodons, and the young and popular artists. Online rehearsal takes place this crazy cast of “Santa Barbara”, where the Bohemians want each other to either unseat or to seduce. What would you prefer Stychkin: to participate in the “bezumie” or to withdraw from the project, giving the main role to a rival and thus “remained without attention of 4 million subscribers, Kristina Asmus”? On-screen and real Director of the show Alexander Molochnikov already experimented with mobile formats before — his short film “Escape to Arizona” with Svetlana Khodchenkova in the main role filmed in the genre of documentary road movie on a smartphone camera. And in the banter of the “stars” the Director is trained in the feature Comedy “Myths”.”All together”Okko. Director Viktoriya Kravchenko. Starring: Ilya Pale, Daniel Vakhrushev, Rina Grishina, Yulia Topol’nitskiy, Igor Chekhov, Daniel Josette: Wild Digital / OKKO StudiosСоздатели series Victoria and Victor Kravchenko, a few years ago came up with their Studio producing TV series “Wild Digital”. Have seen their projects “Digital Doctor” — 8-minute Comedy fiction series about the life of a cyber-doctor (Danila Yakushev), saving people from the aggressive attack of computer reality; and “Rashn Hackers life” — parody series about how Russian hackers Fyodor, Boris and the mods are going to crack the world in the name of digital freedom. Not yet spoiled by the production of the classic movie, Victoria and Victor Kravchenko in the most natural way picked screenlit-format by adding in a series of young comedians IgorI Chekhov and Topol’nitskiy Julius and friends-actors. They take a very simple Comedy with a predictable scenario and solutions are not always good jokes, but so realistic that sometimes you feel uncomfortable because of too deep “embedding in the lives of others”, and in other people’s smartphones and folders on the desktop.”#Seadome”TNT, Premier. Director Olga Frenkel. Starring: Alexander Robak, Yulia Aleksandrova, Olesya Zheleznjak, Anna Kotova-Deryabina, Gosha Kutsenko, Anna Mikhalkov, Boris Dergacheva: 1-2-3 Production”We were supposed to start filming the big drama series with Gosha Kutsenko in a leading role, the Director says Olga Frenkel.— And now, poised to take off in a big way, “expensive and rich”, we sat at home for an indefinite period. At times it seemed that this could be the end of our profession. To disperse the anxious and depressive thoughts, we Ghosh decided to shoot something for myself “for fun”. And then spread, relatively, somewhere in Instagram. And then the most extraordinary thing happened — the producers Jack Nikishov and Valera F., which I was embarrassed to even show filmed on a phone, look, it turns out, supported us and gave the nod to the season. Which, of course, at that time, saved us all from depression”….In small Windows Zoom-the conference is a fusion of love and betrayal, adultery and fidelity, it breaks up families and there is increasing hope. For a full reconstruction of the classic Comedy situations is quite enough Internet reality: love e-mail is accidentally sent to the wrong address, causing mad confusion and breaking hearts. Ex-wife (Anna Mikhalkova) shows the same ex-husband (Alexander Robak) quarantine Striptease in a remote format — and at this point they are, of course, caught off guard: to his wife in the room suddenly comes to the son, and to her husband’s window looks new mother-in-law. Characters — employees of the enterprise “Klingon”, which although it is in online mode, but flying at full speed to bankruptcy. Stories of young people — stupid lonely bookkeeper (Olesya Zheleznyak), a sexy Secretary (Anna Kotova-Deryabina), scoring a sysadmin (Boris Dergachev), and others — are unfolding against the background of global collapse of small businesses.”Secure communication”START. Director Konstantin Bogomolov. Starring: Love Aksenov, Leonid Bichevin, Nikita Efremov, Nadezhda Markina, Igor mirkurbanov, Alexander Child, Sergey Sosnovsky, Maria Shumakova contrast to the above video “Secure communication” cannot be considered a pure screenlife, because the characters appear not only in Windows messenger. The viewer occasionally show them from the side — sitting in the room at the computer screens or utknuvshis in cell phones. The genre of the series toodiffers from Comedy screenlit-sketches: Bogomolov creates a psychological drama, the story of four couples whose relationship develops during the period of quarantine. The Director claims that the script creates in the course of filming and he does not know what will come the story in the last episode (may 17).The question suggests itself: will the drama of this new experience, or screenlit only a necessary measure, that is, not from a good life? And then, after quarantine, all will go back to traditional forms? “In the process of our filming, no one from the crew has not left his apartment, but 8 episodes is almost ready! I’ve never met the actors in real life, moreover, we met all online. At first, it seemed unusual — now it’s “new normal”, my mind was definitely changed after this experience”,— says Viktoriya Kravchenko, a co-founder of the Studio “Wild Digital”. “Already in the process of filming, I was surprised to find that you can not fence all the standard road movie-a garden with pavilions, extras, locations, shifts of light,— the Director Olga Frenkel.— Of course, the experience that we had acquired during remote shooting, made me think: is it really necessary for all the essential paraphernalia to which we are accustomed to in the pre-crisis dekorativna and filming process? It is possible to make a movie lying on the couch at home. It turns out that you can not depend on budgets, currency exchange rates and political situation.”According to Timur Bekmambetov’s new format “will undoubtedly become part of cinema”. The Director himself calls screenlit “a hero of our time”, and it’s not in isolation. His new film “the V-2. Escape from hell” (about the Soviet pilot Devyataeva), which is due out this year, Bekmambetov shot, in his words, “vertical frame” — this is a new stage of screenlife, “a kind of Instagram-the cinema.” Most critics noted “the ergonomics and efficiency of the genre” — it is assumed that this will make it used in ordinary life.However, this does not mean that skinlife to supplant the traditional movie, says Director Alexei German Jr., and recalls that at the time “TV also failed to displace the theatre”, though many feared it. The problem is, says Herman, “there is no personal contact on the platform between the Director and the actors” in the movie is impossible to achieve true artistic result. And therefore, screenlife will remain “alternate history.” Well, as they say, after the quarantine view.
