WLDWLF EXTRA: EDITING SLEIGHT DISTURBANCE in REAL TIME 🕰️
Hello! It’s no secret that some people who have watched my latest short film, SLEIGHT DISTURBANCE, were not quite sure they understood what I was going for. I’m sort of used to that, but I actually realized there’s a way I could demonstrate the timeline of “real events” that occurred to The Runner and clarify what was just a scenario being ran in The Magician’s head.
The first remix is from the runner's perspective, showing the few seconds where he was "slightly disturbed" by the magician before randomly being allowed to continue on his run, (probably wondering “WTF just happened?”, not knowing the horrible fate he narrowly avoided).
The second remix includes a few extra seconds from the magician's perspective, where we understand he's playing the rest of the likely events out in his head and coming to the conclusion that his efforts here WILL BE futile, therefore, he will let this innocent guy go and deal with his own baggage.
Check it out below, see if these experimental versions clear anything up!
Here’s one more in-depth plot/timeline explanation since I kept the video above nice and short:
-Before the film begins, the Magician had been challenged by an “Elder Wizard” to gather 52 human souls in a full deck of cards. Should he complete this, he can join the awesome society of magic users (The Arcanum) who study powers he could only dream of wielding as a lowly street magician.
-What he doesn’t realize initially, is that The Arcanum assigned him this task to essentially keep him busy because they don’t really want him around. Thinking he would never be able to accomplish such a feat, they sent him off to pursue it, laughing behind his back.
-However, The Magician was so desperate to be one of the “cool Wizards” that he tried extremely hard to prove himself worthy. And when the film picks up, he has just one soul left to capture. He chooses his victim, a random jogger in a blue shirt. He forces him to pick the last remaining card in the deck, the Jack of Hearts.
-It’s time to go through with the rest of the ritual, but now that his challenge is almost complete, the impending aftermath starts to feel more real to him. He knows what will happen to the Runner’s innocent soul, as he’s executed this unholy trick 51 times before. (We move forward IN MAGICIAN’S HEAD NOW, where he plays the next steps forward: Fake Death, Runner Goes Home Shaken, Newspaper Article, Card Reveal in Cereal, Paranoia, Slow Transformation into the Card Itself, Identity Fused with Card, Return to the Beach, Soul Captured.)
-At this point, the Magician envisions himself proudly summoning the Elder, turning in the deck of captured souls, and expecting to be let into the club.
-Only, in this vision he realizes that this trial may not have the results he was expecting. It was clear all along that The Arcanum didn’t respect him in the first place, so why would they now? He doesn’t belong with them, he deserves authentic people who will commend him for his ambition, his perseverance, his talents, etc.
-BACK IN REAL-TIME NOW, only a few seconds after The Runner initially selected the Jack of Hearts and is waiting for the trick to continue: In a swell of emotion, the Magician concludes that he was trying too hard to be something he’s not, and that’s not cool.
-He lets the runner go (after only causing a slight disturbance to him instead of capturing his soul for eternity), and gives up his current version of his dream, realizing he has a different type of soul searching to do.
Hope you found that breakdown interesting! This experiment was recorded/posted very spontaneously, but if you want to see more videos and content in this style then let me know either at any WLDWLF Social Channel or over on The Midnight Rangoon Twitter / YouTube comments. As always, feel free to leave questions in the comments of this post, too, and thanks for stopping by!
