Perspective | Primer (2004) | Bewildering Time Travel Yet
Perspective | Primer (2004) | Bewildering Time Travel Yet
The mainstream blockbuster directors now, were independent film makers once. Steven Spielberg George Lucas Christopher Nolan etc. Their transition was not smooth though. They had to defy the studio system and make films completely of their own. Now, we have another indie filmmaker Shane Carruth who has created his own genre. If we all think Christopher Nolan's Memento's reverse chronological non linear narrative is difficult to comprehend. Then, you will never be able to know what Shane Carruth's directorial debut Primer (2004) is all about. You will have to watch multiple time so as to at least figure out the story line. His second movie was science fiction but it did not materialize for various reasons. In 2013, he made Upstream Color , yet another unconventional indiefilm that even broke the ways of independent film making. He is considered to be one of the greatest indie filmmakers of all time because of his do-it-yourself expertise of production, direction, editing, composing and special effects. Looking forward for his next independent film. Modern Ocean.
Primer (2004) is arguably the best and bewildering time travel, independent film ever made, based on actual science. It is mind bending and complex to comprehend. If you consider Christopher Nolan's Memento, Interstellar and Prestige difficult to comprehend, Primer is even more challenging.
The director Shane Carruth is a flight simulation engineer turned independent filmmaker. He has probably used his technical expertise in the film as well. Because the movie is loaded with technical vocabularies, it takes separate effort to understand them first.
Carruth, kind of introduced DIY ( Do It Yourself) approach. The virtue of being an independent filmmaker is to take on various roles, apart from spearheading as director. He wrote, directed, produced, composed music, edited, designed the production and sound. The film was entirely made on a budget of 7000 USD.
I deliberately don’t want to talk about the plot as its kind of an open to interpretation film. On watching it, I got obsessed about the story and started diving deep into the various technical aspects for weeks together. I realized that I was not able to stay focused on other priorities. Therefore, I stopped watching Primer or at least I’m attempting to forget the film. It’s a warning. If you watch Primer, you would go into it and get lost. Do you want to?
Every time, I understood a new version of Primer. His second movie, ' Upstream Color ' ( 2012) was even more complicated. I think, he is among very few directors, whose films are dissected ( the process of cutting down the whole script to meaningful sequences so as to comprehend the story) for decades together. Independent filmmaking fraternity is excited about the announcement of his third film ' Modern Ocean '
Still, here is a brief character study, which is not necessarily the plot but my interpretation:
What they invent is incidental, but its implications are catastrophic, not only on the space-time continuum of themselves but everyone known and unknown to them.
Authored by Balaji Thangapandian aka #BT - a spacefarer, who is also curious about film-making, connectivity technologies and military history.
Category: Snippets and Independent Films
Primer, 2004, Shane Carruth, Time Travel Film, Science Fiction Film, Independent Film, Experimental Film, Abstract Film, Breaking fourth wall.
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