Modular narratives and visual digital culture in contemporary cinema. The case of Open Windows (Nacho Vigalondo, 2014)Narrativas modulares y cultura visual digital en el cine contemporáneo. El caso de Open Windows (Nacho Vigalondo, 2014) doxa.comunicación | nº 39, pp. 147-164 | 147 July-December of 2024ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978How to cite this article: Cemillán Casis, L. and Jiménez Alcarria, F. (2024). Modular narratives and visual digital culture in contemporary cinema. e case of Open Windows (Nacho Vigalondo, 2014). Doxa Comunicación, 39, pp. 147-164.https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n39a2022Luis Cemillán Casis. Professor and predoctoral researcher (FPU) in the Department of Communication Studies at University Carlos III of Madrid. Member of the research group TECMERIN (Television-cinema: memory, representation and industry), he develops his research on the study of contemporary Spanish cinema, as well as aspects related to cultural studies and collective memory. He also specializes in the study of family sagas in theater and cinema. He has participated in several international conferences and made an international research stay at the Université Paris-Nanterre between September and December 2023. He holds a degree in Audiovisual Communication from University Carlos III of Madrid and a Master's degree in Art History and Visual Culture (Autonomous University of Madrid and Complutense University of Madrid, 2018). In addition, he has held a collaboration scholarship in the Department of Journalism and Audiovisual Communication at UC3M in 2017. Since 2021 she has been writing curatorial texts for Proyector video art festival.University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain[email protected]ORCID: 0000-0002-9704-6907Francisco Jiménez Alcarria. Professor and predoctoral researcher (FPU21/02957) in the Department of Communication Studies at University Carlos III of Madrid. He is part of the research group TECMERIN (Television-cinema: memory, representation and industry) and his elds of research are linked to lm and television studies. Graduated in Journalism and Audiovisual Communication at the same university (2016-2021), he specialized his prole in the audiovisual eld through the completion of the Master's Degree in Film and Television at UC3M (2021-2022). He was awarded the Extraordinary Prize for the best record in both degrees and is currently studying the Doctoral Program in Media Research at the same institution. He is also a beneciary of a FPU grant (Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities). He is a member of the editorial committee of Tecmerin. Journal of Audiovisual Essays. As for his teaching prole, he currently teaches the subject of Digital Postproduction in the Degree in Audiovisual Communication and participates in teaching innovation projects consisting in the production of MOOCs and SPOCs related to video editing and postproduction.University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain[email protected]ORCID: 0000-0002-1809-7942is content is published under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License. International License CC BY-NC 4.0

[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]

[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]

[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]

[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]

[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]

[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]


148 | nº 39, pp. 147-164 | July-December of 2024Modular narratives and visual digital culture in contemporary cinema. The case of Open Windows (Nacho Vigalondo...ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicación1. IntroductionDigital and convergent visual culture permeate today the modes of production, circulation, and consumption of audiovisual representations (Darley, 2002; Jenkins, 2006; Jenkins and Deuze, 2008). e widespread adoption and acceptance of digital technologies and media by user/viewer communities have signicantly altered sensory experiences and the fundamental cognitive experience of being in the world (Everett and Caldwell, 2003). Similarly, the introduction of new visual and auditory codes associated with digital technologies necessitates novel approaches to seek hermeneutic responses tailored to their specicity (Manovich, 2001).With these considerations in mind, the primary aim of this research is to examine the inuence of digital visual culture on lm production, with a specic focus on modular narratives. Following the taxonomy proposed by Allan Cameron (2008) to categorize dierent subcategories within this concept (anachronic, forking paths, episodic, and split-screen), all of these narratives construct the story in a modular manner through a logic akin to a database. is approach entails a rupture of narrative causality, replaced by a juxtaposition of segments. In this regard, the singularity of the split-screen modular narrative Received: 20/06/2023 - Accepted: 01/02/2024 - Early access: 15/01/2024 - Published: 01/07/2024Recibido: 20/06/2023 - Aceptado: 01/02/2024 - En edición: 15/01/2024 - Publicado: 01/07/2024Abstract:In the present day, digital visual and convergence culture permeate the modes of production, circulation, and consumption of audiovisual representations, following the postulates of authors such as A. Darley or H. Jenkins. In this context, A. Cameron denes modular narratives as those in which classical narrative causality is replaced by a database aesthetic, dividing the narrative into discrete elements subject to manipulations of order, frequency, and duration. Focusing on the case of Open Windows (Nacho Vigalondo, 2014), this study aims to explore the imprints of digital visual culture on contemporary Spanish cinema incorporating modular narratives. e methodology employs an analysis model adapted to this narrative and aesthetic specicity within the framework of Computational Media Aesthetics. e lm's mechanisms of representation are scrutinized through a multi-screen interface, where simultaneous events are juxtaposed within the same visual eld, alongside an examination of the signicance bestowed upon the software when utilized as a narrative scaold. Finally, the discussion encompasses the necessity of applying such models to the analysis of audiovisual content associated with digital visual culture, as well as their potential utility for future research.Keywords: Database; contemporary cinema; visual digital culture; post-media aesthetics; modular narratives; split-screen narratives.Resumen:La cultura visual digital y de la convergencia permea actualmente en los modos de producción, circulación y consumo de las representaciones audiovisuales, siguiendo los postulados de autores como A. Darley o H. Jenkins. En este contexto, A. Cameron dene las narrativas modulares como aquellas en las que la causalidad narrativa clásica es sustituida por una estética de base de datos, en la que la narración es dividida en elementos discretos sujetos a manipulaciones de orden, frecuencia y duración. Poniendo el foco en el caso de Open Windows (Nacho Vigalondo, 2014), se pretende explorar las huellas de la cultura visual digital en el cine español contemporáneo que incorpora narrativas modulares. La metodología diseñada incorpora un modelo de análisis adaptado a esta especicidad narrativa y estética, en el marco de la denominada Computational Media Aesthetics. Se analizan los mecanismos de representación fílmica que la película incorpora a través de una interfaz multipantalla en la que los acontecimientos simultáneos se yuxtaponen en el mismo campo visual, así como el signicado que adquiere el software cuando es utilizado como soporte narrativo. Finalmente, se discute sobre la necesidad de aplicar esta tipología de modelos al análisis de manifestaciones audiovisuales vinculadas con la cultura visual digital, así como su aplicabilidad para futuras investigaciones.Palabras clave: Bases de datos; cine contemporáneo; cultura visual digital; estética post-media; narrativas modulares; relato multipantalla.
doxa.comunicación | nº 39, pp. 147-164 July-December of 2024Luis Cemillán Casis and Francisco Jiménez AlcarriaISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978| 149 structure is rooted in its alignment with the modes of production and consumption prevalent in contemporary digital visual culture (Landow, 2006: 255; Cameron, 2008: 15). is modality reaches its pinnacle when the interface of electronic devices serves as the central narrative support for articulating such modularity. Hence, this study will delve into split-screen narratives, exemplied through the case study of Open Windows (Nacho Vigalondo, 2014).is lm has been selected due to its paradigmatic status within the more commercially- oriented Spanish lm industry, as well as its pioneering use of these narrative techniques (Rajas, 2014). At the same time, this choice aligns with the trends observed in contemporary Spanish cinema (Palacio and Rodríguez Ortega, 2020: 15), as it is characterized by its clear transnationality (indeed, it is a co-production with the United States), where the “hybrid, interchangeable, and exible” subject is “delocalized in a global scenario” (Ibáñez, 2016: 139-140). Consequently, it is considered a signicant case study for understanding the characteristics of split-screen modular narratives, which can be applicable to other similar global productions, such as Unfriended (Levan Gabriadze, 2015) or Searching (Aneesh Chaganty, 2018). Using this lm as a reference, we seek to propose an analytical model that is appropriate for modular narratives, following a structural logic of database mapping, similar to the one proposed by Mamber (2002; 2003).1.1. Modular narratives and digital visual cultureAllan Cameron (2008) characterizes modular narratives as those where traditional narrative causality is supplanted by a database aesthetic, dividing the narrative into discrete elements that can be manipulated in terms of order, frequency, and duration. ese manipulations blur the distinctions between the present, past, and future, thereby altering the relationship between story and plot and inducing a sense of uncertainty in the viewer (1-3). More recent analyses have incorporated this phenomenon within the broader category of complex narratives (Simons, 2014), a classication that encompasses narratives that eschew linear and unambiguous storytelling (Walsh and Stepney, 2018; Brütsch, 2021), along with other established typologies such as mind-game lms (Elsaesser, 2021) or puzzle lms (Buckland, 2014; Kiss, 2017). is trend has been evident since the 1990s, being manifested across varied contexts from Hollywood to independent European cinema (Cameron, 2008; Kiss, 2023). Brütsch (2018: 135) emphasizes that while complex narrative structures are not novel in the history of cinema, they have experienced a notable surge in popularity over the past 25 years, both commercially and independently. It is noteworthy, in this context, that authors such as Manovich (2014) identify a simultaneous transformation during this period: a shift in the means of production, storage, and distribution from mass media to digital technology, as well as the adoption of these technological innovations by individual visual artists. Consequently, traditional distinctions regarding the material conditions of reception and perception are now signicantly altered (36). Moreover, Manovich characterizes the relationship between humans and interfaces as inherently interactive, and from an aesthetic standpoint, underscores how the multimedia integration of the web (comprising visual, textual, graphic, and sound elements) has become a standard mode of communication.Fernández Castrillo (2015) also highlights the technological impact of digital change on individual worldviews through various formulations of visual metaphors, including the incorporation of connectivism and rhizomatic thinking evident in the Matrix trilogy (e Matrix, Lilly and Lana Wachowski, 1999). ese perceptual alterations form the basis of a modular conception of time, wherein time is viewed as a divisible element composed of multiple segments that allow for complex articulations. Hence, database narratives (Cameron employs this term interchangeably with modular narratives) establish a relationship
150 | nº 39, pp. 147-164 | July-December of 2024Modular narratives and visual digital culture in contemporary cinema. The case of Open Windows (Nacho Vigalondo...ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicaciónbetween the fragmented temporality of the story and the sequencing of its narration (Kinder, 2002: 12; Cameron, 2008: 183). Manovich (2001) and Kinder (2002) concur in emphasizing the signicant inuence of digital databases on contemporary narrative understanding. Modularity is dened as the “fractal structure of the new media” (Manovich, 2001: 75). e concept of post-media aesthetics is even proposed to delve into the dierent forms derived from the processes associated with the digital revolution, which would consist of the emergence of a new aesthetic model adjusted to the characteristics of the software and its possibilities of interaction with users (Manovich, 2013: 17; 2014: 37-38). In fact, in the very notion of interface, the components of interaction with a given computer are emphasized, and include both the physical video and audio inputs (monitor, keyboard and mouse) and the visual metaphors and schemes used to carry out a grouping of computer data. Hudson and Zimmermann (2015) highlight this circumstance, as digital media ecologies are increasingly based on the exploration of code and user interface, as well as the examination of les and databases. To properly understand the concept of modular narratives, it is essential to engage with the theoretical frameworks pertaining to digital visual culture. Database narratives are intrinsically connected to the way in which culture is understood, shaped by the perceptual conceptual structure that users have adopted following the widespread use of the Internet and new Information and Communication Technologies (Stam, 2008: 359). Digital theory, as well as the post-cinema framework proposed by authors like Stam (2008), advocate for the examination of lm phenomenology within a cultural context whose logic is grounded in the database formula, which represents the world as an arrangement of elements without a specic order. e intimate relationship between the database aesthetics employed in the construction of cinematic representations (a foundational element of modular narratives) and digital visual culture is thus apparent. e frame of reference established for this latter concept has been delineated based on the principles articulated by Andrew Darley in his work Digital Visual Culture: Surface Play and Spectacle in New Media Genres (2002).e term encompasses a set of cultural phenomena that include forms of mass entertainment, such as digital lms (spectacle cinema), video games, virtual reality experiences and computer animation (Darley, 2002: 15). Regarding their aesthetic specicity, the actual manifestations of visual culture reveal an electronic intertextuality, with each indebted to “a very dierent historical moment, a moment that has become possible and has been stimulated by new technological developments” (Darley, 2002: 17). As subsequently highlighted by Marzal Felici and Casero Ripollés, Darley’s approach links digital cultural practices with postmodernity, focusing on appearance, form, and sensations, where artice and technical prowess are central (Marzal Felici and Casero Ripollés, 2016: 13). is artice and the technological component connect with another singularity present in the new forms of digital visual culture: their relationship with the past, maintaining in some way the earlier tradition of involving spectators through various digital tools aimed at generating sensations in audiences (Darley, 2002: 17; Marzal Felici and Casero Ripollés, 2016: 13-15). Today this approach has been updated, incorporating critical perspectives related to the digital visual culture of social networks (see Knochel, 2013), particularly Instagram (Borges-Rey, 2015; Leaver, 2020), and TikTok (Jerasa and Boone, 2021). As Catalá (2005) and Brea (2005) argue, the study of digital visuality should not be subjected to reductionist postulates, and its complexity should be addressed in order to establish analytical perspectives that recognize its status as a cultural construction (Brea, 2005: 9).
doxa.comunicación | nº 39, pp. 147-164 July-December of 2024Luis Cemillán Casis and Francisco Jiménez AlcarriaISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978| 151 Due to the exploratory and fundamentally descriptive nature of this research, the approach to the object of study aims to connect the operating logics of various technical devices oered by the interface of a given software (a common activity within user communities engaged in digital culture worldwide) with the narrative modularity articulated in split-screen narratives that explicitly utilize the interface itself as the central narrative support. Explicitly visualizing the (im)materiality of a virtual desktop and the dierent metaphors that organize computer data (windows and icons distributed in a fractal and hypertextual structure) allows us to understand the dimension they assume when used as substitute vectors for the traditional linear narrative. Additionally, as Darley (2002) suggests, it is possible to trace the remnants of an earlier tradition in terms of cinematographic montage mechanisms.Although Cameron presents a diverse taxonomy of modular narratives, this analysis will focus on the split-screen narratives for the proposed case study, necessitating a detailed denition of their unique features. In this context, modularity is expressed primarily through spatial rather than temporal lines. Events are juxtaposed within the simultaneity of the same visual eld, devoid of the typical montage interruption that serves narrative causality. Instead, a multiscreen narrative is employed, where dierent viewpoints are interwoven (Cameron, 2008: 15; Jang and Moon, 2017). As modular narratives explore diverse representations of time, this article aims to approach this operation analytically by utilizing the juxtaposition and temporal contingency of the virtual interface that mirrors a computer desktop. To a certain extent, the spatial modularity of these split-screen narratives enables exploration of temporal themes such as memory and simultaneity (Cameron, 2008: 15-17). It should also be noted that split-screen modular narratives have a long history in experimental lms, as exemplied by Time Code (Mike Figgis, 2000), but have seen limited development in narrative cinema until relatively recently.Later studies, such as the one conducted by Bešlagić (2019), also allow us to associate this trend with the documentary eld, introducing the concept of desktop documentary to describe a post-media practice. is practice is positioned as an interdisciplinary variant of the recently emerged essay lm, characterized by its independence from the lm medium (51). Instead, it is a hybridization occurring entirely within the digital environment, where a combination of pre-existing materials from various contexts is utilized, and the potential of digital artifacts and tools is harnessed (52-54). Beyond experimental and non-ction cinema, often conned to specic festival circuits, there has been a signicant rise in the use of the visual desktop interface to construct split-screen narratives in mainstream lm, particularly within the horror and psychological thriller genres in recent years. Among the lms with the widest global circulation, the cinematic series Unfriended (Levan Gabriadze, 2015) and Unfriended: Dark Web (Stephen Susco, 2018) stand out, alongside later releases like Searching (Aneesh Chaganty, 2018) and its independent sequel Missing (Nicholas D. Johnson, Will Merrick, 2023). Put dierently, the ambivalence arising from the forced virtual experiences during the Covid-19 quarantine, where digital devices were used to maintain contact between user communities, has also found its way into cinema with lms such as Safer at Home (Will Wernick, 2021). Novikov (2017) explores the use of desktop lms for split-screen narratives, where a computer interface explicitly intervenes, questioning to what extent technology, through a dierent visual aesthetic, alters the perception of human existence when transposed into a virtual reality environment.
152 | nº 39, pp. 147-164 | July-December of 2024Modular narratives and visual digital culture in contemporary cinema. The case of Open Windows (Nacho Vigalondo...ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicación1.2. Research objectives and hypothesise overall objective of this study is to examine the inuence of digital visual culture on lmic representation mechanisms. Based on this aim, the following specic objectives can be delineated:SO1. To establish a connection between digital visual culture and modular narratives, with a focus on split-screen narratives.SO2. To dene the characteristics of contemporary split-screen narratives in cinema, using the lm Open Windows as a paradigmatic and pioneering example within the Spanish production context regarding the use of these complex narratives.SO3. To explore the utilization of an alternative lm analysis model tailored to the specicity of these audiovisual manifestations.e working hypothesis of this study posits that if digital culture permeates audiovisual representation modes, cinematographic manifestations have not remained unaected by the digital revolution. On the contrary, the contemporary understanding of narrative forms has been altered, as pointed out by Cameron and other established theoretical frameworks. Following this argument, it is plausible to connect the notion of digital visual culture with the proliferation of split-screen modular narratives.2. Methode search for an analytical method based on database mapping for this typology of representations comes from the need to explore alternative models adapted to the audiovisual codes of the digital environment (Everett and Caldwell, 2003: 11). In order to introduce a model of analysis that allows us to achieve the proposed objectives, it is necessary to think of a spatial and temporal conception of lm that refers to the idea of digitality. is is the same approach that led Stephen Mamber to explore dierent ways of conceiving lm analysis from the point of view of databases. His text Space-Time Mappings as Database Browsing Tools (2002) is thus of vital importance for methodological design. is author establishes certain parameters that transform a lmic sequencing into a database that is manageable and navigable around the dierent segments of the lm. If a visual database is composed of dierent thumbnails, the Cartesian grid model is the convenient option on which to place the sequencing of images. e grid allows a vast number of thumbnails to be inserted and facilitates linear reading from left to right, so that the narrative sense and the hierarchical succession of thumbnails do not subvert the order of the original sequences. Likewise, the grid view makes it easier to recognize patterns for visual and narrative analysis at a glance.Once the Cartesian grid model has been established, a second methodological operation consists of dening the unit of measurement into which the lm must be systematically segmented for an accurate narrative map. Coinciding with Mamber, the minimum unit generally understood and accepted for such segmentation is the shot. us, it is considered that the rst frame of each shot respects the spatio-temporal narrative relationships inherent to lmic works and allows the user to easily recognize the dierent scenes and sequences (hierarchically superior units). In short, the structure of the lm as a whole can be reconstructed.
doxa.comunicación | nº 39, pp. 147-164 July-December of 2024Luis Cemillán Casis and Francisco Jiménez AlcarriaISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978| 153 Table 1. Hierarchical relationship of the possible segmentation unitsSEGMENTATION UNITSSPATIALTIMESequenceMinutesSceneSecondsShotFramesSource: prepared by the authors based on Mamber (2002)In principle, the multi-screen nature of Open Windows would seem to complicate the selection process, since planning acquires a dierent dimension when approaching these types of narratives in terms of composition. e main screen, dened as the virtual desktop interface being used by the main character, in turn displays the screens of each of the pop-up windows (the webcam, the security cameras, etc.). e modular logic of the implemented narrative operation (a juxtaposition of dierent shots in the same visual eld) requires specifying the sampling procedure. e most usual point of view throughout the lm is the desktop interface itself, which conveys the development of the dramatic action.A preliminary analysis allows us to conclude that, in this particular case, the notion of framing/reframing replaces that of shot, because through formal procedures such as zoom in/zoom out, the hierarchization of specic elements in the interface is constantly modied, focusing on one sub-screen or another. is operation is what produces a narrative progression of a particular scene. By using the proposed segmentation criterion, always in accordance with the outlined model (Mamber, 2003: 145), 470 units (thumbnails) arranged in a 32x32 grid are extracted. e visual and narrative patterns allow us to identify the three sequences of greatest interest for the proposed object of study. ey convey the lm at the narrative level and establish the most paradigmatic segments for a detailed analysis of split-screen narratives and their correlation with digital visual culture: 1) the initial sequence, in which the dierent elements of the interface are placed and the spatial and temporal interrelationships between them are established; 2) the destabilizing event, where the acousmatic voice blackmails the protagonist in the rst action scene; 3) the chase scene that ends the drama, the plot’s climax in which the spatial and temporal modularity inherent to this narrative formula reaches its greatest deployment. For reasons of space, during the extraction of the segments shown in the results section, the grid has been rescaled on each occasion to illustrate the analysis as clearly as possible.3. ResultsPlot-wise, the psychological thriller Open Windows is divided into two dierent parts: in the rst one, Nick (Elijah Wood), owner of a web portal dedicated to uploading photographs of the famous actress Jill Goddard (Sasha Grey), is staying at a luxurious hotel waiting to receive his prize from an online contest that consists of dinner with the actress. e main character then discovers, after a video conference call, that he has been set up. At that point, the second part begins when he is blackmailed by his interlocutor (whose face is not revealed until the end of the lm) and must get the help of a group of French hacktivists to
154 | nº 39, pp. 147-164 | July-December of 2024Modular narratives and visual digital culture in contemporary cinema. The case of Open Windows (Nacho Vigalondo...ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicaciónprevent the murder of the actress and escape from the police persecution to which he is being subjected. e lm’s plot reects upon mass phenomena and, in particular, the Internet distribution channels inherent to digital culture. It is no wonder that some of the lm’s reviews highlight that it “can be read as a dark parable about our addiction to electronic fantasies” (Ceballos, 2013).Consequently, the advantages derived from fan groups, online communities and internet forums, as well as the possibility of multiplatform and simultaneous communication, are seen as irrevocably related to notions of extortion and digital anxiety that are linked to so-called surveillance capitalism, in which “people’s experiences are unilaterally claimed by private companies and converted into proprietary data streams” (Zubo, 2020: 7). e access to the actress’s telephone provided by the voice controlling the interface underlines the extent to which the set of experiences belonging to the user’s intimate and private sphere are transposed into binary code and made available to the servers supporting the device. Likewise, the police and the hotel’s security system servers, which at certain moments of the plot are used as windows to display the chase sequences within the computer screen, reveal the impossibility of escaping the system and the degree of control to which the user is subconsciously subjected. All of the foregoing are thematic links of enormous interest within contemporary ctions, lm and television alike. Other related topics that need to be explored are the anxiety that stems from the ethical boundary between sentient beings and digital objects posed by Black Mirror (Charlie Brooker, 2011) or Westworld (Jonathan Nolan, 2011), the idea of a global and interconnected village that, almost like a fable, creates the universe of Sense8 (Lilly and Lana Wachowski, 2015) or survival in the intransigent and closely-monitored class society of Snowpiercer (Josh Friedman and Graeme Manson, 2020).3.1. e (in)materiality of the interface in modular narrativesOnce the specic topics of the lm have been established, what is relevant for the delimited object of study is how these are shaped in its formal proposal. At the narrative level, none of the events narrated follow a causal logic through a fragmentation of shots using the dierent possibilities of montage, but instead the entire lm takes place on the desktop interface of the protagonist’s computer screen. e software itself becomes another character, Nick’s true antagonist, materialized in the voice of the kidnapper who executes the dierent programs from a remote location to move the action forward. is resource, to a certain extent, has already been seen in other works prior to the digital era, as is the case with HAL 9000, the proto-computer system of the spaceship in 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968), whose programmatic design is reminiscent of a human being who mediates between the dierent parties.In the case of Open Windows, it is the software itself, one of a post-digital aesthetic, which shapes and builds the links between the dierent characters through a succession of split screens juxtaposed simultaneously throughout the story. For example, while Nick is eeing from the police in his car with the laptop camera in the passenger seat pointed at him, a series of maps indicating the location of the patrol cars pursuing him are observed. Another screen displays a three-dimensional reconstruction of the kidnapper’s trunk, where the protagonist uses a series of data in binary code to guide Jill and help her escape. At the same time, another screen contains direct access to the actress’s cell phone, which the acousmatic voice gives to the main character, urging him to collect all the available visual material (also providing an additional shot of the device’s camera). Finally, the device interface also contains the screen shot of the video call with the French hacktivist group.
doxa.comunicación | nº 39, pp. 147-164 July-December of 2024Luis Cemillán Casis and Francisco Jiménez AlcarriaISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978| 155 is profusion of screens enhances the plot’s frenetic pace, fullling the requisites established by Cameron (2008) for split-screen narratives. Dierent and simultaneous temporal segments are overlapped within a split-screen spatial montage, following the logic of addition and coexistence, by keeping all of them visible in the spatial montage composed of the desktop interface tabs. In the framework of this user interface, the narrative takes place in the form of a temporal continuum in which the duration of the story matches that of the plot, without interruptions. In this case, moreover, the modular narrative not only recongures the temporal relationships, but the very (in)materiality of the interface creates a mysterious space that serves the dramatic structure of the psychological thriller: from an everyday environment in contemporary digital visual culture such as a computer desktop, a series of unusual elements are introduced that, from the virtuality of the network, progressively unleash a series of devastating oine eects on the characters.3.2. Approach to a lm segmentation modele fact that Open Windows is based, both plot-wise and in form, on split-screen narratives and notions of modularity makes it an ideal case for application of Mamber’s (2002) method of database sequencing analysis. As indicated in the methodology section, the entire lm has been fragmented by choosing the rst frame of each shot, and the resulting thumbnails displayed on a Cartesian grid. e rst aspect worth mentioning when observing the thumbnails on the grid is the obvious organization of the images by visual patterns. Besides the fact that all the thumbnails making up the grid share a similar visual style, which would have to do with the photographic image of the lm, the clear formation of patterns or subgroups allows us, rstly, to identify certain repetitions in order, and secondly, to propose a model of lmic analysis from them. Next, we proceed to the analysis of the three sequences of greatest narrative relevance (following the chronological order of the lm) using Mamber’s sequencing method.Figure 1 shows an excerpt from one of the opening scenes of the lm. An acousmatic voice asks the protagonist to position one of the cameras to focus on the hotel located just across the street. In that other room, some of the plot’s main characters, Jill and her lover, will appear. In the resulting grid, at least three visual patterns stand out in terms of colorimetry, lighting and types of shots. e rst of these is made up of the frames formed by the webcam that records the protagonist. e warm light of the room frames the bluish-tinted face of Nick (Elija Wood), which is illuminated by the reection of his computer screen. He is seen rst in a medium long shot, then in a close-up. e second pattern is made up of thumbnails in which the hotel room is observed through a somewhat opaque window. In this case, the predominant color is white. e third pattern, which is only represented in two miniatures, is that of the group of hacktivists whose glasses are barely identiable in electric green.
156 | nº 39, pp. 147-164 | July-December of 2024Modular narratives and visual digital culture in contemporary cinema. The case of Open Windows (Nacho Vigalondo...ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicación