One of my first thoughts while watching the short film “Passage,” created by Bårbel Neubauer, was that it reminded me of the opening title sequence in Alfred Hitchcock’s film Vertigo. Saul Bass created this title sequence, and in it he used a series of spiraling and colorful images against stark black. I liked how “Passage” had a similar style, but its swirling images were more geometric, which created a kaleidoscopic look and effect.
I’m not quite sure how Neubauer created this camera-less short film, but I was constantly pondering the time and effort put into the animation techniques that had been employed, and I was consistently amazed by what I was watching. I think I was even more amazed by the film because I knew that it was made camera-less. So, however the film was manipulated to create all of those psychedelic colors, dynamic shapes, and twisting movements, I am thoroughly impressed.
“Passage” was not just a visual experience, but a sonic one as well. All of the camera-less films that I had seen up to that point had been silent films, like Stan Brakhage’s work. However, “Passage” used interesting music and recorded sounds that worked well with and sometimes against the animated images.
The runtime of “Passage” was seven minutes, and that was a little long for me because the image patterns started to become repetitive. But with the thought of how this film was made in mind, the film was always captivating.
My overall impression of “Passage” was that Neubauer had a total control over the relationship between the visuals and the sounds to create a vivid and distinct sensory experience.
