Winter Orbit

Background: The work contributes to new debates of slow cinema which explore the disruptive nature of slowness and design through a Metamodernist framework. As informed and influenced by significant slow practitioner Bela Tarr, the work contributes to the field by positing itself as a new way to think about immersive slowness in film and how design can impact on the ways in which the cinematic frame can derive new knowledge from attesting the form of cinema through a reduction of temporality. CONTRIBUTION: ‘Winter Orbit’ is a collaborative feature film directed by Shaun Wilson and scored by Darrin Verhagen (under the pseudonym ‘Shinjuku Thief’). In the creation of the film outcome, the research led by Verhagen and Wilson ask: 'how can cinema represent the COVID-19 lockdown in new ways of situating immersive design through slowness?' The outcomes expand the field of knowledge by defending the role that design plays in cinema by using qualitative research methods based on Design Thinking to create a 60 minute film which demonstrates new ways to approach design within sound and image. SIGNIFICANCE: The film's significance can be attested through: high impact screenings at the Venice Production Bridge at the Venice Film Festival September, 2020, Digital Facade at Federation Square December 2020, Online exhibition at MARS Gallery Melbourne 22-28 September 2020, official selection at the Geelong Underground Film Festival 29 November 2020, featured as an article in Australian Art Collector online 22 September 2020, published as a DVD and Blu Ray sold world-wide, acquired by review into the Venice Biennale’s historical archives of contemporary art ASAC archive.