Insaniam

Insaniam
Poster
Directed by	Zabëlle Skye
Produced by	Zabëlle Skye
Written by	Zabëlle Skye
Starring	Zabëlle Skye
Music by	Fish Lord Silvers
Edited by	Zabëlle Skye
Distributed by	Z&jProductions
Release date	22 May 2020
Running time	3 minutes
Country	New Eiffel

Insaniam (Latin for "Insane") is a 2020 New Eiffelic surrealist psychological thriller short film written, produced and directed by Zabëlle Skye, and distributed by Z&jProductions. It is Skye's sixth independent film. Starring Skye, the film concerns teenager Gregory Hutts who sees hallucinations of his water bottle alternating from appearing full to empty, before he delves into insanity. The featured song, "05_14_2020_B", is a harsh noise wall song composed by experimental noise artist Fish Lord Silvers.

Insaniam was filmed in New Leeds; principal photography lasted a single day—22 May 2020—after initial delays. The project had previously began production in early May, after Skye found a profound interest in surrealist cinema as opposed to his previous films which had been termed art and avant-garde. As Skye had high hopes for the film, he opted for a Z&jProductions distribution instead of releasing it independently as with his previous films. Skye edited the footage in black and white and silenced the audio (though music was added over it), and the film was released that same day.

The film was met with generally positive reviews upon its release on 22 May 2020, though some critics were opposed to its self-proclaimed artistic merit; others lauded its cinematography, editing, music and Skye's performance as Hutts. The film received three nominations at the 2020 ZSR Awards in the erstwhile New Eiffel. Skye regards the film as his magnum opus, favouring it above his previous favourite Being Born Twelve Times (2019). As of April 2023, the film has accumulated over 200 views online, making it one of the most-viewed New Eiffelic films outside of the micronation.

Plot

Teenager Gregory Hutts awakes in his bed and attempts to drink from a water bottle by his bedside; initially half-full, Hutts puts it to his mouth only for it to abruptly appear empty. Hutts believes that he is simply tired and thinks little of it. He gets up and walks to the bathroom in order to refill the bottle, but as he puts it under the tap the bottle is suddenly filled with water again; he freaks out, and drops the bottle onto the ground, with no water pouring out of it. Hutts, perplexed, begins hyperventilating, and suddenly appears back in his bedroom. Hutts then takes a deep breath and lies down in his bed. Suddenly, surreal imagery starts displaying, accompanied with harsh noise wall music. Hutts wakes up violently, and jumps off of his bed; he is clearly disturbed. Hutts looks to his left to see his counter is now empty with nothing on it aside from the water bottle. He proceeds to look to his right to a similar image; his coats are gone and the bottle is hanging on the coat hanger. Hutts faints, and falls back onto his bed. The film ends with a view of the bottle.

Production

Zabëlle Skye, an artistic filmmaker, conceived the idea for a surrealist film depicting insanity in early May 2020. His vision was for a film to end on what he called "crazy surreal imagery," a theme he would later explore in Big Fluffy Socks for the Winter Golem (2020). He took inspiration from his previous work Layers (2018). Originally, an early draft for the film told that the "crazy surreal imagery" was meant to be achieved via a character accidentally consuming an apple that was rotten. Skye later opted to film the entire film unscripted and fully improvised to maximise creative freedom. After initial delays, filming finally took place in New Leeds, New Eiffel on 22 May 2020; the film was edited and released that same day. It was shot on an iPhone 7 Plus at 30 frames-per-second (with the insanity scene shot at 240 frames-per-second), and the black and white filter was added to the film in post-production.

Skye had high hopes for the film, and in order to make it more accessible to a wider audience he opted for a distribution by Z&jProductions—a large New Eiffelic film studio which Skye had co-founded alongside his younger brother Janus Smith—rather than releasing it independently as he did the majority of his previous independent films. The song used to represent Hutts' insanity, "05_14_2020_B", is a harsh noise wall song created by Fish Lord Silvers—an experimental music artist—on 14 May 2020. "05_14_2020_B" was remixed from an audio clip from the video game Team Fortress 2 (2007) of characters conversing with each other. Skye enquired Silvers for permission to use the song, as Skye believed that the fast pace and hard sounding nature of the song would be fitting to represent Hutts' final dive into insanity. Silvers gave permission, and stated that the song was public domain.

Release and reception

Z&jProductions distributed the film

The film was initially screened twice in May, the first being on the 22nd. It was distributed by Z&jProductions. Insaniam was met with generally positive reviews upon its release, though some critics were opposed to its self-proclaimed artistic merit; others praised its cinematography, editing, music and Skye's performance as Hutts. Skye regards the film as his personal magnum opus, favouring it above his previous favourite Being Born Twelve Times (2019). The film was uploaded onto the Internet Archive on the same day as its release, and later onto YouTube on 12 June; it arrived to the alpha version of StreamEiffel in early August. As of April 2023, the film has accumulated over 200 views online, making it one of the most popular New Eiffelic films outside of the micronation.

Accolades

The film received three nominations at the 2020 ZSR Awards in the erstwhile New Eiffel. Best Acting for Skye's performance as Hutts and Best Story and Best Cinematography. Skye lost to himself as the eponymous superhero in India Man!, and the latter two awards were given to Star Warz: The Stranded Sith.

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result
ZSR Awards	7 January 2021
		Best Acting	Zabëlle Skye	Nominated
		Best Story		Nominated
		Best Cinematography		Nominated

Copyright status

Z&jProductions held distribution rights over the film in New Eiffel; following the micronation's dissolution on 1 November 2020, the film is now available under the Creative Commons license Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0), indicating that a person may copy, download and redistribute the material in any medium or format—as well as remix, transform or build upon the material—so long as one gives credit to Skye and does not use the material for commercial purposes.

See also

• Cinema of New Eiffel

External links

• Insaniam at IMDb
• Insaniam is available for free download at the Internet Archive