Half Life

In an office world of half light, flickering fluorescent tubing, ringing phones and monotonous paperwork, the residents sit trapped in a state of frustration, inactivity, boredom or semi-consciousness. As the lights flicker, they get on with their chores and tasks, maybe half aware that they may never escape their surroundings for anything better.

No, not the video game, but a short film that I doubt many users on this site will ever get the chance to see (or have the inclination to see sadly). The film doesn't appear to have much in the way of plotting or narrative but what it does do is look at where most of us spend around about half our waking lives – work, in this case an office block. If it sounds simple and easy then that's because it is – it is easy to point out how horrible it is to be tied to a desk in an unfulfilling job because it mostly is horrible. Personally I like my work but I cannot imagine how hard it is to work 12 hours in a call centre of to just be moving bits of paper around that you don't care about.

The film puts this feeling into a sort of Easerhead world of half light, shadow and degradation – it is an unpleasant world, not sinister so much as just a sort of waking death for all involved. The animation matches this pretty well although I would have liked a bit more reality than some of the characters were in – scrawling across a piece of paper was too easy and a bit more imagination in the material was maybe needed but it did still work. It worked mainly thanks to the atmosphere created by the animation – it is dark and clever and it did bring to mind Easerhead, even if it wasn't as good as that.

Overall this is an OK film that suffers from rather ordinary material and a rather obvious idea but executes it well with atmospheric and effective animation throughout. From the flickering light, the harsh ring of the phone or the boredom of the work, the people here are trapped in a half dead state and you know what, many of us feel that way even though our offices are better lit.