A doctor visiting Bangkok. A beautiful, strange woman. A possible murder. Confusion. Brainwaves. It could be the premise of a slick David Lynch film, but instead it's Dark Bridge Binaural Brainwaves, the impressive debut feature film of Argentine Marcelo von Schwartz. And elevating its interest to the global stage is the use of binaural brainwaves in the soundtrack, putting it at the forefront of the niche "Neurocinema" movement that is gaining attention.
Dark Bridge Binaural Brainwaves.
The film's narrative centres around David White, a US doctor attending a medical conference in Bangkok. Through a series of strange encounters on the street with an alluring Thai woman, he is unwittingly drawn into a curious world that he had kept suppressed, namely the demons of his father and the moral debts he left behind in the city.
In what is a world first, the film's soundtrack is overlaid with theta frequency binaural waves of sound, thus the term Neurocinema. The technology has been proven to affect a desired mood in the audience, ranging from relaxing to hypnotic to deep sleep-inducing. It works by sending slightly differing sound frequencies to each ear, causing the brain to resolve the discrepancy and hence be lulled under its spell.
"I became interested by music and sound therapies more than 10 years ago," says director Marcelo von Schwartz, of his path to Neurocinema.
"Later I researched the brainwave technology, and began using it for meditation, relaxing and sleeping. As for the use of brainwaves in Dark Bridge, it's the result of coincidence. I met a guy at a film festival from Silicon Valley scientifically involved with the technology. After watching my film he suggested I apply it. I was hooked and we spent the next two years mixing and testing the soundtrack."
Taking about seven minutes to begin acting, the brainwaves help lull the audience into the surreal mind state of the doctor as he plunges into the depths of his father's past.
"The film itself is told as if it were a dream. So through the theta brainwave synchronisation the movie goes directly to the subconscious of the audience, as if it were a real dream," he says. "More than watching a movie, it's like the audience is dreaming it. In a certain way, you are experiencing a real inception. And as with a dream, is more important to feel it than try and understand it."
While medically tested, the technology comes with a warning, announced in the opening title sequence of the film. Risk groups identified are people subject to any form of seizures or epilepsy, people using pacemakers, people suffering from cardiac arrhythmia or other heart disorders, and people taking stimulants, psychoactive drugs or tranquillisers. In terms of setting, Bangkok seems the perfect backdrop for such a noir-tinged narrative.
Von Schwartz knows that it is a city laden with narratives after visiting himself for the first time.
"Bangkok is a very cinematic metropolis and, unlike other cities, it still keeps a lot of authentically dark spots completely alive," he continues. "I simply followed the atmosphere and tone suggested by each location. Other dark thrillers such as Bangkok Dangerous and Only God Forgives also suggest that a lot of dark movies would work well here.
"But it's not only the locations. Bangkok is a city where you can probably find the highest quantity of femme fatales per square metre in the world. So you have the place, the femme fatales and the murders — something also very common here, unfortunately."
Another unique aspect of the film involving the binaural technology is its mode of spectatorship. Audience members are required to wear headphones for the aural effects to work, creating an individual cinematic experience most likely to be enjoyed through the use of portable devices.
Studies have proven that the majority of movie watchers now watch films through a portable device. This would terrify any Hollywood executive, as it effectively cuts out the middle management of the film industry, allowing a filmmaker to speak directly to an audience without the existing channels of distribution.
"The Brainwaves synchronisation could be a new revolution, a completely different new movie experience," says von Schwartz.
Dark Bridge Binaural Brainwaves is available to watch online (goo.gl/asfSeK) via Vimeo on Demand for a cost of US$4.99 (164 baht, 72-hour rental). Visit www.dark-bridge.com
