With this increased exposure, viewers are more familiar with archetypal plots within genres found in popular films, allowing them to not only guess an entire plot of a movie early on, with the help of foreshadowing, but also the outcomes of individual scenes or certain sequences of events. In making Un Espectador (A Spectator)—a story that intentionally cannot be neatly categorized as a thriller—I wanted to leave a lot of room for the viewer’s own interpretation, to elaborate their own story using their imagination and experience. Even though the film aims to engage audiences in this way, I purposefully put limitations on the viewer’s imagination through technical aspects of cinematography, such as long takes, little movement, a desaturation of color, and a simple palette. This is in order to show a specific environment everyone can identify with, and convey feelings everyone knows: helplessness and despair. I hope the ending or sequence of events keeps everyone guessing as to what the actual relationships are between the main characters, what transpired off screen, and perhaps more importantly, what is going to happen to them after the story ends on screen?
Un Espectador (Short)
It’s no surprise that media consumption has drastically changed over the last few years, especially in regards to the film industry in part due to the subscription model, wherein audiences are engaging with and have access to more movies and content than ever before.