Released in April 2020 at the height of the pandemic, this short film illustrates the dangers that ever-growing technology can have on us. In the pandemic people were using technology more than ever for every aspect of their lives. While there are many positives to this, there can also be many negatives that the film depicts.
The short opens with a picturesque view of nature and people out, enjoying it. Slowly this progresses to less people being out in nature, and technology taking over their lives. As the film progresses, we are increasingly shown scenes on the tube and we see more people enter the carriage, however this is contradictory with the amount of a communication: more people but less face-to-face communication. Technology spreads like an infection as more people don’t notice things, which eventually becomes lethal.
The title: ‘Headless Population’ catches ones eye straight away, but it isn’t explained until later in the film where we see what causes people to become ‘headless’: technology. The public are depicted as headless due to everyone always looking down at their phones, but I also think the headless population can be interpreted as people losing their minds and individuality; becoming headless robots, only focused on one thing. This is shown particularly in the shot of a worker writing ‘blah’ repeatedly.
The animation style is very simplistic. There are no facial features on people, no dialogue and (to begin with) just bright colours. This seems misleading at first, as it could make the film out to be a happy one, however I believe this makes the audience completely focus on the story and the important message being shared with them. The colour in this film is very powerful, as throughout it loses its brightness just like the people in the film. This also signifies to the audience the change in tone as the subject gets darker with the colour.
Overall, I really enjoyed this short film. I thought it was an excellent depiction of what is happening/could happen as an increasing number of people become totally consumed by their phones. In just 3 minutes the film takes you on a journey as you become completely entranced by the animation.
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