All Unsaved Progress Will Be Lost is the type of experience that is better the less you know about it, but I really, really loved this piece as it efficiently packs in a lot of emotional punch in such a short time. The primary mode of storytelling in All Unsaved Progress Will Be Lost is via motion graphic text as you float through nature scenes constrained underneath a bridge. The full context of protagonist’s rebellion & resistance is held until the very end, and so using the modality of text encourages the audience to use their imagination to fill in the gaps for in what’s missing for what’s happening and why. There’s an undertone of psychological terror that director Mélanie Courtinat was going for as she’s inspired by Jordan’s Peele’s work like Get Out as well as Annihilation, Midsommar, and It Follows. She users color shifts and moving from constrained spaces under bridges to much more open spaces to help emphasize the moments of peak emotion, and other contrasts that we dig into more detail in the context of our conversation. There’s also a lot of subtle direction of embodied postures that likely work on an unconscious level, and I really appreciate the depth of design consideration Courtinat has put into her piece. I’m looking forward to seeing where she goes next in her explorations of immersive storytelling.
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Music: Fatality
