Five (2019)

As the story unfolds, each shot reveals a new character and a new layer to what is happening and what transpired to get here. The action takes place in four shots, the gun fires four times, and each character is limited within their own quadrant on the screen. The music is based on the theory behind tonal clusters, most notably utilized by 20th Century Concert Composers Krzysztof Penderecki and György Ligeti, and the score is divided into four distinct clusters, or groupings of notes, meant to create a mood of amoral murkiness with its constantly shifting textures. The music, too, mimics the visual scheme. The first note played is a single violin playing harmonics matched to the frequency of the crickets in the ambient sound. As the story pulls back, the sound grows to a large string orchestra playing the same note. By digitally manipulating the stereo field, the music starts completely mono and then gradually shifts until the entire spectrum of the stereo mix is utilized at the end of the film. Everything is visually and audibly about four, but Five is about what comes next. Five is the audience left to speculate what happens when the camera pulls back one more time, and where we go from here.