Few people remember the first frame of a feature film. Not even if the movie is otherwise memorable. However, the first image after the title sequence is often significant, and sometimes even summarises the whole movie.

I study movies with a subject that is (still) significant today. I observe what story is told in the first frame, and its relation to the narrative and meaning of the movie. I draw an image of the first frame to study and memorise the elements in it. The next step is to recreate it in today's environment to show how the meaning of the film still holds it's significance. This project will grow over time.

The first frame of ‘The Deer Hunter’ is a good example of a ‘movie preview in a frame’. The first thing that catches the eye is the point of view. The outlook, a small industry town, is framed by dark shadows of a road bridge. Once this town was a safe home for the main characters of the movie. Now they can only look at it from the viewpoint of an outsider, standing in the dark.. In anticipation to the theme of this movie, a safe place is nearby, yet out of reach.

By juxtaposing the film frame with a comparable contemporary image, I want to make a connection with the drama in the story, and the psychological consequences of war for people fighting in some faraway armed conflict today.

In ‘The Matrix’, machines control the world after computers became more intelligent than their creators. How close are we to the moment computers will outsmart humans? Will this be reality in 2029? Ray Kurzweil believes so, based on the biennially doubling number of transistors on integrated circuits.

It is hard to decide what the first frame of the Matrix technically is. The first frame after the title sequence is a black screen. This is not uncommon in movies. In most cases I would pick the first non-black image. In ‘The Matrix’ however, this black screen is followed by one with a small green square in the top left corner. Apparently the screen of a computer with a blinking cursor. So, was the first frame a computer screen with the blinking cursor in 'off' position? Or was the green square the first one? A binary question..

Whatever the outcome of Ray Kurzweil's prophecy, in many ways western lifestyle has changed a lot since the creation of 'The Matrix'. Quite a few of us now spend more time staring at a screen than on anything else in life.
In the Matrix most people spend all their lives in virtual reality. Main Character Neo has to make a conscious choice to take the red pill. A choice to know the truth, but to never be able to enjoy the more comforting illusion. Connecting medication to a choice between reality or illusion is another binary choice in the Matrix. It makes me think about the staggering rise of psychotropic use in the western world. If taking pills to cope can be seen as altering a persons sense of reality, we are much closer to living in the Matrix than we think.