Textual @traction (2005) watch online HD

When walking in the hills to take pictures, Tom gets a text from his girlfriend that distracts him and sees him fall down a steep slope. He is taken to hospital for a long recovery but nobody can find out who to contact – his girlfriend worries. Tom's phone is found by a young man who lives in the hills and struggles with his homosexuality as a result. When he finds the phone he carries on the text flirting, thinking it is a guy that is interested in him. With so much confusion, could everything work out in the end? By the time I had been able to see this film it had already been submitted to the LA Film Festival and had garnered a few headlines because of the addition of technology to the cinematic experience. You see, in this film, there is little dialogue but the characters send a lot of texts to one another – texts that we aren't able to see on the screen. At the same time as they send a text, it is possible for the audience to receive the same text on their phone if they have signed up before the film begins. Sadly for me I had missed the time to subscribe so, although I could see people's mobiles lighting up every time a text was sent on screen, I couldn't actually read them myself. In a way this didn't take too much away from the film (I think) but it was a bummer to feel like I was missing out.

The main story still works without it, apart from the feeling of missing out. The characters are interesting enough and the narrative is simple enough to follow even with the lack of dialogue. However it isn't that good and without the gimmick of SMS content it is only an interesting short and really one that could have been better. The addition of the texting though seemed to involve the audience a lot more and everyone who had joined in with it appeared to benefit from it. It may not be a brilliant short but it is a good one and if I got the chance to see it again I would – but next time I'll make sure to be part of the text message part of it.