New York Magazine - USA (2020-03-02)

70 newyork| march2–15, 2020

a videoofmanycolorsofpaintswirlingto-

getherora bodyleapingintoa poolfullof

foam.Endlessisa movingmosaicofthe

mostappealingimagesofMcKeenandJor-

dan’slives.In a worrisomesceneinwhich

Jordanstartsdrinkingat a party,thebuild-

upis a runofbeautifulestablishingshots:a

stunningCaliforniaday, Jordanpullinga

bottleof vodkafroma cooler, hotdogsbeing

thrownona grill.Theeffectis hypnotic.

Nowhere isit more sothanina visual

techniqueSnapchatcalls“screenreality”—

essentiallya phone’s-eyeviewthat tellsa

story throughtextmessagesandapps.It

soundsgimmicky, butit’s curiouslyeffective

whenyouexperienceit.Thebest exampleis

Deadof Night,anunlikelyshowfortheplat-

form.SnapOriginalsareterriblybuiltfor

thehorrorgenre’smost familiartropes.

Wideshotsoftheseries’zombiearmydon’t

readwell.There’snotimefortheslow-

buildingdreadofa shotthat pansarounda

room.Verticalframesare notidealfor

showinga personfleeingfromsomething.

Theonlyplacetorunistoward oraway

fromthecamera.

SoDeadof Nightleansintoitslimitations.

Theviewer’sphonebecomestheprotago-

nist’sphone,displayingexactlywhat she

seesintheearlymomentsof thezombieout-

break.Thepilotepisodestartswiththemain

characterreceivinga linkfroma friendin

theiMessage app.Sheopensittoseea

grainy phonevideoof a zombiepoundingon

theglassdoorofa restaurant.“WTFwas

that?”shetypes.“Somethingscary is going

on,”herfriendresponds.Butastheviewer,

youcan’t seethemaincharacter.Youdon’t

seeherhandsortheroomshe’s sittingin.All

youseeisa perfect replicaofherphone

screen,whichis playingonthephoneyou

holdinyourhand.Theonlytimeyouseeher

faceis a briefmomentwhenshegetsa Face-

Timecall,whichshequicklydismissesso

shecananswera textmessage instead.You

seeherfacethesamewayyou’d seeyourown

The CULTURE PAGES

if you got a video call. You become her.

Snap Originals ask to be watched in a way

that reminds me most of spending time on

social-media apps: endlessly refreshing,

moving rapidly from one platform to the

next. “A scene isn’t necessarily moving fast,”

Endless producer Dave Henry explained,

“but for you to be able to do some active

work with your eyes, it gives the perception

that things are moving a little quicker.”

There’s a reason for that. Radios, theaters,

movies, TV screens—in each case, the start-

ing presumption was that audiences would

pay attention to the thing playing on them.

Even now, distractions come from the addi-

tion of a viewer’s second or third screen. On

Snapchat, the pull away from anoriginal

series and toward something else comes

from inside the house: Audiencesare bar-

raged with messages, notifications, calls,

emails, all on the same screen and likely

from within the same application. Snapchat

users open the app 20 or 30 times aday, and

it’s not because they’re returning to watch

original programming every time. It is first

andforemost a messagingplatform.Any

briefgapwhennothinghappensona Snap

Originalis aninvitationtostopviewing,so

thecreatorsmust aimtomake youstay(or

at least comebackwhenyouinevitablyleave

toanswera message).

It’sanaestheticthat suitsthemedium.

Whenyouge t notificationsfromoutsidethe

show,they don’t feellike intrusions.Therest

ofthephoneis anotherlayerofrapid-fire

informationarrivingconstantlyandsimul-

taneouslyalongwitheverythingelse.The

experienceofthephoneandtheexperience

ofthevideoplayingonthephonebleedinto

each other. They make sense together. More

than anything I’ve seen, Snap Originals are

a form of storytelling that replicates the

rhythms of digital life.

snap originals are so well suited to

the app they exist in it’s almost astonishing

how poorly their platform supports them.

When you open Snapchat, the entry point is

a forward-facing camera, an invitation to

join its messaging ecosystem. Hitting the

Discover button shuttles you out of the

world of content creation and into content

consumption. But the Discover page is an

impossible morass, an unending wash of

forms mixed together. There are original

series, stories from Snap’s publishing part-

ners, videos by popular users, all in one

stream. If you’re looking for a Snap Original,

there are two options: stumble upon it by

chance, or already know it exists soyou can

type its title into the search bar.

Then there are the ads. A five-minute epi-

sode can’t support lengthy interstitials, so

Snapchat supplies brief, unskippable com-

mercials. They arrive abruptly in the middle

of a story, last for five to ten seconds, and

disappear. Take the docuseries While Black,

with MK Asante, which examines the expe-

rience of blackness in America. The first

episode is a conversation with a man whose

family was racially profiled by a store man-

agerandpolice.“Theseare notisolatedinci-

dents,”Asanteexplains.“Weare racially

profiledallthetime.They’rehappening

evenwhenyoudon’t seethefootage, even

whenthere’s novideo...”—apink,sparkling

adforOkCupidcutshimoff forfivesec-

onds—“andevenwhenthere’snobodycam-

era,”hecontinues.Howmuchcancareful

editingmatterwhenanadvertisementcan

shoutaboutdatingappsinthemiddleofa

sentenceaboutpolicediscrimination?

Thecompany knowssomeof thesethings

areproblems.Lastyear, CEOEvanSpiegel

comparedthecurrentstateoftheDiscover

page to wandering through a grocery store

“without the aisles labeled.” Snapchat is test-

ing ways to rearrange the page. And Mills

insists Snapchat cares most about “engage-

ment.” He touts the stats for TwoSides, a

series about a breakup. (Of the viewers who

watched the first episode, about 20percent

McKeen,
Jordan, and
friends in the
series premiere
of Endless.