Screenlife

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A scene from The Invention of Chris Marker (2020), showing the use of desktop screen recordings.[1]

Film subgenre where the action takes place entirely on a screen of a computer or a smartphone

Screenlife or computer screen film is a form of visual storytelling in which events are shown entirely on a computer, tablet, or smartphone screen. It became popular in the 2010s owing to the growing impact of the Internet and mobile devices. Within a video essay, the format is often called desktop documentary.

## Self-imposed limitations

[edit]

According to Timur Bekmambetov, the Turkic-Kazakh producer of the breakthrough Searching, a computer screen film should take place on one specific screen, never move outside of the screen, the camerawork should resemble the behavior of the device's camera, all the action should take place in real time, without any visible transitions and all the sounds should originate from the computer.[2][3][4] There have, however, also been movies that switch between screens and are still categorized as screenlife.

## Features

[edit]

Screenlife video displays only a desktop of a computer or smartphone and actions of the main character on this device, such as viewing or editing files, web browsing, chatting and video calling. Screenlife movies are most often made using screen recording software and simulate footage taken from real life.

Screenlife is not a genre of film, because screenlife movies can be made in different genres: horror, thriller, comedy, etc. It is mostly regarded as a new storytelling format because the computer or smartphone screen is used in journalism and advertising as a visual source.[5][6][7][8] Screenlife takes elements from the pseudo-documentary and found footage formats (eg. The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity).[9]

The earliest experimentations of a combination of a classic film format and the use of computer screens were made in the 2000s. For example, the horror movie The Collingswood Story shows everything through the web cameras of the main characters. Nonetheless, the 2013 horror film The Den by American director Zachary Donohue is considered to be the first modern feature-length film using computer screens as a medium to depict the events happening in the film.

In 2014, the full-length screenlife film Unfriended by Levan Gabriadze was released. It earned $64 million at the box office on a budget of $1 million, and spawned a sequel called Unfriended: Dark Web in 2018.

The most successful screenlife movie is the 2018 thriller Searching, directed by Aneesh Chaganty. The main roles were played by John Cho and Debra Messing. The film received the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the Sundance Film Festival[10] and collected in world box office over $75 million with a budget of about $700,000[11][12][13] and received a sequel, Missing, in 2023.

## Format

[edit]

In the screenlife format, the film set is the desktop of the computer, and the files, folders and screen wallpapers are the decorations. The movement of the cursor is important because the viewer's attention is concentrated on it.[14]

The main difference between the post-production of traditional and screenlife films is the time required for editing. On average, editing screenlife movies takes 6–9 months. The post-production time is compensated for by a shorter production period compared to the traditional cinema (for example, Searching was filmed in 13 days).

Screencasting software is usually used to decorate the device screen, and a GoPro camera is used for shooting. The cast members often need to be the camerapeople to bring life to the film.[15]

## Examples

[edit]

### Feature films

[edit]

* Thomas in Love (2000)
* The Collingswood Story (2002)
* Skydiver (2010)
* Megan Is Missing (2011)
* V/H/S (2012)
* The Den (2013)
* Unfriended (2014)
* Unfriended: Dark Web (2018), sequel to Unfriended
* Open Windows (2014)
* Ratter (2015)
* Face 2 Face (2016)
* Searching (2018)
* Missing (2023), sequel to Searching
* Profile (2018)
* Livescream (2018)
* Host (2020)
* C U Soon (2020)
* Spree (2020)
* The Shadow Side (2020)
* Dashcam (2021)
* Safer at Home (2021)
* Untitled Horror Movie (2021)
* R#J (2021)
* #Blue_Whale (2021)
* Deadware (2021)
* Language Lessons (2021)
* Fresh Hell (2021)
* Secret Seam (2023)
* Share? (2023)
* Livescreamers (2023)
* Stay Online (2023)
* CTRL (2024)
* Bloat (2025)[16]
* LifeHack (2025)[17]
* War of the Worlds (2025)
* Mercy (2026)
* Insiders (TBA)

### Short films

[edit]

* TAUCHER (alternative title: David (41) and Karla (38)), a segment of Abschiede (2009)
* Internet Story (2011)
* The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger, a segment of V/H/S (2012)
* Noah (2013)
* GOBLIN.exe (2020)[18]
* 2088 (2021)[19]
* Love in Isolation (2021)
* Filtered (2021)
* AzulScuro (2021)
* The Homiesexuals: a social media tragedy (2022)

### Documentaries

[edit]

* Kevin B. Lee, Transformers: The Premake (2014)
* Albert Figurt Desktop Horror / a video essay (2016)
* Future History: 1968 (2018)
* Lého Galibert-Lainé Watching the pain of the others (2018)
* Gabrielle Stemmer Clean with me (After Dark) (2019)
* The Invention of Chris Marker (2020)
* iBible: Swipe Righteous (2021)
* Robert Kocsis Morning routine (2022)

### Music videos

[edit]

* Lupe Fiasco "Precious Things" (2023)
* The Korgis "Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime - Orchestrations" (2023)
* Big Data "Dangerous" (2014)
* Nightcore Hamster "Lulu" (2024)

### Web series

[edit]

#### United States

[edit]

* The Scene (2004)
* Animator vs. Animation (2006)
* Web Therapy (2011)
* Dead of Night (2019–2020), 2 seasons
* Gameboys (2020)
* Moving On...[20] (2020)

#### Russia

[edit]

* Sveta from Another World (Russian: Света с того света (2018)
* Feat (Russian: Подвиг (2019)
* Nagiyev on quarantine (Russian: Нагиев на карантине (2020)
* #SittingAtHome (Russian: #СидЯдома (2020)
* Madness (Russian: Беезумие (2020)
* Together (Russian: Все вместе (2020)
* Safe Connections (Russian: Безопасные связи (2020)
* Isolation (Russian: Изоляция (2020)
* Picky Days (Russian: Окаянные дни (2020)
* #InMaskShow (Russian: #вмаскешоу (2020)
* Locked (Russian: Взаперти (2020)
* Alice (Russian: Алиса (2020)
* Sveta from Another World 2 (Russian: Света с того света 2 (2021)
* Quarantine Stories (Russian: Истории карантина (2021)

### Television

[edit]

* "Connection Lost" (2015), episode 16 from the sixth season of Modern Family
* "My Life as a Vlog" (2022), episode 12 of season 34 of The Simpsons
* "The Network" / "A Rede" Portugal (2019), 13 episodes RTP2

## See also

[edit]

* Found footage
* Real time
* Screencast
* Films about computers

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "ההמצאה של כריס מרקר". Takriv (in Hebrew). 2025. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
2. ^ Welle (www.dw.com), Deutsche. "Тимур Бекмамбетов: Люди хотят смотреть фильмы "скринлайф" | DW | 25.02.2018". DW.COM (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-08-12.
3. ^ "Тимур Бекмамбетов снимет пять screenlife-фильмов для компании Universal". Российская газета (in Russian). 9 June 2020. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
4. ^ Timur Bekmambetov (22 April 2015). "Rules of the Screenmovie: The Unfriended Manifesto for the Digital Age". MovieMaker.
5. ^ Булгаков, Александр (2020-03-16). "Скринлайф: честная история создания одного ролика — Маркетинг на vc.ru". vc.ru. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
6. ^ Frater, Patrick (2021-06-15). "Screenlife Thriller 'The Pilot' Leads the Way for All Rights Entertainment". Variety. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
7. ^ "The History of Screenlife Films: 10 Key Movies in An Exciting New Genre". GQ. 2021-06-25. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
8. ^ Мамедов, Джейхун. ""Иди туда, где трава зеленая". Интервью с Тимуром Бекмамбетовым, предпринимателем" (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-08-12.
9. ^ "Что такое скринлайф, и как его снять". blog.kino.school. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
10. ^ Unlocking a Sundance Success: Why 'Searching' Was the Biggest Acquisition of 2018|IndieWire
11. ^ Searching (2018), retrieved 2021-08-12
12. ^ Grater, Tom (2020-02-13). "'Searching' Producer Timur Bekmambetov To Shoot World's First Vertical Format Blockbuster". Deadline. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
13. ^ "Семейные ценности 2.0: что ищет Бекмамбетов в "Поиске"". Газета.Ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-08-12.
14. ^ "Жизнь за экраном. Что такое Screen Life и чем так хорош новый киноязык?". kanobu.ru. 18 June 2019. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
15. ^ Bekmambetov, Timur (2015-04-22). "Rules of the Screenmovie: The Unfriended Manifesto for the Digital Age". MovieMaker Magazine. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
16. ^ "A screenlife riff on J-horror, Bloat is stuffed with clichés rather than scares". Av Club. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
17. ^ "'LifeHack' Review: Latest Movie In Computer Screenlife Genre Is Best Yet, A Rocking And Riveting Cryptocurrency Heist Film – SXSW". Deadline. Retrieved June 1, 2025.
18. ^ GOBLIN.exe, 2020-01-07
19. ^ Vesdream, Toni (2021-03-14), 2088 (Short, Thriller, Sci-Fi), Devoted Daydream, retrieved 2021-03-22
20. ^ Moving On..., 6 August 2020, retrieved 2023-03-11

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