Corona State [Cameron Chin, USA, 2021]

In the Covid era, everything is dark and apocalyptic; bad news and pessimistic predictions about the near future invade media and day-to-day life. This is not the case in Corona State. In this short film, director Cameron Chin tells a story about the lockdown from a funny and interesting perspective.

The picture is entirely shot indoors. In the first scene, we see Jake (Damoun Ferry), lying on his sofa when he is interrupted by a strange voice. From that moment, tension, menace, and hostility fill the room, as the voice of a police officer asks Jake to leave his house with the most valuable possession anyone could have during the curfew: toilet paper.

This light-hearted argument works well in its context and is reinforced by some contrasts made between the movie’s funny voice and the dark editing. Although in some cases the technique is rudimentary, lights and shadows are nicely used to create a dark image, but with certain colour saturation, in order not to lose that cheerful atmosphere. One aspect of video editing that could be improved is the use of more multicam recording, always helpful and very effective in comedy movies.

Corona State is an uninhibited short movie that tries to make fun of the misery. This approach to the pandemic is needed, and Chin attempts to deal with a tense situation by laughing at it.