Jamin Winans is an American filmmaker, writer, editor and music composer. As well as working on films, he has contributed to commercials, and along with his wife created Double Edge Films in 1998. He released his first two short films, Blanston and The Maze in 2003; two years later releasing his short film Spin, winning over forty festival awards at over eighty festivals worldwide. His first feature was released later the same year, “11:59” premiered at the 2005 “Montreal World Film Festival”, winning several Best Feature, Audience and Editing awards at various festivals globally.
His recent work consists of Ink and Uncle Jack, the latter having over 100,000 hits on YouTube.
Reception & Audience
Released in 2005, “Spin”, received critical acclaim upon its debut, winning it over forty awards at over eighty festivals worldwide. The YouTube video for this short film currently has just fewer than 3 million hits, and was on the front page of Recafe.net.
“A mysterious DJ is sent to a busy city block to mend a series of tragic events that occur in our everyday lives.” Is the tagline/plot summary for this short film and is often cited along with it, which may attract younger viewers - primarily teenagers and people in their 20s. The short film received critical acclaim online, going viral back in 2006. The online community as a whole consists of mainly younger generations, adding to the theory that this film’s demographic is rather young.
Narrative
The film opens to a mysterious DJ presumably being transported to an alleyway, by falling from the sky. After picking himself up, he finds himself at a busy city block where he sets up his seemingly standard set of turntables. He stands unusually calm, whilst a crowd gathers round a cyclist who’s been knocked to the ground through a collision with a car. As he slams his fingers down upon and rewinds one of the records, the crowd freezes and begins to “rewind”, as if time itself is being rewound. He continues to rewind time back to the point before the cyclist is hit by the car; he plays the scene over several times until he identifies the cause of the accident. A basketball falls out of a mother’s grocery bag, rolling idly across the pavement into the path of the cyclist. The DJ observes this, then allows the “scene” to play so that the ball rolls towards the cyclist, at which point he twists a dial on his turntables, modifying the ball’s motion path so that it does not cause the crash. The DJ, pleased with his work, packs up his turntables and begins to depart the scene, until he sees the ball roll into the course of a businessman, who falls into an elderly man who’s pushing his wife in a wheelchair, making him lose control and send his wife hurtling into the course of the car. The DJ sets up his turntables again, re-modifying the balls motion path so that it no longer collides with either the cyclist or the businessman. Pleased, he picks up his turntables and again begins to depart. However this time, the ball sets off a chain reaction leading to a series of unfortunate events concluding in the city block being blown up. The DJ realises that this situation will take great thought, and he essentially tapped into the lives of all the people in the scene, so that he may find out who they really were, and what they needed. This time, not only did he prevent the death/casualties of the people in the scene, he changed them for the better by bringing the community together via a chain reaction of events. He walks off for what he believes is the final time, until the mother’s young daughter drops her doll, breaking it. The DJ breaks the fourth wall here, staring dead at the camera as if to say “Really?!”, he sets up his “timetables” once more so that he may rewind time to before she breaks the doll. Then, he sprints away from the city block before another minor, trivial inconvenience occurs, requiring his help.
I believe that the deeper meaning behind this film is that the DJ symbolises all entertainers. The chaos which unfolds without him is the typical state of life. His minor modification represents the small effect which mediocre entertainment has upon society. The final change of events, including the sublime life-saving, represents the effects which a truly magnificent artist can have upon humanity when their craft is well-executed. Delving deeper, we could devise that the DJ’s good, but unsuccessful first intentions represents people in general attempting to resolve situations via solutions which may or may not apply to that given circumstance. His initial answers actually resulted in a worse set of events than what happened without his interruption, and only after analysing the people in the scene could he completely comprehend their needs. Only then was he able to produce a solution which harmonised all of their lives simultaneously, creating an ersatz of community in the park, an idealistic, utopian, loving community.
Textual Analysis
Non-diagetic ominous music dominates the diagetic noises of car horns during the opening medium-long shot, in which the camera pans across and steadies upon a parking spot at the end of an alleyway. Centralised by the camera is a circle of light in the otherwise shadowed alleyway, which the DJ falls into from above, off-screen. As he falls, the non-diagetic music builds up and the beat drops as he lands on the ground. The act of landing in the circle could be a metaphor for entertainers such as DJs always finding themselves in the spotlight.
As he arrives at the main location of the film, he observes the scene and begins to unpack and setup his turntables. This is shown via quick cuts of him unclipping the cases, opening them up, setting up the tripod stand, inserting a cord and positioning the needle. Some amplified diagetic noises of him setting up the turntable is slightly audible above the loud non-diagetic beat which has dominated the film from the start. These quick, extreme close-up cuts along with the heavy beat creates a slightly hectic atmosphere, personified by a crowd consisting of an elderly couple, a lawyer, a mother and her child, gangsters, a drug addict, his dealer and a break-dancing philosophy student, gathering round a cyclist post-collision with a car.
The DJ, witnessing the scene before him, slams his fingers down on the record which simultaneously does two things. Firstly, time freezes in the film. People are literally frozen mid-action, showing us that the DJ is performing an impossible feat through the use of his magical “timetables”. Secondly, the non-diagetic beat stops, creating a serene atmosphere in contrast to the prior shot. As he then rewinds the record, we can hear the diagetic noise of the record being scratched along with a new non-diagetic beat, replacing the previous “hectic “one. This new beat is more calculated and controlled, symbolising the DJ’s actions and thought process.
His new answer to the situation is perfect, the community is harmonised and now accompanied by a non-diagetic, soft, melodic beat. Witnessing the pleasant community and interactions occurring around him, the drug dealer is inspired to donate his profits to the break-dancing Philosophy student, surprising even the DJ. The camera cuts to a medium shot of the DJ, so we can see his face, which expresses a pleasant surprise.
The final shot injects comic relief into a film which has some underlying serious messages. It’s a long shot of the DJ running away from the scene, before another problem arises, requiring his help.
Production Trivia
Jamin Winans, the director, also composed the musical score for this short film.
Also, there is product placement for Myspace.com, advertised on the breakdancer’s vest.
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