【Peter Baumgartner】

LONDON -- A young woman sits cross-legged on Peter Baumgartnerher bed, staring into the jaunty-angled camera lens and moaning about her fruitless hunt for a job.

The words "Job search got me like" appear on the screen as she narrows her eyes and presses her fingers to her temples. It looks like any other video you might see popping up on Snapchat -- and that's exactly what makes British student Trim Lamba's short film so damn effective.

SEE ALSO: What kind of Snapchatter are you?

"I am fascinated by our use of social-media," Lamba said. "Particularly, the ‘story’ function. It willingly invites us to 'create' our lives through a succession of images and videos stitched together for others to watch.

"Often, we skew this to present our most joyous and attractive selves."

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Lamba's seven-minute film Cracked Screenis told entirely through a series of Snaps. Through a sequence of emoji-covered vertical videos, we watch the main character partying, going to the gym, and meeting up with friends in town.

The whole sequence is very realistic, and that makes it all the more disturbing when things suddenly take a dark turn halfway through the film.

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"I wanted to test the resilience of the social avatar when faced with unpleasantness," continued Lamba. "Our aim then was to bring together social media and cinema in a synthesis that felt authentic, searing and potentially illuminating."

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Lamba said he worked closely with actress Chantelle Levene on the main character's story.

"It was important to problematise and continually interrogate her reliability," he said. "For this, we introduced bumps into the narrative -- writing in scenes to suggest something peculiar and simmering was happening and being strategically withheld from the viewer."

Cracked Screenhas been well-received so far. Lamba's been invited to screen the film around London, and it will be featured as Short of the Week on Vimeo from Friday 10 February.

"Watching this style of film projected on to a big screen -- rather than the confines of your phone -- makes for an unusual but unique viewing experience," Lamba said.

It's worth noting that this isn't the first time film-makers have experimented with Snapchat. In 2016, writer/director Hannah Macpherson borrowed the Snapchat account of YouTube star Andrea Russett to create a five-day, real-time horror film in the style of The Blair Witch Project.

As social media becomes increasingly ingrained in our day-to-day lives, it seems likely that there will be more and more experiments like this.

"The digital world has democratised the ways we produce and consume content," Lamba said. "I would encourage other filmmakers to engage with it. This experimental style of filmmaking challenges our conception of what we deem 'cinematic' -- an idea that should intrigue and propel us all."

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