I discovered the idea of windscreen cinema on a drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas last summer.  I sat in the front passenger seat all the way and became fascinated by how the landscape moved and changed before me, framed by the shape of the windscreen.

What was real and what was not real as we travelled in our air-conditioned can?  We sat, gazing at the desert road stretching out before us, to the horizon and beyond…  Were we just voyeurs, or did we have a part to play in the story of this landscape? 

Windscreen                                     ↔                                                     Cinema Screen

Looking back now, months later, at the pictures that I took on that journey I’ve come to the conclusion that the following are the similarities shared by viewing a windscreen and a cinema screen:

•       The pictures move
•       The shot is framed
•       The soundtrack is ambient and occurs in real time
•       But a further layer of sound can be added
•       You can bring along snacks and drinks
•       And also your loved ones
•       These people you see on screen are just acting
•       What you see is emotionally involving
•       But it is not real
•       The image you see stretches away into infinity
•       Something mysterious exists beyond the frame of the shot
•       But it is not real
•       The narrative continues even after you’ve finished watching
•       The journey is sometimes interesting and at other times tedious
•       You can feel as if the whole thing is getting nowhere
•       But eventually you arrive somewhere
•       You can talk about what you’ve seen when it is over