8 May 16-22, 2024 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | News | letters | coNteNts | Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | “We weren’t really even setting out to make what I would call traditional film, or we didn’t even really know if it was a film. It was kind of an attempt to see what comes after normal, narrative film,” Korine says. “My desire is always to create things that are more based on a kind of vibe than a logic. So it really felt like something I hadn’t seen or experienced. And then incorporat- ing all the kind of the different elements on top of thermal really was, like, gamifying the whole concept.” Korine and his team at EDGLRD made significant alterations to the infrared foot- age they shot, incorporating technology such as AI image generation filters and movement-tracking technology. “We basi- cally had the base layer of infrared. And that would always constantly shift de- pending on where we were shooting, the light, the character’s response to heat, the character’s physical form. So it would shift, and then in post-production, we would start to inte- grate, obviously, the VFX and AI into the action, into the layer. So it’s a kind of com- posite.” “What you get out of the cameras is just a map of temperature,” says Joao Rosa, a creative director at EDG- LRD who worked on VFX for the film. “We realized that that kind of imagery hits the brain very differently from, let’s say, normal footage. So from then on, it was really adding layers on top.” That’s also how they decided to incorpo- rate AI elements, which Rosa says they mostly programmed themselves. “We weren’t using consumer AI tools; we were developing our own. So it was about patching together different protocols like, for example, a facial recognition protocol from a security camera together with a pose estimation. These are things that are not necessarily meant for en- tertainment or film that we were putting to- gether as a big code that helped us achieve something that’s not what you typically see when you talk about AI.” EDGLRD’s marketing around Aggro Dr1ft has also been unconventional. The indepen- dent company launched the campaign around the film with a Boiler Room rave at El Palenque in Little Havana during Miami Art Week. Korine himself DJed while wearing a mask resembling BO’s demon face from the film, flanked by a trio of girls with neon green hair that otherwise resembled Sadako/Sa- mara from The Ring. Swedish rapper Yung Lean and MPC wizard Araabmuzik, who composed the film’s menacing score, also provided music, and Boca Raton rapper BLP Kosher also made an appearance at the rave. Korine’s art ex- ploits are also tied to the film; his two-part “Aggressive Dr1fter” exhibition series fea- tures paintings based on the film. As for the film it- self, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year to mass walkouts, you can see it at a regular movie theater. The film is screening at O Cinema South Beach and dozens of other arthouses across the country. Or you could wait and see if EDGLRD decides to bring it to a strip club, which in some ways, is an ideal setting for such a hyper-stimulating and shamelessly mythically crass piece of media. The company launched the film’s theatrical campaign at Crazy Girls in Los Angeles, and Korine hasn’t ruled out further screenings at some of Miami’s famed cabarets. “Maybe we’ll do it in Tootsies or Booby Trap,” he says. “I feel like that would be a great experience.” Aggro Dr1ft. Screening at O Cinema South Beach, 1130 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; 786-471-3269; o-cinema.org. Tickets cost $10 to $12.50. [email protected] “I ALWAYS JUST FELT LIKE FLORIDA, BUT MIAMI IN PARTICULAR WAS, I GUESS IT’S PART OF AMERICA, BUT IT FEELS LIKE ITS OWN WORLD.” Harmony Korine’s 2012 film Spring Breakers was his first Florida-set narrative feature. A24 photo Reel Genius from p7
