Binary

A short film about the tension between the stability we find in monogamy and our tendency towards promiscuity.
A young girl sees her love life unravel online as the clues pile up. She needs to know, and whatever she finds out will force her to make a decision.

Synopsis
(Spoiler Alert)

Against the stunning backdrop of Sydney waking up we see Valentina's digital life on screen as she starts her day: the screen of her iPhone pops up with the alarm, she hits snooze and oversleeps, then tweets: I just ran 3 k's!!! Nah, just kidding, I ate a muffin #diet #amnotbytheway. As the action unfolds we see Valentina’s phone while she uses Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, sends texts and makes and receives phone calls; in the background we see the life of the city as a succession of time lapses from sunrise to sunset.

Her Facebook profile comes up, she looks like a fun person: she's gorgeous, has a boy friend, likes True Detective and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. She updates her status, makes comments and scrolls around Facebook until she finds a picture of Chris, her boyfriend, with another girl. It has been posted by a mutual friend and although he just has his hand across her waist there’s something about the way her hand rests on his chest, about the way they smile. Both of them have been tagged, her name is Natalie Swinton.

Suspicious, she navigates to the picture of Chris and the girl she had found on Chris' timeline. Valentina clicks on the girl's name, Natalie Swinton, and looks at her profile : she's cute and has a killer body, she works as a model. Valentina finds an album with other pictures obviously taken that same night, some have Chris in them. She finds another picture: it's a very casual situation among friends, but Chris is caressing her face in a way that is hard to ignore. Dejected, Valentina goes for drinks with Paul, a guy she invites through Snapchat, and another friend. She posts pictures on Facebook afterwards: they look like they are having a great time.

Chris calls and Valentina picks up: for the first time in the film we see her in full live action. She's sitting on her bed, speaking into her iPhone, and begs 'just tell me the truth, ok?' 'Ok, what do you want to know?' 'Did you fuck her?' 'yes'

They talk about the decadence of their relationship after the happy times: the boredom, the things not said, the desire felt for other people. They wonder how they came to drift so far apart without noticing, without at least talking about it. Valentina says she realises now that when she fell in love with him it wasn't really him 'I was falling in love wih some imaginary guy that I wanted you to be, but you never were' 'so now what?' he asks 'now we stop' she replies' 'you're gonna call me tomorrow' he says with anger. 'Things change' She hangs up.

She is lying on her bed when she receives a text from Paul, the guy she had invited for drinks, it's a picture of them at the pub 'don't we look gorgeous?' it reads. 'I do, u need a haircut' she replies. He calls, she picks up and says 'I broke up with Chris just now' 'oh, anything to do with us?’ asks Paul.
As they talk it becomes clear that Valentina herself was seeing Paul outside of her relationship with Chris. She feels guilty for having lied, specially for taking him on a guilt trip for doing the exact same thing she has been doing. She says 'it's not just guilty, I feel sad. I mean, I'm not saying people shouldn't fuck around, do what you want, but why pretend?' Paul replies 'I don't know, I actually find the sneaking around kind of fun' 'so did I' she says. Paul invites to her place but she declines, as they say good bye it is clear that Valentina is breaking up with him as well.

The following morning Valentina makes a status update on Facebook 'Just realised: things don't change, I do'