Video review: Casebook

Magazines are often praised for using multiple entry points to bring readers into a story – when the headline, subhead, text, images and captions are all working together they can present a complex story in its entirety for the reader to understand and enjoy. Casebook isn’t interested in that type of storytelling.

A print magazine created by video studio Topsafe, it sets out to create “an impressionistic view of contemporary independent film-making in Britain and beyond”, and consists mainly of film stills paired with minimal text to create a sense of the excitement and oddness that’s at the heart of the work they showcase. Sometimes links are provided encouraging the reader to become viewer and watch the films for themselves, but just as often there’s no handy url as payoff, and I really enjoyed being led into this strange and mysterious world. It’s a high wire act of magazine making that can easily go wrong, but Casebook carries it all off with such confidence that I was totally won over.

Take a look at the video below to see a flick through for yourself, then head over to Topsafe to see some of the AV work for yourself.

Two-Minute Magazines #144: Casebook from Steven Watson on Vimeo.

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