Doppelgang

Doppelgang is an American expieremental dark sci-fi self-reflective film. Serving as the third film from Mike Barkhoff, it was released in May 2021. The film stars Barkhoff as himself, with the only other actors - all friends and prior collaborators of Barkhoff's - all featuring as strictly cameos done via voiceover.

Production

The film was written in 2019 by Barkhoff after being inspired by the trailer for The Joker. Barkhoff, going through a difficult breakup, wrote the film as a type of self challenge, to be "happy again" (in his own words) by the time the script was finished. Barkhoff filmed the unfinished script, shelved due to his goal becoming misplaced, in early 2019 to the third quarter of the same year sporadically, whilst struggling depression and the unwillingness to make the film. The film rushed into production due to COVID-19 forcing Barkhoff's other film, I Give It A Year, to cancel filming.

Barkhoff made usage of a camera technique he conceived in 2015. He filmed a sequence for his film of the same year, Timeline, with two cameras, one measuring behind what the first aspect ratio of the two cameras was when divided (in inches), and one measuring upwards what the second aspect ratio was when added up and divided. Barkhoff's thought is this would create 4K. When editing Timeline, the footage of one camera was corrupted, as it was done on a GoPro, a trait that camera is notorious for. Not having time for a reshoot, Barkhoff shelved the idea for later, as it wouldn't fit any of his upcoming projects.

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