Had a rental car over the weekend that seemed to have been cleaned in a rush – and that is how I discovered a mysterious little piece of film in there.
Everybody loves a rental car, or at least I do. Getting to know a whole new ride, drive it, feel it, check out the design of all the buttons and the various pockets. And if you’re treated with an upgrade to a massive station wagon, there’s even more to check out.
This time, the car was good, but it wasn’t very clean. There was some grime on the inside of the windshield, and that thin blue layer of old smoke. The interior fittings were not wiped down everywhere. And there was something laying in that tray next to my seat.
It was roughly three frames in a 35 mm format of a digitally animated film, with a continuous sound track waveform at the side and tiny Dolby signs in between the perforations. The film had obviously been cut by hand, since the cuts were not straight.
In the frames, there’s a yellow sports car driving towards the observer. The car looks pretty 80s, with a spoiler in the back, decals on the hood and a coon tail on the antenna. Behind the wheel is a seemingly pretty tall driver in a white suit and dark sunglasses.
It looks to me like the car is in pursuit of the observer, just crossing the yellow finishing line on a black race track which lies in a nondescript landscape. Colorful bows frame the track, there are star-studded balls in the sky and purple palm trees on the horizon.
What does it all mean?! When or where is it from? Is it a video game? Why is it on 35 mm film? Is it important? Or top secret? Ot not at all? Who left it in the rental car – and why? Just for me to find it and become so mesmerized I do a scan and a blog post about it?
Feel free to enlighten me on this rental car remnant if you can in any way whatsoever.