The lightbulb slowly swung back and forth, caught in a draft from the wall.
Rondell pulled the camcorder down from the lightbulb and focused it on the mirror.
He was an independent filmmaker, and he was filming his latest film, which he simply called Experimental Film. His latest film didn't have a story yet, but lately, he had been having strange hallucinations (one of them being the film tape at the ATM), each one somehow giving him a message about his film, and what it should be about.
Rondell looked through the camera at the mirror.
The mirror that covered the medicine cabinet which contained the medication that Rondell hadn't taken for weeks. His Ritalin, his Zoloft, his Prozac, his Clozaril, even his Asprin. That time was when his hallucinations had started becoming more frequent, and more distinctive, like they were telling him a message.
The message that convinced him to stop taking his medication. It was also one that told him to make a new movie called Experimental Film. The hallucinations would sort out what it was going to be about.
The image of himself on the mirror reflected onto the camera lens, which reflected onto the mirror, which reflected onto the lens, which reflected onto the mirror, and the image on Rondell pretty much hit Rondell's eyes an un-ending amount of times, making it his second experience with infinity in that day.
And then a wave of colour fell over him—a strange, dream-like image, but the entire thing wasn't real, it was drawn in cartoon, which helped him remember it wasn't real. It was the strange hallucinations he had been seeing.
It was the image of a football field. A strange thing was riding across the field: a skull with green tentacles coming out of it, riding a penny-farthing. There were dozens of fans filling the bleachers holding up signs, and when all put together, they formed the word YEAH. And then the signs were flipped over to the other side to form the image of a cup of coffee. And then, somehow, they flipped over to the other side not to form YEAH but to form a drawing of a mountain range behind a lake, with several spruce trees scattered about.
And then Rondell found himself in the cartoon mountain range, two men standing in front of him.
"Yeah," said the first one.
"Film," said the second one.
They were talking about the film he was making. Before he could ask them what they meant, Rondell found himself gone again.
And then there was a flash of colours. Rondell found himself looking at the strangest image yet; a line of psychedelic-coloured cowboys, standing behind a green donkey wearing a red banner over its back reading YEAH!
Rondell found himself back at the ATM.
CHECK BALANCE?
CHECK BALANCE?
CHECK BALANCE?
Suddenly, another hallucination. Rondell found himself in a cartoon arctic, a huge chunk of icy ground lying jagged across the frigid water. And then a row of 16 ATM's suddenly appeared on the ice out of nowhere. There was a single letter on each one of them, spelling out a message to him. The message that confused, tormented and haunted him.
EXPERIMENTALFILM