Doppelgang



Doppelgang is the third feature film from Mike Barkhoff. Released on May 27th, 2021, it is an extensive version of his previously released short film of the same name, which was Episode 209 of "Chapters."

After having edited a fifty-five minute cut and being unsatisfied with it - which lead to the release of a short film in October 2019, Barkhoff took advice from peers to attempt to recreate a full cut due to him likely just being "overly self critical".

Premise
A fictional version of Mike Barkhoff battles off his demons, which are variations of himself at different ages and points in his career.

Plot
Mike Barkhoff sits at his desk when he hears voices, unheard by the viewer. He stands up to investigate and brightens the room, asking "Who's there?"

His daily routine consists of drinking energy drinks and alcohol after he goes to work each day, but he always makes time to work on his art - currently, he is editing Windfall and trying to figure out what to do next.

Due to his newfound reclusive nature, his friends try to get ahold of him, but he never replies to them. He continues hearing voices and confronts one to find his sixteen year old self on one occasion, who calls the present day him "foolish" for choosing filmmaking over a former girlfriend.

On another occasion, he meets his eighteen year old self, who is mad because of a sequel to INFINITE. having been written, as, when he was eighteen, he said he had no intention for a sequel.

Becoming frightened by these visions and going mad, he moves his office away from the occurrences and sets up cameras to try and capture any odd incidents. In a seance-like attempt that leads nowhere, he asks the variations of himself to "show themselves".

Another variation of Mike that arrives is a nineteen year old Mike, who has a calm and supportive demeanor unlike the others and asks "What comes after "INFINITE."?.

Mike gets drawn to a point of crazy, which caps off when he meets an elder version of himself who tells him that it's only going to get worse with age. He goes downstairs and eggs the variations of himself on, leading to them all following him upstairs. He grabs a knife and confronts them in the hallway, telling them to leave.

A bloodied paper towel lies in the garbage, and Mike sits on the steps of his basement staircase, knife in hand, blood on wrist, slowly loosing consciousness. All of his addictions float across screen in a prolonged dolly cam shot that concludes the film. This ends with a notebook, opened up to a started but unfinished journal entry, which reads "10.2.12".

Cast
Mike Barkhoff as Himself

Conner Paulsen as Himself

Short Film Version
Barkhoff decided to release the short film for Episode 9's slot in "Chapters: Atrocity Exhibitions" rather than the full length film. This made the film's time scale from fifty-five to nine minutes.

The short film included a "portion of the scenes but the plot spoon fed to you as it would play out", as Barkhoff explained.

Marketing
Barkhoff announced the film April 30th, 2021, during the Premiere of "Death, My Darling" in the Live Chat towards that film's end.

A little more than 10 days from release, Live Free published a Filmlocal article that sees Barkhoff being asked questions via email by Alfred Clarke, a subscriber and critic of their work. In it, Barkhoff confirmed that there won't be any trailers released for the film and described the film as an "album".

The film was shared upon release. Little more than a week before, it was promoted using it's poster. It had no trailer, something even Windfall had, though released after the debut of that film. It did, however, have an exclusive clip upon purchase from the Live Free store.

On May 27th, following Eminem announcing the release of his remix to previously released song Killer, Barkhoff began advertising the film, deleting the previous campaign to show support to his idol, telling his audience to "stream Em first, then watch Doppelgang." He expressed his excitement for having released something the same day as Eminem. He even moved Doppelgang's release forward five minutes so it didn't drop at the exact same time as the song, wanting the song to have the top of the hour to itself.

Reception
The short film of the same name received praise for it's camerawork and the 4D shot instilled in the third quarter of the film. Many have deemed it Barkhoff's "best oddity yet." The full length received stellar reviews and amassed over 200 views in it's first twelve hours. Many likingly compared it to "The Butterfly Effect", "Donnie Darko", "The Double", and "Enemy", all films Barkhoff based the thesis off of. Clarke Accloades declared it Barkhoff's third classic film - a feat, considering it was his third film released. It received a 9.1/10 on IMDb upon debut as well.

Again, UGK David showed support to the film, declaring it Barkhoff's best and noting the usage of other films, comparing to how an album samples prior music releases.

Documentary
A documentary was released an hour prior to the film's release, entitled "The Art Of Art." In it, Barkhoff discusses his usage of alcohol which drove the film to be much different than intended, as well as his original motive to be "happy" and "fully not depressed" by the time he finished the film's script, which, even after filming, remains incomplete.

At the end of the documentary, Barkhoff reveals he is taking a personal hiatus to help friends accomplish their goals before he moves forward to try and accomplish his next goals, which is also to make his fourth film more "unique" and "materialized".

Analysis
Several viewers have noted the similarities between "Butterfly Effect" and "Donnie Darko", to Barkhoff dying at the end and the oddities in the film. However, it has been noted that the contrast lies within the fact Barkhoff's fictional character kills himself for "selfish" reasons in contrast to the aforementioned films.

The use of the song "Blackfly" at the end was considered by many as Barkhoff's response to criticism, and is viewed as Barkhoff's way of essentially stating "Regardless where you go as an artist, critics follow you."

The phone calls Barkhoff makes are all one sided, with you only hearing Barkhoff's voice, and the fact Skyler Neher was cut from the short film and feature film make many think it was an artistic choice with greater meaning. Noted is that Conner Paulsen's voice is heard in the form of a voicemail.

The ending of the film resembles INFINITE.'s opening, with the prolonged camera pan. In this film, it mimics Chapters. (Season 2)'s themes of addictions - due to it being made as part of the season as well as a full length film - and shows all of Barkhoff's addictions, from literal to metaphorical - a vape device, a camera, etc. This scene ends with an unfinished journal entry, which is a subtle nod to brother episode of Chapters.' Second Season, Entry, but is also displaying Barkhoff's "addiction" to writing.

Many found this odd, however, due to the journal entry being unfinished. The suggestions for this meaning deduce it is possible that Barkhoff is showing regret for not remembering as much as he wanted to at his age for the moments as a young filmmaker. It has also been discussed that it potentially means that Barkhoff feels as if once he dies all of his life's meaning and work will become null.

Another scene in the film does show Barkhoff typing a bibliography in which he admits that he has considered faking a disease to make friends work for him for free to make movies more often and discusses metaphors of being an artist. These mixed in with the aforementioned paragraph's last sentence have also been suggested he possibly goes to hell in the fictional film and is subject to not remembering what made him so happy to begin with.

It should also be noted that the "journal entry" bares familiarity to his first short film, Timeline (2013) and the notebooks of journal entries found there. Also, Barkhoff began working on that film's script and slowly filming it in the latter half of 2012, which fits with October. Due to this, some have digested that perhaps it means (fictionalized, in the film) Barkhoff was going through his earlier props - a literal notebook used for filming - to try and reminisce or had found a dated story treatment from the film's production log that went unfinished.

The film's usage of blinking lights has also been noted - from the vape charging to the AC at night glowing and flickering a vibrant neon green. Many have suggested these are meant to be polar opposites. One device, the AC, is vital for living while the other, the vape, is simply a poison that you become addicted to. One, the latter, acts as a vice, and the other is something you can easily become so used to that you forget to be grateful for.

The short story element of the egg has been seen as Barkhoff breaking himself on an outside level, injuring his person, to try and get back his inside sanity.

The other short story segment of the distracted artist and his piano, has been seen as Barkhoff's direct way of showing how his fictional character's work ethic has been, rather in a non fictional perspective.