The Desktop Film (Screenlife): A Filmmaker’s Guide to the 25 Most Asked Questions

​​​​​​1. What is a desktop documentary?

 

A desktop documentary is a documentary that explores the online world and is presented entirely through digital screens. Instead of filming the physical, exterior world with a camera, it documents the digital environment using screencasting technology. It observes the inhabitants, spaces, behaviors, and cultures that exist online. Much like a nature documentary explores underwater life using special equipment, a desktop documentary explores the digital world using screen recording. Since much of our work, attention, and social life now takes place online, this format treats the digital world as a legitimate environment worthy of documentation. It is arguably one of the most distinctly 21st-century forms of documentary filmmaking.

 

 

2. What is a screenlife film?

 

A screenlife film is primarily a fictional genre in which the entire story takes place on screens—computers, phones, or tablets. The audience sees video calls, text messages, browsing, notifications, and digital interactions as the film’s visual language. In this sense, the screen functions as the film’s location. Just as a Western is defined by a specific place and era, a screenlife film is defined by its setting: the screen itself. Characters exist through webcams, interfaces, and apps. The genre uses familiar digital behavior to tell narrative stories, usually unfolding in what appears to be real time.

 

 

3. What is a desktop film?

 

A desktop film is simply another name for a screenlife film. Both terms describe the same cinematic approach: films that take place entirely on digital screens. The difference between the terms is not artistic or technical, but linguistic. “Desktop film” emphasizes the computer interface, while “screenlife” emphasizes the lived experience of screens. In practice, they refer to the same genre. The coexistence of both terms reflects different attempts to define and brand a relatively new cinematic form rather than any real difference in form or content.

 

 

4. Are screenlife films and desktop films the same thing?

 

Yes, they are the same thing. The difference between “screenlife” and “desktop film” is purely a matter of branding. Different creators and cultural contexts promoted different names in an attempt to define—and implicitly claim—ownership over the genre. The term “screenlife” originated largely from Russian producers, while “desktop film” gained traction in the U.S. These parallel labels exist because people want to be associated with inventing or naming a new genre. Artistically and structurally, however, there is no meaningful difference between them.

 

 

5. How do screenlife movies work?

 

Screenlife films work like any other film: events are recorded, assembled, and edited to create meaning. The difference is that the recording happens via screens. Footage is captured using screencasting software, and actors are often filmed separately and composited into digital environments during post-production. Although screenlife films often appear to unfold in real time, this is usually an illusion created through editing. Just like traditional cinema, scenes are constructed through montage. The technology changes, but the filmmaking logic—record, manipulate, assemble—remains the same.

 

 

6. What was the first screenlife movie ever made?

 

There is no single “first” screenlife film. Like most artistic movements, screenlife emerged gradually as technology made it possible. Once computers had cameras and screencasting software existed, screen-based storytelling became inevitable. Multiple filmmakers experimented independently, and the form evolved collectively rather than through a single origin point. Attempts to declare a “first” screenlife film are usually marketing gestures. The genre coalesced over time, particularly in the late 2000s and early 2010s, as digital life became central to everyday experience.

 

 

7. What are the best screenlife films?

 

The best screenlife films are those that use the format as a genuine expressive tool rather than a gimmick. Strong examples explore digital culture, human behavior online, and our relationship with screens. Weak examples rely solely on novelty. Truly effective screenlife films are rare, because they require both technical control and thematic depth. When the format is used to reflect on how digital life shapes identity, intimacy, fear, or memory, it becomes powerful cinema. When it is used merely to appear “new,” it quickly feels empty.

 

 

8. What are some examples of desktop documentaries?

 

Examples of desktop documentaries include The Invention of Chris Marker and Transformers: The Premake. These films use screen-based material—online videos, archives, interfaces—to reflect on media, authorship, and digital culture. Rather than documenting physical events, they document how images circulate, how media is consumed, and how meaning is constructed online. These works demonstrate how the desktop documentary can critically examine our relationship with screens and media ecosystems rather than simply using the format as a stylistic trick.

 

 

9. How do you make a screenlife film?

 

You make a screenlife film by recording a screen. Screencasting software replaces the traditional camera. Everything that appears on the screen—video calls, browsing, messages, files—becomes your footage. After recording, the material is edited like any other film. Instead of filming the external world, you film the digital one. The process is technically simple, but creatively demanding. The challenge is not how to record the screen, but how to use it meaningfully to tell a story.

 

 

10. What equipment do you need to make a desktop film?

 

All you need to make a desktop film is a computer with screencasting software. That’s it. You don’t need a camera, lights, sets, or locations. The most important requirement is not equipment but an idea. Desktop filmmaking lowers technical barriers, which means the creative responsibility increases. The limitation forces clarity of thought. If you rely on equipment, you miss the point. The format exists precisely because the tools are already embedded in everyday digital life.

 

 

11. How are screenlife films filmed?

 

Screenlife films are filmed primarily using screencasting software that records what happens on a screen. In some cases, real cameras are used to film actors, and the footage is later integrated into digital interfaces. However, the defining element is screen capture. The screen itself becomes the camera. Everything else—video compositing, sound design, editing—supports that core recording method.

 

 

12. Why are screenlife films so popular?

 

Screenlife films feel intimate because they depict a world we know intimately: our own screens. We spend hours every day navigating digital interfaces, usually from a private, first-person perspective. Watching someone else’s screen creates a strange mix of familiarity and distance. It feels personal but revealing. This familiarity makes the format emotionally effective, even when the story is simple. Screenlife films resonate because they reflect how we actually experience much of contemporary life.

 

 

13. Why are so many screenlife films horror films?

 

Horror is often the first genre to adopt new technologies. Screenlife filmmaking is cheap, immediate, and realistic—qualities that suit horror perfectly. Like found footage, it creates intimacy and plausibility. You don’t need special effects or elaborate setups, just a screen and a situation. Digital spaces also naturally lend themselves to fear: isolation, surveillance, anonymity, and intrusion. Horror thrives in environments where control feels fragile, and screens provide exactly that.

 

 

14. Are screenlife films cheap to make?

 

Yes, screenlife films are among the cheapest films to produce. You usually don’t need a camera, locations, sets, or large crews. A laptop is often enough. The main cost is time, especially in post-production, where editing and compositing can be complex. Financially, however, the barrier to entry is extremely low compared to traditional filmmaking. This accessibility is one reason the genre has proliferated so quickly.

 

 

15. Who invented the screenlife film format?

 

No single person invented the screenlife format. It emerged naturally alongside screencasting technology and self-recording tools. Once people could record their own screens, using that capability for storytelling was inevitable. Just as no one “invented” documentary the moment a camera existed, no one invented screenlife. The format is a technological consequence, not an authored invention.

 

 

16. What are the rules of a screenlife movie?

 

The core rule of screenlife is that the story unfolds on screens. The audience sees what happens on the screen and rarely leaves it. The screen is the location. This is comparable to how Westerns are defined by geography and era. Screenlife films typically avoid cutting away to an external viewpoint. Everything meaningful happens within the digital interface.

 

 

17. How do you write a screenplay for a screenlife film?

 

You write a screenlife screenplay much like any other, but you describe what happens on the screen rather than in physical space. Scenes focus on interfaces, windows, messages, and video feeds. Instead of traditional location headings, the script may reference platforms or screens. Dialogue remains dialogue. The main difference is visual description: you write what the viewer sees on the screen and how the digital environment changes.

 

 

18. Can documentaries be made in screenlife format?

 

Yes, and the format is especially suited to documentaries. The digital world is vast, underexplored, and full of stories that exist only online. Desktop documentaries can examine digital labor, online communities, media circulation, and virtual identities. Because the format is inexpensive and flexible, it invites experimentation. Many contemporary subjects can only be fully understood by documenting their digital environments directly.

 

 

19. What is desktop cinema?

 

Desktop cinema refers to films whose primary visual world is the screen. It can include fiction, documentary, or experimental work. Desktop cinema treats the screen not just as a tool, but as a subject and environment. It is cinema about the digital world and cinema made within it. In that sense, it may be the most distinctly contemporary form of cinema available today.

 

 

20. What is the difference between found footage and screenlife films?

 

Found footage can depict anything and is defined by the idea that the footage was “discovered.” Screenlife films are defined by their setting: the screen. Not all screenlife films are found footage, and not all found footage films are screen-based. Some screenlife films use a found-footage framing, but many do not. The overlap is partial, not total.

 

 

21. Are screenlife films considered real cinema?

 

Screenlife films are real cinema when they are good cinema. Like any genre, the format produces both trivial and serious work. Gimmicky screenlife films deserve little attention. But when the format is used thoughtfully, the result is unquestionably cinema. The medium does not determine legitimacy—the execution does.

 

 

22. What software is used to make screenlife films?

 

The essential software used in screenlife filmmaking is screencasting software, which records the screen itself. This replaces the traditional camera. Editing software is then used to assemble the footage. The exact tools matter less than the method: recording and shaping screen-based material into a film.

 

 

23. Can screenlife films be interactive?

 

No. Once a film becomes interactive, it is no longer a film—it becomes a game or another form of new media. Films are non-interactive by definition. Screenlife films may depict interactive environments, but the viewing experience itself remains fixed.

 

 

24. Are there screenlife films on Netflix or streaming platforms?

 

Yes. Several feature-length screenlife films made in the 2010s found distribution through major streaming platforms, including Netflix. During that period, platforms were actively acquiring independent cinema. Some of those titles remain available today, though availability changes over time.

 

 

25. Is screenlife the future of filmmaking?

 

Screenlife is not the future of all filmmaking—it is one genre. But it may be the most accurate cinematic representation of contemporary life. It explores a digital universe that increasingly dominates human attention and experience, yet remains underrepresented in cinema. Its potential lies in its ability to reflect who we are, how we live, and how consciousness itself is shaped in the 21st century.