SCPA-EN-00268 Report

Item #: SCPA-EN-00268

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures:
SCPA-EN-00268 is to be kept in a standard containment locker with temperature and humidity control. Access to SCPA-EN-00268 is restricted to Level 2 personnel with written permission from at least one Level 3 personnel. Any viewing of SCPA-EN-00268 for research purposes must be approved by at least two Level 3 personnel and monitored for any possible temporal disruptions.

Description:
SCPA-EN-00268 is a 16mm film reel contained within a standard plastic casing. The label on the casing identifies the title of the short film as "Chronoclysmic," with no other production, distribution, or exhibition credits visible. The film runs approximately five minutes in length with no audio track, and begins with a countdown leader before a static shot of a generic, anonymous city street corner in what appears to be the late 1930s or early 1940s. After approximately twenty seconds, a brief animated sequence of a grid of numerical digits is superimposed over the image, which idiosyncratically numbers the frames of the remainder of the film. There are no credits, copyright notices, or other forms of identification on the print. The picture quality is exceptional, and the black and white photography, lighting, and direction are of professional caliber.

Approximately one minute into the reel, pedestrians, cars, and other objects begin to stutter and jump within the frame, with their movements rapidly repeating and reversing. The effect throughout the subsequent four minutes continues to intensify, eventually degenerating into a chaotic, rapid-fire level of choppy, grid-like documentation of a time and place with an increasingly vague and unstable relationship to observable reality.

SCPA Foundation time manipulators have conducted tests on SCPA-EN-00268 and have determined that the reel creates an intense temporal disruption field around the subject cinema screen, which fundamentally alters the timestream within a contained "bubble" measuring approximately ten to fifteen feet in diameter around the projection screen. The effect has persistently compoundable and resonant, with even minor exposure to SCPA-EN-00268 invariably leading to subtle, cumulative, and perceptually destabilizing temporal anomalies (for example: dates, times, and historical facts might seem subjectively off or out of sync with consensus reality observed elsewhere).

Additional Information:
SCPA-EN-00268 was recovered from a private collector of obscure and experimental films in Paris, France in 2002. SCPA Foundation agents confiscated the film after a museum patron reported acute vertigo and memory loss after viewing the work.

References:
SCPA-EN-00268 shares some surface elements with a lesser-known film produced for the 1939 World's Fair, entitled The Temposcope, which was an interactive exhibit that attempted to display a temporal chronometer of different historical eras for public curious to view "history in motion."

Classification level:
Top Secret

Notice:
Access to SCPA-EN-00268 is restricted to personnel with Level 2 clearance or higher only. All personnel who have viewed SCPA-EN-00268 must monitor themselves for any temporal anomalies, immediately report their findings, and begin a calendar adjustment program.

Record #:
Experiment Log

Reporter:
Dr. Carolynn Charrington

Approver:
Dr. Dianne Cho