Numéro Magazine Explores the Space Between Day and Night in 'Adrift'

Produced for Numéro Magazine, Adrift is a fashion film directed by Arthur Valverde that explores the notion of drift as a state of transition. The project follows a single woman evolving across two parallel temporalities, Day and Night, conceived as distinct inner states. The film is built around a deliberately minimal setup: an isolated phone booth set within a desert landscape. It functions as a temporary point of contact between the two realities, enabling an exchange between the two versions of the character, Day and Night. Their dialogue does not seek resolution but instead makes visible an internal shift, expressed through staging, movement, and editing.

By day, Day walks alone through the desert toward the phone booth as it begins to ring. The camera follows her gaze in a low tracking shot, then initiates a circular movement around her as she answers the call. Passing through the glass of the booth, the image transitions into night, where Night holds the receiver in the same location. The film then alternates between these two temporalities, connected through continuous transitions and movement-based edits. The exchanges between Day and Night unfold in fragments, alternating between on-screen dialogue and voice-over. A montage sequence gradually tightens the narrative through close-ups of bodies, hands, lips, and the mechanical elements of the telephone. The rhythm accelerates, the boundary between day and night becomes increasingly blurred, and the film concludes on a deliberately open final shot.

Adrift approaches clothing as a narrative tool. The looks contribute to shaping the two states of the character and accompany the contrasts explored throughout the film, light and shadow, solitude and desire, separation and connection. Image, sound, and movement are used to translate these tensions, without relying on a linear narrative. Visually, the film is structured around fluid camera movements, primarily built in arcs, linking day and night sequences. Transitions are conceived as gradual passages between the two spaces. The sound design combines overlapping dialogue and voice-over, ensuring continuity across scenes.

Shot in an Unreal XR studio, Adrift relies on virtual environments developed by Planète Rouge to ensure precise continuity between day and night scenes. The film was captured using a Sony Venice camera and a Spline robotic arm, allowing for repeatable and highly precise camera movements. The phone booth, designed and modified by set designer Alexis Barbera from an American-style model, serves as the central set piece. Five tons of sand were brought onto the set to create visual continuity between the physical ground and the LED screens.