Peter Haueis directs an offbeat black and white film for German cinematic music project The Offline, imbued with the experimental spirit of New Wave and No Wave cinema. 

Haueis helms an absorbing piece of purist old school cinema - with elements of absurd humour, film noir, and silent comedy - for the jazzy instrumental La Mission Commence, set on a deserted beach. Felix Müller - the composer and photographer behind The Offline - lands ashore and begins to get in the mood to be creative. But he's dogged by an annoying trilby-wearing nemesis, who appears in the dunes to dog his every move.

Müller conceived the idea for The Offline, updating film score music of the 60s and 70s, whilst travelling on Atlantic coastline in the south of France with his film camera, capturing beach life on film. He returned to Hamburg and began started writing songs as the sonic counterpart to the analogue visuals.

“Ever since I was a child, I was fascinated by the soundtracks from the 60s and 70s, and I always wanted to make an album in the film score direction," Müller has said. "I wrote about 30 demos, kicked half of it and stuck to the ones that felt right in the dramaturgical structure of the ‘movie'. Interestingly the main theme was set really early on while writing the album, which made the writing process much easier.”

In effect, Müller has composed a soundtrack for a movie that was never made. And now he and Haueis have starting making that movie...