Zoom, for all its privacy and security issues, has rocketed to household-name status in the days of social distancing, becoming the go-to digital meeting hub for personal and professional purposes alike. This new normal presents a problem for those of us fortunate enough to still have jobs and/or friends: Face-to-face interaction is only ever a Zoom call away, making meetings that could’ve been emails (or hangouts that could’ve been “We should hang out sometime!”) an ever-present problem amid all the soul-snuffing isolation. None of us have much to say to each other, and we have all the time and desire in the world to say it.
That’s the beauty of film, friends: It lets us escape such grim realities, plucking us out of our day-to-day and dropping us into new worlds. And by personalizing your Zoom background with iconic settings from your favorite films, you can inhabit them in a whole new way. To help you do just that, we’ve assembled 10 images from an assortment of movies, both classic and contemporary, providing visual shortcuts to cinephile cred, as well as a way to keep your compatriots entertained while you’re busy gazing at each other so as not to gaze into the abyss. (Note, the preferred Zoom background is 1920px by 1080px, or a 16:9 aspect ratio. Our images in this piece are a bit smaller, but the ratio is preserved.)
Here are 10 ways to set the scene during your next Zoom meeting.
(Spoiler warning!)
1. Rear Window
Protagonist L.B. Jeffries (Jimmy Stewart) finds plenty of intrigue out of this essential Alfred Hitchcock thriller’s titular window after a leg injury forces him into becoming his New York City block’s unofficial neighborhood watchmen. Set in Greenwich Village, the film was shot entirely on one set built on the Paramount lot, with the bulk of its action presented from this very vantage point. We’re all Jeffries at the moment, watching in horror as harrowing events unfold just outside the safety of our homes—why not Zoom from his apartment while we’re at it?
2. Groundhog Day
This background comes to us from an all-timer of a comedy, in which Bill Murray’s Phil Connors finds himself awakening to an alarm clock blaring Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe” each morning on an endless loop. Why not cleverly acknowledge the time-blurring stupor of quarantine while also subliminally suggesting to your Zoom-mates that you’re a hardworking early-riser? Plus, it just gets funnier and more thematically rich the more you continue to use it. You could even incorporate the needle drop—that is, if your goal is to drive everyone on these calls up the wall.
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi landmark is littered with iconic images, from the ape-thrown bone flying through the air in its prehistoric opening sequence to HAL’s red, all-seeing eye, aglow and unfeeling. But above all, 2001 revolves around the monolith, an otherworldly black pillar that connects humankind to the most unknowable reaches of the cosmos, here seen looming in the room where Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) undergoes his ultimate transformation. What more terrifyingly powerful energy could you possibly project during your next all-hands meeting?
4. Office Space
Mike Judge’s beloved workplace comedy lampoons the oppressive drudgery and sameness of corporate America, a fluorescent-lit purgatory from which those able to work from home are currently freed, if only for the moment. What better way to flaunt your WFH status than by virtually sharing a workspace with poor sap Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) himself? Your office space is your own right now, and that’s worth celebrating.
