This film is more of an “inspired by” Kracauer than a tribute to his beliefs. With Kracauer, cinema as an art form and mass media tool can create discovery in the minds of the viewers and the creators. The maker must bear a vision of the world. I took to heart a lot of Kracauer’s thoughts about the chaotic world. I do believe that we create order and this defines our existence. I didn’t set out to prove that point. I just kept that in mind while picking shots and shooting. This film is natural. I did not use any special effects except for shooting in 60fps on the HVX. Also, I didn’t know what I was going to end up with, so my day of shooting was full of discovery and wonder. I think the discovery (through a particular mindset) is what makes me so excited about this film. I want to share it. I want everyone to see what I saw. That being said, I must clarify. I don’t want a similar experience/reaction out of any two people. The long takes intend to bring on a thoughtful/trance-like trains-of-thought.
I feel that Kracauer is a middle-of-the-road theorist (even with his radical ideas). This is how I interpret his message: The world is chaos--we live our lives to cover up this chaos and create order—how can we represent this chaos?—cinema contains the tools to get a unique vision—it can’t be too dramatic—it can’t be too formative—it has to be an honest attempt to show reality the way it is. Cinema can show the way the world really works.
I focus on nature to represent basic processes that occur everyday through the cine-eye. Who knows which reality is the true one? What my camera captured could be the way everyone else sees the world. It could be objective truth. It could also be a terrible representation of how order/chaos interact. The film just isn’t conventional, and that in itself is saying something.
The use of motion control came from Kracauer’s idea of the transient. He believed that the camera could capture a different pattern/appearance/reality than thought possible. These shots, though, still had to serve a narrative end. While my film probably isn’t as overtly narrative as Kracauer would have liked, the fact that I attempted to show reality “as is” would sit well with him. I let the camera transform the world into its true nature (a feat I can only recognize and not perform). The shots’ duration is deliberate, as are my minimal cuts. I do not give absolutes. The narrative that I see functioning in the piece poses abstraction with attraction. I purposely crosscut a few sequences that I feel place the two against each other.
As for the sound, I did not make a silent film. Listen around you. That is the soundtrack. Kracauer believed that sound could bring film closer to reality, but the mind is untrained to synthesize the two because of years of conditioning. Sounds that mirror reality too much are ignored by audiences. Sounds that are too “out there” are taken as oppositional and not parallel. Unless you are watching this film in a vacuum, listen to the soundtrack around you. It can shed some light on the true nature of reality.
I had a great semester with everyone in this class!
I just uploaded the video, so the quality might not be great until it completely converts. Please watch in full screen if you can:
Watch it in HD!
No comments:
Post a Comment