WHAT / HOW / WHY
28 September 2022
Original
What
An experimental film called “Turning Tide and Cataract” is my bachelor thesis project in 2017. It is 9-minute color film that was shot on digital format. The aspect ratio of this film is 16:9. The film has no dialog. The film follows a female senior student who spends the whole day working on her editing project in her house. She starts getting bored of her mundane life. Suddenly, she found a suitcase after hearing knocks in her door. And what is in the suitcase gradually leads her to mysterious events. The film is divided into three parts. Each part depict the terms “continuity”, “disturbance” and “exaggeration” respectively.
How
I watched award-winning and recommended films then I conducted analytical research about film editing and cinematography technique from those films. After I got some terms from the research, I visualize them through time-based medium. Then, I analyzed the video works that I made to explore more terms. I did back and forth methods in order to explore variable terms before depict them through the final film. Finally, I picked the terms “continuity”, “disturbance” and “exaggeration” as I strongly thought they are the most basic filmmaking techniques and also appear in every films. I also create the diagram showing all my thinking process of making this film.
Why
The project initially began with my personal interest in film editing and cinematography techniques. I once watched the film Birdman (2014) from Alejandro González Iñárritu. I was fascinated in the camera movement in this film. The whole film is portray as it is a long take. However, I spotted that there are an amount of hidden cuts when the camera panned and tilted including some time lapse shots that were used as transition shots to prolong the continuity and represented the time passing. I started learning that each film editing and cinematography technique that appeared in the film contained their own meaning and also supporting the story. So, I continued observing and researching more about film editing and cinematography techniques.
Edit
What
An experimental film called “Turning Tide and Cataract” is my bachelor thesis project in 2017. It is 9-minute color film that was shot on digital format. The aspect ratio of this film is 16:9. The film has no dialog. The film follows a female senior student who spends the whole day working on her editing project in her house. She starts getting bored of her mundane life. Suddenly, she found a suitcase after hearing knocks in her door. And what is in the suitcase gradually leads her to mysterious events. The film is divided into three parts. Each part depict the terms “continuity”, “disturbance” and “exaggeration” respectively.
How
I watched award-winning and recommended films then I conducted analytical research about film editing and cinematography technique from those films. After I got some terms from the research, I visualize them through time-based medium. Then, I analyzed the video works that I made to obtain more terms. I did back and forth methods in order to explore variable terms before depict them through the final film. Finally, I picked the terms “Continuity”, “Disturbance” and “Exaggeration” as I strongly thought that they are the most basic filmmaking techniques and also appear in every films. I also create the diagram showing all my thinking process of making this film.
Why
As I see the possibility to form the connection between “Continuity”, “Disturbance” and “Exaggeration”. I decided to depicts each term in ironic perspective by presenting “Discontinuity”, “Disturbance” and “Exaggeration” instead. Basically those three term are the things that the filmmaking or editor try to avoid because they might cause the audience some interruption while watching the film. In the first part of the film “(Dis)continuity”, I intend to mimic the visual element of Mise-en-scene by making the previous shot discontinue to the following shot. The discontinuity could disturb the flow of watching film for the audiences which leads to the next chapter of the film, “Disturbance”. In this chapter, I focus on the editing to create the uncomfortable visual and sound. The overuse of sequential disturbing shots potentially give the feeling of exaggeration. In the final part of the film “Exaggeration" I am making use of metaphor, slow motion technique, and impact sound effect and music background to make the film more surrealist. As I start the project from observing filmmaking techniques, I hope that my film will leave something for the viewers to expand their own imagination as well.