User:Melly/whathowwhy

WHAT HOW WHY

"Pinar" is a 13 minute fiction short film in Turkish language, written and directed by Melek Bahce. It's a drama about how Evren, a middle aged depressed man rediscovers his passion for life through a chance encounter with a rambunctious young woman. Pinar is in her early 20's, she has nothing to lose and devotes herself to live life to its fullest. This film, shot in Cyprus, reflects the mood of Mediterranean island life. The two characters meet when Pinar gets into Evren's car while he is in the gas station and they end up spending a whole day together. As Evren gives her a lift to the beach where she will meet her friends, as her friends don't show up, they spend the evening at the beach where find themselves emotionally connected through sharing their vulnerabilities and exchanging their perspective on life. The film ends with Pinar disappearing in the sea while Evren desperately searches for her. This film was a school project, I decided that the story would take place in Cyprus and shooting it there would both benefit the story itself and would give me more opportunities and resources to use. The role of Evren for my father who's an actor, I wrote the role for him and the acted as the protagonist, Evren. For the production process, crew members such as the cinematographer and boom operator flew from Warsaw and the actress, Pinar from Turkey. As there were a lot of car scenes, special equipment was assembled. The film was shot with a small crew of 10 people including my friends helping, over the course of 3 weeks, in different cities of North Cyprus. I'm fascinated by the power of spontaneous encounters and how much influence they can have on us or on our life, I felt the urge to tell an impactful story about how people we coincidentally meet can end up changing our outlook on life. I felt compelled to share the story of two contradicting characters that represent the two extremes on the spectrum of how we perceive life and brings out question of what approach to take on life. My intention was to use my personal experience to challenge and question my constant internal dilemma: is there one right way to live?

ELLE

WHAT

"Elle" is a 2 minute short film written and directed by Melek Bahce. The film has no dialogue. The film is about a young man who is struggling to find his identity . He likes to dress up as a woman, putting on a bright blue wig. The film starts with the young man in a bathroom full of women's magazines stuck on the mirror. He carefully observes his reflection in the mirror and the images of the women in the magazine. He walks outside[,] and a topless man bumps into him. The young man takes a deep look at the man and follows him. Then, the man is seen tied, in an abandoned building, he now wears a pink wig. The film ends when young man decided to throw the cigarette in and closes the doors on the defenseless man, leaving him trapped.

HOW

The film, a school project, was shot a few days before the deadline. I knew what I wanted to shoot but didn't have time to prepare as I wrote the story quite late. So I called my friends to shoot the film, next day and I made the set design in my apartment overnight. I prepared the costume before. We shot the film in half day, first in my apartment. then went to the city center. There wasn't a shot-list, I had a vague idea about the story, so most of it was improvised on the set with bouncing off ideas with my friends. It was shot with a very small crew of 4 people.

WHY

As I find myself observing and being inspired by people who challenge and question the idea of identity. I wanted to represent someone who doesn't conform to the social norm and is an outside thinker. Since I admire people who freely express themselves as they feel, without the concern of being accepted in society.

WHAT

"Stuck" is an oil painting I did, it's a size of 21 by 30 cm. It's portrait of a woman with her hands covering her face and squeezing it depicting a partially deformed image. The painting consists of abstract elements, but is based on realism. There are text on the painting, written by pencil, such as "All of my Dreams taste like poison" or "The art of distracting myself".

HOW

One day, I decided that it was time to get back to painting, [more!!!]I did a rough sketch and finished the painting in one sitting as it took about 2 hours. I used brushes, spatulas and oil paint on canvas paper to make the painting. WHY

I made this painting after I took my first long break from it. I was nervous as I thought I forgot how to paint. It means a lot to me as it was made at a time then I was not in a mentally good state, so I used painting as a way to deal with my emotions.[more please!!] The expression in the woman's face represents the feeling I was going through as I was feeling stuck and overwhelmed, it was not an unfamiliar emotion but I had to manage it.