User:Melly/textonpractice

Melek

Description of recent work

Beyond the Rest is a 3-minute short film that takes place in a miniature forest setting. It aims to take the audience through an experience of audio-visual stimulation through offering an other-worldly feeling. It starts as a day-time in the forest, establishing an eeire mood. A voice over is heard throughout the film, vaguely describing the feeling in the forest. When it’s night time, 5 sculpture heads appear in the forest that represent the 5 main layers of human brain/psychology. It touches upon the themes of void, rebirth and remainance.

'Description of current work

Day 789 is a short film project I am currently working on. It investigates the possible outcome of being sheltered from the real world and being kept alone for a really long time. The short film is a miniature world set in few locations, such as a room and a fantastical forest. There is a female character which will be designed and made by me, through voice-over she explains what she’s been dealing with and how she is afraid of going outside the room which represents her comfort zone. The room’s colors are monochromatic and pale which accentuates the feeling of being stuck. Throughout the story, after the world is established, she takes us to the world that she created in her head. We, as audience go through the place with colourful surrounding which she seems to be herself. The message of the film would be to get out of the comfort zone and explore the world and seek discomfort since the only way growth happens is through that. The short film is not a stop animation but rather tries to achieve the narrative through strategically using the film language. Through this work, I intend to investigate how to convey emotions with a character and the world that I completely build by myself. I believe that a strong art direction will help shape this project while integrating a narrative layer.

The relation between recent and current work

Both works aim to explore the methods of evoking emotions, setting a strong mood and conveying a story through a non-linear approach. In both works, the world is dystopian and it’s entirely designed. The way both works use the universal film language is quite similar and intend to subtly convey emotions and tell a story that the audience can relate, on a personal level. Another relation between the works would be the way character aims to represent a layer or a concept and uses the same medium to establish the setting.

Differences between recent and current work

The work Beyond the Rest is an experimental work that explores the possibilities of consciously using a non-linear storyline. It doesn’t follow a story and there is no concrete character. The voiceover is the main narrative which also doesn’t suggest a story, rather suggests feelings. However, the current work, Day 789 tries to fully explore the possibility of telling a personal story through a concrete character and a more realistic and fantastical world. After seeing what was possible with the medium of miniature, I fell in love with the artistic way of telling a story. Both works are quite similar in methos however, the recent work is more of an “experience” whereas the current work aims to achieve telling a concrete story that’s set up in a more layered/suggestive world. Voiceover will be less important in current work.

Future work. What do you want to do next?

After exploring my passion towards creating a small world and telling a story through that medium, I want to pursue the same methos to tell my stories. I’d like to spend more time on creating a character and the world that helps to accentuate the story being told and suggest more direct links to the story itself. I would also like to continue using a very persistent film language since the world and the character has a “still” nature, as they're not moving. In the future I might want to integrate more characters, instead of one protagonist.

Who can help you and how can they help you?

I believe that the world I’m constructing could get a lot of help from the material station, to physically and properly build the set. Art direction department to make the world and possibly fashion department for the character’s costume which is quite important. Lastly, the tutors that could help me the most I believe are David, Rosella and Simon. It would also be helpful to receive feedback from artists who have been working on experimental films and are quite experienced/comfortable with the notion of the medium. They could guide me to find the right balance of how abstract/vague I can be.

What do you get inpsired by?

I tend to make new ideas through consciously observing my surroundings and seeing the strong emotions people have around me, thinking of them as elements that I can implement in my story. In general I note down the things that intrigue me when I'm watching a movie.