User:Melly/whathowwhy
"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.
23 March 2022
Describe recent work: Beyond the Rest is a 3-minute short film that takes place in a hand-made forest with miniature material. It aims to take the audience through an experience of audio-visual stimulation through offering an other-worldly feeling. It starts with establishing the setting and the mood. It is daytime in the forest. 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. Describe 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 colorful place which she seems to really enjoy. 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 emptions 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. Describe the relation between the two: 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 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. How are the works different: 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 strong film language since the world and the character has a “still” nature. In the future I might want to integrate more characters, instead of once 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 tutor 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.