User:Luni/Reading, writing, research /session 1
WHAT, HOW, WHY
1st draft
What
“Uždaryti / Closed Off” is an experimental documentary influenced by a poetic mode of documentary filmmaking. Main theme of the film is limitations of freedom - political freedom, artistic freedom and basic human freedoms. “Uždaryti / Closed Off” connects 3 generations - mine, when my artistic freedom was limited during the time of the Covid crisis and my parent’s, and grandparents - when their basic human freedoms were masssively destricted during the time of the second Soviet occupation in Lithuania. The movie is based on the stories told by my family members.
How
I composed my film by combining archive material, found footage and footage that I could record without leaving my student room. The main characters of my film became me and my family members who grew up under the Soviet regime.
The base of the film are audible interviews with my family members. To filter out the relevant information and to get structure I transcripted all the interviews and printed it out. Then I cut out every question followed by an answer and mixed all the paper pieces. Then I was taking one question/answer from the pile and decided if the information on that piece of paper adds any value and if it corresponds with the message I want to express with my film. I grouped the sentences that I thought would fit together when I put it to my film so that the sentences would supplement each other and would form a story that makes sense.
In the movie I combine different aspect rations to visually/mantally distinguish visuals that represents freedom and visuals that represents limitations - framed images = images from the past. Images from nowadays - open, spacious, without any frames. Past = occupation, limited freedom, today = freedom.
Why
Covid19 crisis started exactly at the time when I had to start producing my bachelor graduation project / film. For me this meant that my graduation project had to be completed from home, using only the tools I have at my disposal. My freedom to create whatever I wanted got restricted and this situation triggered me to think about freedom. Only when my freedom got limited I noticed that I didn't value it as much as I could have. My family who grew up under the Soviet regime in Lithuania could not even dream of such a freedom I had while growing up.
I made this film in order to raise the awareness about being grateful for the political freedom that we have because it is not always granted, and when it is, we can lose it at any moment.
Poetic documentary mode of filmmaking was used broadly by Lithuanians during the Soviet occupation while they couldn express their artistic toughts freely, thats why I chose this documentary filmmaking mode.
2nd draft
What
“Uždaryti / Closed Off” is an experimental documentary influenced by a poetic mode of documentary filmmaking. Main theme of the film is limitations of freedom - political freedom, artistic freedom. “Uždaryti / Closed Off” is based on the stories told by my family members who grew up during the 2nd Soviet occupation in Lithuania, when many of their freedoms were drastically limited. The film was made when the word was suffering from Covid19 pandemic, and it was strongly encouraged to stay at home as much as possible.
How
I composed my film by combining archive material, found footage and footage that I could record without leaving my student room. The main characters of my film became me and my family members who grew up under the Soviet regime. The base of the film are audible interviews with my family members recorded during the Skype video calls.
I received an enourmous amount of information during the interviews, so eventually I got lost. To find my way out of the vortex of information, I used the method that worked for me in my previous projects - I fully transcripted the texts, printed it out and cut it out sentence by sentence. This allowed me to shuffle the sentences around, to filter out what is not needed anymore and to connect relevant information in non chronological order.
The movie was edited in Adobe Premiere software, which allowed me to play with different aspect ratios in order to visually/mantally distinguish images that represents freedom from images that represents limitations. Framed images = images from the Soviet past. Open, spacious images without any frames = nowadays, freedom.
Why
Covid19 crisis started exactly at the time when I had to start producing my bachelor graduation film. For me this meant that my graduation project had to be completed from home, using only the tools I have at my disposal. My freedom to create whatever I wanted got restricted and this situation triggered me to think about freedom. Only when my freedom got limited I noticed that I didn't value it as much as I could have, yet my family who grew up under the Soviet regime in Lithuania could not even dream of such a freedom I had while growing up.
I chose my film to be influenced by a Poetic Documentary mode of filmmaking because it was used broadly by Lithuanians during the Soviet occupation while they couldn’t express their artistic toughts freely.
The film was made in order to raise the awareness about being grateful for the political freedom that we have because it is not always granted, and when it is, we can lose it at any moment.