Assignment 03 – Dreams

For this particular project, I was interested in creating a movie about the feeling of being and nothingness. I was intrigued by McGinity’s lecture about phenomenal realness; the attributes of being and feeling real. What are such attributes and how can we mimic a VR experience?

Is the moving image an exact representation of life? Can a digital camera truthfully re-create a perfect human scene? From a POV perspective, I seek to explore the possibilities of living. Dream in this matter, is the matter in which we try to deconstruct why dreams feels real – immersive real yet perceptually incorrect. But yet, why do we always wake up from a dream with the feeling of wanting more? Wen the feeling of wanting more is tied with the concept of desire – it feels that there is a strong connection.

This particular image best conveys the mood and style I intend to achieve. A dream-like quality of the scene, possibly being too pretty to be true. The emptiness speaks of the former presence of being.

Imagine a 60 second short film. Succinct yet feeling so real. Mundane and nothing eloquent. Moving images of your life.

Yet, more often that not, we never question why dreams feel real. It this perception of ‘real’ false? Or perhaps it is immersive only it its functional state as a dream? So what are the attributes of realness?

It is widely known that human beings exhibit the 5 senses; sight, smell, sound, sense and taste. In a dream, sight seems to be the overwhelming notion that creates an immersive experience. In a nightmare, you produce a bodily reaction purely some the concept of seeing. You do not smell, hear, sense or taste anything. A reaction occurs primarily off sight. But this does not compound the notion that it feels real. Maybe the bodily reaction creates a vivid sensory experience and yet we can deduce that only through sight – can we truthfully mimic an immersive experience.

If the attributes of realness is primarily derived through these 5 human senses, and yet we can create an immersive experience primarily through sight – what are the flexibilities given in a still-video format?

Nonetheless, its seems roughly difficult to replicate all 5 senses as the format of a media art is purely limited towards the audio and visual format. We could replicate the sense of touch and smell but it would move this project more towards an installation.

To address the concept of ‘dreams’, the 60 second short film will be broken down into miniatures. Consisting of 6 – 10s clips, the idea is to replicate all the senses. To introduce an element of truth – true seeing moving images and yet creating a discontinuous feedback

Therefore, it felt wise to mimic the visual aspect of a dream – the sight and introduce elements of sound to distort the perception and immersion of the viewer. A perception that is only correct and immersive given the context of a dream. Therefore, I propose that the final

What you are seeing is real, but what you feel may be not. It is immersive and yet in its own right perceptually wrong. Like a dream, it is difficult to realise that you are within a dream. It is only within the moment that you are awake when you realise that none of it was real. An immersive experience and perception that is only true given a context of being in a dream.

For instance, a moving still image of a silent forest – trees swaying left to right creates the sound leaves swooshing. I intend to recreate a truthful representation of the trees but replace the sound with off-beat aural tunes.

To break down the 60 second short film into miniature sequences would provide me 5-6 possible sceneries and time to replicate a series of dreams. The idea of jumping between scenes when you are dreaming seems relevant if I can replicate it within this 60s short film.

I was also intrigued by the idea of dusk and dawn. In a literal concept, we dream within the space of the night. The process of dreaming, more often than not occurs when you sleep. The period between dawn and dusk is the moment of being alive and yet we dream of other things.

The clips will be kept short and simple. 6 clips of the same location during the dawn and dusk will be played and looped back within a possible timeframe of 2 minutes or less. The audio plays a big role in distorting the element of realness.

 

PRE-PRODUCTION MATERIALS/ASSETS

 

Shown above was the overall pre-production moodbard/image inspiration and/or off-handed storyboarding sequences.

As a photographer, I find it diffiuclt to work with a storyboard. The concept of visualizing ‘a shot’ makes me feel uncomfortable. A certain sense of expectation needed to be place onto the possibility that it might not happen. Instead, I rely a lot more on ideas/feelings and record my surroundings intuitively. All this happens with the overall image/mood board and style guide above.

Two Column A:V Screenplay

WATCH ‘BETWEEN DAWN AND DUSK’ 

Movie Campaign: UNTITLED FETISHISM research

UNTITLED FETISHISM is a short three-part, non-narrative documentary film of the HUMAN relationship with the car. Since the advent of FORDISM and AUTOMATION in the early 19th century cars were produced EN MASSE thereby changing the LANDSCAPE of human interaction and movement. As we go beyond a century since Henry Ford introduced MASS PRODUCTION, the impact of CARS has been devastating. Even more devastating is this FETISHISM that lay deep within the human subculture: an OBSESSION with cars. As they continue to provide an excessive amount of HUMANISTIC care and LOVE towards an INANIMATE object – the feelings are perplexing in nature. As we progress technologically, SELF-DRIVING cars could provide a sense of relief and perhaps CARS will disappear as objects of fetishism to  re-live its UTILITARIAN purpose as it was MEANT TO BE. 

 

Movie/Film References

Lost In Translation

Chungking Express

Kids

SSWB M.V.

The Virgin Suicides

Fallen Angels

BARAKA

Inspiration (music):

SSWB

Teenage Riot

Books:

Wolfgang TIllmans – Cars

Rinko Kawauchi – Illuminance

STORY DRAFTING

Story draft 1: 

TEEN-AGE RIOT

A coming-of-age film of loss, identity, sexuality and existence.

Story Draft 2:

EVERYDAY – THE MUNDANE, THE BEAUTIFUL AND IN AWE

1 – An short, avant-garde film documenting the mundanity of everyday life.

2 – A short, observational film documenting MAN’S RELATIONSHIP WITH CARS

3 – An observational, experimental short film about the sky.

Assignment 01 – Human Emotions (Research, Inspiration, Process)

Process

These were the initial pool of images that I had drafted. I instinctinly chose these images based on a rough idea, which can be read from my artist statement below.

I did not edit these images as I err more towards a purist approach when it comes to photography. I wanted to document the snapshot in its purest moments.

Inspiration

For this series of images, I aligned myself with the snapshot aesthetic and more commonly found in pool of Japanese photographers. Photographers above such as Kenya Sugai and Motoyuki Daifu uses this technique to a great effect.

Artist Statement:

The subjects of the images could possess qualities that convey particular emotions. A sense of fear may be relieved through an image of dark room or surprise can be depicted by a shocked expression as a result of public accident/prank. A sense of sadness depicted through a first person view of a funeral. The images of realness, of being within a moment, derived from a real life subject matter feels real.

The overall narrative and flow of these images can flirt with the possibility of mixed emotions. The ability to deconstruct possible emotions and re-tangle them through visual imagery. Series of images that showcases no form of linear narrative but introduces a series of dynamic emotions, ensures no form of direct emotional representation. To me a dog is a sign of fear but to others it is a sign of happiness. And yet, the dog possesses signifiers that surprises me even after the initial moment of fear.

These subject matters are often overlooked. These are photos that we do not take. Matters that look banal on the surface but drives a more complex thought underneath. We are surrounded by these subjects but they seem to matter less.

These series of images, should look low-res/lo-fi. The reasoning focuses on the concept of a snapshot – a more apt and vivid form of photographic expression of being ‘in the moment’. Personally, it would be interesting if we introduced elements of fun and cheekiness into the images. Making it look kitsch or basic – shot with an iPhone would introduce new and exciting artistic elements.

The iPhone snapshot increases the realness of these images/subjects. To make it look everyday suggest low effort but does not mean low quality or meaningless. These banal subjects are of the everyday and everything around us. We find happiness in retrieving and looking back family snapshots from a holiday. Crooked, badly exposed and more often than not with bad framing. And yet these images are the ones most valuable to us. These are opportunities that only arise in a moment. There is no chance tor retake/re-shoot; because the feeling will be lost.

And perhaps this approach towards the quotidian is one that I want to focus on. These images are not staged, curated (per se) or rely on traditional ideas of an ‘impactful’ image. These subjects are things that I came across, or an experience I had to face. The realness matters because it is the everyday. A universal aspect that everyone will seemingly encounter but never discover.

This is photography of the vernacular. And these are moments that I will never be able to relive and retake. It is a kind of photography purely driven by intuition, desire and to convey emotions in a brisk moment.

Artist references: Stephen Shore (Instagram)Lost ImagesKenya Sugai