How This Is NOT My Home (Yet)

8 A4 size photos on plain papers.

So this was the original title I had in mind. Although not as far as from China, my hometown is far enough to stimulate homesickness. I adapted the hostel living with my own set of routine in order to help me stimulate how I lived in my home sweet home. Yes, home is a comfortable place, but is not always the most exciting place. To show and tell, I decided on using a first person view to let the viewers see what I see. I found using my most wide-angled lens won’t achieved the stimulating effect I wanted, therefore I thought, I should include my arms into the shots as we don’t always put our arms behind our backs. It also created the effect of impossible POV shots, which later responded during the presentation in January 18th.

 

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This is not my home because I woke up knowing my family members is not under the same roof.

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This is not my home because my breakfast is almost the same everyday and I can surf the internet while eating without being nagged.

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This is not my home because I am paranoid about whether if I locked my door. I invented a way to keep my future-self reminded by leaving a red mark that will last at least 30 minutes with the blades of my keys after I double checked my lock.

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This is not my home because this is not the most comfortable place for my personal business.

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This is not my home because I have to buy my own meals and definitely having people to eat dinner with isn’t guaranteed. Therefore buying a takeaway to my room is justification of the later.

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This is not my home because I get to see my friends whenever I wanted and tend to be more available for hanging outs. Friends have always been the family from outside, they’re the ones that get me through the strangeness in new environments.

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This is not my home because I don’t have to maintain the decent tidiness in my bedroom. I developed the habit of throwing my keys on my bed whenever I enter my room. Although it’s a small gesture, but this shows I’m gradually adapting this new HOME-to-be.

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This is not my home because taking a shower indicates the end of my day while at home, a shower is a preparation for a trip. A shower have became the moment to recap my day.

For task 2, I edited the photos into a slideshow, accompanied with sounds I’ve collected with my phone, in order to enhance the imitation of my life experiences.

However, there are many limitations in my work, such as what I described for my task 1 are tough to be seen in the photos noted composition without my presentation. In the video, the lack of variation of still images make it hard for viewers to stay through. I intended to show the silence I adapted with sounds but without further informative signs, it can be misinterpreted as showing my loneliness with daily life. I admit there was loneliness in the first few months but I later found being alone isn’t always an unendurable situation. Yet I was not able to convey this message through my slideshows, proving it’s not enough with simple sounds and limited amount of still image. There are many more signs to add for my video to be understandable. As the reviewing of my class said, “A layer of me, my context and content is needed.”

Thanks for reading.

Title: Rooftop

Summary: A girl invited a boy to find her at the rooftop.

Story structure: 3 arc structure

Genre: Intended to be Tragedy. Perhaps the acting in the beginning was assumed as comedy during screening. Though I am not sure how. (Serious.)

It’s started as a random short video idea as we don’t usually tell the whole process in a short video.

Now that I think of it, I may got influenced by the film I’ve watched during the time, Se7en. Se7en has a clue for revealing the real murderer in the middle of the film, where John Doe disguised himself as a reporter, and can be spotted portrayed by Kevin Spacey. Similarly, there’s a photo in my video which its duration intentionally shortened hinting the twist at the end. Please scroll to 1:10.

Hope that changes a tiny perception. Thank you guys for watching it through, although feeling cheated.