#cinemaesthesia

This article goes into the production history around my film ‘Gacha’nce’, in terms of the events happening before, during, and after its creation.

I am going to talk about this film slightly differently to my other films: chronologically. I have a massive ‘To Do list’ (TDL) where I track a lot of my ins and outs of daily life. Really, its more a planner than a TDL, but the name has stuck.

Above is a redacted version of my TDL to help illustrate the timeline of this film. Redacted, as to not completely dox myself or others, and to make it more legible.

BEFORE PRODUCTION

On the 1st date (27th of Jan) — I attended to just watch. It was a lot of fun, and for the 2nd date (23rd of March) I brought along my own film ‘Broodiest Flunkey’ to screen.

Before the screening, there was a workshop where we had to use prompts in order to collect footage — for more details on this read my article about ‘circles’.

Fast forward to 6PM, the screening happens, and I get to show off my film. The entire process was a lot of fun.

So in that moment, after my film shows and the crowd applauds: I decide I want to make a new film for Cinaesthesia 3 on the 4th of May.

There was also something great about having a deadline. That I could not put it off if I wanted to be a part of the next event.

PRODUCTION

Five days after Cinaesthesia 2, my wife and I were on our way to Japan for our honeymoon. I had wanted to go there my whole life — it was my major ‘bucket list’ holiday, if I could go anywhere, it would be there.

Since we were going to Japan, I thought ‘why not think about gachapon and how they relate to chance’ since gachapon are very popular in the country (way more than I had expected actually). Chance was on my mind heavily because of my recent DADA reading, and due to some elements present in ‘Broodiest Flunkey’ (in particular the scrabble piece elements).

I was really interested in the idea that chance can be seen as some type of deity, or cosmic entity. That everything good that happens to us, and everything bad, is in one way or another linked to chance. That we are constantly immersed within a butterfly effect which is influenced by our own thrashing around in our lives. This connection between agency and chance too I thought was important. We can make decisions for sure, but we cannot choose.

I then started to think about the idea of how many choices you make within a day, and how much deviation one person has within said day. With so many of life’s most important results often relying on a small, in-the-moment, insignificant decision, I started to both think about how much pressure that could feel like, but also how could you maximise the possibility that your minor decisions have a large and worthwhile impact.

I then started looking at synonyms of ‘chance’ to try to prompt more thinking. I won’t share all of them, but some of them are nice.

I also started to notice the annoying connection between chance and capitalism.

When landing in Japan, I put a lot of the writing to the side, and started to capture as many instances of gachapon and related chance elements as I could. I ended up with 129 files which I thought were good enough to use.

I also made sure to collect many shots at different heights. Mainly, the movement from street level, to Tokyo Tower height, to Skytree. I wanted ‘the amount of decisions’ within the shot to increase each step, and for this to correlate with the ‘weight’ of decisions. This too, with the main character getting buried the higher up we go, I thought was a good contrast.

2 days after we had returned from our 2 week honeymoon, I started to think about the other scenes needed for the production.

I had the idea of having my head surrounded by gachapon, as I slowly started to sink into them. I made sure to keep every one I opened during my trip, which made packing a bit of a nightmare. Circles are not the most convenient shape for space efficiency.

I cannot for the life of me find the raw footage of this being made, so I will need to use my memory. I made a small box which only allowed my head to stick through. Isobel crouched on top of me in bed, while she covered me in balls. After every few seconds of being still, I sunk down more and more.

In Tokyo, I also found these gachapon props which I really wanted to use for something. Originally, I wanted to create a ‘god of chance’ that either used these gacha pieces in their outfit, or on a box which they were released from, or both.

Instead, I ended up using them as a way to symbolise the afterlife or death, that this was the final moment in one’s life and therefore did not have agency, and as such, have no coins left to play a game of chance.

The other scene I needed to film after Japan was opening a gachapon ball full of blood. Oh my god, this fake blood was so hard to get off of skin. Once you got it, you were stained for a very long time. This is one of two scenes I do not like in the piece. I really wish I had gacha balls underneath rather than cardboard. I think it would have looked more ‘in-place’ since cardboard does not appear anywhere else. It is too sterile. This was made right after ‘Broodiest Flunkey’, so I was still thinking in those terms in regards to production aesthetic.

(The other scene I don’t like is the chromakey on the trees. A bit too jarring.)

When editing the piece, I originally wanted to keep increasing the amount of gacha machines being shown on screen, but I worried that my PC would not be able to handle that, and also that I did not have enough scenes.

So, as a way to compromise not having enough footage, I decided to play around with some of the blocks and have that be a different shot playing across multiple squares.

In the end, I found that the film was already overstaying its welcome at 2m22s, so decided to not go this far with the idea. Also, because this was being made for Cinaesthesia, there was a 3 minute cap for film length.

When I was making the storyboard to ensure scene order made sense, I realised that I was not going to reach 3 mins anyway, so a lot of the editing was based on vibes, or ‘what felt right’ — very different from ‘Broodiest Flunkey’ prior.

In terms of a cool chance discovery while editing, I really like how the fish look when chromakey is applied to them. Because their colours are shifting as they swim, it means that their transparency flutters between different parts of the frame. Using their shiniest point as well as the chromakey means that you get a really clear transparency which only appears for brief moments.

CINAESTHESIA 3

The film premiered on the 4th of May at Cinaesthesia 3. It was a fun night, and really felt like a big exhale after a project that took up a lot of my mental energy. It is funny thinking of the cycle of ‘this film is now out there, time for the next one’, the idea that the release allows something new to take its place.

THOUGHTS SINCE

It is odd how new thoughts emerge from your pieces which you had not thought of prior. Now I cannot help but think that Gacha’nce has anti-capitalism messaging (which makes sense as I’m anti-capitalist), but there are lots of ties to money and decision making, that finances allow you to have more choices than other people. This was not on my mind when I made it (consciously at least), but I cannot help but see that now.

Also, it is funny. This film is cursed. Whenever it has appeared at a screening or gallery, the name has been spelt wrong. I thought it was clever. Gacha + Chance = Gacha’nce. Oh well.

This film also started my thinking of how film productions can be used as an opportunity for a photoshoot at the same time. If you are creating a cool scenario, why not take advantage in the moment and create other types of media in the process. Now whenever I do a cool shot, I think it’s a ‘gacha’nce moment’.

THE END

Thanks a bunch for reading. I would really like to hear about what you think after going through this piece. I hope some of it has been helpful to you and your practice, or has been interesting at least.

I am excited to catch up to my films in terms of articles, because then I will start writing about some of the specifics of creation, or specific themes. Being able to release an article alongside a film would be nice too, though I do worry about not being able to appreciate a process fully without some breath.