#cinematic time

Visualising cinematic time.

The second part to Part 3 of the Cinematic Time project was to create an Intellectual Montage. I used shots gathered from Part 1 and Part 2, along with additional shots that were not seen in any of my previous videos. This video uses discontinuity to explore the compression of time and space. I put the shots in a specific sequence that is not continuous to elicit additional intellectual meaning. By doing so, I also in a sense made the intellectual meaning completely different than the meaning in my original film. To achieve this, I sped up the duration of some of the clips and overlapped a new audio to make the mood of this piece eerie. I also changed the scale of some shots by zooming in and darkened all of the clips with a higher contrast. I thought a lot about how I could easily change the mood or meaning of my clips because of how absurd the whole idea is. I found it humorous to make the meaning of this piece more about an "orange serial killer," rather than just some innocent guy who wants his orange peeled, and then changes his mind.

For Part 3 of the Cinematic Time project, I used shots gathered from Part 1 and Part 2 to create a metric montage. My first step was dividing my clips into different categories. I chose two categories. The first category was peeling the orange, and the second category was putting it back together. I labeled the first category as "A" and the second one as "B." When exploring predetermined temporal structures, I enjoyed the rhythm of A-B-A-B-A-B. Since my film had two very distinct categories, I enjoyed switching from one category to the other back and forth, rhythmically and visually. All the clips in category "A" I made 4 seconds long, and the clips in category "B" are all 7 seconds long. This clip duration worked well with the cropping of the audio, and it is more visually appealing than having all the clips the same duration. I also found the clips in "B" to be more interesting which is why I chose to make that category longer.

For Part Two of the Cinematic Time project, I focused on using the continuity system. This is a technique used to construct the illusion of a realistic presentation of time and space. I re-shot my action using continuity techniques to capture a variety of angles and shot types which I then edited together to create continuity. In order to have a seamless realistic presentation of the arc of events I had to keep many things in mind such as, how peeled the orange is in the shot, or how many peels were on the table at that specific moment, etc., otherwise, the continuity would be broken. I cut the film up at specific moments where I would insert a cut of a different angle of the same shot, but occurring at the same exact time. To do this, I had shots from different point of views so you could get the perspective of what the character is seeing, what I am seeing, and what an outsider might be seeing. Using these cuts to create continuity makes the film much more interesting. Long, continuous shots can also be interesting, but for this film, the cuts make the film less boring to watch and capture the eye.

For the Cinematic Time Project, the first step was to choose an action that has a narrative aspect. Then we had to shoot a continuous take of the action, exploring the choreography of the camera movement in relation to the action, subject, and environment. This means there were no cuts in the filming. It was just one long shot. I decided that I wanted my action to be simply peeling an orange. To turn that into a narrative, I decided to make it humorous. I had the character peel the orange, using various absurd methods, and then he changes his mind, which is shown by the change in ties, and tries to put the orange back together, also using humorous methods such as taping it, stapling it, hammering it, and lighting it on fire. In the end, he gives up, and decides to instead have a glass of orange juice, and a cigarette. My idea for this film is a metaphor, simply for life. It humorously depicts the idea of how in life, we change our minds all the time. Sometimes things work out, and sometimes they don't, but that is just life. If things don't work out, we try something new, and continue this process until we have a result we are satisfied with.

I wish to find and challenge examples of scenes that demonstrate uncorrelated cinematic time.

Cinemasnake on Flickr.