DECASIA

During my research I have come across Decasia: The State of Decay. A Film by Bill Morrison, showing images distorted by decay of nitrate film reels. It was interesting to see the how the physical damage of the film can change and distort the image, sometimes exaggerating the exposure and contrast, in other moments changing it beyond recognition.

SIDE PROJECT - LADYBIRD FILM

Over the last couple of weeks I have been distracted with a small project that came to my mind. It's been the kind of idea that gets into your head and don't let you focus on anything else until you're finished with them. I thought it would take me about 3-5 days' work but technical problems kept getting in the way and I only finalized it today, on Easter Sunday. So, without further introduction, here it is, an Easter gift to myself:

MORE ABOUT PERCEPTION

Looking at the way we see and recognize images I came across an interesting text about the mechanisms of recognition. The paragraph comes from a book titled The Image and the Eye by E. H. Gombrich:

Recognition is easy, it is almost automatic, but, perhaps because of its automatic quality, largely unconscious. Not unconscious, to be sure, in the Freudian sense, but in the sense of those automatic processes to which we need not and often cannot attend. We do not know how and why we recognize a correctly drawn cow, but we soon notice if something is amiss in a real or pictured cow.                                                                                                     

[...] the difficulties portrait painters so often experience.  Troublesome relatives of their sitters will insist that there is still something around the mouth that is not right, that they still cannot quite recognize Uncle Jimmy. Yet they are rarely willing or able to say why the mouth looks wrong to them. [...] I tend to believe that the relatives probably knew what they were talking about. It is genuinely disturbing to feel an element of strangeness unsettling a familiar sight. We tend to notice at once if something in our room has been shifted, though few of us could ever recall, let alone draw, the content of our rooms.

 While we all know this in a way, having it explained explicitly made me consciously aware of this pattern of recognition (or am I just rephrasing what Gombrich wrote and relating it to our learning and understanding?).

To relate it to a specific image/space,  I felt a similar confusion a few year ago when I got pictures from my holiday in Iceland developed. I looked at one of the images and there was a problem with

it. The clouds were rightly on top of the image and it all seemed fine and yet the picture did not work. It took me a while of turning it around and looking at it from all points before I realized it was actually upside down! The clouds as seen above the landscape are actually a perfect reflection of sky in the water, deceitful enough to confuse me - and I was the one who took the picture.

Back to the topic, as soon as I saw the picture, I knew it was wrong and it took me relatively long to figure it out. 

This must be then what the automatic recognition does - it makes you immediately aware of things even slightly out of sync and forces you to stop and look again. Interestingly, this way we get to see plenty of things we would have otherwise passed by. Therefore a good design (or film) might have an unexpected or slightly our of ordinary element to it to get the viewer to remember it.

REPULSION - CAMERA WORK

Having done my basic research into ways of representing and perceiving spaces, I have started finalizing ideas for my project proposal. It will involve filming of locations/sets in a way that represents a particular mood/feeling/state of mind. Before I plan it in detail though,  I have one last step to go through. I will analyze camera movement in relevant films in relation to plot to understand better what effect a particular shot gives and what it implies.

There are several aspects I want to look at and I will be uploading them over the next few days.

This video does not show the camera movement as much as set lighting and movement (quite literally) - the corridor was designed in a way that, depending on scene requirements, the width could be adjusted. On the left screen I showed 'objective' view of the interior, as seen by all characters, and on the right screen - as seen by Carol. The shots, arranged chronologically, show clearly how the protagonist's perception of the space changes throughout the film and at the same time it is very clear to the viewer that this is how she sees it. Additionally the scenes with other characters in them are, as shown, longer and the movement in them is slower, more composed and calm. Carol always seems to walk fast and make frantic movements (head, arms) which also builds up the rhythm and tension in the film.

In this clip I put together scenes shot at different angles - eye level and fairly low angle that can be compared to a child's eye level. This way of showing spaces and characters relates to Carol's passivity and vulnerability, as if she actually was a child and as such reflects her mental condition. In the first part we see the kitchen where Carol's sister and her lover enjoy a breakfast alone. Next to it is another kitchen shot, taken at a lower angle and thus signaling Carol's appearance. It also shows the relation between the sisters where the older one is clearly in charge. The following two parts of the clip show how in subsequent scenes the angle changes to reflect Carol's change between anticipation of a problem  and the actual unwelcome situation. While she is expecting trouble, she moves frantically, trying to avert it unsuccessfully or possibly get prepared to face it. She remains active. As soon as she faces an unwelcome situation, she becomes passive and simply gives in to it. That is when the angle changes, again reflecting her submissive and vulnerable nature.

This video focuses on two quite literal aspects of visual representation of Carol's condition. Firstly, there are rotting potatoes and rabbit left out for days to decay and disintegrate. This very closely reflects the protagonist's own mental breakdown. Another visual motif reappearing throughout the film are the cracks appearing in the walls, ceiling, sidewalk, even the creases in the bed linen. Again, they relate to her conscience and clarity of vision falling apart.

Finally, there is a clear representation of characters' role and intentions in particular scenes through the angle they are filmed from. There are many moments when the camera is looking up towards someone, or down at them. All shots looking from below at someone/something, suggest the person's/space's oppressive role or character at that moment. At the same time, the camera looking down signals the person in view is a victim. Interestingly, even though the viewer tends to sympathize with Carol, the is shown as both the villain/oppressor and the victim here.

FILM DATA ANALYSIS

A little while ago I started analysing Repulsion in a form of map/diagram. I wanted to look at different elements of the film such as shot length, shot types, light/darkness opposition in relation to plot turns and tension. I started with the first map showing the shot duration when I it was pointed to me that I needed to analyse information in a visual manner rather than focusing on data. While I fully agree with it, I still think the exercise I began is useful for gaining a deeper understanding of film grammar and the relation between different elements of it and I may come back to it later in my own time.

UN CHIEN ANDALOU - SURREAL SPACES

Looking at Polanski's inspirations I came across Bunuel's 1929 film Un Chien Andalou made in collaboration with Salvador Dali.

Apart from it being a representation of surreal vision of the world, it also provides an  interesting way of showing spaces. By blurring and blacking out the edges of the film we start seeing the scenes as detached from the areas out of the screen. When watching a film, we normally assume a spatial continuation to what we see on screen. We are aware that the area of a room, house, outdoor location as shown is only a part of a whole of it and place it in context of. However, with the edges of the screen blacked out the area in view becomes detached from its surrounding and exists on its own, with no relation to what might be around it. That interestingly flattens the surfaces and also focuses our vision and attention on what/who we see. By not expecting a continuation of spaces out of screen, we take what we see as is without distraction of assumed/imagined space.

The surreal scenes such as slashing the eye in line with a cloud passing over the moon, ants coming out of a gash in the hand and detached hand in the middle of a street bring to mind some scenes in Repulsion. There are rotten potatoes and rabbit in Polanski's film that similarly portrait decay. Another iconic scene is when the hands are coming out of the wall in Carol's apartment, reminding a similar scene in Cocteau's La Belle et la Bete (Beauty and the Beast, 1946).

REPULSION - LIGHT AND SPACE

I have taken stills from the house scenes of Repulsion and removed colour, replaced it with black and inverted to see what happens to spaces shown. Some of the images resemble drawings more than pictures now. Also, I got a lot on non-space areas, either plain black or white, that look like a flat surface more than the three dimensional interiors. This brings me back to Mammals, Polanski's short that I quoted before and reminds of how deceitful the perception of space in moving image can be. The only reason I was able to read the spatial context of the stills once the light was removed was because I knew that the spaces were having seen Repulsion. I therefore aligned both adjusted films I made of the stills with the original footage (cut to match the stills' content) so I can compare them while watching rather than analyze on their own.

ABOUT A GIRL - COLOUR GRADING

Another way of manipulating the mood in film I have seen recently is subtle manipulation of tint of picture. As seen in About a Girl by Brian Percival (2001), the image is gradually turning colder throughout the film. By applying blue colour the whole aura of the film is becoming pessimistic and, quite literally, cold. The method is very subtle, I only really noticed it at the very end when the film returned to the full colour for the last scene.

SAM BURFORD - INTERPRETING FILM

Recently I have seen a very interesting piece of art by Sam Burford based on Star Wars. It was a sculpture based on the timeline of the film.

The artist has been working with film for several years now, mainly creating 2D graphics and pictures based on movies, but also sculptures as the most recent one seen above. Some of his other works include timelapse photographs that, similar to the sculptures, represent the whole of the movie and resemble slit scans, storyboards, or even strips of film with drawings on them.

Intercut, 2008,  http://www.samburford.com/

In a way this shows the whole of the film in one piece of work that you can see at a glance, and none of it at the same time. The original spaces and situations from the movie are illegible and yet it makes sense as a whole, creating new visual data and reflecting more of an atmospheric feel, ambience than the content.

REPULSION - COLOUR MANIPULATION

One of the areas I was looking at in Repulsion is how light, or lack thereof, affects the way we understand spaces in the film. My first impression was just that they seemed smaller, more claustrophobic and almost oppressive to reflect protagonist's condition. However at a closer look I realized that it's not only our understanding of scale that changes with specific lighting. I made a series of tests based on the film stills where I manipulated the colour and I noticed that the surfaces also change appearance and look more ambiguous. It is no longer clear where the corners are or whether some elements are parts of furniture, floors etc.