A Brief Report on Two Doco Films

I. The Film on A thing: Brain – Blurred Boundary

The Process:

  1. Choose the subject: Brain.
  2. Write a list on the topic of “Brain”.
  3. Choose one topic in the list to expand and write up another list: “Blurred Boundary”.

The goal of the Work:

  1. Treat “Brain” and “Blurred Boundary” as a thing in itself.
  2. Discover the dense nature of the “units” and demonstrate the concept of “meshwork”.
  3. Linger long enough on the “units” to understand the so-called “the other”, which in this case are “brain” and “blurred boundary”
  4. Reveal the ambiguity of a “brain”: a symbol of a combination of body and conscious(material/immaterial). Is there a clear defined difference between the binary concepts? Eg. male vs. female. Eg. “Is it good or bad, or just a choice?”
  5. Create a “beautiful” shot.

How to Achieve the Goal:

  1. List a variety of words in relation to the topics “Brain”: nouns, adjectives and verbs(in visual). Put the words in the middle of the shots for emphasis.
  2. Use one shot of the brain(which I drew) to make sure that “brain” as a unit is constantly associated with the words shown on the screen.
  3. List words in relation to “Blurred Boundary” and words of opposing ideas(in voiceover). In this case, I have expanded one thing, the “Brain”, and expanded one part of the “blurred boundary”—its definition.
  4. Colour grade the footage.

What the Work have Achieved:

  1. It was a meshwork as it is.
  2. It illustrated the units “Brain” and “Blurred Boundary” as meshworks.
  3. It was aesthetically satisfying.

II. The Film on An Action: Wander – The Swinging of the Leg – Double Pendulum

The Process:

  1. Think of an activity that matters to me: “Wandering on the street on that Saturday afternoon, taking photos”.
  2. Choose one action in that activity: “The Swinging of the Leg” and list words on that topic.
  3. Choose one word from the list: “Double Pendulum”.

The goal of the Work:

  1. Reveal the dense nature of “The Swinging of the Leg”.
  2. Reveal the dense nature of “Double Pendulum”.
  3. Explore what is it like to be “The Swinging of the Leg” and treat it as an individual.
  4. Explore the definition of “Double Pendulum”.

How to Achieve the Goal:

  1. Make a list of words on the “The Swinging of the Leg” on the questions: 1)What would it take to achieve? 2)What will it do to other? What will it affect? 3)What is it in itself? (content of the voiceover)
  2. Display one long shot of what might the “leg” sees the world.
  3. Display simulations of single pendulum, double pendulum and multi-pendulum. (side by side with the long shot described above)

What the Work have Achieved:

  1. It was a dense work.
  2. It lingered on the topic of “The Swinging of the Leg” and “Double Pendulum”.
  3. It introduced the point of view of the “unit”(leg), illustrating its agency.

 

Our job is to go where everyone has gone before, but where few have bothered to linger.

Jialu Cheng

2017.06.01