Link to video: https://vimeo.com/693107301

My observational film shot at Melbourne’s State Library focuses on birds with the people of Melbourne, statues, structure and surrounding environment in the mundane. It also shows how the interaction with these birds can be passive or interactive which is incorporated into the lifestyle of Melbournians either passing by or spending time at the library.   

Even in a post pandemic society where there were periods of time and lockdowns where the city was very quiet, my film shows how birds still loiter the library. In two of the shots, someone sitting down on the phone is not wearing a facemask and then focus pulls to another person with a clipboard who is wearing a respirator type of face mask which can be seen to be as more serious and conscious of the virus compared to the basic cloth mask. These birds which still stay around the State Library may have also recognised these changes. 

My shots also display the communities of birds in their resting spot being in the tree branches as well as how they flock together when they see someone with food. These birds accumulate and fill the frame overtime progressively to show them waiting to be fed. I slowed down these shots to capture and outline their movements and actions, anticipating the direction in where the man would throw the food so that they can get fed first. 

The birds flocking together also contrasts with them by themselves and alone walking around the library as shown in the last shot where it is an opposite setting to the shot before where there are more people in the birds presence. However the bird is so accustomed to this environment that it is normal and is not scared to walk alongside or past them. In the last shot where people sit outside and between the pillars at an entry to the State Library, it shows that even for Melbournians or people who have lived a long time in Melbourne are used to the presence of birds and are not scared or shocked to see them in a close proximity.