The first BCM115 assessment had me creating several Lumiere films (remoscopes – fixed composition shots filmed using a stationary camera), edited together into a 30 second video piece. Using George Ella Lyon’s poem “Where I’m From” as a base, I constructed my own version of the poem following her guidelines, and created a video piece to accompany it.
Where I’m From
I am from a room with a desk and a bed
From a self-induced prison
I’m from a dark place where time disappears
Where day and night cycles blur
Any attempt at organisation is overwhelmed with stress and mess
Procrastination always wins
I’m from to-do lists, browser tabs, calendars, textbooks
All ironically reducing productivity
I’m from two-day old rice and caffeine pills
Solutions cheaper than time spent on self-care
A place where silent breakdowns are spent alone
A place where I am helpless to watch deadlines approach
I wanted to take a less physical approach to “where I’m from”, focusing on the feeling of hopelessness I have been stuck in throughout stages of my study at university. I used a collection of moments to build a theme through association and cross dissolved many them into each other to simulate the way hours blend together. The clock was presented out of focus to simulate fatigue, appearing at the beginning and end to create a repeating loop of the vicious cycle. Lack of light was used represent night and mood, but the film quality was reduced more than I expected.
I was inspired by
- Themes in “The Black Dog” (2017), by Rodney Lewin https://vimeo.com/210518206
- The cyclical alarm clock in “Groundhog Day” (1993), Harold Ramis
- The fridge shot, highlighted in “In the Fridge” (2015), Roman Holiday https://vimeo.com/130254913
Sunny Commandeur 