Walking Home in the Slant of the Day (Medium Specificity) from Caitlin J. Brady on Vimeo.
Artist's Statement
My process for this week's project was very scattered, and I was all over the place as I brainstormed different mediums and directions I could go. I even got in some concrete work on multiple other ideas, in multiple other mediums. The hectic arrival, though, only serves to highlight its simplicity and serenity for me, personally, and I suspect I will enjoy this project more lastingly than any other I've made so far. This video is very simple, with no cuts, minimal work done in post-production, and not even a soundtrack, but that is intentional, and works towards the focus that I meant to examine: the relationships between the camera, the filmmaker, and the viewer. Primarily, the form of this short emphasizes the power the filmmaker has over their work, and the relationship between the camera and the camera person, which is nearly direct. The camera can't go anywhere that the camera operator does not, and it is restricted in that way, for good or bad. The tight frame that I kept on an unchanging subject really highlights that restriction, I think, and the viewer may at first become bored or impatient, especially hearing the sounds out of frame and not seeing their sources. Sound was important to me in creating aural depth and perspective, and I love the fade-in fade-out things that happened as I passed different noises. Then, though, another power comes into play: that of the viewer. I wanted this work to embody the long walks home that we all take, and invite the viewer to relax into the simple patterns and lack of obligation that represents, and go off from that into thinking about--well, whatever they wanted, just like on real walks home. To that end, I kept the great length and the simple frame, encouraging a relaxation of expectation, and an acceptance of meditation. Interestingly enough, and to my frank delight, just a day after I shot this footage a friend of mine spoke unprompted about how much she enjoys being able to think about whatever she wants while commuting home, and that same freedom is open here, to the viewer. It is not influenced at all by the filmmaker, and is uninfluenced by the story, manipulations, and connotations that are so much heavier in most other films. I enjoy those things, but this work focuses on the freedom from them, and the viewer's ability to think about what they want regardless of outside stimuli. In the process of editing and proof-watching, I've watched this four times just straight through, and long and monotonous though it may seem, I've enjoyed it--there is something hypnotic about the constant movement and the rhythmic sound of footsteps. I also purposely filmed this during golden hour, or what is called in French "the slant of the day," which lays a golden tinge on things and heightens shadow. I wanted this for the visual interest, especially of the shadows of the filmmaker and surrounding objects, and also for the feel of evening and closing and coming home that I feel gives this otherwise somewhat structure-less piece a very complete-feeling end.
When this project started out, I was taken in by all the possibilities, and a little seduced by complexity and combinations. When I looked back at the examples from class, however, I was more struck by their simplicity. For Jackson Pollack, Andy Warhol, John Cage, and Stan Brakhage, the complex possibility of the meanings and inspiration that can come from their texts does not result from an intense or contrived intention or construction. The opposite is true: the simplicity and ambiguity of their work, focusing more on process than product typically, allows the audience to come to its own conclusions and find meaning for themselves, which can be much more meaningful than picking up a meaning someone else manufactured. This thought was a comfort to me whenever I worried about getting too simple, as I worked on this project--at the time, one of multiple possibilities for my final piece. I also worried about whether it was actually watchable, when it is so long and repetitive. Recently, though, in 114, we watched a short art film called "Everything is Everything," linked to below, which is just made up of clips of faceless hands manipulating objects, and I was surprised by how much I and the rest of the class enjoyed it. That, too, gave me confidence and inspiration this week. In the end, the form of this video seemed analogous to the process I went through in creating it--a bit of a long journey and a lot of thought, before simply coming home.
"Everything is Everything" by Koki Tanaka
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