On Friday we were given our brief for the Time Art project. It is to be played on three upright screens, with a duration of one minute. While the idea of time really interests me, the installation type aspect of the project sounds very daunting to me, being something that I've never had an opportunity to do before. However I am going in with an open mind and seeing what I can come up with! 

We watched a documentary style movie called Samsara (directed by Ron Fricke) to get us engaged in the concept of time in film. This is a style that I have never seen before and it was a very new way for me to view a movie. I found it interesting how it was shot, and the imagery throughout was absolutely stunning. I'm not going to lie, possibly if you aren't really a film person you may find it a tiny bit boring or typically artsy, but there is no doubt that anyone cannot appreciate the effort put into making such a large scale production. Filmed over a five year period in over twenty five countries, the work involved to create it is astounding. I also was able to check out Samsara's predecessor, Baraka (also directed by Ron Fricke) which allowed me to engage further into this style of film. 

Samsara
Baraka 


What really grabbed my attention was the following scene in Samsara...


At first I found the whole thing very strange and didn't quite understand the full intention behind it. After the film, Simon questioned me and Rob on what we thought it might mean, and we basically said we assumed it was to show the man releasing tension from being confined to working in a boring office. It was then revealed that this may be a case, however the main objective was behind the previous shots of a robots taking over human work, and thus this performance by the office man was used to show the amount of emotion that humans can convey where robots can not. This became a very effective scene for me then and after fully understanding it made me appreciate the message displayed. The talk with Simon also made me realise that I need to start looking deeper into the meanings and think more carefully about what is being conveyed - not just looking for the obvious. 

Both films definitely helped me think more about the project and I enjoyed expanding my knowledge of the more styles that films can take on.