The film essay I'm working on takes a look at two basic types of physical form in our every day environment: natural versus mechanical. The question is: what is dependable and true? What is it that composes our physical reality? Through aspects of each that will be explored in my essay, I will portray the conclusion that nature is true and unchanging, and machinery, though it is utilized in our world to help us accomplish tasks, is subject to malfunctioning. Machinery and synthetic devices represent a false reality that can at times obscure one’s understanding of the world.
This seems like a straightforward and obvious statement. So why am I focusing on it? We are natural and organic ourselves, yet we have created tools and technology out of our own instinctive survival methods and human ingenuity. The creation of tools depends on human mind power, owing the mechanical world's existence to that of the organic world.
The content of my film will focus on their various manifestations of the two types of existence around campus. I’m going to demonstrate that they both insinuate themselves into an important role in our lives. Organic and untamed forces of nature seem to be strong and uncontrollable things; we are generally subject to their intensity and unpredictability. However, there is a constant and unrelenting rhythm in nature and life. This can be seen in many things- from the changing of the tides, the inevitable coming of night, and our own mortality.
I want to first portray how nature exists and plays a role in our lives on campus. For this, I will show a time lapse clip of the sun rising and setting on campus, clouds moving, a plant growing and dying, and perhaps put together clips of people of varying ages to portray the idea of aging. I’ll probably intersperse this with footage of trees and foliage on campus. I want to reveal the constant nature of life, and how our lives reflect that same rhythm found in nature. The main idea of this part is to show that life and laws of nature are constant. I will also use other repetitive natural sounds such as the buzzing of locusts, the beating of a human heart, and the sound of someone breathing heavily. I will probably set this to clips of other things that happen cyclically in nature, such as the coming and going of tides, the explosion of geysers, and the eruption of volcanoes. I will intersperse the clips of these things in nature with things on campus that happen cyclically, such as people walking around campus, entering and leaving bathrooms, buying coffee, studying, and working out. This will also be set to the repetitive nature sounds, and maybe other nature sounds like wind blowing, trees rustling, and animals making sounds.
A transition between showing the two aspects of life will be my portraying them united on campus in a visual way—showing scenes where both manmade and naturally occurring things come together in a symbolic sense- mostly focusing on the juxtaposition of forms and shapes related to each. I’m thinking of showing something as simple as leaves that have fallen on a brick sidewalk, because that does unite the two concepts in a visually symbolic way. The bricks represent the manmade structure representative of technology and society, which thus have unnaturally straight and rigid lines, and the leaves carry the curvilinear, organic lines representative of nature.
I’m going to portray various examples of machinery that are placed in our lives. I'm going to include examples such as cellular phones, computers much like the one you’re using, elevators, escalators, calculators and so forth. The rigid nature of these devices suggests reliability. I intend to discredit this suggestion. I will portray the inconsistencies of machines and technology on campus. I'm going to include a clip of a famous "blue screen" when a computer freezes, footage of actual computer problems on campus, and maybe other things such as broken cell phones and iPods. Some sounds I'll use include sounds of circuit bending, beeping of computers that are processing an error, and probably the sound of a computer generated voice narrator. I'm not sure what else I will include, probably other clips from outside sources showing examples of faulty technology, like incorrect computer translations and misleading GPS directions. I’m also going to show famous clips of computers going haywire in popular culture (such as HAL from 2001 a Space Odyssey).
The point I'm trying to make: there are two aspects of physical existence, organic and mechanical. Though we often rely on our own technology and believe it to be more consistent than unpredictable nature, I am out to prove the contrary. Machines are to be portrayed as synthetic and unreliable, and the most consistent things we can depend on in life are the inevitable laws of nature. I hope to personify this idea throughout the film with different effects (lightening and darkening clips so as to mirror sunrise and sunset and imitate the circadian rhythm) The rhythm of nature will be contrasted with intentional blips and malfunctions within the film itself to bring forth the idea of technology's inconsistencies.
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