Password: Bridge2
Project Background
In our seminar class, we read and analyzed Borge’s Funes the Memorious, and the “Vertical Interrogations.” I then interviewed my partner, Chengcheng, with my own “vertical interrogation” questions. Using this footage, our assignment was to take inspiration from the readings and confront the ideas of memory, remembering, and forgetting. We had to create completely different content using our won perspective from the original footage. The video should be natural looking with limited special effects.
Relation to Funes
Borge’s story, “Funes the Memorious,” paints an expressive portrait of a handicapped man, Funes, who has the ability to remember everything. However, this adds to his disability, because he has no room in his mind to make any generalizations or original thoughts. Instead, everything that goes through his mind is pure memorization and repetition of facts and every minute detail. “To think is to forget differences, generalize, make abstractions.” I connected my film directly to this quote in order to show how important thinking is to each individual mind. The things one’s mind chooses to remember, add on to, forget, allows for the creation of an individual and original story. Therefore, I chose to focus on the moments in the interview where Chengcheng is thinking and pieced them together in a way that it seems like he is struggling to answer difficult questions. It reveals how one, such as Chengcheng, can choose to withhold, recall, or simply forget information and memories in order to paint a certain portrait of himself.
Process + Choices
The first opportunity Chengcheng and I had to interview each other during class, we did not record or capture any footage. Instead we talked and got to know each other without having the pressure of the camera on us. This way, I was able to understand what kind of person Chengcheng was, and I could therefore ask certain personalized questions. My initial questions for that day were simple and generic, and though I included some of the same ones in my actual interview, I added some extra questions that I knew would invoke a certain type of response where he would have to recall certain things way back when. I chose to film the actual interview with cameras shooting directly at our faces. I wanted Chengcheng to make eye contact with the camera and be close to the camera because I wanted it to be as if the audience were the ones asking the questions and they would be able to witness the vulnerability and and struggle of answering these questions. Once I went through the footage, I grabbed all the clips of Chengcheng thinking about answers and collaged them as if they were for only a couple questions though in reality they were from 10+ questions. I wanted to show himself confronting the memories in his own mind, and though the viewers are unable to read everything from his facial expressions, the little movements and sighs reveal the act of thinking and making a story in one’s head. Some of the questions I chose were ones I created after the interview, because there was some footage I liked such as him talking about the cab ride, but I wanted it to flow with the rest of the deeper introspective questions. I realized because I had zoomed so much in on his face, it was easy to clip many pieces of the film together without it looking too choppy. I did not include myself in the film because like I said before, I wanted it to seem as if the questions were coming from the viewer or maybe his own head. I added the text and typewriter effect so it could seem almost like a formal interrogation where only the truth must come out. However, of course, it is seen that Chengcheng does not directly say some things, though it is shown of him thinking these things (for the question “what do you want to forget”). I added background music to cover up any of the distracting and unpleasant sounding white noise. It also added to some effects where I paused it to show pause or realization in his thought.
Shift
Once I got the actual footage, I had no real idea which direction the film was going to go except that I still wanted it to be kept in interview form. However, I planned for me to be in the film as well, with my face shot up close as well, as if it were a conversation/interrogation between us but still maintaining eye contact with the viewers to create a connection. However, I did not like how the audio and lighting did not match up between the two and I figured it was not going to work. Also I felt that keeping the attention solely on Chengcheng would make him seem more vulnerable and focused on.
