films

Essay Film: Alien

What makes a creative maker? How can one use systems and strategies to create a successful final product? In my Integrative Studio II class, we were challenged to do just that. Following our Bridge 3 project, where we created a material art piece interpreting a word from our personal lexicon, we were now tasked with creating an essay film focusing on the same word from our personal lexicon. This would be our final project. We combined our skills from Seminar class to research and write a script. We then analyzed and learned from the strategies of film masters like Jean Luc Godard and created our very own tactics to build a successful essay film.

As per my Bridge 3 project, the word I have chosen to work with is “alien”. It describes a time in my life where I was extremely curious about extraterrestrial life and the unknown. It also relates the story of me, an international student, living abroad. In order to understand my chosen word on a more critical level, I used Maggie Nelson’s essay “Bluets” as inspiration for my writing. Nelson masterfully notes how the word “blue” can take on different meanings depending on context; a technique that gives way to an interesting play of analogous terms she gracefully differentiates in her work. This became the basis for my script. For my own essay film, I was inspired by Jean Luc Godard’s film “Two Or Three Things I Know About Her”. I particularly loved how Godard implements a technique where the characters make direct eye contact with the camera; I think it added a very interesting quality to the storytelling. I also noted how Godard decides the movie should be narrated by a particular unknown voice, but also allows the characters to step in and comment when he deems necessary. Similarly, “Two Or Three Things I Know About Her” also reminded me of Wes Anderson’s signature style, one I also decided to use as inspiration.

As I embarked on the process of creating my own essay film, I first decided to conduct a deep analysis my word - alien. In the footsteps of Maggie Nelson, I found the many different meanings that the word “alien” could denote. I wrote them down I for later inclusion in my writing. 

I then sat down and began to think about what exactly I wanted to say or express in my film. What did I want to portray? What tone would my film have? I talked about my ideas with Claire, my Seminar teacher, who helped guide me through my writing process. I wanted my film to have great story telling, which I remembered to keep in mind when writing my script. I wanted to accomplish many things in my writing - I wanted to use all the meanings of the word alien, include a personal story, cite three sources, and also explain the material piece I created for Bridge 3, all of this following one single thread of ideas. I wanted my script to be swift, to flow. Once all my ideas were written down, I turned the script into a storyboard, which really helped organize my ideas visually in order to create the film.

With the help of my meticulously planned storyboard, I began filming. I decided that the Guggenheim Museum would be a perfect setting for some of my still; it has something that feels very alien about it, an air of mystery and abnormality. I also made the choice to film in the balcony of my apartment, and used some footage that I had already taken at the Tomás Sarraceno: Particular Matters exhibit at The Shed - my balcony being very familiar contrasting to Sarraceno’s unusual and peculiar exhibit. I felt like these worked perfectly with my script. 

The editing process was hard, since I am still not an expert in Adobe Premiere. Nonetheless, I experimented and played with the program, watched videos on YouTube, and practiced the art of patience, all of which led me to create a final product that I loved. I also made sure to intentionally use the strategies of repetition, text and juxtaposition along with the voiceover to really turn my film into an essay film. I truly love how my project turned out; I feel like it really embodies all that I wanted to portray when exploring the word “alien”.

This project ultimately becomes the perfect example of creative making. I really enjoyed the process of writing my script and planning all of my scenes, I always felt excited when working on my project rather than it feeling like an obligation, and I did ran into some challenges using Adobe Premiere, but I was always excited to find solutions to these problems - even if they were time consuming.