films

Essay Film: Alien

What makes a creative maker? How can one use systems and strategies to create a successful final product? For Bridge 4, we were challenged to do just that. Following our Bridge 3 project, we were tasked with creating an essay film focusing on the same word from our personal lexicon. We combined our skills from Seminar class, and wrote a script; we analyzed strategies from masters like Jean Luc Godard, and created our very own strategies that would create 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. In order to understand my word to a more critical extent, I used Maggie Nelson’s “Bluets” as inspiration for my writing. She utilizes various meanings of the word “blue” in her writing, which in turn gives it a very interesting effect. For my film, I was inspired by Jean Luc Godard’s film “Two Or Three Things I Know About Her”. I love how he uses direct eye contact with the camera, and how the narrating voice switches with the characters’ voices in some instances. This film also reminded me about Wes Anderson’s films, which I also decided to use as inspiration.

In order to begin the process of creating my essay film, I first analyzed my word. In the steps of Maggie Nelson, I found the many meanings that the word “alien” has, and wrote them down. I would later include these in my writing. 

I then sat down and began to think about all that I wanted to say in my film. What did I want to portray? What tone would my film have? I talked about my ideas with Claire, and she helped guide me through my writing process. I wrote my script with a story telling mood in mind. I wanted to use all the meanings of the word alien, include a personal story, cite three sources, and also explain my Bridge 3 project, all of this following one single thread of ideas. I wanted my script to flow. I later turned this into a storyboard, which helped me organize my ideas for the film.

With the help of my storyboard, I began filming. I decided that the Guggenheim Museum would be a perfect setting for some of my stills. It has something alien about it. I also filmed in the balcony of my apartment, and used some footage that I had taken at the Tomás Sarraceno: Particular Matters exhibit at The Shed. I felt like these worked perfectly with my script. 

The editing process was hard, since I am still not an expert in Adobe Premiere. In the end, I experimented with the program and watched videos on YouTube that helped me get to a final product that I loved. I also made sure to use repetition, text and juxtaposition with the voiceover to really turn my film into an essay film. I really like how my project turned out. I feel like it really embodies all that I wanted to portray.

This project is the perfect example of creative making: I enjoyed the process of writing my script and planning all of my scenes; I was excited to work on my project, rather than feeling like I had to; I ran into challenges using Adobe Premiere, but was excited to find the solutions to these problems, even if they were time consuming.