TEMPORAL DURATION

Making a film, one is often struck with an immense power in their hands. The experience of duration can be augmented by expansion and compression of time. Like a God’s ability, like a black hole, time is suddenly a tangible matter that can be massaged, bent, knitted...

In this manipulation of reality, real time is converted to reel time. To contrast the duality of the augmentation, the expanded and compressed can be alternated. Juxtaposition of the altered and referenced time can also be effective.

In the film ‘Zoo’, footage of animals decaying is constantly shown. It is shown to us, the viewers, as well as to the characters in the film. The fast forwarded film shows the behavior of decomposition in a larger scale of time, contrasting to the pace of the relative event time.

The decomposition footage almost act as a summed idea of the preceding events that take place, reflecting the twin brother’s unconsciousness. It also suggests an ambiguous amount of time that has passed between each series of events, when taken account of the actual time for the decay.

‘Paris JeT’aime’ and ‘Lisbon Story’ assemble a sequence or a collection of ephemeral memories that constitute a ‘genius locus’. In this case, the personal experiences are not aligned with the daily passage of time but with the series of events that happens over a longer period of time. The ephemeral memories form a concept of duration in which the city and experience sits itself in.

‘Lisbon Story’, the viewers follow the protagonist’s discovery, where time is no longer confined to a diurnal passage, but stretched into what could be months. Change of lighting in day and night, awakenings and sleeping, healing of the injured leg, change of seasonal temperature, coming and going of the musical band, all suggest a passage of time, but focuses on the alignment with the order of experience and event.

In ‘Matrix’, the fighting scenes are slowed down at different rates to dramatize the impact on the viewers. By extending the time significantly, we find the movement find a new scale and depth, where anticipation and tension is increased.

‘Man with Camera’ demonstrates a vision of Moscow where it looks beyond the human time frame: in very short sequence of shots, a couple gets married, divorced, life into death- while the machine, that is the city, keeps running.