Varlıer

Communication and Design student at Bilkent University

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Postcard From 1952 vs. Postcard From Early 2000s.

Today’s topic is about combining old and new as a content, as a medium, as a sound. 

After I watched this music video of Explosions In The Sky, it inspired me more than I thought. Identities, memories, “my-selves”, and dilemmas are both something personal and can change from person to person and time to time.

Since my childhood, I have always loved both new and old things. This was always the case in clothes, movies and music, and it has not changed. I also want to use this point of view in my final project. 

I always thought that the images shot with analog cameras had a different spirit.

by Canon AE-1

My parents

by Cosina CX7

by Canon AE-1

These are some photographs that I shoot with Canon AE-1, and some photographs of me and my parents. 

Now I use the video camera my parents bought to capture my childhood. For the final project, I want to use that camera. Maybe I can create a door that opens to my childhood and my memories with today’s shots as well because my all childhood videos taken with that camera are in digital format. Maybe I can combine those footages with my current mentality, appearance, and life. So, it can be a good experimental video about my inner self and emotional situation.

Here is the video that I created for Media Archeology project about my Sony handy-cam. 

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My First Anime Experience at 22 Years Old; Devilman Crybaby

Today’s topic is about anime world which I was little biased about. I Have never watched anime so far but one of my close friends forced me to watch together and now here we are, writing a blog-post about Devilman Crybaby (2018) by Masaaki Yuasa. 

Like I said before, I was little biased about anime series because I thought that topics and narrative are not for me. However, after I watched this series, my mind has totally changed. 

It was about a boy; Akira who was fused with a demon by a friend; Ryo, and for the majority of the season, he was fighting other demons in a bloodbath. The series then shifts to a more anti-war tone, displaying the worst aspects of humanity. We as an audience solve the secrets and unclear part of the series in every episode

The thing that this anime got me is that Akira and Ryo represent both different side of the spectrum; good and evil. However, usage of color represents opposite, in the series Ryo is the devil and he is blonde and angelic boy. On the other hand, Akira is a good person that wants the best for everyone in the world and he has darker appearance when it is compared to Ryo. So, I think this is very interesting thing when it comes to usage of color. 

The events and situations that happen in the series are so close to real-life in many ways and I didn’t expect to have a same understanding by watching an anime rather than watching a movie. 

I wanted to end this week’s blog-post with an opening of Devilman Crybaby where we can understand so many things about the anime series.

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Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994) as a Postmodern Cinema

Today’s topic is about one of my favorite directors; Quentin Tarantino and his postmodernist cinema. 

Postmodernism was born from a state of disenchantment with the modernist’s world. While modernism was a movement centered around rationality and progress, postmodernism rejects any single truth or answer, and views the world through a lens of cynicism and irony. 

To live in a postmodern world is to live in a world where nothing is new because all content is constantly recycled in a subjective and self-referential way. 

Throughout the Pulp Fiction (1994), we can see that there are a lot of inter-textual references, a key component of postmodernist texts such as Marylyn Monroe and Buddy Holly, music choices, and references from Godard. 

The other postmodern factor that Tarantino used in Pulp Fiction (1994) is the absence of history and time, fragmented narrative structure and hybridity. This notion in the filmmaking conforms the idea of life is fragmented in postmodernism because the audiences can not understand fully what is happening in which time etc. 

According to the interview that I watched a few years ago, Tarantino himself states that there is no absolute truth behind the message of the movie, and he adds that the audience can decide what they want to understand. So, again, this notion of the audience's perception of the text is behind the existentialism of meaning in the film conforms the postmodern theory. 

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Malcolm & Marie: The Movie Takes Place in One Place

Today’s topic is about the movie Malcolm & Marie (2021) by Sam Levinson. This movie is one of the movies that was shot in quarantine times. 

Malcolm & Marie, a one-night, single setting and single-plan film on a single subject, tries to show the “big picture” with a black and white representation, with the story of two nihilist characters who hate each other too much, isolated from the outside world and completely focused on them. Throughout the film, Marie's silence and, conversely, Malcolm's chattering keep the flow in the movie. 

With the beginning credits referring to the classic Hollywood narrative, Malcolm & Marie focuses on being as realistic as possible, with long single plans with audience shots that will repeat throughout the entire movie right after its opening, and diegetic music that dominates the narrative by going beyond creating a background mood. In fact, the film's black and white nature creates the sense of the evidentiary quality of the old photographs, making the discussions, quarrels and die-hard love of the couple being watched seem truly lived, documented, and now presented to our peace.

First of all, the black and white aesthetic that the movie has is the one that I like. Apart from that, I think the one of the successful things about the movie is screenwriting. I, personally, love Sam Levinson’s screenplay because his writing style feels so close and real to me in order to understand and feel the characters. I, also, love the TV series Euphoria in the same way.

Since it is shot in one particular space, camera movements and usage of lighting are subtle so that is why acting has more active role. Dialogues between characters and their fights are so real to me. 

All in all, Malcolm & Marie affected me in a different way that I was able to put myself in the shoes of the characters. I think the movie is successful in terms of telling real topics in a cinematic way. 

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Lighting is Important

Today’s topic is something related with lighting workshop. Lighting is one of the most important things in filmmaking and photography. There are different lighting techniques.

The most used one is probably natural lighting which is the natural light you achieve form the any time of the day you shoot. So, you need to decide what time you choose.

Key lighting is one of the lighting style which is the primary light source of the scene. It is intense and direct. It illuminates subject or actor.

A fill light is placed on the opposite of the key light and it is not as powerful as the key light. It cancels out the shadows created by the key light.

Backlighting is the light hits an actor or object from behind. It is generally placed higher than the object it is lighting. It is used for separating an actor or an object from a background. It gives more shape and depth to the scene.

Things like lamps and candles have a role of course. They are called practical lights. They have a role to add an ambiance to the scene, and absolutely lighting style.

Lighting is one of the most important things that adds emotion and aesthetics to the scene. It may even represent something psychological.

So, it is important to experience, experiment, and try to use different kinds of lighting while shooting.

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Tableaux Vivant: Recreating Art

Today's topic is one of the most interesting and aesthetic topics in art, I believe, in terms of its practice and usage in contemporary art; Tableaux vivant.

Tableaux vivant, translated from French, means 'living pictures'. It became popular between 1830 and 1920. It contains a cast of characters representing the some scenes from literature, art, and history. It can be performed live, or depicted in painting, photography, and sculpture. The performers taking part in a tableau vivant would freeze, motionless, and silent so that audience can could add to it by themselves. The result looks like a "live painting". So, it is one way of recreating art.

Before radio, film, and television, tableaux vivant were used for a form of entertainment. With the advancements in technology, now we can see tableaux vivant in movies, in music videos, and in photography.

Like I said earlier, it is a way of recreating art, and when we say recreate and reproduce art, Walter Benjamin comes to my ming immediately. His theory is based on this term; reproduction of art.

I, personally, think that this type of technological reproduction of art does not decrease its "aura", "authenticity", or "uniqueness" rather than that I think it enriches audiences' perception and the reproduced version became something entirely new. In that sense, some of the examples in the Vugar Efendi's Film Meets Art series made me think more about the paintings and the meanings inside them.

When I look at the paintings, I again think thoughtfully and deeply, but if it is something in a moving image form, I realized that it gives more emotion and meaning to me.

So, I think it is a very interesting topic in art to experience and create.

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Filmmaking with Smartphones

I do not have a high-quality DSLR camera to shoot my projects or other moments of my life, for these kind of things, I use my smartphone as a camera. Thanks to great advancements in technology, now, we have smartphones with high-quality cameras. So, I thought it would be a beneficial topic to talk about how to shoot with smartphones.

Always shoot in landscape!

First of all, finding a way to stabilize the camera is important. At first, I was using other objects to stabilize my camera. In a flat place, I was leaning my phone against an object so it stands stabilized. Then, I discovered tripods for phones, and they are cheaper than DSLR cameras of course. So, for this stabilization situation, I am now using tripods.

Smartphone cameras have generally automatic settings in terms of focus, exposure, white balance and the other settings. However, there are applications that allow you to change the settings manually. For instance, Mavis, you can change the focus, exposure and the other settings manually with this application while you’re shooting a video.

I think one of the most important things is lighting, and for that, natural light is generally enough for a good result. However, when you shoot a video inside, you might need an extra good lighting source and for that I bought a tripod with a ring light on it.

If you are done with basic needs of shooting a video, you can always have extra equipments that make your video more professional or experimental. You can buy different lenses (fish-eye, wide angle) that attach your phone. Also, if you want to achieve an experimental lighting, you can buy lamps with different colors according to your need with a cheaper price than the professional lamps.

These are the things that I’m using when I shoot a video and I think they are easily reachable and easy to use.

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The Tangerines Will Stay In The Trees

“Tangerines” is the first Georgian movie that I’ve ever watched and it is a good start for me to discover other nation’s cinema. At the same time, it was almost the quietest film I watched, with a war subject.

The film is about, in 1992, war rages in Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia. An Estonian man Ivo has decided to stay behind and harvest his crops of tangerines. In a bloody conflict at his door, a wounded man is left behind, and Ivo takes him in.

But what struck me about this movie was that although it was a war movie, it could show the effects and feelings of war in such a natural and effortless way. The colors and settings used in the film contain very natural colors and there is almost no display of "things that can really happen at war”.

I immediately thought of the actual battle scenes in “Dunkirk” and “Saving Private Ryan”, but they didn't affect me as much as “Tangerines”.

In this case, I think the script also has an effect, because it has more impact when watching the movie with daily conversations and with completely different characters.

Each character has a different story and we get involved in their lives from time to time, which I think helps us to observe the effects of war on different characters.

So I think this movie is very successful because instead of showing real war scenes, it can show us the stories of real people with a simple and natural color palette and natural dialogues, from citizens with economic difficulties to soldiers, how war affects people. I also liked that at the end it emphasized that religion, race, and money are indeed unimportant, and the important thing is to be a good person.

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Photographs Can Tell Stories

I was always interested in photography since I was a little girl. My parents always told me that I took a lot of photographs by using the camera they bought to capture and document my memories.

That is why, after I watched both “La Jetée” and “Boogie Woogie Daddy”, I was very affected and influenced by them in a positive way. Both of them are mostly constructed from still photos and turned from a film by using editing techniques. Shortly, they tell the story by using mostly photographs.

The editing techniques in “La Jetée” is more varied comparing to “Boogie Woogie Daddy”. They both have a voice narrating the story. In “La Jetée”, straight cuts are used for short time passes, and dissolves cuts & fade ins/outs used for showing long time passes. The dissolves cuts are used for generally combining two shots visually in “La Jetée”. Some people think that the editing techniques in “La Jetée” is ‘simply poetic’. Since the movie contains photographs, the only continuous variable is the sound and it is used for narrating the story. “La Jetée” was more different than “Boogie Woogie Daddy” to me in terms of its topic. I think that the photographs are also very poetic in “La Jetée” in terms of their usage of light.

The topic of “Boogie Woogie Daddy” is more personal, I believe. So, that’s why, the photographs are also personal. I guess, Erik Bafving used real photographs that his father took at that time. So even that thing makes the movie more personal. Generally, straight cuts are used in “Boogie Woogie Daddy”. However, the sound and the photographs are suitable for narrating the story.

After watching the both of them, I again realized that besides moving images, still images can also tell stories and that adds different feeling to the narrative because those photos have the feeling belonging to their time.

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“I have to ‘Praise You’ like I should.”

“Praise You” is a song by Fatboy Slim and it was released in 1999 and there are some interesting parts in both its music video and its lyrics.

After I watched it, I made a research about it and I found out that the video was shot “guerrilla-style” that is a form of independent filmmaking characterized by low budgets, skeleton crews, and simple props using whatever is available. Also, I learnt that they shot the scenes in real places and locations without warning, and obtaining permits. 

The video takes place in front of a movie theatre, and there are some people dancing together. When I first saw that moment, I could not understand what they are doing and I laughed so hard, not suprisingly because I found other people’s gaze towards the dancers quite funny. They are like “What are they doing?”… While I was reading about the video, I saw that it is called “flash mob” which is “a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform for a brief time, then quickly disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression”. As an audience, I am absolutely aware that they are actually telling something by dancing, although it seems weird.

With the lyrics, I kinda had a clear idea of what they are trying to say. They basically talked about freedom because of the conditions at that time in their country. 

I think that the thing they did is very interesting and respectable because they tell us something both by literally saying it and by dancing. Besides, one of the possibilities that art gives people is to be able to express what they think in a way. And that is a respectable thing I believe because we have difficulties standing behind the thoughts that are important to us.