Investigations #5: Escalator

This one isn’t quite as long as the other takes I’ve uploaded so far, although it does make connections with some discoveries and points of interest from previous pieces of footage.

After filming the water ripple footage I was inspired to capture more abstract footage with no clear human activity in it. As I stepped onto an escalator in Melbourne Central, a similar inspiration struck me which I decided to roll with. Filming the space between two escalators, I was able to capture some interesting reflections, distortions and movement.

Fragments of the surroundings appear in these reflections – brief glimpses of people, advertising, lights, etc. Each of them come and go so quickly that they’re almost immediately forgotten, fleeting past as they do in the environment itself. The only real constants apart from the escalator are the lights that stretch across the frame, twisting and bending to span across the separate spaces. These stand out as they stretch in an opposite diagonal line to every other line in the frame, which urge towards the top right corner of the frame. These lights are possibly the most interesting ‘mistakes’ of this shot in the way that they contort and glisten in what it otherwise a frame with quite rigid movement and a dull palette.

I think this is one of the most well-composed pieces of footage I have gathered so far in my collection of portrait shots. The height of the frame is considered to accommodate the multiple layers of space, building diagonals from the bottom to the top of the frame. There is also a distinct push/pull effect happening as the focal point of the frame – which I see to be the reflection of the descending stairs which I am standing on in the centre of the frame – pushes towards the top right corner whereas almost everything else pulls in the opposite direction.

Conceptually I think that this footage ties in with the Train Platform shot as both spaces represented are typically treated as in-between spaces. In both instances, any persons featured in the footage only appear briefly, eager to continue on to their destinations. They are both spaces of movement, transport, distraction and disjointed activity (i.e: everyone is either daydreaming or on their phone, not engaging with anyone or anything else in the same space).

My only issue with this footage is that it is quite short due to the spontaneity of my recording. I am interested in this effect and aesthetic and may attempt it again on a larger escalator so as to allow as much unanticipated magic to seep into the footage as possible. If I continue to work with this footage, I may experiment with the speed of the footage to see if that enhances it in any way.

Escalator from Timothy Palstra on Vimeo.

Investigations #4: Water Ripple

A tranquil stroll in the Royal Botanical Gardens turned into further investigation. Sitting at a bench, I was inspired by the ripples in Ornamental Lake and their woozy, meditative nature. After focusing long enough on the movement of the ripples and the way that they distorted the reflections of the trees, I found myself in a sort of trance, completely removed from whatever else was happening around me.

I thought that this would be worthwhile capturing, and in keeping with the portrait approach that I’m choosing to explore with these investigations, I quickly pondered what the best way to frame this effect might be. I thought that it would be effective to only feature the lake in the shot so as to direct all attention to the activity in the lake, in turn isolating the examination of the aesthetic space created by the surface of this lake. The resulting footage is quite brief and spontaneous but follows these guidelines, producing what can only intuitively be assumed to be the surface of a lake due to our familiarity with the way that ripples appear in water and the implications of the audio in establishing a lakeside setting – otherwise it is quite an abstract, morphing perspective of the trees and sky.

After uploading the footage onto my laptop, I decided to flip it 180 degrees so that the reflection of the tree is upright in the footage. I feel that this emphasises the abstract effect and extends the idea of conveying a strange, wobbling alternate reality. Following this change, the ripples indicate a clear upwards movement in the shot, a movement which is apt for the trees they distort in the way that they seem to sprout. The way in which the reflections are animated by the ripples causes them to split, jump and tremble which redresses them as glitches in the screen of the lake. From the footage, one could consider what is “natural” in a number of ways – in no way has this perspective been intentionally treated, although it is surreal, in the same way that a computer glitch naturally occurs in the context of the codes that give it life.

The comparison of unspoken elusiveness and glitches is something that I may emphasise and explore in future footage. I do not mean to reference glitches with their reputations as failure within a system in mind; but rather for their mysterious, unanticipated and above all curious existence.

 

Water Ripple from Timothy Palstra on Vimeo.

Investigations #3: South Yarra Station

Inspiration struck once again as I sat awaiting a train at South Yarra station. I happened to be staring directly at a gap between the carriages of an immobile train on the opposite platform. I noticed that there was quite an interesting depth and definition of spaces to this perspective, so I started filming.

To begin with, people walking past on the opposite platform could be seen clearly in this gap and only quite vaguely through the windows of the train. This to me represents the station as an in-between environment quite well – these people are on their way to spaces where they shall be more settled, so their presence here is quite fleeting and absent, especially to other people. There are also people walking in the foreground on my platform and mainly in the other direction, creating a mirror-like contrast between the two spaces. This contrast also initiates a kind of push-pull effect between the platforms: the activity in the background platform is urging towards the right, representing arrival as a train has arrived and is stationary, whereas the activity in the foreground platform urges towards the left, foreshadowing departure and the arrival of another train that we are anticipating.

There are some things I’d like to note in the first half of this take. Firstly, there is an interesting eclecticism to the people that appear in this footage which could be broadly taken as a cross-section of the myriad people you come across at train stations. I also noticed an interesting rhythmic segregation with the people walking past – people naturally keep their distance from each other at stations, and this is apparent to the extent that it almost appears disturbingly calculated in moments of the footage. There are clear verticals and horizontals present all over the frame, which are accommodated quite well by the framing. People, and especially those in the foreground, are aligned with the portrait orientation along with the focal carriage gap. Almost everything else but particularly the train(s), platforms, tracks and dotted lines create a horizontal orientation, pulling the viewer in both directions. Lastly, as with the tram footage, there are distinct spaces that stretch into the frame and beyond what is presented in the frame. Most clearly, each platform is its own distinct space with its own distinct activity, as is the space which holds the train tracks, along with the space slightly featured at the top of the frame just beyond the train station. Another space that is conveyed stretches out in the opposite direction, and that is the space implied in the reflection of the windows of the train and building that can be seen. I think this is worth noting, for reasons that will soon become clear.

This is where the unanticipated magic came into play and brought the take into accordance with my concept. A train did arrive at the foreground platform, which contrasts with what was otherwise quite a subtle and static shot. It brought with it an even stronger dichotomy between the platforms, pushing fiercely to the left before slowly coming to a stop to allow for the background train to begin modestly leaving to the right (a moment of timing which I was pretty amazed by). Within these trains, there are more distinct spaces, which when considered with the aforementioned dichotomy of direction and movement is made even more interesting as we now also have not only distinct spaces existing somewhat independently of each other, but also distinct realms/interpretations of time operating separately. What most clearly sparked my interest, however, was the fact that as the second train enters the frame, a strange, simultaneously additive and subtractive transferral of space takes place: what we could slightly see of the space beyond the station represented in the top twelfth of the frame before is now replaced by the reflection on the windows of the new train, which exposes a more extensive depiction of the space that stretches out behind the camera.

I’ve probably talked a little too much here, but this is definitely my favourite footage so far. This is essentially the turning point for me, I’m fairly certain I’ll continue to pursue and investigate spaces in a similar way to how I have here.

Trains (Multiple Platforms) from Timothy Palstra on Vimeo.

Investigations #2: Wire Screen (Pixels)

After filming the tram footage and reflecting upon it, I thought that at least for now I’d continue gathering draft footage on an iPhone to expand my concept. I think that iPhone footage in this instance is actually quite effective as it is possibly more suited to the spontaneity that my concept requires than a full-blown camera and lighting setup might be. I have taken to filming this draft footage in portrait to make the use of an iPhone instantly recognisable. Beyond the spontaneity of this method, I think the iPhone represents the modern perspective due to its ubiquity and the modern obsession with experiencing the world vicariously through it, so to base abstract and alternate perspectives in the use of an iPhone I think is quite relevant.

Anyway, here’s another bit of footage that I felt compelled to capture after stumbling upon the perspective. It portrays a dog in a yard through a wire screen, and as the video continues, I pulled backwards slowly with the camera to draw the focus away from the wire screen and towards the dog and the yard. I was quite steady in filming this, which I think communicated the idea well. What it resembles for me is a perspective in which the world can be seen in pixels – where the start of the video displays quite a low resolution world which by the end has slightly improved in quality.

I think that this deconstructs the world in the same way that the tram footage did. Since this perspective reimagines the world as a lower resolution than that which we perceive, it offers the viewer the chance to imagine a world that is even more crisp and “real” than our own.

Wire Screen (Pixels) from Timothy Palstra on Vimeo.

 

Investigations Begin! #1: Tram

After doing a whole lot of talk, I thought it was time to try and make sense of my concept by producing some draft footage. This thought initially struck me as I was sitting at the end of a tram, looking into the driverless operator’s cab. Staring through the window of the tram, I thought about what I was seeing as a unique perspective, a fragment of reality that only existed in that very moment. This led me to think about what could be seen through the tram’s window, what could be seen in the operator’s cab, what could be seen in the reflections of the screen that separated the cab from me, and how each of these views combined to become what I could see.

In order words, I became more aware of the different layers before me, and how they each contained a space with distinct activity happening within them. It is sensible and intuitive to link these spaces, although they could just as easily be perceived as disconnected events if we chose to perceive them as such. Although our perception guides us to link them to make sense of the bigger picture, the activities within them are unrelated (for instance, someone reading a book in a tram is disregarding the cars driving out on the street). 

I decided to film roughly what I was seeing in a long take. Through this investigation, I found personally that as the take continues, my attention as a viewer clearly favours individual layers and the activity happening within them. They gradually become more and more disconnected – eg: as the tram comes to a stop, so too does the space displayed through the driver’s window, but the activity within this space continues. I felt that I became more aware of the interior of the tram as a distinct space with its own interpretation of other outside spaces. The process of making this, out of pure spontaneity, prompted me to think about how I might approach the framing and composition of the long takes I produce in the future.

Anyway, here’s the footage. Disregard my blatant “uhh maybe I’ll use this for Ways of Making” and notice the activity in each of the different layers, ie: the traffic through the window, the various people and signs exposed in the reflection, etc. and the ways in which these activities interact or do not interact with each other.

Tram from Timothy Palstra on Vimeo.