Introduction
My first event of this semester with HF Zachary Grobe and GRF Seema Singh really put into perspective of how I want to set the tone for this academic year. While I attended expecting only to learn about writing blog posts, we also ended up analyzing films to prepare us for writing reflective blog posts for when we attend Film Fridays. For our collaboration event, we were split into groups to analyze one of four elements of a well directed Subaru commercial: mise-en-scene (what we see), sound, cinematography, and editing. My group analyzed the cinematography of the film, and it led me to think about the importance of perspective-taking not only in film, but also in our own lives.
The Subaru Commercial
The camera slowly moves backwards, passively witnessing the narrator’s life story as it unfolds, but the tone of the commercial suddenly changes when the scene switches to a car crash at night. With tension and anticipation rising, the camera slowly pans to the side, and suddenly the perspective of the camera changes. Now we are in the car with the happy family, actively speeding towards the bright future ahead. This juxtaposition of the cinematography– from passively moving backwards, to actively speeding forward–made me wonder about how we frame our own lives. Are we passively witnessing everything that is happening to us, or are we actively engaged in how our life unfolds?
A Fish in The Stream
I often feel like I am a fish swimming along congested stream, unable to stop because everyone at Cornell is (and perhaps must) constantly move forward. Objectively, we are all students in a large University, in an interesting city, perhaps far away from home or right next door. However, we each have individual stories: our own eyes are our cameras, and we are witnessing the cinematic playing of our own lives. I think the beauty of being the director is that we can choose our scenes. Sometimes, we just want to sit back and let life go on for a moment without disturbing the moment. Other times, we will charge forward and really dive into the heart of the scene. Regardless, there’s no correct way of “directing” our own life. Only that there is, and we are, so it becomes.
What do you think about using film cinematography as an analogy to perspective-taking in our own lives?
I really enjoyed reading your post, particularly your dissection of the camera’s panning motions and analogy about how individual lives are quite similar to cinematography.
Regarding the “Fish in The Stream” section, I completely agree with you when you stated that the choices we make are in our lives is quite similar to what a director does when he/she “directs” the cinematography of a film. However, in film, the director is also given the option to edit previous clips captured from the camera. I believe that, unlike film, our past is uneditable.