Tsai ming-liang and a cinema of slowness

Reading

In the empty meanwhile nothing happens or moves in the present and this “nothing happens in the present” could be a way to (re) think stillness.

—Yve Lomax, “Thinking Stillness”

For more research into this project, I have read chapters 3 and 4 of tsai ming-liang’s book “Cinema of slowness”. These 2 chapters are about stillness and silence, they explain relevant subjects and compare the differences between photography and film.

Within the book, he explains that photography stops and freezes a moment in time, he gives the classic example of this which would be Henri Cartier-Bressons very well known photograph of a man jumping over a puddle. This photograph is a great example of this subject as in the photograph, the mans heel is just about to touch the puddle, and it was that split second that Henri Cartier-Bresson captured this incredible moment. He then goes on to explain the relation of time and film, obviously film is a moving timeline but we can manipulate this buy editing the sequence. Film has the ability to depict the flow of time, he explains that some film makers have chosen to film still objects at a length of time then gives another classic example of Andy Warhol’s 1964 film Empire, I also enjoy Andy Warhol’s Screen tests where he films a person just staring into the camera as though it was a photograph but you can see them naturally moving.

He then goes on to explain montage cinema and long take cinema. Within film you can change the idea of time, for example, you can make a one minute sequence look as though it has taken place over many days. You can change the idea of time by many different editing techniques, speeding up, slowing down, jump cuts, montage etc.

He talks about the camera movement and how a static long take will have a different effect than a tracking shot, he gives an example of the static long take which is the shot of an empty theatre in the film ”Goodbye”, then gives an example of the tracking shot which is the nine-minute-and-sixteen-second opening of Béla Tarr’s “Sátántangó”. This is really handy for me as looking at relevant films and shots really helps me gather some inspiration for my film.

He also explains more about camera angel and distance, which helped me a lot as I wasn’t sure how to do this subject, I will take this into consideration when I come to making my film. He also talks about pacing, pacing is something that I usually struggle with when I come to making video and editing, this was really helpful to learn that the camera movement and angle will have a different effect on each shot. For example, I do not want to make my film look like an action film, therefore I will not be using much camera movement, and I am thinking of  using a tripod to film most of it to create the “Stillness” aspect.

Reading through this text has been very helpful for me as I feel I have now learnt some new research sources and I have also learnt the different relation between photography film and time, as well as learning how certain filming techniques will change the overall output genre of the film.