Finding beauty in the mundane.

This was an assignment I had done in an effort to emulate a specific style from an era of film we had studied.

I tried to recreate many aspects that we talked about as the techniques used in neo-realism. I used very simple camera work and angles. I wanted to try making it without using a tripod, and so I had to place it in natural places in my room. I used spots like the top of my dresser, my bed, or a stack of books to position the camera. I thought it would be interesting to shoot scenes that looked like the point of view of one of the objects in my room. There were a lot of scenes and inspiration I took from Vivre sa Vie, even recreating certain shots I liked. I tried to create close ups, silhouettes, and simple shots without any camera movement.

Another technique I wanted to highlight was the documentary approach. I wanted it to be set up in vignettes and not have a specific plot, but you could still understand the passing of time. I tried to focus on simple things that could happen every day. I liked the idea of sewing the ripped dress, partly because I needed to fix my dress, but also because it shows the small things I do in my. Since almost every piece of clothing I buy is from a thrift store, a lot of the stuff I like comes with small tears or stains I like to fix. I wanted to focus on the watering of plants because it was mundane but also because it showed how I grew food in my room to save from having to buy it. The snipping was the sound of me trimming pieces of cilantro because it grows so quickly.

I ignored the thing about no music because I didn’t want it to be silent, but I figured it would be fine because Bicycle Thieves uses music and so does Vivre sa Vie. To make it more neo-realist, however, I cut it off abruptly and in an awkward spot that I thought would be annoying.

Writing, directing, editing, acting, cinematography: All done by me.

Song Credit: Instrumental version of Bag of Bones by Mitski (temp music)