Changing Perspectives in South Africa

I had the privilege of living in South Africa in 2006 and I learned more than anything that it was a nation that was overcoming years of struggle with a positive attitude and uplifting spirit. When I came across a village with no electricity, no running water, and no plumbing; I could not help but focus on the negative. Then the principal of the local school told me that the school supplies he had ordered were stolen and to top it all off they had spent their entire budget on an outhouse which was destroyed by a storm earlier in the month. It was difficult not to feel badly for how little this community had, but I was told not to pity them, rather smile so that the children knew how much I cared for them. I was overwhelmed with their strength and positivity. That day I changed my perspective on the way I look at people and at life. My vision for the film was to create this same sense of a positive outlook as I had while experiencing African culture. I wanted to show a variety of pictures in two different ways to try and capture this idea of changing perspectives and attitudes. I thought showing the negative more common stereotypes would allow me to end the film on a positive note which was the goal of the film. I wanted to include many stereotypes of Africa and then disprove those ideas through the use of words, colors, and music.
I started the movie by carefully choosing the pictures I would use. Walter Murch discusses the importance of the editing process in his interview with NPR. He states “the editing process is tedious work -- viewing hours of footage, then assembling a film a half-second at a time.” I essentially did the same thing going through hundreds of photos I took in South Africa, choosing only those that were perfect for the film. I took what I learned about angles, shadows, rule of thirds, color, and subjects from our work with photography in module one. With these technical aspects in mind, the perfect photo was also one that was ambiguous enough to hold a negative and positive message. It was also a photo that was intimate and would capture the emotions of my audience. I also wanted consider Murch’s discussion of underlying mathematical influences. I decided to use a repetition of ten photos because I wanted my audience to be able to remember them. I aimed for seven photos which is the typical number of items that can hold in the human brain, but I wanted to convey several stereotypes. I also lived with a very religious family in South Africa who believed that the number 10 represented human failures and God’s ability to turn failure into achievement and happiness. Therefore I hoped ten photos would be not be too overwhelming for the audience and would have some spiritual connection to the film.
After the photos were selected I chose the words to accompany each photo. This was probably the most difficult part of the whole movie making process. I took some advice from Katalina Groh who wrote the Filmmaker as a story-teller. She suggested working with spontaneity and risk taking. I really took a risk by incorporating words in a visual way rather than in an auditory way. Because I wanted the pictures of the people to fuel the emotions of my audience, I chose not to have a voiceover, rather words that represented the photos. I wanted to chose two words for each photo that would make sense for the photo but that were also opposite in meaning. I needed words that were also quite powerful and would evoke emotions. In the end I chose a set of words for each picture that would make people honestly think about their perspective on people. This is why none of my photos are solely of landscapes or items. The photos are of people and each photo focuses primarily on one individual to capture the intimate moment. I also wanted the words I chose to connect with the people in the photo. I am emphasizing and drawing on emotions because Paul Hirsch describes emotions to be more important than thought although both should be included in a great film. To summarize, I wanted to include words and pictures in a strong combination to evoke both feelings and thought.
The last step in this process was putting the photos and the words together in a way that showed motion. I decided to put the photos in a specific order. I arranged them from the broadest stereotypes about a nation to a more narrow view of individuals. Then my last photo was meant to represent both; a nation in words and the individual with the picture of a pair of shoes. Then I added the middle slide where I wanted to make people think the most and realize that the next set of pictures were meant to change their perspectives. I then repeated the photos for the second half of the film. I used what I learned from my mistakes in last week’s project as well as what I learned from Katalina Groh. I wanted to lengthen the timing of each photo to at least five seconds. In the end I finalized the length of each photo to six seconds which I felt was just long enough to look at the picture and word. I kept each photo the same length to keep them equal and extended the title and credits to eight seconds. I chose to use mainly fade transitions to give the film a soft and professional look. The only transition from each photo that was not a fade was the transition before and after the mid-section slide. I did this again to emphasize the change in perspective. In terms of color, I wanted to make the first set of photos in black and white or sepia tone to give a darker negative look. I also made the words stand out in bold and red color because I thought this would also convey the negative tone I wanted to create. Then I contrasted the dark photos with the color photos to create a lighter more positive mood. I also found the rolling words across the colored photos to be very compelling. I chose brightly colored words to fill the space to again emphasize the contrast in moods. Finally I added the music which I thought would complete the film. I used authentic African music by Ladysmith Black Mambadzo. I wanted to again show the difference and change in perspective and mood with music. Therefore I used a calm solemn song for the beginning of the film and a more upbeat vibrant song in the second half. Walter Murch describes how the absence of sound makes a powerful statement. Thus I decided to include a pause in music for the transition between the two sets of photos.
I took on all of the jobs in making a movie and I realized how much actual work and time goes into every second. I learned a lot in this process including technology that I have never used before. I kept my final product and also the sense of changing perspectives in the back of my mind. In the words of Katalina Groh; I wanted my audience to really experience something. I hope that my audience is moved both emotionally and intellectually.