UFP Art & Design 2024 – Term 2 – Art Practice
My video is about the endless monotony of a rigid schedule. Each day bleeds into the next, and the time loop demonstrates that feeling of being trapped. The constant assault of deadlines and commitments become overwhelming. The time loop allows the character to continually iterate, getting more answers correct until they finally succeed.
Time is an important part of the video, It was important to have good establishing shots of clocks and phones.
Time constraints during filming meant I couldn’t shoot during the real times. A few shots in the film are actually Night-for-day.
I rewound the clocks on the alarm and on my phone, and used a blue-light lamp on one end of my room to imitate morning sunlight.
Compared to previous projects, I paid careful attention to maintain good continuity in between shots, matching light levels, color grading, costumes and motion.
Like in Groundhog Day, each loop starts with the character waking up to an alarm. The colors in the frames correspond with actors, props and directions for shooting.
The first loop is very detailed showing the entire routine:
- Alarm rings, wake up, check date, get ready, leave apartment, walk to school, take test
- The second is much shorter and more refined, skipping more and more details.
- The third loop shows even less: Waking up, the alarm, and the test.
Each subsequent loop goes faster and faster, making each clip shorter in duration and limiting the number of clips. In the final loop the pacing drops back down to a similar pace of the first, illustrating that this has taken a toll. The character is almost defeated, now slowly walking to school in contrast with previous loops. They fill out the test and get an A+, it ends with the alarm ringing, and the phone showing the date as Saturday, showing that the time loop has ended.
