In contrast to two-dimensional film, which "only" makes use of how our brain works, namely by creating perspective through the play of proportions, light and shadow, etc., stereoscopic filming actually gives you an additional axis to determine your own space.
The team comments: "As artists and film makers, we are thus subordinated to the automatism of the brain. We can play with this, but we can't set new rules. In 3D film, on the other hand, we can determine how the fixed points in our space should relate to each other. This is a great opportunity and offers many possibilities. But it can also overwhelm you and make you do something 'wrong': e.g. create vertigo instead of space. Many 2D films that were 'also produced in 3D' probably don't dare to do much because of this, and only exploit a minimal range of the existing possibilities.
Analogously, their film character is also afraid of her possibilities. She lives in the three-dimensional space of a digital-totalitarian dystopia and carries the desire for life and encounter, but she remains seated in her room, in front of her screen clicking. Her life takes place only on the two-dimensional screen, she is being guided through it by her virtual self. The shadow of the character, an equally two-dimensional companion, however, suffers from the cold, unnatural light of the screen. The companion wants to go out to see the world instead. As the alter ego of the light, it finally steps out of the film character, the peephole, into the room, in front of the screen. The audience then accompanies her shadow as it explores sculptures, deserted squares, streets and stairs, the entire space of its dystopian city. Even its multidimensionality does not spring from it and is only oriented towards the existing forms, it seems to bring movement into the city. All seems to become a game through which the architecture, the surfaces and structures come alive.
"We pushed the limits of what space can tell cinematically, if you don't try to retell it but make it come alive. And we overcame our own fear of possibilities," says Mareike Almedom.
Project lead: Mareike Almedom
Team:
- Production Manager: Milena Schäpers
- Director: Kristina M. Almedom
- Cinematography: Jan Philip Ernsting
- Operator: Manuel Schamberger
- Camera assistance: Sophia Fenn, Laura Thuy
- Editing: Franziska Wenzel
- Film music/composition: Carl Ludwig Wetzig
- Cast: Joana Waluszko
- Choreography: Yuko Matsuyama
- Production design: Kathrin Meier
- VFX: Rui Xu, Isabell Siegrist