Just the act of looking through the lens at someone else puts you, theoretically, in the head space of a voyeur. When working with actors, or non actors who are knowingly participating, the voyeurism remains a purely artistic or intellectual exercise.
But what if the people on the other side of the lens are not in the know? Are you still a director or are you a true voyeur.
For the video I'm creating for the Amplify Me film fest, I needed to have clips of people using their social networking devices: Cell phones, laptops, tablets etc. Not a difficult thing to find in Toronto. I swear that most of the people in this city have had some kind of cybernetic surgery to have a cell phone implanted in their ears.
On a beautiful sunny day downtown there I was amidst thousands of people and all of them were communicating, but not with each other. Everyone just drifting through the crowds, almost shoulder to shoulder but barely aware of each others existence, so focussed on their own little world. In contact with the people who they know, out of contact with the rest of the world
Is this communication? Well, that's kind of the point of the video
And to that point, I had to video people who were locked into these little worlds. I have to admit, it felt a little weird. When I was shooting the footage for After, I did not experience this level of discomfort. But in that case, I wasn't looking for close ups, I didn't want faces. In fact I wanted faceless .. as in the faceless crowd.
This was different. I used a long lens, from a distance; I could not hear what the people were saying and they were not aware of my presence or that I was filming them. Now, I'm pretty sure I'm on secure legal ground here. I was shooting in public places; parks, streets, public squares. Always outside. In such situations you can't have expectations of privacy. It's the tune they sing to permit them to film us all with remote controlled security cams. Who are "they"? I don't want to say, they may be watching ...
But legal or not I couldn't help feel a bit uncomfortable. There were moments when I didn't feel I was filming, I felt like I was peeking, or snooping, I felt like a voyeur. I know that in the finished video most of these shots will be distorted, my intent is to make them a bit inhuman, as if rendered so by the isolation their desire to communicate gives them. And after all, it's just shots of people talking on their phone and they are doing it in public ... the fact that they don't seem to be concerned that their private business, their personal conversations, is in the public does not seem to concern them
Perhaps it should. Because they have lost the public sense of being public. And some old dude with a camera may be watching.
See, that sounds creepy doesn't it.
No comments:
Post a Comment