Power

Power, like many of films, is a coping mechanism. As an artist (and moreover a human) I feel a responsibility to fellow earthlings who struggle to meet basic needs for survival. This duty only strengthens with every heartbreaking news cycle rounding out the week's latest in humans rights violations. As I try to navigate and leverage my own privilege to be an impactful and appropriate resource, there are hundreds of social media posts made by friends, family, and peers speaking on global issues. From here, I find myself feeling like a hypocrite. Am I not doing enough by not making social media posts of my own? Do other people really care? Are they better activists? I ruminate on these questions while noticing a troubling trend. Some of the same people liking and reposting about tragedies do so as a way to present an empathetic social media presence. In my everyday encounters, they care no more about genocide in Myanmar as they do about an unnamed star exploding in a distant galaxy. The hypocrisy of the situation is something that I attempt to explore in this short while also assuring myself that advocacy and activism is more than a post.

I struggled quite a bit with this film because I had to reconcile what I captured with what I wanted. While a good 85-90% of what I set out to convey was filmed, there were small details that hinted at the larger world of the story. I really wanted to convey the idea that everyone has a monster or some alternative means of power. Ultimately, due to time constraints, we never got those shots; and we never really needed them. However, when I first started editing , I couldn't tell if any of the story mechanics made sense because I always felt like some part of the story was missing

Eventually, I realized the story that I was able to tell and set out to convey it as succinctly as I could. I then became afraid that, in my pursuit to be the most efficient in the edit, I had sacrificed the necessary breathing room needed. I also encountered other issues like capturing an LED panel in a crucial shot (that LooseApplesauce crew-mate Devin Hollinger fixed with a perfectly placed and timed digital zoom). Luckily, after screening it for my friends and peers, I found that this film was not only well understood but also scary? Hearing gasps and seeing people shudder was such a surreal experience because, for whatever reason, I had never considered this to be a horror story in the traditional sense.

I also played around with grading. After the protagonist enters the dungeon area, the blacks are a little more crushed than the rest of the film. This was done in order to create a more visceral mood and indicate that we are taking the audience to a place outside of the world that they know. In addition, this helped to cover Ivo - the monster - in complete darkness so that his reveal is more impactful.