Wednesday, 20 February 2013

How to fall asleep

Sometimes when you go to a gig and you realise you've zoned out and you're barely listening to the band anymore, just staring at them and thinking about something completely different. That's what this video is like. It's a random video I found on Youtube of 8 minutes of one rolling shot following a logging road near Ontario. The surroundings and the atmosphere are nice but because it's following the track you know what's going to happen and it's such a familiar motion that you assume everything that's going to happen next. Your perceptions are protected not challenged.

The imagery shows you appreciably beautiful scenery, and the continuity and duration of the shot is perfect for emphasising real-time pace that modern technologically enhanced life forgets. But it's also perfect for accommodating presumptions - you know what's coming. That's exactly the opposite of what walking can actually do for you - if you consciously submit yourself to walking IN nature rather walking ALONG channels made by man, you can discover new angles and features.

Of course walking along paths is equally important because human presence in nature is often helpful as well as undeniable, and walking the paths of other people and other times to and from other places and other people is one of the simplest pleasures, and a good way to humble oneself and disperse egotism - a good attitude to adopt in relation to living with a care of nature. But endless path-following is not a good film editing style if i'm trying to introduce walking as more than a simple transport mode.

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