Mosaic
- Jun 15, 2025
- 3 min read
This film follows a teenage girl transitioning to adulthood, captured by her journey of moving away from home and to university. She sets up her space, reflecting on who she is, and goes about a regular mundane day with some friends. She strives to find a balance between socialising and isolation. She comes to discover that the little moments of a regular day, just like any other, contribute to shaping her as a person, not just the big milestones. The prompt for this work came from ‘Where I’m From’, a poem that explores those small parts of life that form the author as a unique individual. From this, the theme of personal discovery and development arose. I adapted this concept to track an average day on campus, interspersed with moments of quiet loneliness and reflection.
Thus, I looked at coming of age films that have been significant for me, such as Reiner’s Stand by Me (1986) and Linklater’s Boyhood (2014). Linklater often uses camera tracking to follow behind subjects, prioritising structing a film around the “movement of an idea”, or “idleness” (Price 2003). This idea influenced my film’s theme of following behind people, making for a more unforced and authentic journey. Maszerowska (2012, p. 79) explores the role of lighting and contrast in visual storytelling, influencing my conceptual use of colouring to reflect the moods and tones further beyond what is shown in the frame; most notably, the perception of blue conveying “cold, real” environments.
My creative process started with identifying moments of my life that reflect these themes, which was then developed into a poem, intended to act as a voice over for the final project. The imagery my poem evoked aided in the construction of my shot list. The narrative that was shaped from this caused the decision to no longer use a voice over, and rather let the atmospheric sound allow for a more unsettling mood. My concept developed into a more narrative approach than in assignment one, and such my experimentations with lighting allowed me to stronger understand visual storytelling and how this influences audience perception. To achieve this, a mix of bleak lighting and cloudy tones, both inside and outside, was utilised. The developed use of sound elevated the film’s ability to portray not only the narrative, but the intended emotions. Not only are everyday conversations highlighted, but the moments of solitude where the subject is lost in her head are conveyed through a song that was put on play early in the film, when she was alone. This enhances the atmosphere of the film, furthering how audiences are immersed in the themes. The final sequence represents this intent to convey a dull, reflective, almost melancholy mood that communicates a spontaneous yet natural coming of age journey.
References
Buckley J 1998, Vancouver, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3LSNHJAAfk>.
Lyon, G E 2008, ‘Where I’m From’, George Ella Lyon, weblog post, viewed 7 March 2025, <http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html>.
Maszerowska, A 2012, ‘Casting the light on cinema–how luminance and contrast patterns create meaning’, MonTi: Monographs on Translation and Interpreting, no. 4, pp. 65-85, available at <https://raco.cat/index.php/MonTI/article/view/301233>.
Price, B 2003, Senses of Cinema, <https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/greatdirectors/linklater/>.
Wansink, T 2019, ‘Realism on the Reel: The Cinematic Vision of Richard Linklater’, National Endowment for the Arts, blog post, <https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2019/realism-reelcinematic-vision-richard-linklater>.
Boyhood 2014, motion picture, Paramount Pictures, Los Angeles, California, written and directed by Richard Linklater.
Stand by Me 1986, motion picture, Columbia Pictures, Culver City, California, directed by Rob Reiner.
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