Project 2: Anthony’s Interview of Chase Kaye

Visually the crashing of an enflamed crumpled newspaper is striking; however, couple that with a screeching explosion and one has something truly powerful.  One can easily deduce that some fallout has ensued.  Personally I believe this video is meant to show the onslaught of a war.  This idea is strengthened with the inclusion of the dancing of flames with lights and the intertwining echoes of sirens and screams seen in the rest of the video.  Chase agreed and further explained that he added this sound in solemn to increase the mental impact.  Having a lone bomb go off increases the awe factor and instills absolute fear and the potential of imminent death to the viewer.  Whilst watching Chase’s video, I am reminded of Jane and Louise Wilson’s work-The Toxic Camera.  Both videos deal with a fallout/nuclear situation.  A major noticeable difference though is timing; Toxic Camera happens after the incident while Chase’s is during.  So, due to this fact one video is full of abrasive blasts and screeches, compared to the other which is filled with commentary.  Chase expressed that his love of dark humor was a big inspiration.  Stating that he watches a copious amount of fallout and post-apocalyptic films.  Project 2 granted him the opportunity to recreate such a scenario in his own view.  After watching his video, I would describe the tempo and sequencing of the piece as both fluid and jarring.  Pace and timing of the scenes were well thought out and the objects were profound.  He states that he achieved this through, “…the idea of opposites…Using high tempo with sound, then [coupling that with] clips long and slow.”  Overall wanting to elicit uncomfortable feelings from the viewer.  I am particularly interested in how Chase used slow panning camera recording.  Feeling like it made each individual shot tremendously more stunning.  My final question for Chase in this interview was, why did you not use people?  Chase said that feasibility and his availability compared others would present too great a scheduling challenge to work out.  So, he sought to film only lights and fire then the audio will be taken from people without necessarily having them in the film.  Using these voices and screams would create a more profound experience and elicit even more fear in the viewer.