Vairea Houston
Close Movie Viewing
1/21/16
Perchance by Caryn Cline
I decided to take a closer look at Caryn’s short found footage film that was shown last Thursday. To me this film is about controlled environment, the kind of environment we are used to being brought up in. We are used to our day to day activities, especially as a child. Here his activities are being woken by his mother and attending school. We see the playground where he attends school and then the classroom where he has a certain routine. He naps and that’s when he dreams about his time at the beach. I can’t decide if this is a dream or an actual experience that he may have had.
Symbolism:
The beach is a freeing place to him. We see him smile as he is dreaming of the beach and the sounds of the water lapping on the beach is heard as the background sound. He seems to think fondly of the beach with a smile so clearly spread across his face. Water is symbolically known to represent our emotions that ebb and flow from us, reminding us to control our cycle. Water is never far from us and is often shown in stories to help people find their way home. The sounds of water have a calming effect. Used often for meditation. The sound of water is used in this film while the boy is deep in thought. He picks up a giant shell from the wet sand. Maybe he feels confined like the shell, stuck in the sand. Or maybe he is jealous of the shell because it is able to stay with the water, free. It is said that dreaming of seashells is interpreted as physical, mental, and emotional protection, usually of oneself. Therefor, he dreams of being in a free environment and finds solace at the beach with the water and the seashells. When the teacher sentences the children to sleep in class the boy raises his palm in the air and it immediately flashes to when he held the seashell in his hand. This particular image is of great significance to me because of how perfectly the two different clips align to represent the feeling of the shell in his hand. Dreams hold a very powerful meaning and can usually lead the dreamer to what they really desire. The life he dreams of is of him younger (based on the longer hair he had and younger face on the beach) with a much more carefree feeling. He runs along the beach exploring the beach and the sea creatures he finds along the way. The ability to explore is another aspect of being free. He dreams of the ability to be free enough out of his normal day to day routine to be the boy on the beach. The seagull that is pictured so majestically in this film (with it’s slow view over the length of it’s body) is prevalent here. Seagull is a poor name because they can actually thrive in fresh and salt weather areas. This speaks about their opportunity, resources, and adaptability. They move to where the best food is, scavenging in unknown areas. Many people deny their opportunities because they feel too safe in their comfort zone. We could think of seagulls as creatures that fly out of their comfort zone and take risks with the goal of finding better conditions for our well-being. The word “gull” comes from “gullible” because the seagull swallows anything it can fit. You may take this away as, do we swallow everything we hear or see? We should recognize rather than blindly follow without further questioning.
The Era:
The footage appears to be from the 1950’s. We glimpse his mother waking him up from school. She is dressed like a 1950’s housewife in the dress and bob haircut. On his bedside table is a radio similar to an old Winchester from the 1950’s. The classroom had old style desks and the teacher appears to be from the era as well with the vintage seaming haircut and dress. The 1950’s were a time of suburban living and women were urged to stay at home and become housewives. Magazines and articles published advice urging women to leave the workforce and stay home and rear children. Women become more and more dissatisfied. There was a lot of tension at this time not only with the oppression of women but also of blacks. This era was mostly about “controlled environment” and keeping everyone to their day to day activities so as not to let anyone speak out against their dissatisfaction. The boys life is divided by his free life with the sand between his toes and the other is controlled by the confinements of his everyday routine.
I see this film as a boy dreaming of an environment that allows him to be free. He wants to spend his days running across the sand and explore the unknown world ahead of him. The seagull symbolizes his want of exploration. The seashells symbolize the protection and fondness he feels of the water and beach. I think that the boy is living in the 1950’s, a very controlled era at the time, confined to very minimal thoughts. We see some of his day to day sights and activities, a strict time to wake up, to nap, to study, to play. Everything is controlled. Therefor he dreams in class of the beach and holding seashells. This film reminds me to find better conditions for my own well being. To not constrict myself to normalcy. Being free is an important aspect of living. To be confined is to live a harder life. There is a part of all of us that wants to be free and extradite ourselves from confined society and be like the seagull, free to fly away. It reminds me not to follow the crowd, the idea of nonconformity. A specific scene in the clip shows on the lower half of a man dressed in a suit and tie. This is most likely an image of the boy’s father. It is who he could become one day. He has the choice to choose his path, he could either be the free seagull or the confined man in the tight suit. So, do we conform to society or explore our own path?