Heading for the Light

“ The lines separating the great elements of Nature obviously play a fundamental role, as in Ford’s skies: the separation of earth and sky, the earth pushed down to the base of the screen. ” - Gilles Deleuze Fig. 1: A shot of the South City Apartments. Fig. 2: Maidan, Kolkata According to Deleuze, the horizontal lines, separating the elements of Nature, such as the earth and the sky play a crucial role in constructing a cinematic frame. One of the images above (Fig. 1) showcases a residential area with a couple of high rise in the centre while the other one (Fig. 2) brings forth the totality of a landscape. As distinct as they are, both the images adhere to the fundamental criteria of keeping the elements of nature separated quite evidently. “ The frame has always been geometrical or physical, depending on whether it constitutes the closed system in relation to chosen coordinates or in relation to selected variables. The frame is therefore sometimes concei...

In The first level: frame, set or closed system of his essay  Frame and shot, framing and cutting , Gilles  Deleuze discusses the different aspects of closed framing. The frame, according to Deleuze, consists of numerous elements (data), forming subsets, which varies from image to image, thereby making the frame susceptible to two tendencies: towards saturation or towards rarefaction. After organizing these two concepts, he articulates the geometrical, the dynamic as well as the out-of-field aspects that goes into the construction of a closed frame. For the purpose of this presentation, we have selected five images in order to demonstrate  Deleuze’s propositions from the essay. While these images portray a variety of aspects from Deleuze's essay, we have chosen to point out some specific aspects which are most prominent in the specific images. I Location: Bakkhali ; Camera: Cannon 700D This image exemplifies rarefaction in a certain form. Although...

    Deleuze- The System of the Frame by Abhimanyu Roy and Diya Mitra                            In picture no. 1, character actions pointing (literally) to the unseen, 'unframed' space outside the frame.    picture no. 2, Characters in both foreground and background. The relation of the space between the (depth creating) characters and the frame. In picture no. 3, the use of object to create divide in space, relationship of individual subject with the limitations of the framed system, defines the 'shot'.  In picture no. 4, we see a worker working in a construction building. The building in itself is creating not one, not two but multiple subsets in a whole set. and in the last picture, no. 5, we can see a set, which defines the space which is saturated with information, flower market. We can see parallel lines (of tin shops as well as f...

The frame therefore forms a set which has a great number of parts, that is of elements, which themselves form sub-sets. In context to this, we present a block frame video. The main element here is a doorway. Breaking our frame down, we get a partial wall, the doorway of a building and a closed door. This video is dominated by a lot of motion, in the form of people walking across the frame. Each of these individuals are part of a larger set, and act as sub-sets. Each of these sub-sets have their own stories and their own course of action, which may seem independent of the set but play their own roles in it. The visual through the door also plays its part as a subset in itself, with further subsets incorporated within it. Hence we see the video as a supportive structure to the quote.

  "The elements are the data, which are sometimes very numerous, sometimes of limited number." - Gilles Deleuze This clip captures a layered frame, a set in which we see a semi-industrial area, a construction wasteland lying parallel to a busy street and at the very background a prominent high-rise of the city. Going by Deleuze's idea, the frame connotes a saturated tendency. We can infer that the images above have elements, or parts, which are integrated into the frame. Yet they have the capability of forming subsets. The objects (Data) in these images function independently which makes it difficult to distinguish between the principal and the secondary. It is also arduous to differentiate between the geometric approach and the physicality of the frame as it represents a spatial composition of both parallels and diagonals (Mainly parallels as evident in the parallel co-existence of the construction site and the street), forming blocs as well as the framing which ...

"...t he image is not just given to be seen. It is legible as well as visible."- Gilles Deleuze, 'Cinema 1: The Movement Image', pp. 12 (This video was shot near Dunlop, Baranagar area, with a Nikon D3200 camera- 35mm prime lens.) This clip  features a construction site. The ground in the lower half of the frame has been hollowed out. A man on the right uses his hammer on whatever remains of the cemented floor. We see workers coming in and out along the right-hand side. The peculiarity of the site restricts their movement within a narrow set which is composed of decimated pillars, pile of bricks dumped in the corner, and the people themselves. The image is a saturated one, for it features numerous sets and subsets which are teeming with information. Multiple parallels and diagonals, verticals and horizontals stretch across the surface making it almost sensible to call the frame geometrical, but the wisp of smoke rising from an undefined source complicates...