Focusing on the opening scene from the movie Paris, Texas from Wim Wenders, I tried to take the scene apart to the core elements and analyse their importance and influence on the feeling a viewer gets from the scene.
I made conceptual model where the visitor or participant would relive the emotions from the movie scene, without making the association to the movie itself.
My main focus was on:
endlessness,
tiredness,
anxiety of not knowing the way out,
bright lights,
dirt and relief
The story of the opening scene
The camera slowly moves above a spacious, rocky desert, embracing the relief of the red and brown stone.
The sun is shining very brightly, there are shadows of clouds on the ground which is made of big rocks, turning into stones, becoming sand.
From far we can see a man walking, being observed by a hawk.
The camera zooms in on the man who’s wearing a black blazer with thin white stripes, a white shirt, a peach colored tie and a red sports cap.
Everything is covered in dust including his face. The latter is very hairy with a beard of about two centimeters and a moustache.
He looks lost and tired. He stops to take a sip of drink out of his plastic white milk jug.
Behind him there are two huge stone rocks, almost columns and there’s also one on his far right where the hawk is sitting, observing.
He walks further into the desert with a fast pace.
The space shown in the conceptual model would have elliptic floor lifted for one meter on one side (relief) so one would, in his attempt of leaving the building, have to walk up and down a few times before finding the exit.
The wall would be divided into many door-like parts yet only two of them would be possible to open – one by pushing from inside out (the exit) and one by pushing from outside in (the entrance) which imitates the idea of an endlessness desert.
The wall would be divided into many door-like parts yet only two of them would be possible to open – one by pushing from inside out (the exit) and one by pushing from outside in (the entrance) which imitates the idea of an endlessness desert.
The only literal thing taken from the scene would be sand on the white floor with its grinding sound constantly reminding the visitor of the desert’s dirt and dust.
