Perceptions of Time Essay

Baraka

In the film, the composer, depicts a number of ideas about time by using many images that show a natural world to a highly artificial world. This is demonstrated in many scenes throughout the film.

In the film Baraka, the director portrays how time changes from one day to the next by juxtaposing the new world to the old world. This is seen in the film where at the beginning there is a lot nature and it is seen as natural world where as towards the middle of the film, there is a lot of architecture that is seen such as buildings and skyscrapers. The world is very high tech showing the how time can change so quickly everyday. The juxtaposed image of the close up to the natural water landscape and the scene where there is a long shot that shows all the buildings piled on top of each other coveys how the passing of time has changed the world to a urban life rather than a natural life. Therefore the use of these camera film techniques portrays how time has changed the world so dramatically.

Throughout the film, the film maker conveys the image of time passing quickly. This is seen in the film where they fast forward the scenes in the new world and urban life. The use of fast paced non-diagetic sound conveys the idea of time passing quickly as the people are fast forwarded as well as the music. This makes the responder understand that time moves so quickly and it will never wait for you. Thus, the film makes it evident that time moves so quickly though people don't realise it and will continue to do their daily tasks.

At the beginning of the film, it depicts time passing slowly and is repetitive by showing many nature shots. This is shown in the scene where they use the nature shots with non-diegetic music to show time passing slowly. The scene of the mid-shot showing the monkey sitting in the water within the Himalayan mountains with the relaxing, slow music captures the audiences attention. The scene continually films the monkey for several minutes