the blind man at the
end of the world
VISUAL CONCEPT
The Blind Man is a film whose visuals are anchored on the duality between sight and blindness – meaning and meaninglessness, hope and despair, ugliness and beauty.
The lens through which we see this duality is nature, in all its vastness – a vastness that makes you both feel small and insignificant, but at the same time as if you are one with the world. The cinematography seeks to accentuate the vastness and the scale of Mount Pag-Asa, framing the film in isolating wide shots that engulf the characters in the mountains, blurring the lines between man and nature, moving from disconnection to oneness with it.
Elmer is the true blind man at the end of the world. And in order to capture a man blind to meaning, we must first capture the meaninglessness of his world. Settings and locations will be framed by their emptiness; empty houses, quiet rural communities filled with the dead who have lost hope, and a dead landscape waiting for the world to end. When Elmer and Tales enter houses littered with suicides, they are framed by stillness of death. The deaths of Pag-Asa will not be portrayed as tragic or meaningless, but rather as dark truths of this meaningless world, fading into the mise-en-scene.
The film makes heavy use of color to signify their journey toward seeing beauty. Much of the film is framed in gray, desaturated colors, to show the veil of meaninglessness that blinds Elmer. However, in Tales and Elmer’s conversations at night, they sit in the pitch black lit only by warm fire light, highlighting glimmers of hope amidst darkness, strengthening their emotional bond. But even in these moments, Elmer’s face is cast in shadow, portraying the push and pull between meaning and nihilism.
In The Blind Man, beauty is the lens through which we capture hope and meaning. The film begins with beauty through a distorted prism – the mountain sunset reflected in the murky waters of a rice paddy. Elmer turns his back to the sunset. But as he begins to truly see, in the end, they face the mountain sunrise in a moment of transcendent beauty. As the comet strikes, it brings with it vibrant color, for the first time in the film. The blue of the comet blending in with the orange and red sunrise, a sea of crashing colors with streaks of blue slicing through.
Through this film, I seek to move those blind to the beauty of the world to see it.
The lens through which we see this duality is nature, in all its vastness – a vastness that makes you both feel small and insignificant, but at the same time as if you are one with the world. The cinematography seeks to accentuate the vastness and the scale of Mount Pag-Asa, framing the film in isolating wide shots that engulf the characters in the mountains, blurring the lines between man and nature, moving from disconnection to oneness with it.
Elmer is the true blind man at the end of the world. And in order to capture a man blind to meaning, we must first capture the meaninglessness of his world. Settings and locations will be framed by their emptiness; empty houses, quiet rural communities filled with the dead who have lost hope, and a dead landscape waiting for the world to end. When Elmer and Tales enter houses littered with suicides, they are framed by stillness of death. The deaths of Pag-Asa will not be portrayed as tragic or meaningless, but rather as dark truths of this meaningless world, fading into the mise-en-scene.
The film makes heavy use of color to signify their journey toward seeing beauty. Much of the film is framed in gray, desaturated colors, to show the veil of meaninglessness that blinds Elmer. However, in Tales and Elmer’s conversations at night, they sit in the pitch black lit only by warm fire light, highlighting glimmers of hope amidst darkness, strengthening their emotional bond. But even in these moments, Elmer’s face is cast in shadow, portraying the push and pull between meaning and nihilism.
In The Blind Man, beauty is the lens through which we capture hope and meaning. The film begins with beauty through a distorted prism – the mountain sunset reflected in the murky waters of a rice paddy. Elmer turns his back to the sunset. But as he begins to truly see, in the end, they face the mountain sunrise in a moment of transcendent beauty. As the comet strikes, it brings with it vibrant color, for the first time in the film. The blue of the comet blending in with the orange and red sunrise, a sea of crashing colors with streaks of blue slicing through.
Through this film, I seek to move those blind to the beauty of the world to see it.
An Apocalyptic Roadtrip with Seiga Productions and Daluyong Studios
Directed & Written by JAKE MUÑOZ CONSING
Produced by SITA VALENZUELA & ALEMBERG ANG
Directed & Written by JAKE MUÑOZ CONSING
Produced by SITA VALENZUELA & ALEMBERG ANG
