video, kolor, 08:30, 2003.g.

In 2002, I was approached by the architectural studio 3LHD from Croatia who had seen by previous films In/Dividu and In Between and asked whether I would like to make a cinematic response to the memorial bridge they had designed.

The footage I have collected was shot at various camera speed rates (some at normal running speed 24fps, some stop framed, pixilated and time lapsed). Some of the material is shot single framed with long exposures in low visibility conditions. I have used mostly wide angled lenses from cranes and other high positions and telephoto lenses from extreme proximity. I have concentrated on recording the process and the protagonists of construction and erection. The men who construct the bridge are, in effect constructing a memorial to themselves. In keeping with tradittions of ethnographic film practice I recorded conversations with architects, workmen, onlookers on Mini Disk and hope to weave a multilayered ‘mixage’ of location sound. Both the sound and the image are ‘documentary’ they record an event, but they also record the performance of an event. The basic unit of my film making practice is the single frame, I intend to use the collected footage as the basis for reconstructing and reconfiguring the events once already recorded. I will use an optical printer to rephotograph the images frame by frame and to extend and condense the time captured originally. In rephotographing the footage I will try to re-present an event. Each rephotographing renders the ‘original’ more elusive. Although anchored in reality what we see is what is remembered. It is not only a contruction of reality it is a construction of memory.

The basic unit of Nicole Hewitt’s film making practice is the single frame, she uses the collected footage as the basis for reconstructing and reconfiguring the events once already recorded. She used an optical printer to rephotograph the images frame by frame and to extend and condense the time captured originally. In rephotographing the footage she tried to re-present an event. Each rephotographing renders the ‘original’ more elusive. Although anchored in reality what we see is what is remembered.

It is not only a contruction of reality it is a construction of memory.

Direction, Script, Photography, Editing, Production: Nicole Hewitt
Photography: Bruno Bahunek
Editing: Vjeran Pavlinić