Koyaanisquatsi - 'Life out of balance'

Today I watched a film that was called Koyaanisquatsi meaning life out balance. It runs for 1h 23mins, and was funded by Francis Forcopular and directed by Godfrey Reggic.

The types of visual images are varied; beginning with images of a natural cave painting then developing from this into different complex and more disturbing images. All of the images are in colour and the different frames of landscapes and building's are fantastic pieces of craftsmanship behind the camera lens. There are no actors as such there are simply different insignificant characters that are in the frames. the film is almost a bibliography of our earth so far.

The types of audio that were used in the film match the imagery of the film fantastically. There are parts of the film where the images are moving so fast and its almost a blur, the audio makes this fast paced and you cant actually Tell which one is leading the other. The audio is non diegetic throughout the film, however the music makes the images so well that at times you think that the sound may actually be coming from the frame. There is no diagetic sounds that come from the film.

There are many different concepts of the film. This may be because the film is a long film for that subject matter. Or maybe it is down to making a film that is so relevant to this side of the century. Or perhaps it so full of different concepts and ideas, that the audiences head would be buzzing!

One of the many concepts that I got from the film was that it was portraying a cycle of life from birth to life then death. In the beginning of the film where was a diagram of a very old cave drawing. Then through a series of images we are taken through time until the 1980's where the times have completely one of the last things that the audience sees is a explosion of a rocket which would symbolise death. Another concept (linking closely with the idea of life and death) is the way we have changed the world as it is and we a re responsible of our own annihilation. There is a lot of destructive images of buildings being demolished which would suggest destruction.