Subscribe

ProjectsRefuge Ten Thousand Roses In the Shadow of Gold MountainDiasopra Eve Love is a Four-Letter WordSyndicated LifeThe Cardboard Spaceship

Syndicated Life - Director's Journal :

Synopsis
Production Info
Photos & Clips
Director's Journal

Syndicated Life 6min | Fiction | 16mm
Year of Production: 1999
Writer/Director/Producer: Karen Cho

Director's Journal:
Syndicated life was my first non-sync sound film. With this film, I wanted to explore how our obsession with television can impact the perception we have of our own reality. I wanted to play around with established television genres (soap operas, sporting events, documentary, cooking show, infomercial, commercial, sitcom etc…) and apply their television conventions to the ongoing events in someone's life.

I had the idea of having my main character be in the process of getting over a break-up. As the television is often used as a consoling device in such situations, the choice seemed natural. I then thought of ways to integrate television conventions into scenes in the narrative. With the use of laugh-tracks, commercial breakes, sports commentary, doccumentary voice-over and advertizing slogans, I told the story of my main character through a series of small scenes that played out as if you were flipping through channels.

The film was a lot of fun to shoot. The fantasy nature of the script allowed for a lot of freedom in shooting and editing. Compiling and recording all the sound effects and voices was a great challenge. Although it was not sync sound, I think a large majority of the film is told through the various sound layers.

- Karen Cho