Andrei Tarkovsky's Sculpting time - imprinted time chapter analysis

I analysed parts of the chapter 'imprinted time' of Tarkovsky's sculpting in time. Tarkovsky explores time as a mental concept and a condition for human existence, making reference to Dostoievsky's 'The Possessed'. Noting that, in the study of other art forms, time is often only explored in how it is recorded, particularly in literature and painting which lack the element of time, Tarkovsky states he is more interested in the moral qualities of time. That time is an allotment in which we live in, and in which time a person knows himself and searches for truth, yet must 'fashion his spirit in accordance with his own understanding of he human existance'. He suggests that time's structure gives a person a responsibility to themselves and others.

Tarkovsky writes that a failure of cinema was that it became a form of recording theatre, and failed to explore the artistic potential of being able to physically capture time, a trait Tarkovsky deems 'the one precious potential of cinema'. This is extremely relevant to our one minute piece. Tasked with making a one minute film with no editing, the film would certainly show the passage of the exact time of the film with no ellipsis. It would begin existing and cease within the frame of just a minute, and no cuts, nor fast motion or any other editing effects would allow us to break the continuation of time and allow us to make the film world exist any longer by an undefined amount. This fits well with our idea of a lamp who becomes a humanoid, as the surreal concept, the isolated location and no editing suggests a limitation of time that this bizarre creature can exist within. As the lamp is brought to life through cinema, it dies with it also as its minute slot ends. The location is beyond its time, now lay bare and isolated and completely unaffected by time. It is as if time need not exist there, but does through the minute of film. This is a concept I aim to explore further in the longer piece.

Tarkovsky states that unlike music, that materialises on the brink of its dissapearance, film 'approaches' time that exists, and records it's material existence, and we watch films to experience this time we have not had, and time perhaps longer than the time of viewing it. These ideas I will keep in mind and perhaps explore with our longer piece. Through our ability to now edit, time can be manipulated and appear different from our own. I hope to use heavily elliptical editing, non- linear narrative, fast motion and perhaps altering the frame rate and camera medium to 'sculpt' time. Tarkovsky's statement that film only approaches time is questionable. This suggests that unlike music film is constructed out of physically recorded time, but stops at creating its own. I believe through the construction of the film world (through, perhaps, what Tarkovsky calls an semblance of art forms) and elliptical editing a film creates its own time not shown through physically recorded, time constrained footage. Tarkovsky states film is 'indissolubly bound' to 'material reality'. Due to its dependence on the material world it's footage is taken from it is linked, but is it not capable of escaping that?