Blog 4: Kirsten Johnson

From the moment I saw Kirsten Johnsen in our lecture room, I knew it was going to be an interesting class. From her brightly coloured jacket, to her brightly colour trousers and socks, everything about her was bright. When she spoke about making films, she did this in a way I had never hear before. From the way she interacted with the class to the actual things she said, it was all very refreshing to me. Her approach to film is as artistic as her outfit, and she made sure that we all got to taste a little bit of her artistic mind. She spoke about a shot in her movie The Above, a shot sequence of balloons. As we could tell from her outfit, she loves bright colour, so after spending time in a country with little to none colours, a little boy with a lot of balloons was a pleasant sight for her. She used her hands and her feet to communicate to the boy, asking if she could film the balloons. When he said yes, she literally dove into the balloons. She moved around, soaking in all the colours, resulting in a really cool shot drenched in colour. When she got the shot she wanted, she thanked the boy. But what struck me most is when she told her that she didn’t give the boy anything for his permission because she didn’t want him to feel like every interaction with a foreigner is in the shape of some sort of payment. I thought that was really interesting.