Dinner with The sound of falling

An interview with Chien-Yu Lin, director of The Sound of Falling

 How much are you interested in the vegetal world and trees?
Vegetal world is a world that’s not different from ours. The only difference is that in the world of plants, time is slow enough to be observed and appreciated before they fade away almost as if they had full control over their lives. When the farmer travels to the city, what I tend to explore through the strong contrast between nature and artificial space is how the shift of these two spaces affects his self-consciousness. This to explore the meaning of self-consciousness and how the sense of belonging to a space means comfort, mentally and physically, and how aware we are about  that.

 How much were you interested in the main character’s isolation? And in the rural area?
Solitude is an important element for the main character throughout the film as his isolation is his own choice. He’s hiding himself in this rural area as anyone can hide himself between these walls we call home. It helps us to portrait the distance between people and the distance with our proper selves. Solitude for me is something that is linked to the essence of a person, something we are born with but never pay much attention to, because thoughts are mute.

 How did you introduce the orange colour?
The reason I chose a tangerine farm is because tangerine harvest time takes place in the winter, so that their orange colour pops up like a firework in the air of coldness then fade away when spring comes and the other trees are fighting over each other with the colour of rainbow just to catch attention. The orange colour also represents the mind of the main character, the rise and fall of the awareness of his own existence in the film.

 How did you work on the sound?
The sound is the most experimental part of this film as it is very much about the nature of life, so as sound is. We can hear many things falling in this film the aim of which is to build up the last one, when the ball falls from an old grandma’s hand. The reason why there is silence after the ball drops is to throw the question of ‘what sound should be heard now’ to whom is watching this film. What is the sound of a tangerine falling to the ground? What is the sound of the drop of Self-esteem? What is the sound of a life fading? What is the sound of you and of me?

 Would you say that the short film format has given you any particular freedom?
During the script development process, I knew this film will be heavily based on visual poetry and sound more than dialogue and structured storyline. Seeking for the freedom to express an idea without having to give a conclusion to a story is very vital for me, as if this is how everyday life looks like to me. The idea of making a film which allows the audience to interpret through their own life experience and interact with their own thoughts, allows each one to get their own meaning from the film is like peeking through the audience’s eyes to see how they see life. So I assume the format of this film doesn’t give more freedom in terms of filmmaking but it does push me to stay as close as possible to reality.

The Sound of Falling is being shown in Lab Competition L4.