Deconstruction of Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1983) by Natalie Bakeer
Koyaansiqatsi is paced and sequenced in an interesting manner. The way the shots are sequenced, affect how people think and feel about the film. The pace of the shots, along with the powerful score, by Phillip Glass, determine the feelings viewers get as they watch it. Sometimes Reggio decided what to shoot only after Glass came up with the music that would end up energizing Reggio’s films. Reggio chose to shoot unscripted footage, shooting anything he thought looked good, and then worked on editing it into an hour-long film. It took 7 years to shoot, edit, and release this film (1975 – 1982).
Plot
The film starts out with calm wide shots and close ups of nature such …show more content…
‘Koyaanisqatsi’ means life out of balance and Reggio shows this throughout by juxtaposing images of nature and technology and how they never seem to mesh. One of them must be harmed or destroyed in some way. However, others view it oppositely. They see that Reggio is showing how technology, humans, and nature have all become one new balance.
“…my point is that their roots lay in a reaction to excesses - social, cultural, economic, political, even technological - that marked their times. They were the result of what might be termed "life out of balance." In turn, their result, viewed through a longer lens, was a new balance, incorporating elements of the status quo ante and critical pieces from the movements themselves.” (Truitt, M. 2011).
Reggio believes that technology has taken over our society and desensitised us to horrible events. We have become robot-like, showing no emotions. He speaks about it in an interview saying,
“We’ve been crushed into a synthetic environment that is no longer human...” and “…I had become frustrated that the casual elements of deprivation, disenfranchisement, and violence…all came from the overall society and transformed into a spectacle removed from reality.” (Reggio, G.
Koyaansiqatsi is paced and sequenced in an interesting manner. The way the shots are sequenced, affect how people think and feel about the film. The pace of the shots, along with the powerful score, by Phillip Glass, determine the feelings viewers get as they watch it. Sometimes Reggio decided what to shoot only after Glass came up with the music that would end up energizing Reggio’s films. Reggio chose to shoot unscripted footage, shooting anything he thought looked good, and then worked on editing it into an hour-long film. It took 7 years to shoot, edit, and release this film (1975 – 1982).
Plot
The film starts out with calm wide shots and close ups of nature such …show more content…
‘Koyaanisqatsi’ means life out of balance and Reggio shows this throughout by juxtaposing images of nature and technology and how they never seem to mesh. One of them must be harmed or destroyed in some way. However, others view it oppositely. They see that Reggio is showing how technology, humans, and nature have all become one new balance.
“…my point is that their roots lay in a reaction to excesses - social, cultural, economic, political, even technological - that marked their times. They were the result of what might be termed "life out of balance." In turn, their result, viewed through a longer lens, was a new balance, incorporating elements of the status quo ante and critical pieces from the movements themselves.” (Truitt, M. 2011).
Reggio believes that technology has taken over our society and desensitised us to horrible events. We have become robot-like, showing no emotions. He speaks about it in an interview saying,
“We’ve been crushed into a synthetic environment that is no longer human...” and “…I had become frustrated that the casual elements of deprivation, disenfranchisement, and violence…all came from the overall society and transformed into a spectacle removed from reality.” (Reggio, G.