Koyaanisqatsi

Director: Godfrey Reggio. Duration: 1hr 23mins

Visual Images

At the beginning of the film there are images of an old cave with tribal drawings which zoom out for a while before it cuts to shots of the grand canyon. The camera moves over the canyon very slowly. We then see three different shots involving buildings. One of the shots shows the camera moving around New York buildings, then we see shots of some really old buildings and then we see big buildings that are being demolished.

Audio

With the cave drawings at the beginning, there is some tribal/ritual music and also chanting which gives some atmosphere to the scene. With the shots where the camera movement is very slow, the audio used is violins an old-fashioned classical music but quite up-beat. Then with the fast paced shots such as the destruction of the buildings, the tempo of the music changes and really slows down and is really calm.

Concept

I think the concept of this video is seen as slightly weird but also very effective. We see images of destruction and bad things with calm and peaceful music. Why is this? There's also a contrast of old buildings and new buildings and shots being played very slow and then others really fast. I think the film is showing a glimpse of how our world has changed over years. A lot of people are left wondering what the film is about as there's no speech or acting. After thinking about this film, i think Godfrey Reggio is trying to get us to look at these shots at a different perspective.