Malikmata (Phantasma)

About the Film

HD, experimental narrative, 5 mins., 2020

A man tries to console himself with music in an oblivious world. He tries to have breakfast, which should have been nourishing, but this just feeds his emotional struggle to the extreme. He is there, but is not there.

Trailer

Production Team

Man		Philip Arvin Jarilla

Director/Producer/Editor/Colorist		Rianne Hill Soriano
Director of Photography		Dustin Uy
Sound Engineer/Musical Scorer		Philip Arvin Jarilla
Gaffer		Joel Tee

Abstract

Loneliness is an emotion that can conquer one’s being to the point of no return. It is capable of disempowering a person as the entire world crumbles or becomes apathetic to one’s very existence — from this lonely person’s point of view. Often times, this point of view is different from the rest of the world. This is especially true for a person reaching the peak of depression, whether still trying to cope up or already giving up. This is the blueprint of this story about a lonely person who loses all hope while the world continues as usual.

This man struggles with his food; and the upbeat music he listens to ironically makes him feel all the more dispirited. The shots become more and more claustrophobic while he tries to fight how he feels, as seen in his struggle with his food and his headset. The sense of tightness leads him to suddenly finding everything shutting down. He is like a speck in the middle of a very big space. In the dead silence, he attempts to cope up by desperately devouring his food until he seemingly loses everything around him, including himself. In no time, it turns out to be a typically normal day in a busy cafeteria where people are minding their own businesses, passing by the guy’s table with his food there. No one seems to care. Everybody just moves on.

Production Notes

This experimental narrative is the second short film of the filmmaker's technology trilogy. The is her second independent short film after a 10-year hiatus. During her decade of rest, she worked on advertising projects, while keeping her fiery passion for art through her writing and academic projects, as well as touring around her four prior shorts in different film festivals and events.

This film explores a young adult’s struggle to isolate himself in an oblivious world. He tries to console himself with music from his headset while trying his best to get nourishment from his breakfast at the school cafeteria. His isolation from his surroundings generally presents him in the middle of the frame with a normal view of him, while his surroundings show the people moving around the busy cafeteria on a blur with ghosting/motion blur effect -- allowing the audience to feel his isolation from the world outside.

This is intended to be a film about loneliness with a slightly disturbing demeanor. The cinematography and sound focus on the isolation of a man from the world that supposedly nourishes him. It is about losing the battle from the inside to the outside. Indeed, he is there, but is not there. He was there, but no one seemed to notice. No one seemed to care.