Nature in film

"Olemise ilu" as an inverted nature film

The film Olemise ilu shares many similarities with the nature film: Shots depicting nature fill up most of the screen time, the camera remains in an observational position that does not step into contact with that which is being filmed, and the narrated story depicts the course of life over one year (a common convention in the case of nature documentaries). Nonetheless, one is not dealing with a nature film, because the primary object of the film is not nature, but humankind. If in the case of nature films human beings are telling a story about nature, in Olemise ilu nature has been made to tell a story about Fred Jüssi. Therefore, in this case we are actually dealing with an inverted nature film, wherein the landscapes which we trek in Jaan Tootsen’s film are made to mirror Jüssi’s mental landscapes.

Discussion on the basis of the film clip:

Bring out the most important keywords from Fred Jüssi’s thoughts as presented in the given film clip.
Through what kind of visual figures are these thoughts mediated in the given clip?
Can you think of any other similar visual metaphors from the film?

Fred Jüssi’s perception of nature and its mediation in the film

Speaking about the depiction of nature in Olemise ilu, the film’s cameraman—and also recognised author of many nature films—Joosep Matjus has said that it is not possible to separate nature and humanity in the film, because in conceptualising nature everything is filtered through ourselves, and what we end up seeing is our own inner world mirrored back. Therefore, nature on screen is always a nature presented from someone’s perspective, and not a neutral environment. In Olemise ilu nature is mediated to us from the perspective of Fred Jüssi, in the way that he hears, sees, and experiences. In the words of director Jaan Tootsen, the film raises many questions related to how the world is perceived: What are our senses? What does it mean, when Fred Jüssi says “I started to live with my ears”? When you listen to a river, what is the water saying to us? How can we find patterns in the world? The micro- and macro-worlds. How do we see beauty there, where we usually do not notice it?

Fred Jüssi has shared his uniquely-personal perception of nature in the context of Estonian natural culture, using very different media, including radio shows about natural soundscapes, photography preserving nature, and in his activity as a nature writer. These different ways of relating to nature come under observation in the next study blocks: “Nature in Word”, “Nature in Image”, and “Nature in Sound”.

Lisamaterjal

Interview with Joosep Matjus in the magazine Eesti Loodus (2018).
Tiit Remm’s article in the anthology Eesti looduskultuur (2005).
Interview with Rein Maran on the making of nature films in Sirp (2008).

Vaata seda lehte tahvlis või lauaarvutis, siis saad lahendada ka põnevaid ülesandeid.

Task 1
Task 2

Task 1

Watch the following film clip and describe how Fred Jüssi’s perception of nature is mediated through word, sound, and image.

Word: How does Fred Jüssi describe his perception of nature verbally?
Sound: What kind of sounds do we hear? In what kind of relation are nature sounds and Jüssi’s speech?
Image: Think about camera angles, camera movement, montage, and what aspects of nature are focused on in the shots.

For discussion:

Compare the three discussions. Which of these aspects of the film seem to you the most informative, with regards to the perception of nature? Which ones seem the least informative? In what way does the information transmitted by these different modalities differ?
To what extent does the film’s presentation comply or differ from your own experiences of nature?

Task 2

In the film, Fred Jüssi’s thoughts and their accompanying languages of images and sounds form a complementary whole. Try your hand at being a film director and create a short film segment on the basis of some of Jüssi’s quotations found below. Find appropriate images and sounds from nature which support the given thoughts. As is often done in the case of nature films, the video and sound may be recorded separately and put together later during the editing of the film.

Appropriate video editing tools include Filmora, Media Composer, Videorama, Quick and iMovie.

Quotations

It is not possible to journey towards the fulfilment of the soul via tourist routes. They have been too much trampled into mud (Jäälõhkuja 2007).
Time—at least from the point where it began to be recorded—has always been something mysterious. It solves everything and heals wounds, it takes and brings. Time has a tooth which bites, and a spirit which unavoidably lies with human beings and gives notice of itself in various ways. Time is the master Creator in service, and along with its assistants nobody is capable of doing what Time does (Ajamustrid 2003).
I did not know then that human beings could carry peace within themselves (Ajamustrid 2003).
It would be terrifying to lose the path towards one’s own soul. One must be careful to make sure that this path does not get overgrown with weeds, or smothered under rubbish (Maailma mõte 2005).
Too often in life it happens that we break something delicate and beautiful, only because we cannot wait for Time to reveal its secrets through care and love (Maailma mõte 2005).
There are people who live only in the world of echoes, and never hear the voices. Voices straight from the source or the spring never reach them, I mean voices in the figurative sense. They are only reached by echoes, by reflections (Kõige loomulikum muusika - Klassikaraadio, 22 mai 2005).
There are very few human souls, who, like seagulls, must wander in the grey or the dark, not knowing whether there is an uninhabited island somewhere, where people like them may land and finally find peace. Death is not the great inevitability; sometimes life is also (Jäälõhkuja, 1986).
The tragedy of getting old lies in staying young, if one does not accept one’s age (Interview with Urmas Ott. Mister Fred, 2009).
An Estonian is like a tree on the field: You look at it from the west, and it is like that, you look at it from the east, and it is like this, and so on from all directions (Mister Fred, 2009).