This was my first experimentation in digital filmmaking after years of amateur handy-cam clips and short videos with analogue tapes. The project started as a collection of idea about shots that demonstrate a particular aesthetic linked to an obsession (i.e. “psycho”) in me. The collection of storyboards exceeded more than 50 scenes, but I shortlisted them to 20 and showed them to one of my photographer friends, who generously welcomed them and kick-started the project with me.
I then decided to bring a vague storyline into the film to connect these seemingly static shots together. We filmed the project using a borrowed mini-DV Sony camera, thanks to the generosity of a friend. Later two more friends joined us to play the doctor and the nurse. With the help of Reza Hadisi and Amir, we shot the film in three days.
Mini-DV was a new technology then and I couldn’t find a computer with a suitable port to transfer the footage. Another friend came to my help and took me to his office in a government department, where they had a new computer. Downloading the files onto the laptop took so long that we went past the closing hours. Everyone had left the building and I was inside the room, which my friend had locked. I remember the security guard knocking on the door and insisting he heard me in there, while I remained silence watching “The Estimated Time to Copy” on the screen.
The film was edited three times. The first edit was a longer rough-cut and was done in Adobe Premiere and was my chance to learn digital editing in 2004. I then received some very good criticism from Sasan Fattah, among others and decided to make a shorter version of it. The second cut of this film, however, was done for my rock video clip “Pessimistic” for Channel [V] in 2006. The third and current edition was done for the Film Festival in Southampton University in 2009.
My focus in making this film was mainly to experiment with black and white, framing ideas and sub-contextual music. The absence of dialogue allowed me to treat this film like a musical composition and time the final cut according to musical ideas and phrase lengths.