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Experimental short film
Lonely
A restrained live-action study where blur, domestic space, and pacing turn solitude into visual atmosphere.
Work notes
Public copy is edited from the preserved original project page and its media record.
A live-action short film exploring solitude through domestic space, soft focus, pacing, and character atmosphere.
The project records direction, shooting, editing, and atmospheric development.
Context
The film observes the weekend life of a woman living alone in a modern city, kept as a restrained character study.
Approach
Blur, darker tone, domestic space, and low piano-driven pacing suggest isolation without relying on heavy dialogue or text.
Output
The completed short combines direction, shooting, editing, and atmospheric development.
Film
Reference images remain in their original research context and are not presented as Ben Ma's authored artwork.
Lonely
September 2020
Experimental short film
Original overview
This is an experimental short film. I tried to depict the weekend life of a woman living alone in a modern city by shooting in real life.
This is also an assignment of MOME709, which takes about 3 weeks to produce.
Concept
The brief asked for a fully developed character without relying on dialogue or extensive on-screen text. Drawing on my experience of living alone while balancing coursework and an internship, I chose to portray a young woman navigating isolation, routine, and the desire for social connection.
After the shooting content was established, I immediately wrote a script for the shooting, which was as follows: On an ordinary weekend, a woman who had just come to work in the city and lived alone returned home after shopping for food. Her edges had not yet been smoothed by the city’s harshness, so she wanted to change her introverted and socially awkward side. She poured out her regular coffee and took wine from the refrigerator to cheer herself up. She was conflicted, healing with the piano and solidifying her desire to get out of the house and into the center of the city. So the heroine went out of the house after taking a bath and making up. However, the moment she opens the door, the timid character of the heroine takes over again. She is afraid of change and doesn’t know how to change. So the heroine went back home and sat in the doorway looking at the city sky.
Soft focus reduced emphasis on facial performance and kept attention on the protagonist’s inner state. A darker grade and restrained piano score sustain the melancholy without turning the film into a purely hopeless portrait.
Moodboard
Source credit unavailable in the archived page
I studied films that portray loneliness and melancholy, focusing on camera angles and soft-focus techniques. I wanted the mood to remain subdued without becoming hopeless, so I used a slightly darker grade while preserving the protagonist's effort to change.
Shooting process
I rented a house with a garden so the threshold between leaving and returning could become part of the story. Additional interior scenes and several strong shots were omitted because they did not match the film’s visual tone or the assignment’s running-time limit.
Final scenes
