Teras

Abstract

Kabuslarından kurtulup içinde rahat uyuyacağı evi ararken emlakçı tarafındanyanlıslıkla bos bir evin terasına kilitlenen genç bir kadının hikâyesini ele alan Teras adlıkısa film, mini dv formatında, ?stanbul'da üç farklı mekanda çekildi. Çekim tarihleri 27?28 Mayıs ve 2?3 Haziran'dır.Film, genç bir kadının gece gördüğü kabusla baslar. Genç kadın, basta sıradan birolay gibi göründüğü için gerçek sanılan bir kötü rüya görür. Bir sonraki sahnede, gençkadının ertesi sabah sokakta birini beklediğini görürüz. Bir adam kadına yaklasır,selamlasır, birlikte yürümeye baslarlar. Bir arabaya biner ve kısa bir süre yolculukederler. Bir apartman kapısını açıp içeri girerler. Bir süre sonra çıkarlar. Üçüncüseferinde, arabayı ters bir yere park ederek bir binadan içeri girerler. Merdivenleriçıkarlar ve bu kez onlarla birlikte daire kapısından içeri gireriz. Bos bir apartmandairesindedirler. Kadın evi dolasır, kendisiyle diyalog kurmak isteyen emlakçıyladiyaloga girmekten kaçınır. Emlakçı da onu kendi haline bırakıp bekler. Kadın bir odayagirince, emlakçı da pencere kenarına gider ve yaslanır. Dısarıdan bir korna sesi geldiğiniduyar. Arabasını çekmesi gerekmektedir. Kadına beklemesi için seslenip aceleyle çıkar.Genç kadın kapı gürültüsünü duyunca bulunduğu odadan çıkıp bakar, sonra evidolasmaya devam ederek mutfağa yönelir. Mutfakta, bir teras kapısı vardır. Kadınkapıdan dısarı çıkar, arkasından kapatır. Emlakçı bir süre sonra geri dönünce onu arar,terastaki kadını kör noktada olduğu için göremez, sıkıntılı bir tavırla teras kapısınınanahtarını çevirip çeker gider. Kadın terastan kurtulmaya çalısırken, yukarıdan, belirsizbir yerden bir yatak siltesi gürültüyle terasa düser. Kadın silteyi kısa bir süre inceler,düsünmek için üzerine oturur, uzanır ve uyuyakalır. Gece onun üzerinde, terasta iyi biruyku çeker. Ertesi sabah baska müsterileri dolastırmak için gelen ve kendini bulanemlakçıdan evi kiralar. Buraya yerlesir. Tasındığı gece, kabusları tekrarlanınca yatağıylabirlikte terasa tasınır ve ertesi sabah yedek anahtarlarla gelen emlakçı onu tekrar bulur;kadın kabuslarından bu sekilde biraz daha uzaklasmıstır.

Terrace is a short film that is about a young woman who is trying to run awayfrom her nightmares. During her search for a new house to sleep comfortably in, she isaccidently locked into a terrace by the real state agent. It was shot on mini dv.The film begins with a nightmare scene. Young woman has a nightmare, whichlooks like an ordinary incident and therefore thought to be real at the beginning. In thenext scene, it is daytime and the woman is waiting at a street corner. A man approacheshim, they shake hands and walk away. They get into a car and travel for a short time.They open the door of an apartment building and go in. They come out after a little while.They repeat this. They ride in the car again and park at an unlikely spot. They climb thestairs of an building. They enter an apartment, close the door behind them. We now seethat they are in an empty apartment. While the woman walks around the house, the realestate agent thies to talk to her but when she is unresponsive he lets her be and waits at acorner. He hears a car honk from outside and he looks out of the window; he needs toremove his car. He tells her to wait and goes out. When she hears the door, she comes outof a room and keeps looking at the house. She enters a kitchen adn finds a door leading toa terrace. She goes out, closes the door behind her. When real estate agent returns, helooks inside the house but he van not find her. He looks out of the terrace door bur the isstanding at a blind spot. He locks the terrace door and leaces, thingking she has left.Woman is now alone in the terrace and she soon understands that she is locked in there.While she is trying to figure a way to get out, a matress loudly falls on the floor. Sheexamines the matress and sits on it. She soon falls asleep. Next morning, the real estateagent returns to the house with new clients. He founds the girl. They shake hands and atthe next scene, we see her moving into the house with the terrace. The night she settles in,she has another nightmare. So she moves into the terrace again with her bed and otherbedroom furniture. Real estate agent finds her in the terrace again next morning. Bysleeping on the terrace, she has found a way to get away from her nightmares.I planned this scenario to be an escape story, a spritual escape story. Escape is acommon theme in all genres of film. It can be adapted to every genre, it is a strongmotive and valid conflict. Many stories, which do not look like escape stories at thebeginning are actually are stories about escaping. Action in physical escape is very clear;it is either about getting as far away as possible or taking shelter somewhere. But Iwanted to go a little more deeper and tell a sublime running away story. The scenariowas born from this idea and became increasingly personal, spiritual. Because I noticedthat the action of escaping could be more interesting then the person running away or thething he/she is running away from. I wanted to replace the ?thing/person/event thatcaused the escape? with a personal and more sublime trouble. This way, I couldcontribute to the univeral theme from a different point of view. Instead of memories/ atramvatic event of the past, I choose ?nightmares.? Because the nightmares are totallysubjective and their certainity is even more cloudy then of memories. They are hard tocommmunicate even when told in detail and they are flexible enough to express almostany distressful thought or event. If escaping is a process, the thought of someone whofnds the peace he/she is looking for in an unlikely time and place is the main conflict inthis story.When the process of escape is hindered, the character is supposed to feel thepressure of her instinct to run away more and more. But having to stop also leaves aspace for thoughts and mind to act. To end the process of escaping, a person may need tosee what happens when he/she stops, faits and faces the music.The starting point of this story was stopping instead of runing. Hers not an actualphysical escape, she was ?changing places? as a statemnt of her desire to get away fromwhat was within her mnd and thoughts. Accidently being locked somewhere was themost natural event to hinder her running and being locked in an ?open but retricted? areamade everything more interesting.I also needes some other event to symbolize her own decision to stop. She had tostop at the beginning, being locked up in a confined area. But once she stops, she decidesit is better to stop and I looked for a way; a moment or event to underline this decision.Being locked up did not emphasize her decision the way I wanted all by itself. The ideaof ?a bed falling from the sky? was born at this moment. It adds a taste of supernaturalinto the film, and it is symbolically powerful. It gave the needed bounce to the story. Butthat moment was also buried inside the slow rhytm of the film. I tried to make the fallingbed look as sublime as possible. I did not want to display that moment and immediateafter as an anomaly.When the nightmare scene in the film is repeated, the character moves to theterrace with her bed and this action underlines her decision to give up running away fromher dreams. Dream squences are used by directors that apply a special meaning to dreams(such as David Lynch) and they rarely play an important aestethic role in the film. Butdreams which are hard to describe with words can be considered as the place where allpassions of subconsciousness flow without restrain. The fact that the ?dream character?in the film appears gradually further away from the girl, supports the idea that she isgetting further and further away from her darker thoughts. He is lying right next to her atthe beginning the first time, and the second time he is at the foot of the bed. The thirdtime, he is behind a closed door, being dreamed by the main character between sleepingand waking.The nightmare scenes in the film are not only simple devices for reflecting thecharacter?s state of mind, they are also narrative devices that determine the beginning,development and end of the story. They change the flow of events and trigger newevents, while describing the inner world of the character.There are three dream/fantasy scenes in the film and there is a bed that falls to thefloor out of nowhere; but this film is still about a very ordinary story of a girl trying tofind a new home and the real state agent that helps her. I tried to keep the film real andtried to mix the fantastic scenes into the texture of general story, without breaking thegeneral rhytm.The influence that a little accident -being locked up- could have on someone?s lifeis one of the other things that interested me. In this story, the mishap turns to be her luckand I am always interested in how unexpected can change customary. I also wanted totake up the issue of ?home? and belonging to a place with four walls. Arranging livingspace to one?s liking and wanting a place of one?s own is a basic instinct. But this desireto ?own? could also be limiting.