JANUS’ BLACK BOX

When coming up with my first project, many ideas occurred to me, but I was most fond of the first reading we did for the class from “Science in Action” by Bruno Latour. The reading was called “Opening Pandora’s Black Box,” which had the notion of the black box theory.

From Wikipedia:

The term black box theory is used in philosophy and in science.

The term is important in philosophical contexts, because various philosophers have proposed black box theories for various fields. Probably the most prominent such theory is the so called black box theory of consciousness, which states that the mind is fully understood once the inputs and outputs are well defined, and generally couples this with a radical skepticism regarding the possibility of ever successfully describing the underlying structure, mechanism, and dynamics of the mind.

In science studies, a more abstract notion of a black box refers to the result of the social process of blackboxing, which is, to cite Bruno Latour, "the way scientific and technical work is made invisible by its own success. When a machine runs efficiently, when a matter of fact is settled, one need focus only on its inputs and outputs and not on its internal complexity. Thus, paradoxically, the more science and technology succeed, the more opaque and obscure they become." (Latour: Pandora's Hope).

Then I remembered about Janus-face, which was featured prominently in the the reading as well.

At Answers.com, they define Janus-faced as:

Meaning #1: having or concerned with polarities or contrasts

Meaning #3: having two faces--one looking to the future and one to the past
Synonym: two-faced

This was all very intriguing and it made me think of all of those mad scientist movies, especially Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde whose theme centers on the duality of man.

The idea of the mysteries of the mind and the “polarities” of man came together once more and I decided to make a short film about a person and what goes on in their mind. It was certainly a stressful endeavor so I went to my friend’s apartment and explained to him what I wanted to make and asked him what he thought. He seemed to like the idea and agreed to help me out with it.

As with any pre-production phase, I quickly started on the script and tried to incorporate as many philosophical questions as I could and answer them with two distinct opposite answers with a touch of ironic humor to it. You can read the script here. I asked my friend to be the actor, to which he accepted. Thanks again, Leo. And I looked at his wardrobe and picked out something that would work. For the character of Black Janus, I made him wear a black and grey striped sweater. For White Janus, I found his karategi to be useful since it was white and “different”-looking. For regular Janus, I opted for something white since it would be balanced out by the black box on his forehead that was cut out of a black cardboard box.

As far as the actual production... It was shot at night and it was somewhat difficult to work with a bunch of people in the room who were there just to hang out. But after they all left, I knew I needed to work fast and get all the footage I needed. I hope I gave adequate direction to my actor. I told him to be reminded of those cartoons who have a little devil and a little angel by their shoulders telling them this and that. I told him to be annoyed when playing Black Janus and to be innocent and naive for White Janus and for regular Janus I told him to be almost lifeless. I manned the camera as well. I used a miniDV camcorder. I realize now that I should’ve taken advantage of the equipment in class.

For post-production, I used Final Cut Pro and hoped that everything would cut seamlessly. I though it turned out okay. I knew I wanted to use music, so I tried looking for a good song that would fit the video and ultimately decided on Velvet Underground’s “What Goes On.”

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