Interaction of Content & Form

Objectified - A Documentary Film by Gary Hustwit from Selectism on Vimeo.

In the documentary film Objectified by Gary Hustwit there is an artful interaction of content and form that effectively engages the audience in moments of careful observation and personal reflection. The film begins with a still camera alternating between frames of factory machinery in the process of creating a product with no sign of human life. Ultimately, it continues on to the final steps and completion of a simple white chair and a machine adds it to the line up of identical chairs. This is creates a commentary on mass production and the careful consideration that goes into one object that is massively distributed and used on a daily basis. About one minute in, commentary from Jonathan Ive chimes in about immediate assumptions projected onto an object by individuals within moments of first contact.  It continues onto illustrate the start of a day and the objects one would likely come in contact with and not consider as they begin their daily routine. This is the first example of a human being any significance in this film. The human brings purpose to these objects. Design commentators, editors, and well-known designers are filmed in their elements in the rules-of-third placement that creates a level of interest that not only focuses on the speaker, but on the environment in which they inhabit. The transition of scenes of products in-action to an interview with a professional is seamlessly overlapped by introducing the professional’s vocal commentary while maintaining focus on the scene at hand then ultimately shifting the focus to the speaker in their environment, captioning their name and their contributions to the art or conversation of design. This helps create harmony among the tailor-made scenes and professional commentary by maintaining focus on the theme and not necessarily the professional opinion. Throughout the film, the main focus is on scenes of the creative process, objects in use, and designers in action. While the thematic focus is objects and being “objectified”, there is an implication of humanism behind these fixed objects by introducing the designers behind widely used items and the personal value we attach to them through perpetual use. Essentially, the title makes someone feel dependent and constrained by the use of things but by the end you find that there is a purpose and an inevitable future of more things. But, the real focus is design. It brings about a new consciousness of design.