Consider Yourself

Consider Yourself is a short experimental film that examines subjects as they self-examine themselves. The subjects are asked to come up with five words that would best describe them, 5 words that others might use to describe them, and then five words that would describe them, but qualities that they are not proud of. Using time-mapping tracking how each subjects as they answer each question, the film follows their facial expressions over time divided into 24 sliced segments. The fragmented nature of the film mirrors the uncertainty and reflects the thought process of each subject of the film. 

Each subject is filmed close up, focusing solely on their faces and capturing the feeling of an interrogation under hot intense lighting. Each subject has a unique background of a different color and consists of the words they used for the answers to the questions they were presented with. There exists an interesting contrast between the words that the subject uses to describe themselves, how others would describe them, and the words they wish did not describe themselves, as the results can be contradictory. 

One such subject describes themselves as a “workaholic” while later disparaging themselves as “lazy”. While the film appears to be squarely focused on the subjects, the title of the film is itself a question; an invitation for the viewer to think about themselves and how their own self-perceptions conflict with how the world views them.