I. Astronauts

Sometimes we are astronauts. We feel like there is a layer of gloves, a helmet or a protective suit around us that keeps us from getting in touch with our environment. We are there . . . but somehow we are not. This sense of isolation makes us feel lonely and disconnected from the world around us.

These words narrow down the motivation behind “TRANSLUNAR” – a rather experimental travel film. The title basically describes a maneuver that sets a spacecraft on a trajectory to arrive at the Moon.

All of the shots seen in the video were taken in Kerry / Ireland. We were pretty much the only people there, exploring the rough coastlines and immersing ourselves into unreal landscapes. Several times we felt like we were on another planet. We felt like astronauts – disconnected from the world. It was exactly this experience of alienation that sparked the idea for a rather different kind of video-concept.

II. Scientists

Science is all about trial and error. This video gave us plenty of opportunity to play around with conceptual ideas, camera movements, editing, motion graphics and color grading. Experimenting in post production with colors and their relation to the landscapes was great fun, yet challenging. We recognized that Kerry has very distinct landscapes with quite different tonalities and color moods. These moods fit perfectly to some of the well known and not so well known planets in our solar system. Well, this is were we got really sophisticated: By using NASA reference pictures, we were tweaking the colors of our footage in order to match these planets’ moods. During the shooting in Ireland we felt like astronauts, but while editing we were mad scientists testing, testing, failing and testing again.

III. Humans

You might notice that there is one thing which is quite scarce in the video: humans. And even if you see them, they can not be clearly identified – kind of like astronauts in their suits. Their suit, in a way, creates a barrier between the traveler and the landscape. By not revealing the figure’s identity, the same kind of distance is built up between the spectator of the video and the traveler seen in it.

With the notion of isolation being the central theme of the video, it might make the viewer feel lonely at first, maybe followed by a strange feeling of alienation. However, at some point, so we hope, it carries the potential to transform the feeling of foreigness to the world into inner peace, calmness and clarity.