An artist friend recently mentioned needing time to “fuzz out” - moments where you can let your mind process, stop taking in new information, and not worry about missing the next thing. I realized how important it is to offer those moments in an edit, to anticipate the need for them and maybe even nudge the viewer into taking them. And I believe it goes beyond just building in pauses and breaks from the often fast-paced information we pack into film and video. They should be embraced as powerful moments.
To be encouraged to enter “fuzz out” mode, the audience should be given a cue - something to encourage a meditation. The viewer’s need to fuzz out shouldn’t be met with a generic broll shot that just lets you catch your breath, but rather a proper cinematic moment that inspires reflection.
One big reason for this is that the power of a scene doesn’t always hit during the scene. Sometimes we cry only after it passes, when for example a more raw verite moment has passed, and something ecstatic follows or maybe just score seeps in to say “it’s ok, you can let it go now.” Or sometimes lots of information is laid out, and the audience should be given a moment to consider what they think of it all and draw their own conclusions. I deeply believe letting the audience think and not just listen is the key to their personal investment in the work.
So the more I think about “fuzz out time”, the more I think that, while they are simple moments, they are the other side of the coin to a powerful scene. They are the moments where the pace of the film, and the processing of viewer’s mind meet up. In a way, they are the moments in course of a film where the viewer may actually be having their most profound moments, and they’ll only work as such if they look, sound, and feel like the magnificent fuzz out moments they’re meant to be.
This shot becomes a recurring motif in A Will for the Woods, offering some sublime fuzz-out time.