Jan Svankmager’s “Dimensions of Dialogue” is a collection of short films made up of stop-motion photography, live action, and animation (IMDB). There are three parts of the story that describe three different kinds of communication. All the following interpretation is personal.
In the first part of the film, three heads made of three different types of materials indicate three persons with different ideas. Their ideas are deconstructed and reconstructed while they talk to each other. In the end, the disagreement becomes agreement, but the diversity of every individual is gone, the three people lose their characters and become identical. The process of the reformation looks violent and messy, which probably means the communication between each other is not pleasant. The process from agree to disagree could be a violent way, it is hard to persuade someone or change someone’s mind.
The materials that form the heads are relatively intact at the beginning and chopped up after the conversation. Every time the heads talk to each other, the materials become smaller pieces, then they are so mashed up that they become clay eventually. The change of material gives the message of ‘from disagree to agree’ pretty clear.
The second part of the film tells a story of a man and a woman having sex. Their bodies intertwine with each other, it is a physical level of communication. After having a good time with each other, something is born. It could be a baby, or a symbol of responsibility. Neither of them wants it, they throw this ‘problem’ at each other. Then the disagreement between them escalates into a fight which leads to destruction.
Clay is a proper medium to show this story. Their merging, the baby and the destruction are all presented well by using clay.
In the third part of the film, there are various tools that come out of two people’s mouths, one tool gives and the other receives, the tools represent the ways of communication. If they are on the same page, the conversation goes smoothly. If not, they are both exhausted. Additionally, if they are both giving(talking) or receiving(listening), the conversation will not go well either.
The tools used in this part are pairable things in real world, toothbrush and toothpaste, butter and bread, shoe and shoelace, pencil and sharpener. They easily convey the meaning of match to the audience.
After a few attempts at wrong matches, there are cracks appearing on both heads. In the end, they become two piles of mud breath heavily. These details show the audience that an unmatched conversation can be very exhausting.
The composition in the first part is mostly close-up and super close-up, which is a fascinating way to show the chaotic scene when the heads are resembled.
