The idea we built the whole film on was first person, shot from the point of view of the object the student was making. Every setup sits where the object would sit, on the bench, in her hands, held up to the light, so the audience sees her the way her project would. That one decision does the emotional work: her focus and her frustration land as if the object itself is feeling them.

To make the point of view convincing I shot Open Gate, using the full height of the sensor. Not for reframing later, but so the frame sat in the object’s own proportions rather than a normal widescreen crop. Then I added a subtle vignette and a touch of chromatic aberration, motivated rather than decorative, so the image reads as looking out through the object’s own optics.

Framing stayed close, low, and tactile, on hands, tools, and materials, the proximity you only get if you actually are the object. Transitions were built in camera to carry the passage of time, and the Arabic voice-over sits in her voice, keeping the whole film locked to her perspective from the inside.