Night Mayor

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“Night Mayor” by Guy Maddin
“Night Mayor” is a fourteen-minute short film by Guy Maddin made for the National Film Board of Canada on its seventeenth anniversary. The film tries to demonstrate the difference between the cultural and technological armature of the Canadian government by using the telemelodium to exploit the heavenly ethers of the Aurora Borealis and shows them through music motion pictures. The process results in a film of collagelike beauty, psychotropic, and one that shows a person obsessed with the night sky and loves the sound of northern lights. At first, the narrator only wants to share the aurora music with the audience, but soon realizes the power of music. The images used to demonstrate a message and knowledge which is a peculiar truth coming from the false images and presentations. This short film is simply a conversion of music into moving pictures to convey a particular message. The images are broadcasted simultaneously from the beginning to the end.
While looking at the film closely, one of the most important points to note is the number of shots taken. The camera used takes different shots which are shown in the form of a story. The total number of shots taken for the whole film is 447. The longest shot taken appears at 6.21 minutes (Maddin YouTube). This shot takes more than a second to display. It depicts the narrator keenly watching the images. In essence, the narrator can be heard saying he wants to share the aurora of music with the people of Canada but in the process discovers the power of these images.

Lastly, the shorter shot at 0.49 minutes showing a flash of the narrator’s face. At first, the image of his right eye is shown then a flash of is the whole face. The face looks surprised by demonstrating his realization of the message communicated by the different images. Therefore, the images are meant to convey a message to the audience.
Work Cited
Maddin, Guy. “Night Mayor.” YouTube, uploaded by National Film Board, 17 April 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E55nLx7CpSo