Landing @ 5:55
A recollection of unseen camcorder footage
Directed by Tony Wang
Directed by visual artist Tony Wang, Landing @ 5:55 invites us into an intimate, dreamlike space crafted from unseen camcorder footage captured by his partner Hadasa. As she arrives in New York City at 5:55 PM, her candid thoughts and words create a fluid narrative - an evocative blend of love, fleeting reflections, and the beautifully random.
Wang combines technology, movement, and emotion in this short film, reflecting his celebrated style that has earned recognition at the NYLA International Film Festival, Berlin Commercial, and Urbanworld Film Festival.
Landing @ 5:55 offers viewers not just a film, but an experience that feels as poignant as a memory.
Landing @ 5:55 has a distinct collage-like editing style, with layered footage and fast-paced, transitions. Can you talk us through your intent behind this visual fragmentation?
Tony: The fragmented visual language in Landing comes from the process of going through unseen footage in my partner Hadasa’s camcorder. Ever since she got the camera, she was filming a lot but never had the chance to properly check out the footage. Out of curiosity, I asked Hadasa if I could dig through it.
Some of the stuff on there are random tests to see how cool the camera is, uncut footage that was accidentally recorded, nails, necklaces, and all kinds of small things. There are also introspective clips, personal voice bites, and low-quality shots of conversations with friends. The camcorder is small and light. It feels like an extension of her sights weaving in a continuum of space and time in low quality, distorting experiences in a rectangle frame that now feels like memories.
These raw & imperfect footage made me learn about Hadasa’s recent experiences more intimately and experience how she interacts with friends and sees the world without me present. In the world this camera captures, everything is spontaneous, pure, and unexpected just like life. A part of me thinks I shouldn’t even be seeing the footage.
The editing is intuitive. It is intended to mirror the spontaneity / rough-edged character of the camcorder footage. Knowing Hadasa, she notices every small things and would break a conversation just to point them out. By starting the edit on small things, the pace comes through naturally from the get go.
Could you give us an insight into your collaboration with Dan Langa for the sound design, touching on how the sound shapes the rhythm of the film and integrates with the spoken narrative?
T: It's been so great collaborating with Dan again! I first worked with him on a previous project called “SEER” and I think his music syncs my visual approach incredibly well. It's almost as if he pre-composed his music so I can use them for a future project.
It's a no brainer that I thought of Dan again when this project comes up. His music are rich with textural sound bites from a wide variety of sources, which matches the scrappiness of the camcorder clips. I pulled in his songs “Mayhap” and “Whim” in the first rough cut in which Dan modified the timing to fit with the project. A lot of the sound design you hear in the edit comes from Dan’s music.
Dan transitions from calm to energetic beats unexpectedly, creating a soundscape that ebbs and flows with Hadasa’s camcorder footage. The textural elements in his works sometimes feel like accidental recordings from the camcorder. Incorporating the lofi spoken words with Dan’s work gives the illusion that the mix was recorded directly on the camcorder.
The multimedia elements of the film really stand out. Were there any unexpected challenges or unplanned moments that shaped the final cut in ways you hadn’t anticipated when you started?
T: The whole thing was unplanned. There are no expectations to make this piece fit into any short film tropes. The challenging part is to figure out visual techniques to tell our love story that differentiate from the moving collages in the beginning portion of the film. I ended up doing it in a way that feels like you’re going through the contents of a camera roll, while incorporating photos of the editing process. Why not?
Hadasa: Given that this work was made with footage that I never intended to show, I felt protective of this piece. Tony asked me to draw on this but I was struggling through a really hard artist's block that I didn’t want to mess up the work. I believe that the work is a reflection of who I am and who I was.
Landing @ 5:55 feels incredibly personal, like we are looking into Hadasa’s inner world. How did you capture a balance between telling a love story whilst preserving the authenticity of Hadasa’s private reflections?
H: I’d like to think that throughout our relationship, I’ve been authentic and open about who I am. Also Tony made me feel safe enough to be my unorganized chaotic self around him and trust him with the footage. I think the balance exists because it’s telling my experience of coming to New York, which Tony was a big part of.
T: Landing intends to construct a loose narrative through curated authenticity of what it feels like first encountering these unseen footage. It is my interpretation of how Hadasa sees and experiences. The VO behind the love story part completely caught me by surprise so it made an appearance. There are no attempts to balance story elements. Fleeting moments and voice bites pass one after another until they flow to a stop.
“In the world this camera captures, everything is spontaneous, pure, and unexpected just like life.”
The film compiles unseen footage from before you and Hadasa met. Did revisiting these moments through her camcorder and diary entries bring any new realizations or emotions up for you?
T: The whole time I was watching it, I subconsciously had a big smile on my face. How Hadasa viewed our relationship in the initial “chasing” phases gave me more insights into how she felt about our relationship then.
That “I’ll put my money where my mouth is….Maybe” part completely cracked me up. Looking back at these made me cherish our relationship even more and its a reminder of how special Hadasa is.
H: After getting over the initial cringe of my messy footage, the main emotion that came up was appreciation. I really can’t imagine how my life would have been if I hadn’t met Tony.
How do you hope viewers will engage with such a personal visual narrative?
T: Pay attention to the smaller things and get a camcorder to play with.
H: Honestly I don’t really have an opinion on that. I believe that work takes on a life of its own after the artist puts it out into the world. The footage was not meant for people to see but this piece showcases Tony’s skills and that’s the main thing that I care about.
You often explore the intersection of technology, the body, and intimate emotions through your work. How does Landing @ 5:55 fit within your broader style as a filmmaker and were there specific visual techniques or themes that you were keen to experiment with in this project?
T: Landing explores a new phase of filmmaking for me. The works I previously did with the moving body focuses heavily on camera movements and cinematography. I feel like there is a sense of cleanness, formality, and strong intentionality in ways that I approached them. At a certain point this “intentionality” became academic, which puts creativity second when it should be first.
When I got to work with filmmaker Harmony Korine and his creative company EDGLRD on a few projects throughout the year, I was intrigued by Harmony and his team’s approach to making art: give you a bunch of materials that don’t make sense so you can try to make something thing out of them without any briefs. This challenges me to stop thinking and skip straight to creating. It felt like when intentionality melts, creating becomes a playground without rules and borders.
Landing is an exploration of that intuitive creative energy.
What’s next for you both?
T: Go see more art and keep experimenting.
H: Hopefully I can graduate with my master’s and create the almanac I wish I had as a transplant artist.
Directed / Edited: Tony Wang
Footage, thoughts, Drawings: Hadasa Castro
Music: Dan Langa