Over Time video shoot 2, eyes closed

Over Time photo by Megan Mayer

Over Time video shoot 1

Over Time photo by Megan Mayer

Over Time video shoot 3

Over Time photo by Megan Mayer

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Over Time was created for Skewed Visions' Cubicle series.
http://cubicle.skewedvisions.org/

Directed, performed and edited by Megan Mayer

Cinematography by Kevin Obsatz

for Paula and Evelyn, November 2009

I was interested in tensions createdwhen a human form, all curves and jangled limbs, enters the space and intersects with the right-angled architecture and sterile textures of a cubicle. The movement score was inspired by a conversation about "dying at your desk" due to lack of retirement funds, and gloriously schmaltzy versions of Moon River (101 Strings and Lawrence Welk, respectively) provided an overall tone. We shot quietly, at night,and I layered in the music afterwards. Editing the footage initially felt overwhelming due to the many potential decisions I could make, but ultimately I found it exciting to compose the frame and choose when to employ movement, music, silence and stillness.

I was honored that Skewed Visions invited me to create something for their Cubicle project, a yearlong series of podcasts meant to be watched at work.

Special thanks also to film artist Kevin Obsatz for his clever cinematographic skills and invaluable contributions.

Please consider supporting this series; your donations provide the artists' funding. In other words: this is how we get paid.

http://cubicle.skewedvisions.org/episodes/support/over-time

Megan Mayer also sets her Over Time, (November 2009) in an empty, after-hours office place, where she, alone in the space, is the focus. (Imagine an "administrative assistant" locked in her workplace after an office party, and you'll get the picture.) Mayer hangs over desks, lies on the floor to spoon the file drawers, and climbs across rows of cabinets, merging her athletic body with the hard angles and bland surfaces of the furniture. Mayer thrusts her face into the green glow of a copy machine, as if in a horror movie. The real nightmare communicated here, perhaps, is the notion of modern labor as a sort of imprisonment -- and not just for a night, but lasting a lifetime; Mayer's piece explores the human textures and consequences of work that's boring, repetitious, and never-ending.

Camille LeFevre, mnartists.org

http://mnartists.org/article.do?rid=261036

Actor, Choreographer, Dancer, Director, Editor, Filmmaker, Performing Artist, Video Artist

http://www.skewedvisions.org/present.php 

SCOUT
I Could Not Stand Close Enough To You
We tried to throw the light
Over Time
You might be expecting me...
Kevin Obsatz's The Gate to the Enclosure
dazzlecream
Finding Carol
Unfit (you cannot be serious)
Laurie Van Wieren's like a movie i saw once
Unfit (you cannot be serious)-courtside
Bathroom Dancing Project
Thorp Building Sink, Northeast Minneapolis
Karen Sherman's Tiny Town
Pulp Dances for RetroRama at Minnesota History Center
Shawn McConneloug's SHE Captains
socktesting
Exactly where I'm supposed to be: This is how I dance at The Soap Factory
Coarse Confluence
Perro
Charles Campbell's He Woke Up In A Strange Placed Called Home And Although Looking For Bed He Kept Finding Death Instead
Perro (otra vez)
Geoff Herbach interview with Megan Mayer 7-16-06
Busby Berkeley Nocturne
Soft Fences