The hybrid filmmaker-academic and the antagonism of time: experimenting with temporal tension in A Moment

This paper explores how my dual role as a hybrid filmmaker-academic enables an innovative engagement with time as a narrative and structural antagonist in my short film project, A Moment (to be produced in March 2025). Positioned at the intersection of creative practice and critical inquiry, my work on this project interrogates how temporal distortions—compression, dilation, looping, and fragmentation—can function as both a storytelling device and an experiential force that shapes audience perception.

Drawing on theories of cinematic time from Gilles Deleuze as well as contemporary screenwriting and editing methodologies, this paper examines how A Moment manipulates time to generate tension, disorientation, and horror. The film’s formal approach maintains conventional linearity, while also using the compression of a time loop narrative to position time itself as the antagonist. This approach both works with traditional screenwriting paradigms regarding the time loop, while also attempting to innovate within that structure. It also reflects a broader engagement with the hybrid nature of screen production within academic research.

By situating A Moment within the context of practice-based research, this paper demonstrates how the hybrid filmmaker-academic can push the boundaries of narrative convention, expanding our understanding of time as an adversarial force in screen narrative. Ultimately, this work argues for the productive tension between filmmaking and scholarship as a means to innovate within both theory and practice.