Space in Metin Erksan's films

This study aims to analyze cinematic space in Metin Erksan's most prominent nine films by first focusing on the formal elements and then using the themes significantly repeated in the films. An analysis by disregarding one of these two aspects would be insufficient as Erksan is an auteur well-known for his rigor to the form. In the first part of this study, Metin Erksan's approach to cinema and his characteristics that make him an auteur are accounted for. Then different ideas and approaches towards the concept of space are discussed. There are varying viewpoints put forward on the perception of space as empty or full, whether space exists per se or not, or on the effect of space on humans and the effect of humans on space. These discussions form the base of the subject of cinematic space, which is addressed in the following part. In cinematic space part, firstly technical elements are explained and right after that, films are analyzed in terms of their form. In the final part, after a brief account of representation in cinema, analyses of films within the context of codes or themes that have been derived from films take place. Thus, while creating the coding frame of the research, the concepts already existing in the literature have been used as codes, and new codes or categories that are derived from the films, which are the data of this study, have been added to these. Instead of analyzing the films one by one, samples that can be put under each category have been detected. Designing cinematic space begins at the script writing stage and it continues before and after shooting, and ends in editing. With a closer inspection to Metin Erksan's films, it can be noticed that he starts thinking about space as early as the script writing stage. He was meticulous about choosing the spaces for his films just as he was on any other aspect and in accordance with the emotion he wanted to evoke, he effectively used various elements that complement the space such as sound, music, light, composition, camera angles and positions. Space in his films is beyond being solely a platform for the narrative and it serves as an actor.