There’s nothing like taking a walk through your oft-walked environment - be it in a city, a park, or even a beloved outdoor space, like a beach. But in many of my walks, I’ve come to notice that, with a few simple techniques, it’s easy to have a ‘cinematic’ walk experience.

What do I mean by this?

Well, that while on your walk, with a few key intentional movements and pauses and gaze-holdings throughout, you might just feel like you really are the main character in a movie...

Or at least the camera.

Before we begin, a note:

For the sake of vagueness, I will use the word ‘object’ loosely, not to objectify things, but to leave open for interpretation. Example of ‘object' might be: a woodpecker, a plane flying in the sky, a line of ducks in a body of water, a restaurant sign, a light, a leaf being blown across a path. Heck, it might even be my bangs.

Ingredients for a recipe for a cinematic walk

Feel free to choose/try one, all, a few.

Fix your gaze on a single object or set of objects in the distance as you walk (at any speed); angle and adjust your head slowly as needed to keep the object fixed in the same place or line of sight.

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Find a seat, or stand still, pause. Preferably behind an object, like a shrub. Focus your gaze beyond it on a different object, perhaps a moving one, and let the foreground object become blurry in your vision. Stay still, but follow the beyond object as it traverses space.

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Listen to the sounds of the city.

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Wear noise-cancelling headphones. All will go silent, akin to a silent film. Feel the breeze as you walk. People-watch. If you possess long hair, let it sway. If you do not, consider obtaining a wig and wearing it, then proceeding.

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During a natural pause, watch objects pass your gaze before you without fixing on to them or fixing on to anything else.

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During a natural pause, watch an object get closer to, or further away from, you.

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Walk cinematically at your own risk and whim, and as often as you’d like.

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Additional reading:

Recently, in between writing drafts for this recipe, I found a book on Soundwalking, which might be paired nicely with cinematic-walking. Take a look on Are.na, here →