It's Finished.

Trapped from Robert Hull on Vimeo.
A cinematography assignment.


Here is the final film. I tried to convey a sense of being trapped or isolated. While the film does not have a distinct narrative it is a sort of progression. The man in the film realising if he breaks out of his self made prison he may find something of worth.

The whole look of the film was achieved in camera and no grading work was done.

This is from part of my film in which I was using red gels on my lights to achieve an almost sinister kind of look. I have tried to keep the elements repeating from previous shots in the film. In the shot above you can see how the characters face is overexposed. The light coming from outside shining very brightly on him suggesting that maybe something outside is calling him out or that there could be something worth while if he just explores outside of his immediate surroundings.

This is another shot from my film. I have tried to incorporate the same elements I have been researching in a three point lighting set up.
As you can see above I have again marked the area of over exposure in red and the frame within the camera frame in blue.
The key light for this shot was a standard ceiling light. The fill light was behind the chair. It was a red head light which was pointed at the wall behind the wall so as to diffuse the light that was actually hitting the the actor. The back light was another red head which was out in the hallway. It was positioned so it was shining directly onto the door and door was angled to get some light to shine onto the actor.

In the pictures above you can see how even though the shot tracks forward slowly I have tried to stick as close to the golden mean as possible. I composed my first image and then the last one and made sure that they were both sticking as close as they could be.

I also tried to use the golden mean within the door frame to add some extra depth and meaning to the composition.
I have tried to keep these elements in place throughout my film.

In this shot from my film I have tried to incorporate the elements I have researched.

In this image I have marked in blue where I have used frames within the frame of the camera to try and create a sense of being trapped.
The red areas mark the over exposed areas which I have tried to use to guide the viewers eyes towards the main figure in the image.
The green arrows show the position and direction of the lights used for the shot.

Larry Smith

Larry Smith who was the cinematographer on Bronson also worked on Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.
The use of colour is quite prominent in this film.

As you can see in this image from the film the room behind the couple is very blue. In this scene in the film the couple get into an argument and Nicole Kidman walks into the blue room.

This colour is used throughout the film and is usually most prominent when a character is upset or angry and they retreat into a room which is lit with blue light.

This kind of lighting style could be useful in my film and I may experiment with using two distinct colours to light two different areas.

More testing and Light Diagrams

One of the locations being used in the film is an empty garage. I have looked at the location and tried out some different lighting options.

This diagram shows how my lights will be positioned for the shoot. The first light will be positioned some distance away from the garage and will be directed right through the door. The distance from the garage depends on how strong a light I decide to have for the shots which take place inside the garage itself.

The second light will be positioned next to one of the windows which run down the side of the garage and will shine in at an angle to add some fill light.

I will be using red gels on the lights for most of the shots at this location.

One particular shot that was tested will be a tracking shot. The camera will track back while the man walks forwards. This shot will will be lit with a single red head light. The light will be positioned high up and angled down to shine straight onto the man in the shot. The light will be positioned at the end of the alley behind the camera.

Below is a video of some testing for this shot.


Tracking Tests from Robert Hull on Vimeo.

Testing for over exposure

Test shooting was carried out in order to try and find how far I could push the over exposure without making an image hard to look at.

This first shot was shot with an open iris and a shutter speed of 1/60.
I felt this was a bit too much for the look I want my film to have.

The second shot was taken with an f stop of 2.8 and once again the shutter was set at 1/60.

This shot was taken with an f stop of 5.6 and again the shutter was kept at 1/60.
The light behind the chair was also moved slightly further away from the wall in this shot.

This final shot was taken with an f stop of 5.6 but the shutter was changed to 1/25.
This is the kind of exposure I want for my final piece. The slightly dingy look to the room and the man in the chair set against the wall which is over exposed.

Final Idea

For my film I have decided to try and combine the elements that I have researched:

• Use of coloured light
• Overexposure
• Frames within frames
• a sense of theatricality

The film will not have a distinct narrative but I will be trying to convey a sense of feeling trapped through the use of composition and also trying to give the film an almost dream like quality by using overexposure in a deliberate way.

Researching paintings and photography

While researching into paintings that might help to inspire my film and also have a similar look to the style I want to recreate I came across and American artist called Terrell Gates.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/dantons-death-terrell-gates.html
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/burl-terrell-gates.html

These two paintings in particular use the colour red contrasted with black in a way that I want to emulate using light gels.

The painting called "Danton's Death" also seems to have two spotlights shining on the two main figures in the painting. This sort of theatrical lighting is which puts the focus specifically on an individual using lights is something I am also exploring and this painting has inspired me to try and combine this lighting with the use of red gels to see what effects I can create in my film.

While investigating images which use over exposure I found a photograph by a photographer called Andrew C. Kovalev.

http://ckovalev.com/one-minute-portfolio#overexposure

This photograph is overexposed mainly on the wall either side of the subject in the photo. Personally when I see this it draws my focus more to the woman in the photo as the areas of overexposure don't have much detail and aren't very interesting or pleasing to look at.

I will experiment to see if I can use a similar effect in my film to draw the viewers focus to a particular part of the image.

Test Shooting 1

Testing 1 from Robert Hull on Vimeo.

The first two shots in this test footage were lit using one red head. A red gel was placed over the light. However this didn't seem to match the style I was trying to recreate. The first shot was a bit too pink in some places. The gel wasn't dark enough so for the second shot I switched to a darker red. This was closer to what I was trying to achieve but the light was still very intense. The room I was shooting in was quite small so perhaps if I could have moved the light further away from the shot it might have more closely resembled the style from the opening of Bronson.

This image is from the final shot. The red head was swapped for a bedroom lamp and the dark red filter was held over it. Because this light was not as powerful I was able to retain a lot of the darkness in the shot and achieve a much more atmospheric look.







Comparing this screen shot from Bronson with the image above it is very similar. Depending on the locations that are used in my final film I will adjust what type of lights I use. If I use a big space I might try to use red heads and simply position them further away. In smaller spaces I will use simple household lights to achieve the right look.

Researching Composition

While listening to the director's commentary for American Beauty, Sam Mendes mentions throughout that Kevin Spacey's character is constantly filmed through windows or behind bars of some kind or stuck inside "jail cells" of some kind such as his cubicle at work. The composition in this film is very effective at getting across the sense that Kevin Spacey is trapped in a life he no longer enjoys.

 This shot shows Kevin Spacey looking out through a window. He seems to be trapped behind the glass and the bars across the window also suggest a prison cell. This is the kind of composition I will be trying to replicate for my film.

 The clever use of the reflection in the monitor in this shot means that Kevin Spacey is framed within the frame just as he was in the window but in a more indirect way. The text on the monitor is also formatted in such a way that the he seems to be behind bars once again. Also another aspect that I get from this shot is that he appears to be very small and insignificant within this small frame. This is a good example of quite subtle but effective composition.

This shot of Kevin Spacey and his family is also framed within the cameras frame by using the doorway. Another subtle way to suggest a sense of being trapped.

This kind of composition is something I will be experimenting with during my test shoots and combining them with the lighting style of Bronson as shown in my previous post.

Analysing the Style

The lighting Style of Bronson is very theatrical. Parts of the film even take place as a sort of one man show on a stage. This style carries through to most of the film.

The scene above is lit with a single light from above and also slightly in front of Bronson. Almost like a spotlight. Bronson is also directly in the centre of the frame and the shadow of some bars is falling on his chest. The way this shot is composed suggests a sense of isolation and imprisonment. The space on either side of Bronson and the lack of any kind of background except for blackness give the shot a very dark tone and gives me the impression that he is stuck in a very dark and lonely place.

This shot shows a slightly more realistic style of lighting, however it is still quite stylised. While most of the light seems to be coming from the fluorescent lights on the ceiling and also the walls seem to be reflecting quite a lot of the light as the actors are quite evenly lit. Either that or a film light is being used off camera to light the front of the actors. The scene is quite over exposed which almost gives it a kind of glow There are a lot of vertical lines in the composition of the shot and it is at a slight low angle which gives the impression of the two men in the shot having strength and power over Bronson. The colours also seem a bit washed out in this scene and even slightly blue. When trying to recreate this I will see how much of this effect I can get just using the camera but may also have to do a bit of colour correction in post production. The challenge with this type of shot will also come from seeing how far the over exposed effect can be pushed without losing too much detail in the image.

This scene is very stylised. The red light and the very dark shadows create almost an evil atmosphere. It is quite hard to tell where source is but I think it may be coming from the right side of the cage and shining straight across so it doesn't fall onto the back wall. I will be using red gels on the lights to recreate this look.
Again the composition tells us that Bronson is, literally in this case, in a prison. The different sections of the cage form frames within the frame of the camera, reinforcing the fact that he is trapped.

I will be trying to adapt this theatrical and stylised look used in Bronson to my film and will also be researching into films which use a similar style of composition to find how best to create a claustrophobic and trapped feeling for anyone viewing the film.

Introduction

I will be recreating the style of the first part of this clip in which Charles Bronson talks to the camera. The minimalist style and the effect of prison bars gives the impression that he is alone in a cell but the background is so dark we can't tell where he is.

Hospital

This scene is Bronson in the mental hospital. The slight over exposure and the cold colours are another inspiration for my assignment.

Opening Scene

This is the opening scene where Bronson fights with some prison guards in a cage. I will be recreating the lighting used in this scene. The red light contrasted with very dark blacks.

Bronson

I will be trying to replicate the style of this film for my assignment.

Cinematography

I will be using this blog to show my research and testing for my cinematography project.