Filming

When filming the shower scene I basically could not get the diffuse lighting i wanted because the bathroom did not steam up enough. The shower door itself did but this simply resulted in the shot becoming blurred. The shot was not useless, but not how I intended it.

Luckily the following night there was a great deal of fog and so at midnight I managed to find a nice alleyway that produced some interesting diffuse lighting which was usable.

While filming the harsh lighted noir shot at night I managed to create an interesting daytime shot giving a profile of the man's face that contrasted with the appearance of beautiful over-exposed light coming through the windows, similar to the exagerated over-exposure mentioned in AB earlier.

The problem is though that the black of the night can be seen through the windows. However with some simple After Effects work this could be altered in post.

Filming the light flickering on the man's face proved more difficult than I had thought. It was hard to make the reflector board reflect onto only a portion of the bed given the small space filming in and so this flicker effect looks slightly unrealistic as it covers most of the shot.

The shot of him being central within the room was filmed well, giving me a chance to experiment with 3-point lighting and create a couple of interesting shots. The throw focus shot was filmed with ease, exactly as planned. Also, following my diagram for the Noir-esque shot I was able tocreate an interesting profile on the man, experimenting using just the one light and also adding the fill light, creating a shot similar to Ricky when confronting his father and another less harsh creating one similar to Lester in the bar alone (which I never actually used).

All of the shots were of course colour corrected and the majoirty had the saturation turned down by at least 50% and the blues turned up slightly in order to make his surrounding seem dull, accentuating his dull lifestyle, whilst make him stand out slightly with his blue shirt. Also adding the blue tone makes the shot seem colder.

The handheld 'frame within a frame' shot looked great. The lighting is also nice as it silouettes the actor nicely.I made the actor pace around in the frame talking on the phone and to 'seem frustrated'. It appeared like we were getting a glimpse on this character at a time of weakness, that nobody was supposed to see. In post noise was increased as well as the contrast and brightness to make the image seem as though it was shot on a handheld camera.

For the shot of images blending seemless between one another at the end I use After Effects to create the dissolve between them, just by simply changing the opacity at different keyframes. I could have done this in Premiere Pro where I was editing but I wanted to be precise. Furthermore I made the image blur out at the end again in AE simply because it was a nice way to end the piece.

http://www.vimeo.com/17454114

Project Concept

What I want to produce is a short piece following one solitary man. I want to show his emotions by setting the tone for the each shot as Conrad Hall does with Lester in American Beauty. Here's a list of shots I want to include in order to get a good grade and to experiment with what I have seen in AB. There won't be a narrative as it isn't required and I would rather produce interesting shots than waste time on one.

A handheld shot showing the man on the phone, shot outside a window. I can edit this in post to appear as though it's shot from a cheap handheld camera.

Him waking up in bed with the fluttering of curtains causing light to flutter on his features. I will use the shaking of a reflector board to create this.

A showering scene (no homo) with diffused lighting from the smoke and a single thing light beam (similar to the showering and bath scenes in AB) with a red head with its barn doors thinly closed.

A shot displaying focus being thrown. I shoot this along a long desk, have the focus thrown from one object at one end, to him working at the other. I can adjust the focus manually on the 151 cameras and therefore throw it to and from him and the object. Depth of field can be increased by me being further away from the desk and zoom in on it.

Minimalism throughout, so shots are not littered with props or scenery.

He should be wearing a blue t-shirt at all times to represent his alone and so feeling 'blue', cheesy I know. I can de-saturate the shots in post to make the image have less colour, appear more dull and therefore represent his dull life. Furthermore I can play with the colour curves, increasing the gain on blue so his t-shirt stands out more, as with the red roses in AB.

I want to use harsh contrasting lighting on him to create a film noir atmosphere. I can do this by having him sit next to a window and then place a red head up high outside the window shining down on him with its barn doors wide open.

A very minimalistic shot of him eating cereal in the middle of the living room. He will be centred so we are drawn to him, yet the shot will be quite wide with little in it, accentuating how alone and isolated he is.

Panning shots are important. I can shoot him leaving a room with the camera panning around to see him exit and then have another panning around the corridor seeing him entering another room. If both these shots pan in separate directions (left-to-right then right-to-left) then it will look smooth.

Panning up and down is important as well. I'll pan down showing him showering then just before the camera reaches his private area I'll cut to another panning down shot of him drying off, perhaps cross-fading between these two shots depending on which looks best.

I really like the shot I've mentioned at the end of AB showing Lester's different thoughts panning seamlessly left-to-right fading between each shot. I will try and recreate this, using after effects in post.

American Beauty 2

What's interesting about the lighting in American Beauty is how the lighting differs throughout, each scene having its own theme and therefore lighting tone to match. In the scene below the key light is coming from behind Lester and this is done in a film noir style, something that can be seen a great deal in Road to Perdition, another of Conrad Hall's films. This is harsh lighting is done as it gives the scene a darker tone by sillouetting the features on his face and draws us even closer to Lester as he is almost highlighted by the light.

This can be seen again here. This is an even darker scene as it is the confrontation between Ricky and his father and there is therefore even more contrast in the lighting. Ricky's father Frank is silouetted to an even greater extent by the light behind him, covering his face making him seem sinister. Also notice how there is a lack of colour in the scene, Hall does not want it to distract from the stark lighting and from the tension in the scene.

All the shots with Carolyn gardening outside are very colourful and bright and this of course makes these scenes appear more colourful and jolly in spirit. However they are also very over-exposed in places and this coupled with the fact they are more colourful and bright then shots in the rest of the film makes them seem unnatural, almost fake. This of course represents how fake Carolyn is in these scenes when she is so friendly and smiley to her nieghbours, she is living a lie as she is in fact quite unhappy in her life.

Something which Conrad Hall uses in AB is a 'frame within a frame'. It is used to show how Ricky is spying on his neighbours but to us these shots become personal as it makes us feel like we are looking into the lives of these characters ourselves and seeing how they behave when nobody is around. Conrad does this in many subtle ways so as the shots do not appear unnatural, using mirrors and footage from Ricky's spy camera. This 'footage' is grainy and has high contrast.

The rule of thirds and the golden section rule are of course used a great deal by this cinematographer, but he also centres characters a lot, a technique not so common. He uses this again as part of minimalism, making sure we are entirely focused on this character and their emotions as our eyes are instantly drawn to them.

American Beauty 1

Towards the end of the film Hall tried to have the presence of rain in almost every shot, in order to stress how everyone's worlds are being broken down. Even in interior shots when a window cannot be visible, light is shone through the windows or through rain boxes to produce rain patterns where he wanted without lighting the entire scene. Although this light actual looks rather unnaturally bright in some instances, it produces a strong contrast and reminds us of the rain at all times.

 Rain patterns appearing on Ricky's face and the pillow.

 Again they flicker on the ceiling behind Lester.

The unrealistic 'porch light' used as contrast. We can also see how the rule of thirds is being used in all of these shots.

The Cinematography of American Beauty is also used to show the perspective of characters a great deal, yet subtly. At the end of the film, Lester recollects some of his fondest memories and as he does this they are shown visually with a slow left to right tracking shot that slowly fades between each image seamlessly. These seamless transitions help give us the feeling of these memories flowing together seamlessly for Lester.

 

In Lester's fantasies soft lighting is used to highlight the dream-like state he is in. Also, within these scenes there is very little colour apart from that of the roses, as these symbolise his lust for Angela and so this contrast is used to highlight these (his emotions).

This shot below is constructed beautifully and over-exaggerated to try and highlight how dull Lester's office life is as all the furniture and walls are grey, the same overheard lights and cubicle lights are repeated creating bland monotonous lighting. We also see how insignificant he is in this long-shot as his cubicle is in the middle of a sea of cubicles.

This shot provides similar insight, but into Lester's family life and we can see grey colours once again. The decor and lighting is very simple (the candlesticks being used as the key light and the wall lights as fill - mostly natural lighting) which is used to contrast their not so simple family life, and the scene is framed so symmetrical to also make them seem like the perfect family, which we learn they are not. Janey is placed between her parents to make a statement about how she is stuck between them in life.

Once again the flowers are here, not only the brightest colour in the room, yet centred and strongly lit. This is a regular theme of red representing the 'beauty in the world' Lester talks of as red appears throughout. Here it is being used to symbolize the beauty of family and these characters are unaware of it just as they are unaware of these flowers throughout the scene that our eyes are being so predominantly drawn to by Hall.

American Beauty Introduction

American Beauty was released in 1999 to critical acclaim, picking up Best Cinematography and Best Director at the 72nd Academy Awards. It is a satire of the American middle class notions of beauty and satisfaction in life mainly, but also explores many different themes such as love, sexuality, materialism and redemption.

Many of the shots created by Conrad Hall are classical compositions, to show the on-screen tension between characters and allow the audience to take in the action, hence why I chose it as classicism is something we have been told to explore for this assignment. The film is shot in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio in the Super 35 format on Panavision Platinum cameras. Super 35 was used (a larger image frame) so that scenes such as the famous shot where Angela is in the petal filled pool can show the entire pool including the edges.

The general rule was that Hall could light the scene anyway he wanted but he would first discuss the mood of the scene with director Sam Mendes. In most cases he would first light the subject of the scene by painting in the blacks and whites with a key light. Next  a fill light would be added which he reflected from white card on the ceiling, as this gave him more control over the shadows while keeping the fill light not too bright and darker areas free from spill light.

Proposal

For my Cinematography assignment I shall study the work of Conrad Hall on American Beauty. I will focus mainly on the themes he evokes by his composision of lighting and scenery, and try to recreate this in my project, as well as how he uses individual shots to represent the characters' worlds and give us insight into them.