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.