O Brother Where Art Thou. Location finding

I've chosen to base my project on O Brother Where Art Thou. I like the style of the film with the sepia toning and there is a large variety of settings to play with.

Possible locations for different scenes.

• Opening scene: Running away through cornfeields.

• Running down the road shackled together carrying a live chicken

• Running away from burning barn through farm yard.

• Campfire in the forest

I am also interested in doing an underwater shoot for the scene where the damn gets exploded and washes them away.

Fargo and O Brother Where Art Thou

The 2 films I found most inspiring were "Fargo" and "O Brother Where Art Thou"
I found that the story lines had a lot more to offer than "The Big Lebowski" and there was a larger variety of different scenes to use, especially in "O Brother Where Art Thou".

FARGO: LIGHTING AND COMPOSITION

Lighting:
The lighting throughout the film is very simple. When your outside it looks like it's naturally lit and inside it looks like it's lit by the light of the household lamps. When it's dark the lighting is very simple rembrandt, single light source style. Pays homage to film noir. 
Composition:
The composition is for the most part very simple depending on the scene. For informative scenes it's shot at head height of the character which makes you feel like you're there with them and you feel included in what's going on. For more suspense scenes (IE when the kidnappers are pulled over) it's shot so you see what they see, this helps build the tension. There are a few close up shots (IE the crowbar coming through the bathroom door) that are very dramatic and create tension for the viewer. The vantange point is changed again for the violent scenes.


O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU: LIGHTING AND COMPOSITION

Lighting:

the lighting is simple yet effective. The daytime scenes look like they're naturally lit and the night scenes are lit with usually one light source (rembrandt), generally a lamp or a camp fire. Lots of scenes are lit by fire and this generally gives either a dangerous or intimate feel depending on the situation.

Composition:

A lot of the shots focus on just one person (usually the one who's talking). Lots of head shots with the background. These are usually straight on shots or if focusing on the bad guy or a dramatic scene from a lower vantage point.

Lots of the scenes are shot at head height (especially intimate scenes) which makes the viewer feel like they're there with the characters and more included in the scene. 

Dramatic scenes tend to be shot from a different vantage point to increase tension. 

There are lots of shots of just important props.

The Big Lebowski

PLOT:

The Dude Lebowski gets mistaken for the Big Lebowski so the Dude goes to him seeking compensation for his soiled rug. Bunnie (Big's trophy wife) is suposedly kidnapped and the Dude is hired to make the transaction with the kidnappers. Dude seeks the help of his bowling team and has to work out what's happened to Bunnie and the money before a group of German nialists come to claim his jonson.

The lighting plays homage to film noir.

O Brother Where Art Thou

PLOT:
Set in the deep south during the 1930's. Three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them. On their journey they meet a crazy bank robber, a musician called Tommy, Pete gets turned into a toad and they have a run in with the KKK.
Comedy.
The film uses digital colour correction to give it a sepia-tinted look. (It was the first feature film to be entirely colour corrected digitally-narrowly beating chicken run...)

Fargo

PLOT:
Jerry Lundegaard is broke so hires 2 henchmen to kidnap his wife and hold her at ransom to her father. It all falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of pregnant Marge Gunderson.

Black-comedy. Scenes that should have been dull have a quirky comic feel to them and the dark humous underpins the violence and crime throughout.
Simple lighting. A lot of rembrandt especially in the indoor scenes. Film Noir feel to it.

Life and Work of the Coen Brothers

JOEL COEN (Nov 1954) : Director and Screen writer.
EHAN COEN (Sept 1957) : Producer and Screen writer

• They began independent film making in the early 80's. They began writing screen plays and made their debut in 1984 with 'Blood Simple'
• Together they're considered one of the most visionary and idiosyncratic film makers of the late 20th centuary
• They combine thoughtful eccentricity, wry humour, arch irony and often brutal violence.
• Their film making style reworks and pays tribute to classic American genres - especially film noir - while sustaining a firmly post-modern feel
• Typical Coen trademarks include; a complex plot, bizarre situations and nasty criminals.

REF:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/02/22/coen_brothers_profile_article.shtml

http://www.coenbrothers.net/coens.html