Philip-Lorca di Corcia (Heads)

I have looked at Philip-Lorca di Corica's series heads. The series was created in Times Square, New York. di Corcia attached a strobe light to scaffolding on a subway, he then set up a hidden camera to secretly capture the people who became highlighted by the strobe lighting.The lighting is highly effective, giving the images his trademark cinematic feel. The portraits appear as if they are stills from a movie, which is even more impressive when you consider these portraits are not staged in any form.

Mike Valentine

Mike Valentine started working for the BBC in 1972. He took up scubadiving as a hoby and began making his own short films in the red sea. He was asken by Nick Roeg to shoot and direct underwater scenes for "Castaway". In 1986 he left the BBC and worked on featured. With his wife he has built up the world renowned production company, Valentine Films.Some of the feature films he's done include, Casino Royale, The Beach, Sexy Beast, Trainspotting and loads more.

I First saw Mike Valentine's work when watching Trainspotting... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJrWlHRT-18 and thought it would be good to look at some underwater videographers/photographers for possible underwater location shoots.

Film stills.

I have taken a load of screen shots from the film that I found inspiring and that I can use as a starting point for my shoots...

LOCATION:

I like the simplicity of the scenes. Tension and involvement in the scene are all created by different camera angles and use of lighting.

STUDIO:

For the studio side, I liked the prop shots. They were good at either adding information about the characters or created tension and comedy.

Final Film Choice

I have chosen to base my project around O Brother Where Art Thou?. I found liked the lighting and Sepia toning of the film and liked the way the different camera angles were used to create tension and moods in different situations and how there were different typical camera angles for different characters (eg bad guys shot from below). I also liked that there was an underwater scene in the film and as I want to get into underwater photography I thought this would give me the opportunity to broaden my practice.

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.