Final Assignment: Movie Scenes and Styles
For my final project, I decided to do a photography collection inspired by iconic movie scenes and styles using a variety of scenery, lighting, and editing techniques. The pictures are inspired from the following: Lolita, Home Alone, Film Noir, Schindler’s List, The Shining, Psycho, and The Graduate.
Production Journal
Part 1: Brainstorming (November 23-26)
To start my project, I first decided what I wanted to do. Wishing I had the opportunity to take on more photography projects during the semester, I almost immediately knew that I wanted to do a photography collection. Since I also enjoy film, I wanted to think of a way to combine the two into one project. First I thought to take a certain filming technique – such as film noir – and create a photo collection entirely inspired by that. Thinking that to be a bit ubiquitous, I thought of capturing various genres of film (comedy, drama, action, etc.) but wasn’t entirely sure how to convey that in a convincing and obvious manner. So after that I landed on photographing famous shots from movies using my own ideas and interpretive twist to it.
Part 2: Research (November 27-December 6)
What exactly makes a movie scene iconic? According to FilmSite.org can consists of one or more of the following: 1) a cinematically beautiful shot, 2) spectacular action sequence, 3) a well-designed or innovative opening or title sequence, 4) a plot twist or unexpected shock, 5) a memorable death scene, 6)an emotional ending, 7)brilliant special effects, 8) memorable song and dance, 9)a dramatic entrance, 10) a romantic or sexually charged scene, 11) unique characterization, 12) a transcendental moment, 13) famous quote or monologue, 14) comedic scene, 15) memorable kiss, or 16) something shocking or controversial. From here I looked for specific examples that could be feasibly shot, recognizable, and visually interesting. Furthermore, research was an important part of my project up till the very end where last second changes had to be set forth in the photography schedule.
Part 3: First pictures (November 30-December 3)
After asking around for people who had time to model for a couple shots during the last week of classes, I settled on a few scenes that I thought would fit both the models and my time frame for the assignment. My ideas were the following: garden scene from Lolita, Singin’ in the Rain from Singin in the Rain, Girl in Red Coat from Schindler’s list, smashing the printer in Office Space, serenade scene from Say Anything, shower scene from Psycho, and something Film Noir. When I first took out the camera and tripod from AU the weather was quite nice so I took the opportunity to get the garden scene from Lolita out of the way (where my roommate wouldn’t freeze). The shots were good and when I got inside my condo I notice the venetian blinds creating that particular lighting often seen in film noir movies and decided to take that opportunity to take a couple pictures of myself as a femme fatale. Another one of my roommates gladly volunteered to do the shower scene from Psycho. With a little photo-editing in grayscale and contrast, I ended up really liking my first round of photos.
Part 4: Scheduling Problems (December 4-6)
Since it was the last week of classes, it was a bit difficult to find time to photograph people at the most opportune times. Because it is winter and because many students are not free until the early evening, I could not do many of the scenes I had in mind during the week because it would get too dark before I could take a picture. So I scheduled many of the pictures of the final weekend before the project was due. Unfortunately, the snow storm also put a damper on many of the images I wanted to do since many of these scenes were not weather-neutral. So I had to make a few last minute changes. Instead of the serenade scene from Say Anything, I ended up doing something based off the seduction scene from The Graduate. Instead of Singin in the Rain, I ended up doing something based off the after-shave scene in Home Alone. And the printer scene from Office Space was ditched all together due to scheduling conflicts and weather, so I took advantage of the wintery wonderland and did the ending scene of The Shining.
Part 5: Overview
Overall I was quite excited with what I turned out. I found it was much easier and the pictures turned out much better with natural lighting techniques than with artificial indoor or flash lighting. I also found that putting together a project dependent on the schedule of not only others but the weather is very difficult, especially if you’re going for a particular type of lighting or mood for the shot. But regardless, I’m proud of my work and hope others enjoy it too.
