This week we had our first class with Brent Hargreaves. We began by watching the introduction scene of Anton Corbijn’s Control (2007).
The lesson we were to learn about was how easy it is to cheat a location to make it seem like something else. The opening for instance achieves this by shooting in North England, a place that has old architecture from the 70′s. Much of it remains from the mass unemployment and riots that occured in the 70′s. This provides a much more barren or sterile mood in the open spaced designs which current date London could not accomodate.
The indoor scenes with Ian are quite drab and ‘wooden.’ Much of the furnishings and interiors of those houses were quite bleak and Anton’s decision to shoot black & white further establishes the gritty nature of their surroundings. If anything, the contrast and composition is given a breath of life. From the little I watched, Anton’s photography in Control is subjective in a non-affirming way.
The shots of Ian are relatively detached by distancing away from but still there with him in his own world. Negative space is used wisely to draw our looking space to Ian (the point of interest.) In terms of art direction, his wall is dressed with posters of 70′s sensations David Bowie and the Velvet Underground.
Ian is regularly shot flaunting his smoking ability as camera frame supports his choice glamorously. Before, during or after a music jam, Ian makes his presence known with a smoking white cigarette. After watching this small excerpt in class I’m excited to see the full film. It has an alluring and mysterious character driven story with bound to be internal conflict.
We also watched Gattaca directed by Andrew Niccol, a damn masterpiece if you ask me. Brent showed us how easily they cheated the set design in the offices, his apartment and the big ol’ stair case. If you get multiple pillars (5 or more) and place them in a wide shot, seem to go on forever and you essentially create a space that is much bigger than it actually is. Lighting is also a contributor to this effect as it draws our eyes to how things should look. For instance inside the apartment it is dark in some places but bright next to the windows, computers and lab equipment. Our eyes is drawn to the important space but the depth of space is still acknowledged and sold to the audience.
Gattaca features quite sterile environments with clean edges, uniform set deisgn and artificial lighting. This is the clone world of perfect reproduction and authorization. Vincent poses as a mere thorn in the system, he is shorter than most astronauts, has a heart problem and questions everything. He is the anti-thesis of the system seeking to gain entry through practical skills, not pre-determined specifications of success.
Here is the staircase shot. It is obviously immovable so the set had to built around it.
Appropriately shaped like a DNA double-helix
. The bokeh is nice too 
. It has quite a contrasty image, presenting vibrant colours to the sensor. It definitely needs to be softened down a bit in post and reduced contrast for filmy look.
. I took a photo as a reference as to what good exterior shooting weather should be like. 
