The look...

Over the next few months I will be working closely with Joseph Henderson, who will be my Director of Photography upon Autumn Leaves.  At this stage our relationship hasn't really entered a level in which we are constantly working upon what the film will look like but since the conception of the short film I have been thinking about how the film should look.

Considering that the film is about an ageing business, one which is falling by the way-side in a time of economic crisis for local communities, I want the film to maintain a vintage look.  The film is set in present day but the cinematography should reflect the past and this is where I look for inspiration in films and art of yesterday.

The one film that I have had in mind from the beginning as a source for the way Autumn Leaves should look in terms of colour and lighting is The Godfather. Below is a clip from the opening scene of The Godfather between Don Corleone; the Mafia family figure talking to a man seeking help. The colouring in the scene maintains an orange hue upon their skin specifically and this ultimately creates a retro feel but also a sinister one. The darkness surrounding the scene shows the sinister nature of what the film may be about and the orange is a colour which shows up well in the darkness.

There has also been some speculation from fans and critics alike that the colour orange within the film is soaked in symbolism rather than just because it looks nice. People have suggested that the continual use of the colour orange and of the fruit itself presents danger and death. The colour orange to me almost represents a warning. Whereas red is associated with an immediate danger, the colour orange brings back that danger to a suspicious level, halfway between the innocence of yellow and the danger of the colour red.

Now in Autumn Leaves, the characters are literally surrounded by death which happens to be their occupation as a family Funeral Directors. But considering that they decide to revel themselves within a much more suspicious and sinister way of maintaining business, I think that the colour orange reflects how I want the audience to perceive the characters from the beginning which is with caution.



In terms of art, I have looked towards a contemporary artist who works on paintings that are similar to The Godfather. This is in the use of orange and of the darkness that is contained specifically within the inside scenes.

This artist is called Jack Vettriano and his art focuses upon vintage/period pieces. These paintings often study the relationships between men and women, drawing upon sinister scenarios that are happening between closed doors. The art is looking back at a time that doesn't exist anymore and he focuses on sexuality and lust that was often frowned upon. All in all, it's about the secrecy of scenarios that are hidden away from the idyllic perception of that time, much like Lynch's Blue Velvet which looks at American suburbia and how there is much more to the idealism than meets the eye.

In the reference book I found these images they are a stronger orange but you get the idea that these colours are often drawn out so there is a hint of brightness clouded in oranges, grey whites and browns. The characters all seem to dress in darker colours, specifically brown with white shirts on. Because the Funeral parlour is a traditional business, the clothes that they are wearing is not dissimilar to what is shown within these pictures. A business that hasn't changed the way it is represented stylistically, so colouring and lighting the film in a similar fashion will only highlight this need to hold on to the past.

For these next few pictures I have also looked at his outside paintings. There is an overall brightness showing perhaps that the outside world is where these characters are able to almost hide themselves within this innocence. What you can still see is that the orange hue of their faces is still persistent and that the brightness of some of the images is brought down and less saturated than a lot of the old fashioned posters and paintings of the era perceive it to be. The men wear dull colours which makes them stick out against this brighter backdrop. A sinister darkness hidden in this brightness? perhaps.

There is still a long way to go to make sure that the film looks right for every scene but for now The Godfather and Jack Vettriano are my two inspirations. They will help to create a sinister world hidden beneath the normal, the mundane and the realisation and desperation that these characters have been brought to because of hard times. 

Hopefully by the next post upon the look of the film I will have more film and art influences. I will lok more into making sure that the feel of the film will match up to the black comedy tone of the film. 

Introduction

My name is Lee Barham and I am a student at University College Falmouth, studying Film at BA (Hons) level. This is the first in hopefully a number of blogs that will appear here over the next five or six months, to accompany the production of my final film at university. This blog will take you through the film-making process of Autumn Leaves; a ten minute narrative short film that I will co-produce, direct and edit.

 Autumn Leaves is to be my graduation film and represents an idea that I have had for the good part of three years. Over the last three or four months I have taken the idea and toyed with the different possibilities of making it into my ten minute short film. Although, at this stage I am still toying and tweaking the idea still, before I settle with the best possible way of telling it, in order to write a script.

Below is the latest story idea I have had and hopefully this is what will form into the final story structure for the film:


Autumn Leaves is a black comedy. It follows the story of a Funeral Director, his son and their family business, in a small rural village that has seen better days. The story starts in the last few days/weeks before William (The Son) goes off to University. Thomas (The Funeral Director), knows that the business is on its last legs and with William's departure, the situation will only get worse. It is at this stage that Thomas launches a desperate plan; to kill off the village locals. He knows that this is a sure fire way to maintain business in order to support his son's education and the business itself.

The story represents themes of change and the strain of local economies and communities under the threat of commerce. I chose the setting of a Funeral parlour because I have become fascinated by the question 'How does a Funeral director rely on community business when his business is death?'.

I am interested in the character because I feel that it's a fresh take on the serial killer story. I am interested in the extremity of the situation and the way a business man deals with expanding his business under harsh financial times. Essentially, I aim to make something that is funny, different but most importantly, a film that is able to say something about the society that we live in.  In current times, it is the small communities and the lower classes that are under threat within this coalition government. This film symbolises the traditional family business under times of financial crisis, money cuts and globalisation.

That is a small summary of the story and of what my project is about in general. Over the next few blogs, I will talk more in detail about the story, the people that I plan to work with (Crew) and the creative and productive processes that I will come in contact with over the next four or five months.