DOMESTIC

[freddie bonfanti]

hi all,

 

i finally got hold of a few frame grabs from a short i shot not a long ago up here in Scotland. the film tells the sad story of Amanda, an average woman from the rough and tough East Lothian who is facing a strange case of domestic violence.

 

we shot on a DVX100 with an M2 adaptor lensed with 3 old OLYMPUS primes (24, 90, 125). our lighting was poor: a couple of 1.2 HMIs, few redheads and a 2 bank kino

 

the director Rob Glassford whom i worked previously with on "The Big Forever" (forum2004/index.php?showtopic=14486&hl=the+big+forever) and "The Rooftop Challenge" (forum2004/index.php?showtopic=19224&hl=MUSIC+VIDEO) didnt want this to be the usual Scottish drama, especially photographically: he wanted the lighting to be "brave" to suggest a strong feeling of sadness and danger.

we discussed extensively about the use of different colours for each different scene, and i chose 3 specific colours that i believed could get each feeling across in their own special way.

 

for instance whenever Amanda is left alone in her house i wanted to use the color blue, thus white balancing to tungsten and letting uncorrected daylight coming into the windows with smoke. this way her living room looks menacing and the only safety is outside, marked by the shafts of light

 

 

 

on the other hand, whenever something terrible happens in the room, in presence of John the violent husband, i introduced a warmer, stronger color: orange.

orange resembles the male strong character, who commits the violence. i gelled the lights with chroma orange, a part from a small practical on top of the tv. once again, there is almost no light inside, highlighting the sense of fear and separation from the outside

 

 

 

 

our only exterior was a night scene with rain. it was my first rain effect and i think works quite well. i used 2 big garden sprinklers with "shower mode" on 2 C stands just out of frame, backlit with the two 1.2 HMIs one corrected to full CTO and the other with chroma orange. inside the window i put a blonde to bring up the levels.

because our frame was quite tight we could get away with only 2 sprinklers. i wouldnt think it would work for anything wider than that

 

 

as a last note a big thanks to my focused and top notch crew: first AC Eve Carreno and gaffer Ben Sommerville