video of hell

Stevie Abraham · April 16, 2011

i am a new directer i am making a movie called scary boy project.

i changed my mind about the last seen and now i want it to be a seen in hell. i need to find some movie's to look at that have a good modern look, seen of hell.

i think constentine is one movie? i hear of nineth gate, dream may come, jacob ladder, and jansen goes to hell

have you seen these movie's? which ones are the best hell? i want to send them to my directer of photography and composting artest so they can make a good modern, seen of hell.

i sent this e mail:

> i dicided to change the the last seen of the movie. now it is not mitch

> goes in to the woods and want to find scary boy then has a vision of

> energy knife and dies. i want a more artestic end so he has a vesion of

> hell. i want a camera moveing in and a good wide space so it feels like

> you are in there it is reel. camera go's past candels and fire you know

> it's hell. a demon (scary boy) has flame in his hands, lafghing

>

he sent me a e mail:

Hi Stevie, glad to hear from you as always! I hope the movie is going great; I was so impressed with your visual ingenuity and can't wait to see the edit.

I like the new ending and will free up my schedule to shoot it with you. But are you sure you want to do a wide angle push in on Scary Boy instead of a handheld telephoto POV shot like we've done for all the other premonitions (psychic visions)? Since the visions are all from Mitch's point of view, it would be strange switching to a very different aesthetic for just this one shot, particularly given that it will be the last shot in the film if I understand you correctly? It would also be easier to shoot telephoto. We could greenscreen everything and really blur out the background in post.

If we choose to go with the wide angle dolly in to Scary Boy, I think we should strive toward a naturalistic look, despite the fantastical imagery. I imagine the light levels would be very low and the image very orange; everything would be lit from below from fire and lava. We could try lighting with tungsten lights on flicker boxes or actually using oil drums and flame bars off-camera. If we surround Scary Boy with candles, as you mention, we could motivate him a bit brighter than the background, but I have not seen candles in most depictions of hell. So we could just have fire around him, or set his hands on fire like he was summoning it; that would be cool. If we shoot wide open (f2-ish) that would allow us to light primarily with actual flame and just supplement that and then blur the background? Something to think about.

I'd like to shoot with a wide lens to get a little depth of field, at least, and maybe shoot really low angle and at a higher frame rate to make everything feel "big" and imposing. That is if we go with the wide angle push in instead of the POV. Your call, of course.

I'll email some guys I know who do set design for theater, see if we can get a backdrop airbrushed based on Renaissance art (I imagine you're recalling the Dante's inferno reference earlier in the film?) and then maybe put some stage rocks (polystyrene) in the foreground. I'd want the background to really fall off into darkness; we could eschew any fill whatsoever in favor of just fogging the place and then adding more contrast in post. Another option is to use a greenscreen in this situation and motion match in a more complex, animated representation of hell, however I worry about green spill if we are lighting so dark in the first place and I'm not sure if your compositing artist wants to deal with haze and motion matching all in one shot! Does this work? Let me know your ideas and I can start calling people to help make this happen.

Best,

-tr

the looks i want to have: realistic; and amazing. hep!

Joe Zakko · April 23, 2011

look at the barroom scenes in scorsese's mean streets, or better yet the scene in Goodfellas where they're digging up the bodies. It's not set in hell, but Scorsese, like he does with a lot of his films, bathes it in red light to evoke the feeling of hell or sin or something like that.

Joe Zakko · April 23, 2011

If you couldn't find any images.

Tom Jensen · April 24, 2011

If you want to be a director, you should at least spell "scene" correctly.

Joe Zakko · April 24, 2011

If you want to be a director, you should at least spell "scene" correctly.

I'm assuming english isn't his first language, so he probably doesn't direct primarily in english either, in which case not being able to spell 'scene' correctly shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Tom Jensen · April 24, 2011

I'm assuming english isn't his first language, so he probably doesn't direct primarily in english either, in which case not being able to spell 'scene' correctly shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Is that what they're teaching in school these days, Joe? Spelling isn't important? Try telling that to a producer who is about to make a 20 million dollar commitment. He might think otherwise.

Joe Zakko · April 24, 2011

Is that what they're teaching in school these days, Joe? Spelling isn't important? Try telling that to a producer who is about to make a 20 million dollar commitment. He might think otherwise.

I repeat. If English isn't his first language, and if he doesn't direct in english, then what good would spelling in english be for making a movie that is in spanish, french, or italian?

Tom Jensen · April 24, 2011

I repeat. If English isn't his first language, and if he doesn't direct in english, then what good would spelling in english be for making a movie that is in spanish, french, or italian?

You're making an assumption. Do you know this for a fact? Either way the word is "Scene." Spell it any way you want.

Joe Zakko · April 24, 2011

You're making an assumption. Do you know this for a fact? Either way the word is "Scene." Spell it any way you want.

I said "I'm assuming english isn't his first language," so yes, I am making an assumption. And I'm not the one misspelling it, so I'm not sure what 'spell it any way you want' exactly means.

Tom Jensen · April 24, 2011

I said "I'm assuming english isn't his first language," so yes, I am making an assumption. And I'm not the one misspelling it, so I'm not sure what 'spell it any way you want' exactly means.

If you're not the one misspelling "scene" why are you sticking your nose into a suggestion I made to Stevie? He can speak for himself. The film business is full of highly educated people and a lot of them make decisions on really stupid things. This could be one of them. You don't want to give them any fuel to flame that fire. People make spelling errors all the time but if you are going to be in film, at least spell the film terms correctly.

Kieran Scannell · April 24, 2011

just leaving the spelling arguments aside for a moment! I think the evocation of hell can be done in many ways. The example of Scorcese is a good one I feel

because he always keeps it simple and graphic. He also did it beautifully in The Departed with Costello throwing clouds of cocaine also bathed in red light.

It's the simple images done right that remain the longest in the memory. You can spend a lot of time depicting hell, keep it simple and evocative.

Leo Anthony Vale · April 25, 2011

In C.S.Lewis's 'The Screwtape Letters' Hell is the office building of a huge bureaucracy.

In 'Bettlejuice', Hell is depicted as the waiting room of a welfare office or DMV office.

We're not in the Middle Ages anymore.

Michael Dunn · April 27, 2011

Love the CS Lewis/Beetlejuice depictions. DMV/bureacracy for all eternity...that would be torture. As far as Stevie's post goes, it sounds like you're going for more of a classical depiction of hell. If that's the case, I'd check out classical Greek depictions of hell and paintings from the Renaissance. Sometimes it's good to go outside of film references for inspiration. Helps you stay unique.