Major Pre Production: Director & Cinematographer Research (Wes Anderson)

    When it comes to distinctive style, there’s probably no better example to this than Wes Anderson, the director of 'Moonrise Kingdom', 'The Royal Tenenbaums', and 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'. The writer/director has been called one of the best examples of a modern director, with a whimsical visual style and unique narrative that remain consistent through all of his films. It has been said that if you know of Anderson and his past films, you can spot whether a movie is directed by him within five seconds of watching one his works or viewing a trailer for an upcoming film. With a distinct colour palette that links everything from a the production design to the outfits, Anderson uses a set of visual flourishes that give his films the specific fantastical feeling that all of his films seem to have. The reason I am looking at Wes Anderson and his work is due to him being one of my favourite directors, as well as the fact he has such a distinct style of film making. I aim to create a distinct style for 'Inoculum', maybe not so eccentric as that of 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' but something rememberable and appealing to the eye. There are so many different factors to his film making that make him stand out and can easily be recognised. But the two main aspects of my research are the framing of his shots and the colours he uses in his films.


Framing his Shots

   When it comes to framing, Anderson is known to keep his camera mostly stationary, preferring to shoot scenes in a straight ahead approach, something most directors apparently avoid to do because it prevents the scene from taking on a three dimensional feel. This is what Anderson prefers, and the net result is a series of a shots that often feel as if they are part of a painting rather than a three dimensional, moving image. This is what I aim to create for 'Inoculum' as I feel it would be effective to use in some shots, such as the beginning where all the characters are at the doctors office from behind. I will be discussing in the future my reasoning for why I have chosen specific types of shots for certain scenes. After looking at this approach from Anderson, I am going to explore the idea of symmetry and filming straight ahead, or possibly straight behind also.

Colour

   When watching a Wes Anderson film, you can notice the amount of detail he puts into it, most noticeably how much thought he puts into the color schemes, some say he possibly brands each of his films simply through the use of colour. The impact of colour on his cinematography is outstanding, as you can see in films such as 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou' which carries a marine themed colour scheme filled with various shades of blue and orange, and in his most recent film 'The Grand Budapest Hotel', soft pinks and faded browns prevail in this film (as seen in image bellow). Further, there’s a washed out, saturated effect to these colours, kind of like a pastel effect, which personally I feel gives of a nostalgic feel to between the 60's to 80's.

   The use of colour Anderson uses has gained so much attention, there is even a tumblr page dedicated to the colour used in scenes from his films. (http://wesandersonpalettes.tumblr.com). He also usually uses the same shades of colours through all of his films, this has been noted through a video I have found on Vimeo showing this (Click Here to watch the video). 

   This has highlighted the importance of colour I need to consider to my film, which I already have looked into, but need to focus more on shades and need to decide what shades would be suitable for my film. Even though I am not intending to use faded out colours, I need to look into what kind of feel I want to push through to the audience. I am initially at this moment thinking of a metallic sleek feel to the colours, but research will have to be done to decide what I want to do in this area.