3. Overview
My focus of this short film will be production design and
cinematography. This is because I am strongest at visual story telling
and my writing skills are poor. I feel like showing the story and not
acting it out with dialogue will tell it better. My main cinematography
influences will be Todd Campbell and Wes Anderson with the addition
of Casey Netstat. I also want to look heavily at production and set
design. I feel in the past my sets have been dull and uninteresting, but I
have so many ideas for this project I want to focus a lot of my time on it
4. Wes Anderson
Wes Anderson is a Texas born filmmaker, writer and producer.
He is most famously known for his film Fantastic Mr. Fox and
The Grand Budapest Hotel.
He has a unique style of symmetrically composed and straight
on shots of buildings and people. It is a frontal presentation of
action as said by David Bordwell in his “observation of film art”
These are so reminiscent of Wes Andersons style they have
provoked a lot of critical discussion of his style and work. He
also mixes the “planimetric staging” and ”compass-point”
editing flawlessly.
What I am taking from his work is the visually interesting shots
and camera movements he is most well known for. I love his use
of top down shots to add context and another look at what the
character is doing. I also want to emulate this way of
cinematography to show the emotion of the character in his
stable moments. This will juxtapose the other type of
cinematography I want to emulate.
5. Sam Esmail
Sam Esmail is an American director known for his
work on Mr. Robot and Homecoming.
When working on Mr. Robot and his film Comet
he often framed characters in a different way to
most DoPs and Directors. He does this to show
the headspace of the characters and reflect what
they are feeling in a way that doesn’t involve the
actor's facial expression or dialogue.
I want to do this in my film to show the emotions
of my character when he is in his emotional state
and disconnected from reality. This will contrast
Wes Andersons style nicely as they are completely
opposite styles.
6. Mathieu Leduc
Mathieu Leduc is a French-Canadian Art Director
best known for his work on Watch Dogs 1 & 2
and work at Google on the Stadia
His work on watch dogs really defined the feel of
Dedsec and give it that iconic look with the use
of bright colours and GIFs.
I really love his mix of bright neon colours and
dark imagery which gave Watch Dogs 2 its iconic
look that I want to replicate. I will use all of his
graphics as a reference point for any I will create
as they stand out so much and look amazing.
7. Anastasia White
Anastasia White is an American art director
turned production designer most known for her
work in Homecoming and Mr. Robot.
Her production design on Mr. Robot’s later
seasons where more elusive hackerspaces are
shown her talent and commitment really stands
out. Her sets really captures the emotions of a
scene and work well to surround the actor
naturally. She won an ADG excellence award for
her work on Mr. Robot
Her work on Mr. Robot stands out to me as it
best matches my vision of my film and I feel like
her work on that show inspires me to add more
into my sets that captures the emotions of my
scenes and characters
8. Peter McKinnon
Peter McKinnon is a Canadian YouTuber and
filmmaker best known for his photography and
videography tutorials on YouTube
His unique sound design on his b-roll really stands
out within other creators as its not just there, its
good. A lot of the whooshes and swishes are
produced by himself with his mouth. That way of
doing it means the sounds are never too short or
too long for the movement and can be perfectly
timed. His use of sound effects is on par with a
Hollywood movie and stands out a lot too
The execution of the sound design on his films are
what I want to achieve in my film. Coming from a
music background, sound plays a big part in my life
and I want that to be reflected in my films.
9. Bibliography
• Wes Anderson
• Anon. (Unknown). Wes Anderson's Biography. Available: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0027572/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm. Last accessed 25th Jan 2020.
• Buno, A. (2013). How We Did It: The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders. Available: http://www.alex-buono.com/how-we-did-it-snl-the-midnight-coterie-
of-sinister-intruders/. Last accessed 26th Jan 2020.
• Zoller-Seitz, M (2015). Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel. New York: Abrams. p238.
• Sam Esmail
• Anon. (Unknown). Sam Esmail Biograpghy. Available: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1322753/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm. Last accessed 27th Jan 2020.
• JonKovacs. (2016). This show has extremely interesting and intentional framing techniques, anyone care to analyze?. Available:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MrRobot/comments/3f525a/this_show_has_extremely_interesting_and/ctll7z3/. Last accessed 27th Jan 2020.
• Mathieu Leduc
• Karpazis, A. (2016). Watch Dogs 2 | Graphic Design. Available: https://www.behance.net/gallery/45126777/Watch-Dogs-2-Graphic-Direction. Last accessed
27 Jan 2019.
• Leduc, M. (Unknown). Mathieu Leduc Bio. Available: https://www.mathieuleduc.com/biocontact. Last accessed 27 Jan 2019.
• Anastasia White
• White, A. (2017). Mr. Robot Season 3. Available: http://www.anastasia-white.com/production-design#/mr-robot_season-3. Last accessed 27 Jan 2020.
• White, A. (2018). About Me. Available: http://www.anastasia-white.com/about. Last accessed 27 Jan 2020.
• Peter McKinnon
• Andersson, C. (2019). MUSIC MATTERS WITH PETER MCKINNON. Available: https://www.epidemicsound.com/blog/music-matters-with-peter-mckinnon/.
Last accessed 27 Jan 2020.
• McKinnon, P. (2019) HOW I EDIT B ROLL & SOUND DESIGN. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgYg0LfFUI4
• McKinnon, P. (Unknown). About Me. Available: https://www.petermckinnon.com. Last accessed 27 Jan 2020.
11. Camera and Lighting
• Camera
• In my music video for Jon Bellion’s Guillotine I really like the camera movements. I
think the smoothness really works in the mobile shots
• My camera work in my music video for Ruku’s Too Much was rubbish. There was no
movement and all the shots were locked off with center framing. This was because I
was shooting and starring in it so any sort of movement was off the table
• In this production I won't be acting in it or doing my own sound capturing so I can
put all my effort into the camera and making it look as best I can
• Lighting
• I looked at different lighting in my Ruku music video. I feel it looked really good as
the lighting worked well with the LUT and colour grade I did.
• That was my first time looking specifically at lighting so in my earlier films there
aren’t any specific lights being used other than natural light
• In this project I am going to focus on proper lighting setups and I am going to
incorporate LEDs into my production design
12. Editing & Effects
• Editing
• This year I feel like my editing has been my stand out achievement. I feel its been
solid on all the films I cut and they all flow naturally
• There have been some shaky edits but none have stood out as poor
• In this project one thing I am going to have to watch is my pacing of the film. This is
because I’ve never cut a drama before and I want this to be the best it can possible
be
• Effects
• Ive only experimented with proper effects in my Ruku music video. Most of them
turned out well and I am happy with the overall outcome
• When I did my VFX for the Irn Bru ad I missed out masking the bottle cap. It ruined
the effect but ive learned to always do a double pass on the final cut
• In this project am going to be doing screen UI and motion tracking VFX. It will be
imperative that they look good as it can ruin the whole project
