DOP'S NOTES

The uncompromising nature of b/w film stock offers an interesting challenge for a cinematographer. Here, the conversion of a range of colours into shades of grey produces the construction of an imagery that is highly charged with tension; a result of the constant opposition of areas of both extreme visibility and invisibility, and other visual devices. The bombardment with an abundance of coloured elements, that we experience in our daily lives, often detracts us from a concrete and conscious reflection on our environments. The overstrain on our senses blurs our field of vision, preventing us from noticing the essential and unique.

SCHNEEBALL’s camerawork aims at presenting the viewer with a reduced, constricted visual scheme; the main objective being not distraction from a coloured realism, but to focus the viewer’s attention on the fundamental dramaturgical and psychological elements of the story. Although the city of Berlin serves as the main scene of the action, the overall anonymous quality of a metropolis will be retained.

The ambivalence of modern society with its contrasts between poverty and wealth, power and impotence finds its reflection in the figurative schemes of the photography. The camerawork seeks to display the interior feelings of the characters in correspondence to the external world. Selective close-ups of objects and action elements create a spiral-shaped tension; the intention is to externalize the psychological condition of the protagonists.

The lighting is rich in contrasts, though using mainly soft light sources. The lighting scheme puts an emphasis on the opposition of areas of light and dark and the illumination of characters in contrast to their environment. Light and shadow are used to define the relationship between persons and their spatial surrounding. The usage of light and framing connects with the staging of objects in a shot to further emphasize the interior condition of the protagonists. The framing is designed to support an atmosphere of agonizing compression, confusion and oppressive constriction; thereby defining the psychological entrapment and anguish of the frame’s inhabitants.

The camera angle will vary in height alternately to represent the relation between acting characters, and/or restricting the visual information which the viewer receives. The camera moves in correspondence with the protagonists’ agitation/inner strain, widening the image as well as condensing it. Camera movement, both traveling and panning/zooming, will be used to suggest the emotion of bottomless abyss and conditions of floating or gliding.

The perspectives will be obstructed (wide-angle lenses and beveled horizon) to render an increasingly agonizing constriction; thus making the viewer co-experience the anxiety as the space surrounding the protagonist(s) slowly blurs in the progression of the film. (At the beginning: long shots with great depth of field. Towards the end: close and medium shots with little depth of field.) Location shots exhibit obstructing elements that restrict the open area of the frame, and the view of the action (transparent and non-transparent presence of foreground objects; fog, darkness, direct sunlight onto the lens).