The Impact of Non-Actors in Cinematic Storytelling, Pt. 3

The Filmmaking of Robert Bresson, Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel

DDD: Director, DOP, Designer

One of our first assignments at the National Film and Television School was a collaboration between a director, a director of photography and a production designer. We were given a day to design a set, and another to shoot a film. based on an emotion. In my case, it was Fear. I devised a story about an office worker losing his mind, haunted by phantoms, which he eventually confronts and overcomes.

I had the opportunity to work with a professional actor, and applied the same concepts I used with non-actors, paying attention to efficiency and economy in mise-en-scene, cinematography, sound design, editing, and music.

The film begins with the back of a man seated within an office cubicle with a bandaged, bloodied head. I chose the 4:3 ratio to convey a sense of claustrophobia, of being closed in (17.1).

17.1 - DDD, Fear