Conrad hall is an American cinematographer who was born the year 1926 in Papeete. He has remained to be one of the most influential photographers in the film industry. However, even being named as one of the best cinematographers, he was never near to a camera in his childhood and the idea of going to movies was an alien concept. Nonetheless, that did not define his future. He debuted into the film industry in 1949 by the help of canyon films and in 1956 he shot his first film my brother down. Since then, he has acquired fame and he has been shooting films until his demise in 2003. One of his best shot movies is the American Beauty
The Movie American beauty is recounted by Lester Burnham, a father to Jane Burnham and a husband to Carolyn Burnham. He lets the audience know that is has less than a year to live, however he in reality, he is actually dead; and the entire movie commemorates his life through the eyes. Generally, Lester is aged 42 yrs. and is in an unhappy and unsettling marriage where he is compromised and demeaned by his wife and daughter, Carolyn and Jane subsequently. Their marriage is in the peripheries of breaking and crushing into pieces. The dining table is the battlefield where the husband and wife tear each other apart. These fights are causing their daughter to live in pain and agony and dive into a balanced yet flawed reality where she has no hopes of being loved by her parents. Carolyn is just propelled by success while Lester has had enough of it and he has retired to drugs. He befriends the cool, buoyant Ricky who is a drug dealer and becomes rebellious of his personal accountabilities. He no longer cares about his family. In the meantime, his wife gets into an affair with the real estate king. Kane and when Lester knows about it he does not seem to care. However, Lester himself is attracted to Angela who is Jane’s friend and he is continually obsessed with her. He believes that Angela is the epitome and real incarnation of beauty, thus, he spends his entire life seducing her. Ricky on the other hand likes to picture things that are really beautiful including Jane, Lester’s daughter. Initially, Jane is freaked out but eventually the two dives into a relationship. Lester achieves his dream of getting Angela however he discovers that she is just a confused girl who has been living in her own fictional world and she is nothing more than a startled small teenager. Ultimately, the movie’s culmination is met by the demise of Lester who is murdered by Ricky’s father (Colonel Fittts).
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Generally, the setting of the movie was awesome and I was really fascinated by it. The movie is not only entertaining but it is also educative. The theme and plot aligns well with the current trends that are prevalent in the contemporary world and in families. Parents are continually engaging into marital conflicts, some of them are abusing drugs while there is progressive cheating and adultery in their marriages. All these elements and problems are instituting fear to children and their lives are constantly turning into little hells on earth. They are tortured emotionally and psychologically and their adult lives clasp another turn, this is because they are trailed by emotional and mental disturbances that they experienced during their childhoods. Eventually, the movie presents the ultimate effects of abuse and conflicts. This is clearly demonstrated by the death of Lester Burnham who is killed by Ricky’s father.
Cinematography is a form of art, not just a feature of a film. It impacts the entire tone of the film and also stimulates the feelings of the viewers. In the film American Beauty , this is clearly demonstrated via camera techniques, lighting, and the mounting of a short. Some of the camera techniques that are incorporated in the case constitute shallow focus, deep focus, slow motion, soft focus, and aerial shots. Lighting requires more than just glimmering light on a character. The cinematographer must be in a position of comprehending the best light manipulation technique to design the appropriate mood and correct light throw. He must also understand when soft light and hard light is to be used in order to create the correct lines and desired shadows. Furthermore, the framing of short is of ultimate significance. Basically, framing shot is the positioning of objects and individuals in a scene in order to invoke the mood or to direct the focus of the viewers. All of the aforementioned elements are some of the things that one ought to think about when watching a film and they are all excellently demonstrated in the American beauty .
The movie commences with an aerial short of the street where the main characters i.e. the Burnham’s live. Nameless, this is one of the many streets in the city. The street itself imparts some sense of insignificance to the Burnhams who are depicted as a small and unimportant family. In the initial part of the film, Lester is shot using an aerial angle which depicts him as small and inconsequential. Nonetheless, as the movie continues, he receives shots from below which portray him as powerful and arrogant. On the other hand, Lighting plays a significant role in creating and designing the moods of the scene. One instance can be seen where Lester dreams that he walks in a bathtub and finds Angela. The whole scene is in soft light which is light that is not directly from the source. This helps in providing an impression of an imaginary like state. Ultimately, a good and precise example of framing the shot is illustrated by the shots of the Burnhams while at the dinner table. Carolyn is seated on one end and the Lester is on the other end of the table while Jane is in the middle. This shot frame that constitutes the entire family and some of the surrounding exhibit a distance and a gap that exists between them and its yields an impression that their daughter is at the middle of the fight not knowing which side to take.
