Photonovel: Art Directions & Shooting Techniques

Crystal Lim
Jun 24, 2020
2 min read

Updated: Aug 28, 2020

Part of the secondary research I did on was to find an inspiration and art directions to take on, as this was my first experiences on doing a photo novel.

To make this realistic and real production crew experience I treat this as really real production crew with involvement of director, producers, casting, designer and etc. Photo-novel is almost like a static photography compare to nowadays films which are motions pictures.

Nathanael Matanick (Film Producer) – “Removed” 2013 (Part 1)

The emotional story through the eyes of a young girl taken from her home and placed into foster care.

This short narrative film portrays that saga in a

poetic light, with brushes of fear, anger, sadness, and a tiny bit of hope.

Medium shot – it focuses on a character in a scene while showing the real feelings in the environment.

Close-Up - Fills the screen with part of the subject, such as a person’s head/face.

Such as the screenshot above is one of my favourite shots and quite matching to my mood of the stories, it would be great if I can create shots using slow motion or close up on the character motion while showing the feelings. I can somehow explore later on and see how it turns out.

Shooting behind a person as if it was a first person perspective view might work well and express certain emotions properly. This shots is one of the few favourites I can try on.

Furthermore, here are some more research and inspirations done on getting more references as possible. Here are some screenshots from short Film and so on. These shots and how the director themselves have set their art direction on the…

Nathanael Matanick (Film Producer) – Remember My Story (Removed Part 2) 2015

Colour, Mood, Lighting Effects, Shadows, Ways They Edit , Facial Expressions, Environment Setups, Actors, Angle Shots and etc .

Is very important to deliver an emotional sentiment and feelings that can impact the audience when they watch or read it.

Reflections of the mirror shot

Here are the screenshot I felt it is useful and beneficial to my work later on.

Nathanael Matanick (Film Producer) – Love Is Never Wasted (Removed Part 3) 2018

This film tell a different story - to capture a broader range of the foster care experience and struggles to make sense of between two worlds and two mothers.

Among all the films and observation done , I found this short-film fascinating and interesting because how the stories bring out the feels and how the camera angle able to showcase the full potential of the stories and its emotion.