Aesthetically, Please

Deakins impresses to no end, but this entire sequence in The Assassination of Jesse James is truly incredible. He transforms a black canvass into a riveting few minutes of storytelling by utilizing the main light from the train for the majority of the shots. I have posted the sequence in my first blog post for your viewing pleasure.

This is of course a manipulated still from the afore mentioned picture, but it gives an idea of Deakins' aesthetic and feel for the film. The warmth in lighting attracts me to the long and often slow story with beautiful visuals.

There Will Be Blood is another example of fascinating visuals to an otherwise endless story line. Robert Elswit manipulates a fire, which I can only imagine to be extremely difficult to execute well. The light seems to be cast as though he designed the fire magnificently.

The reverse for the oil fire portrays Daniel Plainview in this incredibly red and menacing tone. The entire sequence was memorable.

This shot is easily passed by with little consequence upon an initial viewing of No Country for Old Men, but after watching an excerpt of an interview with Deakins I had a changed perspective. The underlying message of Chigurh barely visible with just his barrel is that Tommy Lee knows that he is still in the room and is satisfied with not pursuing him. Beautiful, short scene.

I certainly don't intend for this class to pose as my homage to Roger Deakins, but I couldn't exclude my favorite, O Brother Where Art Thou?. While being shot with incredible precision, it was the first Hollywood film to be digitally graded to provide the amber hue to the foliage and to most of the film. This kind of respect given   to a comedy is the most enjoyable aspect for me.