And finally it's time that I take you through some of the research that I looked into.
First up I want to break this down really into something nice and simple. What I looked at during my research was a combination of Films, Television Mini-Series, Games, and even a War Photographer.
Now without going into detail about each and every thing I'm going to give you the cliff notes on what I looked at. Specifically the style of portrayal.
Band of Brothers
Band of Brothers is an 11-Hour long Mini-Series set during World War II.
When I approached this piece of media I looked at two things in particular. Firstly, how the colours looked and secondly what sort of shots they used to portray intense action sequences. This was necessary for me to gauge what sort of shots I should be taking in my photo-set.
Findings:
I found that the colours they used in this series were very pale and dull. This was probably due to the fact that it is set during an older time period, while this remains true there was noticeable 'darkened' colours whenever Easy Company were in battle.
Most of the shots were fairly linear although when in battle the camera would shake quite a lot and as I was trying to produce a still I found that to bit less useful. However what I took from that was scenes that have a slight disposition tend to increase the drama.
The Pacific
The Pacific also echoed a lot of the same elements that were initially set up in Band of Brothers. So the colour pallet remained largely the same although there were more noticeable darker shots and one thing that I found that stood out in particular was the use of "simple colours" in the title card. Lots of black, pale background, red smudge.
Findings:
As stated the colours were largely the same aside from an increase in darker tones. This gave way to the idea that when depicting possible threats the use of black really makes the scene more intense and when using a vivid colour such as red it tends to suggest that death is imminent.
One thing I forgot to mention in the above info section of "BOB" was the use of perspective shots. This is really captivating as it gives you the scope of destruction that has occurred.
Battlefield 3
Battlefield 3 is is a multi-platform video game that places gamers into a photorealistic war that is at best quite thrilling.
This game uses a wide variety of colour tones to depict certain scenes. While the use of blacks is common most of the daylight parts of the game have the same pale effect as the previous two Mini-Series above.
Findings:
Colours were of a wide variety. Lots of blacks and vivid colours such as red, blue, yellow.
Most of the gameplay has what I would call a 'motion camera' where when the player walks or runs the camera shakes and gives off that thrilling suspense that we've all come to know and love.
Robert Capa
Robert Capa was a Hungarian war photographer/photojournalist who covered five different wars, World War II, Spanish Civil War, Second Sino-Japanese War, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War. He is also the co-founder of Magnum Photos which is the first cooperative agency for worldwide freelance photographers.
Findings:
Unlike the above info sections with Robert Capa's work he shot in B/W. Not only does this scream 'Historical' but it really does give you that war vibe.
Some shots that I found were slightly blurred but others had that distinctive 'Heroic' shot
Case in point.
So judging from the research I summised that my shots needed to have a form of individuality to them. While I'm trying to create a narrative across frames it was important that each shot had the appropriate colour tone and camera angle/effect. I had already gathered that I would be using a lot of blacks but the use of another dominant colour was intriguing. That and the use of B/W. Yes I certainly had to have it all. Why? Because it was important that I have a distinct look to this work.
