I was particularly inspired by "Paris, Texas," directed by Wim Wenders, for its stunning cinematography by Robby Müller. This film, referenced to me by Simone Martis, influenced me with its wide-open spaces and long takes of the sceneic American Southwest. It was perfect for sourcing scenes of vast fields and endless landscapes. Müller's use of natural light enhances the raw feel of the American Southwest, capturing both its desolation and beauty, and reflecting the protagonist's internal journey, a thematic that is also explored in "Worldeater". The road and landscapes symbolize the search for identity and reconciliation, mirroring themes of isolation, freedom, and the unknown. I was very much inspired by the vastness of the American West, with its open skies and endless horizons, which simultaneously underscores these themes. The connection between these expansive landscapes and internal quests evokes a deep sense of melancholy, as the characters seek freedom and uncover the unknown within themselves. The film's place, atmosphere, time, and emotional feeling fit perfectly with the world created for "Worldeater," making it an ideal source for research and exploration.
RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
PARIS, TEXAS - WIM WENDERS (1984)
MORE RESEARCH
MULHOLLAND DRIVE - DAVID LYNCH (2001)
BONES AND ALL - LUCA GUADADIGNO (2022)
MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO - GUS VAN SANT (1991)
Reference Document - Scenes Breakdowns
"Mulholland Drive," directed by David Lynch, served as a major source of inspiration for its surreal and enigmatic cinematography by Peter Deming. This film influenced me with its intricate visuals and dreamlike sequences, ideal for creating scenes that blur the lines between reality and illusion. Deming's masterful use of shadow and contrast intensifies the mysterious and unsettling atmosphere of Los Angeles, portraying both its surface glamour and hidden darkness, mirroring the characters' fragmented psyches. Worldeater (the main character) is a character with a fragmented psyche, and my interest was to explore how cinematography Mulholland Drive depicts this.
While "Mulholland Drive" explores urban landscapes rather than the road and nature landscapes needed for "Worldeater," it has significantly helped me develop my visual world. The urban settings and winding roads in "Mulholland Drive" represent the search for identity and truth, echoing themes of confusion, desire, and the concealed aspects of the human mind—essential themes that are depicted in Worldeater. This urban environment's connection to internal quests evokes a profound sense of disorientation and intrigue as characters navigate their subconscious to uncover hidden truths.
The film's setting, atmosphere, temporal context, and emotional tone align seamlessly with the world created for "Worldeater," making it an excellent source for research and inspiration. It has particularly inspired me for the Strip Club scene and the way to edit and create blurred reality in visual edits. It has inspired me try duplication, distortion and more constrasted shadow work within my projections.
"Worldeater" is a production that celebrates road trips and explores the development of its main character throughout his journey across vast landscapes. For this project, I had to source five scenes featuring expansive fields and landscapes, and six eerie moving road landscapes. The movie "Bones and All" provided a wide range of powerful landscapes, allowing me to begin the editing process and let my creative vision take shape.
Directed by Luca Guadagnino, "Bones and All" provided powerful visuals capturing the haunting beauty of the American Midwest, aligning with Martis's vision. Cinematographer Arseni Khachaturan's sweeping shots emphasize the landscapes' vastness and isolation, echoing themes of belonging and identity. The road trip element in "Bones and All" parallels "Worldeater," symbolizing internal journeys amid a fragmented world. The landscapes symbolize inner turmoil and growth, fitting seamlessly with the show's aesthetics and thematics.
The open roads and endless horizons underscore themes of freedom, discovery, and the unknown. The eerie, moving road landscapes in "Bones and All" contribute to a sense of disorientation and introspection, mirroring the protagonist's quest for self-discovery in "Worldeater." By sourcing these landscapes and incorporating them into the editing process, I was able to create a visual narrative that resonates with the emotional journey of the main character in "Worldeater." The inspiration from "Bones and All" helped me shape the film's atmosphere and explore deeper how to reflect a character’s mental state through visuals.
"My Own Private Idaho" serves as a rich source of inspiration for "Worldeater," capturing the essence of road trips and personal exploration against vast landscapes. Drawing from this film, I sought scenes depicting the journey of its characters across expansive fields and roads, essential for shaping the visual narrative of my projection work.
Directed by Gus Van Sant, "My Own Private Idaho" offers a visually striking portrayal of the American West, resonating deeply with the themes and aesthetics of "Worldeater." The cinematography, under the direction of John J. Campbell, masterfully captures the beauty and desolation of the landscape, mirroring the emotional journeys of its protagonists. This is an atmosphere I wish to convey throughout scenes of the production.
In "My Own Private Idaho," the importance of landscapes and road trip serves as a metaphor for self-discovery and transformation, reflecting the internal struggles and desires of the characters, paralleling the thematic exploration in "Worldeater."
This film has allowed me to explore once again the importance, the symbolism of visual landscapes on the main characters, and how to bring out and portray those thematics explored. It has allowed me to source a few landscapes, even though the quality is not as good as the rest of the films.
Montage responding to research
MORE RESEARCH
RESEARCH BOARD (Stills, References, Clips to Edit - Road Clips)
In those documents, you can attest the literary research, visual and sound research I have explored for the show. Before doing that, I processed by reading the entire script, then to break down all the scenes with projections needed: with time references, space, place, atmosphere, emotional signification and symbolism or meaning through the production. From there I started sourcing clips, images, films, and landscapes that would reflect those different scenes and atmospheres. My next step was to before starting to edit and start the creative process, show to Simone Martis my ideas, inspiration and show him short clips of experimentation I had made to check with him if it was the work he envisioned for his production. After a few adjustment, but mostly agreement, I could start editing from the many footage I had sourced, color wise, composition wise, movement, rhythm. I researched and explored new editing techniques, exploring distortion, repetition and masking (inspired by Mulholland Drive, and its creative scenes that blur the lines between illusion and reality).
In the next sections i will show my research for every atmospheres, scenic description, and one of the creative edits that came from this research.
All footage and images are referenced at the bottom of the page in the Bibliography and Reference Document.
The montage underneath was a request by Simone Martis, as an introduction to the show, as a celebration of his favorite road movies that have informed his work and show a visual or thematic parallelism to Worldeater. In there I have including footage from "Paris, Texas", "My Own Private Idaho", "Mulholland Drive " and "Taxi Driver" (1976) by martin Scorsese.
Empty Parking Lot Research Board
Industrial Cafés
Street Corner
Research vs. Experimentation
Strip Club and Gaz Station
Strip Club and Gaz Station
Edit responding to research
EDIT responding to Research - Create a moving image from static
EDIT responding to Research
EDIT responding to Research
There are a few scenes in the script that are set during the night in empty parking lots. I wanted to portray that melancholic, eerie and loneliness that reflect the emotional state of those scenes. I was inspired by some of the night scenes in "Mulholland Drive" (in front of Club Silencio, or in the empty night Los Angeles roads), the shadows and the bluish tonalities. This allowed me to blay with color, luminosity and shadows. This applied as well for the Street Corner Section which is below.
Simone Martis had a very specific vision for the café which he described as " one of those cafes that tries extremely hard to sit at the intersection of European and warehouse aesthetics". I went through a process of researching upcoming architects and designs studios that worked on cafe project, and I found what I was looking for mostly based in Japan and Korea.
Endless Roads
Empty Fields
Edit Responding to Research
Edit Responding to Research
Edit Responding to Research
Edit Responding to Research
Bibliography and References
Simone Martis wrote a very powerful scene in which a singer performs for Amos and Worldeater in a strip club. For this scene I imagined something very neon, referencing cheap motels and strip clubs in the Midwest. I created a moving collage including elements from "Taxi Driver" and "Paris, Texas.". "Mulholland Drive" and its Club Silencio were also an inspiration to me. I wanted to create something that created a surreal feeling, by playing with scale, color composition and repetition.
In the production, many scenes feature wide landscapes and fields, set in different time frames, atmospheres, and at symbolic moments. In my research for these essential American Midwest landscapes, I drew inspiration from films like "Bones and All," "Paris, Texas," and "Interstellar" (2014, Christopher Nolan). The fields served as a compelling tool, dispersed throughout the production, marking distinct emotional states for Worldeater.
We start with classical sunset landscapes and gradually descend into more distorted views, symbolizing the fragmentation of Worldeater's personality and his distorted reality. Linearly, the landscapes I created represent his quest for redemption and self-discovery. I experimented with color, layering, and distortion in Adobe Premiere, especially in the final scenes where Worldeater's reality begins to fragment and distort.
The most creative and fun experience I had was in creating the road scenes. I sourced very long (5-hour) videos of scenic views filmed from the front of a car traveling through the state of Utah. I selected snippets from that footage, choosing radically different landscapes that still felt connected, and then started editing. Fascinated by the eerie feeling and the openly fabricated world reflecting Worldeater's internal turmoil during his road trip, I decided to experiment with distortion, elongation, masking, and layering (duplications) to create something very textural, surreal, and immersive. I accelerated the video for a smoother effect and played with the composition, choosing to pair different sides of landscapes together. I lalso played on color, light, saturation and temperature to create this Midwest color palette aesthetic.
Graphic Design for Background Poster: Nina Hermans