Anthony Dod Mantle

Another cinematographer I have decided to look at in terms of isolation is Anthony Dod Mantle and in particular his work on 28 Days Later, Anthony Dod Mantle regularly works with Danny Boyle and won an Oscar for his work on ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.  I am focusing however on ’28 Days Later’ and his work within that, the film follows a survivor of a nationwide virus and follows this character through a post-apocalyptic England.  The genre of film is horror/thriller so the shots used incorporate certain traits of this genre.  However Anthony Dod Mantle within ’28 Days Later’ shows key themes of isolation within the characters of the film and like Eric Gautier uses lots of shots of landscapes with the subject of the shot appearing miniscule in comparison.  Mantle also uses a lot of high angle shots to make the subject seem even smaller against vast backdrops.  Another trait of Anthony Dod Mantles is his use of crooked shots to cause confusion within the audience and disorientate them, perhaps causing the audience to feel isolated themselves.

Here are some examples:

As seen from the examples the shots are very disorientating and the lighting very low key.  The shots with lots of shadows and silhouettes would have been done using bright lights at the end of the tunnel causing the shadows to appear bigger than the people, this is stereotypical of the horror genre, the composition of the shot is interesting as the car is a lot smaller in comparison to the shadown and silhouettes, making the car seem vulnerable and again isolated. The shot of the actor near the truck places the character on one side of the shot, a running theme throughout the films i have watched about isolation.