From the Film Maker...

I was particularly interested in the artist's dramatic treatment of light and shade. I shot the film at night to reflect the stillness and darkness of the painting and used the available light sources to create a strong contrast between the areas of light and shadow. The movement of the shadows influenced many decisions I made while editing.

The strong composition is what drew me to the painting and I applied it to my film. I placed one of my characters inside a small frame within the whole frame. I created a frame within a frame for my characters by defining borders such as mirrors, windows and doorways or by using photographs.

Another aspect of the composition I applied was the use of diagonal lines. I was struck by the way the taut bow split the frame and used strong diagonal lines of structures or lights in the background of my shots. I also loosely recreated the composition of the painting at one point, when one of my characters appears behind the other with a contemporary weapon in place of the bow.
Patrick Michael Roddam