Andrew Lesnie: The Lovely Bones

For the Cinematography assignment I will be looking at the style of Cinematographer Andrew Lesnie, especially in relation to his work in The Lovely Bones.


Here is the trailer for The Lovely Bones:



The Lovely Bones is set in the 70's and follows the story of a young girl who is raped and murdered. Her narration drives the story forward as she lives in the 'in-between' or her own perfect world. The visual style of the film changes at many points throughout the narrative. At the beginning of the film, before Susie's murder the shots are highly saturated with a lot of natural, diffused light. However, the images of Mr Harvey are low-key and have a low contrast, he is often lurking in the shadows. Many of the scenes later in the film take place in Susie Salmon's perfect world; these images have a very surreal feel to them. They are very bright and colourful, and the images we see within them are also very unrealistic.


Andrew Lesnie is heavily inspired by the work of painter Andrew Wyeth. In the following two images you can clearly see his inspiration for many of the images in The Lovely Bones.





Here is an image from The Lovely Bones, where Andrew Lesnie's influences can be clearly seen:




The majority of the film uses motivated lighting, which is predominantly naturalistic. This light is often dispersed over a wide area, which leaves little shadows. However, in the scenes underground and of Mr Harvey the light is highly contrasted, leaving the majority of the shots in shadows.