Screenplay Cinematography: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

As cinematographer for this film, I would concentrate on using the lighting and camera movements to evoke the craziness caused by the large amounts of drugs consumed in the film. I feel the zany hallucinations presented in the screenplay would best be accentuated by intense bursts of color, contrasted with extremely dark high contrast lighting. I think this lighting would also do well to invoke the feelings of Las Vegas, primarily the look of the neon lights. I think the bright color of the lights would create an important contrast between the bright opulence of the strip and the bleak desert outside. The desert outside would look best as a cool purple, while the lights and interiors would be bright reds and yellows. The brightest colors of all would come from the drugs themselves, which I would have colored in insanely unnatural colors. In terms of camera angles, I would use uncomfortable close ups to showcase the intense discomfort of being too high in so many scenarios. In extremely intense scenarios, I would take the camera out of focus as characters lose focus. In contrast with the colors and haziness of the high in the movie, once the drugs wore off there would be a dramatic difference. I would have the world look uncomfortably bright and crisp, almost jarring to look at. The desert in the day would seem bright and white, blinding the viewers. Just as the cinematography earlier would make the viewer feel like they themselves were in the high of the movie, the cinematography at the end would make viewers feel as if they themselves survived this ordeal and were blinded by the sober world.