“The Shopping Strip” details the emotional exchange of an old couple who are suffering the loss of a son. The plot is particularly concerned with the wife’s empathy towards both her husband and an ephemeral shadow taking the form of a homeless man.
While the main thrust of this story is about emotional tension and dialogue, there is a distinct element of mystery, embodied in the shadowy figure itself and the implication that this character could be the couple’s son.
I have tried to emphasise the metaphoric form of the shadow by crafting scenes in heavy shadow, and have given prominence to shadow/chiaroscuro in this piece overall.
I also wanted to play with the physical disparity between husband and wife, placing them side by side in frame to illustrate in some ways the almost comical aspects of this dissimilarity, but also to highlight the notion of the old adage that opposites attract. I’ve also highlighted their phsical and emotional polarities in mid shots where the couple faces each other in profile, visually seperated by the table. I have tried to emphasise the wife’s desperation to elicit a response from her husband by showing her hand on his in extreme close ups and the expression that can be derived just from body language as the husband pulls away from her.
In order to draw the 3 act piece to a cyclical end; the camera pulls out to return to wide shots of the shopping strip as the couple and the shadow become lost in the bustle of everyday life.
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