Naturalistic vs Stylised

The visual aspect of films all fall into place on what can be described as a spectrum: between naturalistic and stylised.

Naturalistic:

A naturalistic film aims to create realism and provides the false illusion of reality, as if the contents of the film were genuinely taking place somewhere in the world, for example television dramas and war films.
A beautiful example of the naturalistic look is Kareem Mortimer's 'Children of God':

This film is a brilliant example on the use of natural light to keep shots looking realistic. Throughout the trailer you can see a variety of different environments, both indoors and outdoors, even under water and in caves: but no matter where the location, the shot always looks realistic, believable and beautiful. This form of naturalistic video is designed to be slightly dreamlike, the soft fall-off of shadows and the warm glow around the characters emphasise emotion and a warm, loving relationship which the film is all about.

However, naturalistic can also be incredibly realistic in not only the look of the scene, but in the way the camera moves: for example shakey camera work to give the sense of a handheld camera, which instantly makes an audience believe in what they are seeing. This use of camera movement and also the use of realistic colouring of a shot can be seen clearly in the film 'Dead Man's Shoes' by Shane Meadows:

This naturalistic look could also be taken the the extreme end of the spectrum whereby you are trying to make the audience believe that there was nothing added to the shot, and that the entire film was 100% real, as seen in found footage films such as 'The Blair Witch Project' and 'Paranormal Activity'. These types of film are designed in such a way that they can almost be quite difficult to watch at times due to the camera being so shakey, and the level of realism is so extreme that 'The Blair Witch Project' sparked many conspiracies at the time as to whether the film was actually real. However the entire film features what are clearly well thought out compositions and well lit scenes that could only come from someone who is experienced in film making. You cannot go to this extreme without knowing exactly how and when to break the rules of lighting and composition:

 

Stylised:

At the other end of this visual spectrum you have stylised films. These are the films that are designed to fit a specific theme or follow a follow a narrative that is unrealistic: for example science fiction, and supernatural films, where the narrative needs to be amplified to make a point. This stylised nature (much like naturalistic) can be either quite subtle or very imposing, depending on how unnatural the concept in need of conveying is.

A good example of the use of stylistic filming is in 'Requiem for a Dream', which uses to stylistic approach to create quite a dark and disorientating look on the lives of drug users. The film almost makes the audience feel like they are experiencing some of the effects which the characters are and can be quite hard to watch at times due to way in which it is filmed. This is a very stylised film that also managed to contain elements of realism and you do managed to contain belief that the character could be real:

 

 

Towards the more unreal end of the spectrum you have films where it's obviously not real and there is no real attempt to make it so. These kind of films have an unrealistic colour scheme and feature elements that would not be possible or do not exist in the world at present. An example of this form of stylistic filming is Frank Miller's 'Sin City'. He uses a black and white colour scheme with only hints of colour where necessary to apmlify the narrative:

 

 

 

My Film:

After conducting my research into naturalistic vs stylised films, I have reached the conclusion that my film is to be somewhere along the middle of the spectrum, edging more closely towards naturalistic. I want my film to be quite realistic, with only hints of stylistic filming to emphasise points along the narrative. The colour scheme should be quite believable and follow the colours that would naturally occur in the scene, and the majority of my lighting should be natural, with practical elements to aid the storytelling.