Fiction Adaptation Unit: Research - My Visions/aims

For my poem adaptation I'm not going to make a film based on what the poet was feeling or thinking or whatever beliefs they had as I feel I would just be making something that they would make therefore defeating the point of this being an adaptation. I’m not going to make a piece of anti-war propaganda nor will the film have that kind of a preach or message either.
Instead it will be a simple self-contained narrative about a man who’s trying to picture and understand their friend/relatives’ last hours.

I will indicate that the Narrator is in fact a friend by a final shot of the Narrator sat on a chair/settee looking at a framed photo of the Soldier or just several photos of the Narrator and Soldier hanging out and the likes. Signalling a friendship between the two.

I love dark films, not in the sense of twisted and sick stuff I mean emotionally and in the mise-en-scene. Some of my favourite films have a dark edgy style to them in terms of the colour palette; the lighting; the framing etc:

Watchmen [Snyder, 2009]

Watchmen [Snyder, 2009]

The Dark Knight [Nolan, 2008]

These films also play with the psychology of a character and get into their psyches. I love looking at the psychology of a character and to make a film personal to the subject and expose them so their emotions are raw and out in the open.
The subconscious is also something I’m fascinated with: in our Directions unit I played with the idea of the protagonists’ subconscious influencing what they see and it’s something I’d like to try again but in a different way: actually going inside their head physically.

My idea is to have segments where we cut to a completely black room with only the Soldier present and a spotlight or two pointed at him: this will represent his mind.

"He stirred, shifting his body; then the pain


Leapt like a prowling beast, and gripped and tore

His groping dreams with grinding claws and fangs.
"

The second and third lines will be set in the Soldiers' subconscious, at 'prowling beast' he'll scream at the camera like a war cry, this will be the pain inside his head: how he wants to react. At ' gripped and tore' hands will appear from off screen and grab him then a jump cut to him struggling against the hands: which is the pain.

For the visual style of the subconscious I want to do it in a darkened room. Perhaps a big black sheet held up against the wall.
For the Digital News we set up a green screen on two C-stands and I'm thinking of doing the same set-up to create the Soldier's subconscious.
For the lighting I'm thinking of either a single light pointed at an angle or from the side to create a dark moody setting. Similar to these posters for the TV show Sons of Anarchy:

These create a dark mood and atmosphere: suggesting a building up to something, very brooding.

The Narrator will be inside the blackness with the Soldier. I'm not sure yet as to whether or not have the narrator with the Soldier or to also have his own spotlight: as in just the Narrator facing the camera on his own.
If I have the Narrator on his own then it may be confusing as to who's mind we're in, but at the same time that issue can also be a blessing as it presents that exact same response: who's mind are we in?
The Narrator is picturing himself being in the Solider's shoes and his last moments alive, meaning that surely we would be in the Narrator's mind?

I will have to think about it.