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Delving further into the influence of art references, I found that many popular films had drawn specifically from paintings, even dating back to renaissance periods. Even if not thematically linked, art can provide visual stimulation and ideas in terms of colours, tones, textures and compositions. I will visit more galleries and exhibitions in future in order to keep inspired and stimulated when creating my own work.

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Though not as abstract and less of an emotive experience than the works of Khan, the research into specific photographers and artists aided my drawing immensely, broadening my horizons from just initially looking and film stills.

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Implementing references into my own work

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Implementing references into my own work

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Using the power of google and using a mixture of media, aka photography, film, paintings, I came up with a moodpboard to aid a project in which I created some concept art.

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Benefits of mind maps:

More creativity, flexibility, collaboration,

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In 1974, educator and TV personality Tony Buzan appeared on an episode of the BBC's TV Series Use Your Head to present a new type of diagram: a colorful tree-like structure, with words spreading out radially from the central idea.

Traditional outlines, Tony explains, force the reader to scan from left to right and top to bottom, whereas what readers actually did was to scan the entire page in a non-linear fashion. So, he argued, why not work with the way our minds naturally work, rather than against it?
That evening, he said the words 'mind map' on national television, and a concept was born.
The evolution of the mind map

The use of diagrams for visually presenting information goes back a long way. The first noted example can be traced back to the 3rd Century when Porphyry of Tyros graphically visualized the Categories of Aristotle. Philosopher Ramon Llull (1235-1315) also used mind map-style techniques to present data. People used mind maps informally throughout the 20th century, but it was Tony Buzan who coined the term and brought the concept into the mainstream.

Tony's mind map begins with a central image. To this, he adds branches to depict the basic ordering of ideas (BIOs). He then adds a network of smaller branches (color-coded for clarity) to depict ideas related to each BOI. This is the purest form of a mind map, and it's known as The Burzam Method.

Burzam stresses that his method draws from psychology, neuroscience, and, most importantly - his own learnings. True to this philosophy, the humble mind map has subtly evolved and the benefits of mind mapping have been enormous.
Branched/spider mind map created in Cacoo
Today's definition of a mind map is a bit more flexible and generally includes spider maps (above) and bubble maps (pictured below).

Both Buzan mind maps and spider and bubble diagrams begin with a central idea, but rather than labelling the branches as Buzan does, spider/bubble diagrams use lines to connect ideas around the central theme.

These ideas are then divided into subtopics that add more depth. The lines also make it possible to link ideas across-topic, rather than tying them to the preceding branch - which is helpful for building up an overarching structure and showing links between ideas.

Benefits of mind mapping

Mind mapping is an enduringly popular method for recording, organizing, and presenting information. But why are they so popular? And how can you benefit from them? Here are some science-backed reasons why mind-mapping works.

1. It helps you remember and recall information

Try this little experiment. Close your eyes and think about a tree. Picture it in detail, then think about what your tree looked like.

Did you picture the image of a tree, or the word 'tree?' And was that tree in the center of your mind's eye, or off to one side? And was it in color, or black and white?

Like me, you probably pictured an image, in color, large, and in the center of your mind. This is how the mind works... so working with that rather than against it helps us with recall and memory. In fact, in one study on mind map efficiency, researchers discovered that the benefits of mind mapping when studying and revision included boosting retention by 10-15%.

2. It helps you learn new concepts

According to researchers, there are three types of 'learning:'

1. Non-learning: Information has gone in one ear and out the other. Or, in other words, you've been told something and instantly forgotten it.

2. Route learning: You've learned something, but it's not connected to anything else you know on the subject. It's based on repetition - e.g., learning the names of every State in America without knowing anything else about them.

3. Meaningful learning: You have new knowledge, and you know how it is connected to everything else you already know. E.g., you learn the names of all the states, alongside knowing how and when each was incorporated. This then ties into other, more abstract knowledge you have or will gain.

One of the benefits of mind mapping is that it helps with meaningful learning because it encourages you to make connections between new and existing knowledge. This is because you add new ideas around a central theme (which is your existing knowledge). This strengthens your depth of understanding.

3. It's a fun way of learning

Hands up! Who can remember every single word to their favorite song? This is because you're enjoying what you're taking in, which is new, novel, and fun. When you're enjoying something, you're more deeply invested in it - and that promotes deeper learning.

Another of the benefits of mind mapping is that it helps to create that meaningful engagement. While creating your map, you don't just read information - you generate ideas, arrange them on a page, add colors and images, review and link concepts. It's far more engaging than just writing out words or listening to a lecture.

4. It makes complex ideas easier to understand

Mind mapping's popularity is a testament to its effectiveness. They're often used for strategic planning - something that's complex and involves lots of parts - because they work. In fact, one study found that mind mapping helped students plan their essays and projects more effectively, improving the quality, structure, and coherence of their written work.

5. It improves your presenting

Mind maps improve your ability to recall information, which is a bonus when it comes to presenting work. Challenging questions are much easier to answer when the information is deeply embedded.

Mind maps also help your audience. Multiple studies have found that pairing words with images helps bring concepts to life and aid understanding, which helps you get your point across more effectively and make it easier for your audience to take in information. Another study found that presenters who used visual language were seen as being clearer, more interesting, more credible, and more professional by their audience than those who didn't.

6. It boosts your creativity

Mind mapping helps you draw links between ideas, which in turn can help with lateral thinking - a key part of creativity. Rather than working from A-B in a linear fashion, you can jump about and connect thoughts without getting sucked into linear thinking.

7. It improves productivity

Mind mapping makes it easier to learn faster, brainstorm faster, and communicate more effectively. These are all vital skills to have in the business world: being able to do all of the above more efficiently saves you time and improves the quality of your work. In fact, according to a survey by the Mind Mapping Software Blog, mind mapping can boost productivity by an average of 23 percent.

8. It's flexible

Mind maps are versatile tools that can help with a variety of things - from study and concepting, to project planning and brainstorming. Here are some of the scenarios in which a mind map could help:

Students can use them to help them revise

Project managers can use them to help present their ideas to the team

Marketers can use them to help them create content calendars

Content creators can use them to help them come up with ideas

Consultants can use them to help visualize their clients' situations

Event planners can use them to help organize the different aspects of an event

Salespeople can use them to help them pitch ideas

Final thoughts

Whether you're a manager planning your next big project, or a marketer creating content ideas for a client, we highly recommend making them a core part of your learning and brainstorming method toolkit.

We also recommend using diagramming tools to save time. With Cacoo, you can grab a mind map template, then populate with words, shapes, colors, images, edit, and share with the click of a button - without having to battle MS Word formatting or worry about making a mistake. Plus, because it's created on the cloud, you can invite others on your team to log in, view the doc, and add their own thoughts and comments in real-time, making the whole process that little bit more collaborative.
Want to get started with mind mapping? Check out our guide to mind maps, or dive straight in with a template created in Cacoo!
Collaborate on ideas to align your team's vision in Cacoo

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8 science-backed benefits of mind mapping | Cacoo

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In 1974, educator and TV personality Tony Buzan appeared on an episode of the BBC's TV Series Use Your Head to present a new type of diagram: a colorful tree-like structure, with words spreading out radially from the central idea.

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Sabba Khan Portrays a hugely detailed yet methodical approach to mind mapping her research, categorising key themes and branching further off of those. This is a method in which I feel I need to take more consideration of within projects, instead of impulsively jumping head first into narrative. Encapsulating all of your ideas beforehand and presenting them clearly allows the mind to connect ideas and visualise better.

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Sabba Khan put on a very captivating and inspiring lecture about her experience in research and forming narrative in order to aid her journey through her graphic novel work.

I was very inspired by the extent of the research, looking into physical maps and the politics surrounding it, even down to the map's artist. Khan is very keen on visualising subjects in abstract forms. For example the five rivers; "What else has five things?" It is very important to pose questions to yourself whilst researching, even in abstract form. In a creative setting you have the ability to cross boundaries and visualise issues in an abstract way. I have 5 senses, touch, hearing, taste, smell and sight. Relating things back to the human body is a great way of processing narrative in a sensory way.

Photographic references are also highly important, which will be as of great importance to me and my pathway through film. Especially works of historic and non-fiction nature, such as Khan's work, it is most important to have those references to maintain authenticity and understand the environment. She goes to the extent of using google maps to survey landscapes, using family photos and even artworks to aid her visually. Reflecting on my own personal work, I know that this is an area I must concentrate on. Instead of picking what looks good and making sporadic decisions, choosing items and colours with purpose, inspiration and intention will help my work aid the narrative better. Through my painting work, I enjoy the idea of relating issues back to the human body. As mentioned before in terms of Bacon's obsession with physicality and making things "human", I am greatly inspired to delve deeper into our physical human relationship with art.

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I researched further into other's interpretations of the exhibition as to see whether I had shared the same emotive experience.
"Francis Bacon’s art is a physical experience. It assaults you, it leers off the walls at you. Every figure in this exhibition is twisted and contorted, every face is screaming, every orifice is bleeding. It’s claustrophobic, violent, and properly overpowering. And it’s totally brilliant"
The verb "assault" perfectly encapsulates the power of Bacon's pieces. They don't just stand there aesthetically, but draws you into a physical experience.

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Francis Bacon: Study for Bullfight No. 1

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Francis Bacon: Study for Bullfight No. 1

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This is my favourite piece from the exhibition, a depiction of a bullfight in which the human figure merges with that of the bull, becoming almost inextinguishable with one another. The voice of colour and shape suggest a surreal landscape, the bright orange and pink contrasting with the bloody affair, although bull fighting being a very real and physical activity.

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I visited the Man and Beast exhibition at the Royal Academy of arts to assist in my visual inspiration and learning. I have long been a fan of Bacon and his highly emotive pieces. Before the exhibition I was fond of his work but after visiting, `I felt much closer and in touch with his pieces. His story was much more dark and extraordinary than I had anticipated. Being an openly gay man banished by his family at 16, this undoubtedly shaped his experiences and perspectives on life. It made me reflect on my own experiences and how I could channel those parts into my future work. Each individuals experiences moulds their art, similar to the likes of Belfast.
Bacon had a fascination with animals, flesh and the human body. Within this exhibition, the pieces blended both beast and man, making the subject unidentifiable as being predator or prey, allowing you to think further as to the possible similarities and differences that exist between them. Presenting man as bestial and fleshy, with abstract expressive mark making and horrifying gore, we see man through Bacons perspective, a mirror reflection of the horrifying attributes of humanity. This was hugely inspirational to me as the criticism of society and human politics is something that concerns me and I strive to make my own artwork meaningful in this way. To me, art is nothing without purpose, at least my own artwork. The blending of two "opposing" forces and perceiving them as one allows one to view them as a whole, something that is very powerful and thought provoking. In terms of film production, this exhibition has made me consider purpose in shape and texture, colours also. I am hugely inspired by the way in which he draws his subjects in an invisible box, entrapping the beasts as if the viewer were merely at a zoo, observing the foul creatures. This idea of space and entrapment; experimenting with frames inside frames is a very exciting concept which I can explore further with production design and cinematography. We tend to view 2d art and film as two separate entities, but it is important to note that this is not always the case. Perceiving a framed artwork is much like moving images, or at least it can achieve the same effect if not more, with the power of sound and movement. Seeing film as a piece of art opens the mid to endless possibilities of colour, texture and movement.

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Francis Bacon: Man and Beast | Exhibition | Royal Academy of Arts

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Explore Francis Bacon’s profound and moving paintings, where the line between human and animal is constantly blurred, reminding us that our primal instincts lie just below the surface.

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Production designer, Jim Clay, explains how he got into the mindset of Branagh back during the troubles, taking his memories and experiences and translating this into the set decor. Clay explains the importance of class and financial hierarchy when designing sets. An interesting quote from clay concerns the lack of decor, something that I had mentioned was a downfall in terms of production design. Clay's explanation for this was that Branagh had no money for decorative objects; everything around the house had a functioning purpose. I am glad that I researched further into this in order to fully understand the thought process and decision making within the set design choices. This will benefit me in my future projects in terms of understanding context and character, and translating this onto the screen through objects chosen with purpose.

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Focus Features

For , writer/director Kenneth Branagh was inspired by having grown up in the title city during the 1960s, the start of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. The moving story focuses on Buddy ( Jude Hill), a nine-year-old whose happy life of going to the cinema, hanging out with his Granny ( Judi Dench) and Pop ( Ciarán Hinds), and helping his Ma ( Caitríona Balfe) while his Pa ( Jamie Dornan) works abroad in England, is suddenly interrupted by the world outside. To recreate a 1960s Belfast resonant with filmmaker's memories, Branagh turned to production designer Jim Clay. Having worked with Branagh on Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, Clay understood how to evoke a former time and specific mood with production design. "The period is eloquently evoked," states The Hollywood Reporter, "by production designer Jim Clay." With award season just beginning, Clay's lyrical work is already getting recognized. Last week, British Independent Film Award nominated his work on Belfast for Best Production Design.

We spoke with Clay about Branagh's vision, working in black and white, and why the film touched him personally.

What did you think when Kenneth Branagh showed you the screenplay for Belfast?

I immediately connected with the story because I was brought up in a similar way - not in Belfast but in working-class northern England. I lived on similar streets to the one in the movie so the world was familiar.

Did Branagh give you any specific creative direction in terms of production design?

To get a sense of the film, Ken, Haris Zambarloukos, and I, along with our first AD Martin Curry, spent a weekend in Belfast. We walked the streets in which Ken was brought up and just talked. He told us all about his childhood. That was our creative brief. Although Ken's childhood house didn't exist anymore, the streets were still there in the same formation - just with new buildings. We walked the streets he would have taken to his school and then afterwards to his grandmother's place. Ken pointed out how there used to be a fish and chips shop on that corner and around from that was a grocery store. It was like a live 3-D brief.

What do you hope audiences take away from the film?

I feel that it is such a courageous movie Ken in that it's one that comes from his heart. And it touches the heart of everyone who sees it. I feel that there is a time when you can settle comfortably in your life and look back. I feel that Belfast does that by letting us see the world a little more clearly. We look back in time and cherish those who nurtured us and made us the people we are. That's what I took away. Also, it feels like that this movie is very timely because of Covid. So many are suffering the loss of people they've lost, and Belfast feels so relevant to that.
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Belfast Brings Kenneth Branagh's Memories To Life

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Focus Features For , writer/director Kenneth Branagh was inspired by having grown up in the title city during the 1960s, the start of The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

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Zambarloukous, Belfast Cinematographer, explains his choices in cinematography. As previously mentioned, I was unsure of the art-house clean nature of the shots as I felt they were quite flat and chosen for the motivation of being "art-house". However from researching into Zambarloukous' interviews, his choices actually push the narrative and perspective of the protagonist, Buddy. Being a young boy, he views the world with clarity and sharpness, but also simplicity. The lack of set decor boosts this idea. Though the film was converted to black and white, the use of lighting and tone gives each shot a naturalistic look. The film is not grainy nor shot on film, but yet is black and white and crystal clear, alluding to the idea that Branagh wants this to feel like a memory that is being relived in the present, and not in the distant past.
I have come to the conclusion that I really appreciate this style of storytelling. The black and white grade will definitely inspire me through future film making, especially with its ability to draw attention to the actors and performance. From a perspective of production design, in which my skillsets lay, the importance of the synergy between cinematography and production design is very clear through watching this film. A more cluttered lived-in style of PD would have simultaneously cluttered the tones of greys. Also, looking at the set decor from the perspective of the protagonist is key; getting into their character and how THEY would see the world is so important to the character of the set. Sometimes the set decor will not be quirky and cluttered, but minimal. And that is sometimes for the best of the film. I will take this knowledge into my further production deign experiences.

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The past is rarely black-and-white. But in , it is.

The highly personal film from writer-director Kenneth Branagh follows 9-year-old Buddy (Jude Hill) as his family grapples with the onset of the nationalist conflict known as the Troubles in Northern Ireland. As Ma ( Caitriona Balfe) and Pa ( Jamie Dornan) debate what is best for their family's future, Buddy tries to make sense of the shifting world.

The moment cinematographer Haris Zambarloukous read Branagh's script, he pictured depicting the script's view of the past in black-and-white (though there are a few contemporary and fantasy sequences in color). The two have collaborated on films together for over a decade now and shared a fondness for shades of grey in their work.

"We decided on it together in a way," Zambarloukous tells EW. "We have worked in black and white in the past - sections of our films have had black and white. Death on the Nile starts in black and white, the first 10 minutes. So, it was a language we knew well, and our mutual love of black and white is for similar reasons. So when I read it, I did suggest to Ken that straight away, one of the first things we talked about was, 'Should we do the contemporary part in color, and [the past in] black and white?' He was like, 'I've been thinking the same things too.'"

From there, they worked together to create a palette that feels a blend of glossy Old Hollywood glamour and kitchen sink realism, all accomplished on a low budget, quick shoot nestled between COVID lockdowns in the U.K. in summer 2020.

With already many critics' associations award nominations to his credit, Zambarloukous is poised to get some Oscar attention. But before he dives into the whirlwind of award season, we called him up to discuss the creative choice and how Belfast differs from a wide range of awards bait shot in black-and-white this season.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why was it important to Branagh to shoot this in black and white?
HARIS ZAMBARLOUKOUS: We were both thinking in similar ways. One of the things that I love about black and white, and I know Ken likes this as well, is in our filmmaking, we always try to remove any distractions. We try to minimize movement. We try to minimize the set dressing, and really have you focus in on the performances and the actors. Of all the things that black and white does, it amplifies the emotion that's there and it seems to be a more lucid, more direct way of feeling what the actors are feeling. It's less descriptive than color. You don't get as much information, but you gain something else. In particular with great performances - you can't add an emotion when it's not there - but when it's there, it seems to be a very immersive way of capturing emotion.
Was there a specific emotional tone or mood you wanted to go for in contrast to other ways to utilize black and white?
We certainly wanted to be a slightly more glossy black and white. It had to be really clear. I don't think a 10-year-old child sees things grainy. They have quite a clean view of the world. So that was one thing we wanted to do. In terms of the technical aspect of it, it was definitely large format, very clean photography. You feel every freckle and every detail. Ken calls it forensic photography, and that's a very good word for it. We wanted a really wide scope of where our blackest black and our whitest white was to have every bit of gray in between that. We'd really work with the skies and how we could darken those, or how we could pop the faces that teeny bit. That was definitely something I learned from watching and reading kind of about Joseph Walker, who was [director Frank] Capra's cinematographer. He always had a way of giving people a third of a stop extra brightness just to make them pop a little bit. So, we stayed within naturalism, but we wanted to add something magical in that too.
It's very well cataloged that this is inspired by Ken's childhood. Did you look at a lot of photographs or images from his own childhood and how much did those influence the look of things?
I didn't look at photographs, but we literally walked the streets. We walked; we cycled; we went to Belfast; we stood where he would stand. We really took that in, and it was a moving experience. It's not your typical location scouting. This was our eighth film. We're open with each other and share our past together, but there's something about when someone opens up about their past or something that had an impact on their life and is candid and is open that always leaves you a little vulnerable. But it also opens up to the other person, that gateway of conversation and engagement where you also share your past and what has impacted your life. So there was the filmmaking aspect of this, but there was also candid conversation about what's important in life and why am I who I am.
You mentioned this glossy effect, and that really felt like Old Hollywood to me. A lot of the film shows us how Buddy processes things through cinema. So was that also intentional and part of why you chose that look?
It certainly was. We've had to do a more classic Hollywood look on some of our films. So, what I was curious to try and do is to take very naturalistic lighting, almost no lighting, almost like a Days of Heaven approach, and create our contrast and our lighting through our placement within a space. If I wanted someone brighter, we would talk about this with Ken and we just staged things closer to a window. It really was naturalistic lighting. It is not a usual approach. You would usually say, "Let's place them where we want to. And then let's use artificial lighting to create the tone and the contrast." Old Hollywood films were lit with artificial light. What we wanted to do is try and recreate that look using naturalistic lighting and available light. That was a dance between me, Ken and the actors and the placement; that it would all be symbiotic.
At times, the film can feel almost like a news reel - in the market riot, for example. And then other times, it's much more romantic and nostalgic. Were there certain things you were doing to help us distinguish those moments?
The biggest thing that we did was be really still in those key dramatic moments, the emotional moments. You let shots go longer, let natural light play a part. If it was a cloudy day or a day where the clouds would go in and out and that had an effect, we'd let that fluctuation of light play. And we would keep long shots and slightly wider shots. We felt that by doing that, we earned the kinetic shots, the riots, et cetera. You have to exaggerate things in order to make an Irish film in a way, where you got to celebrate the joy and the victory. You really mourn the losses. Once that mourning has really taken place, you've got to have a kinetic dance. It was those kinds of emotions and that celebration of life that we used as an influence to how we would shoot a scene, and when we'd be intimate, when we would be silent, when we'd listen, and when we would be kinetic.
Did you shoot on black and white film stock or convert it in post?
We did shoot digitally, and it's our first digital film. There is a reason I prefer capturing in color, and it's to do with how effective I can be in the color correction process. I can key into certain colors, for example, a blue sky, and assign a tonality to it, a level of gray. I can actually key a face that has a little bit of red in it, which all faces have, and make it a little brighter, a little darker. If I had do this with black and white film, it would be a very, very lengthy process where you'd literally have to rotoscope around areas and change the tonality. This makes it much quicker. And we had limited resources, limited time. The only advantage I see in capturing in black and white is if you don't want someone to change it, which we didn't have that issue.
You also have these moments that are these bursts of color. Were those something Ken had in the script? And how did you decide where to place those and what you wanted them to signify?
Those were completely Ken's ideas. He thought that that was quite a unique way of doing things, and that that really was from his imagination. He always felt that he escaped in these films and that movie-going was a burst of color in his life. He wanted to infuse that in the black and white and make it specific to the film that he was watching.
You also have an extraordinary depth of field, especially shooting with a lot of natural light, as in a shot where Buddy is looking out a window and Ma and Granny (Judi Dench) are in focus in the background. Was that something that you wanted throughout, or how did you decide where to utilize it?
That was certainly something we thought about from early on and we wanted to use wider lenses closer. But we could have not done that if it wasn't for Jim Clay's [production] design. Jim Clay built sets designed for us to do that, where we could stack things up. Ken was always talking about that military presence that was just everywhere in Belfast at the time - a beautiful contrast of everyday life going on while a military presence is scattered through. The way that Jim's sets were made, he would allow that. We had very limited sets, but within those sets, you could look out into the alleyway and therefore, you could place a soldier walking in the alleyway behind the homes. You could do a scene in the backyard, but they were specifically made to look into the living room so that you could have another thing going on in the living room.
It reminds me a lot of Gregg Toland's work. Was that a touchstone?
Yes. You don't need to go too far in your lenses either. There's a clarity to it and there's a silence to it. It's also a way to not do too much. When you go with too long a lens and no depth of field, you're almost imposing something on the film. You're forcing where and how people look. We found a minimalism and a clarity, but at the same time, we allowed things to happen. Certainly, Gregg Toland was a master of that, as was Arthur Miller in a film like, How Green Was My Valley. There's quite a few films that I've loved that play with the frame. And I wouldn't just call it depth of field. It's a depth of field in both the blocking and the production design. I could have had all the depth of field in terms of focus, but if we never placed people there or action there, it would've never been seen.
Westerns and High Noon and Shane, and those sorts of films come into the action a lot. Were you using any of those as an influence?
All the films you see in the film were references. A Belfast street, a terrace street, is quite similar to a Western street. It was easily juxtaposed, but those streets are very much like that. They had an end to them and they were terraced and quite symmetrical. We certainly wanted to echo [those films], but it's something that you actually see in Belfast. Those influences fell naturally into the film because we allowed enough elements to exist that you could do it effortlessly.
This year has a really astonishing number of films in black and white. There's Belfast and The Tragedy of Macbeth and Passing and C'mon C'mon and probably more I'm not naming. Why do you think it's so popular it right now?
It's finally getting the regard it should have. Because we did this after lockdown as a personal film and we felt that we could make this the way we wish to make it, we were given the courage to just enjoy the moment and the opportunity and make the most of it. For us, this was a moment to do something in an uncompromised fashion in the way we thought would best tell the story. In terms of as a global thing, I do think that in photography, black and white has never stopped. Portrait is always best in black and white. I wouldn't say that now you see less black and white photography in print, in magazines, in billboards. Motion pictures always had the option once color was introduced. The filmmaker chose and slowly, that seemed to go away. I would say, when you look at all these amazing films, they're all very different aspects of black and white. I wouldn't say that they look in any way similar. They look as different as the many color films that were made this year.
Do you think that there is a possible pitfall for it to become like a parlor trick or a trend in some way, and how do you avoid that?
At the end of the day, the biggest issue with most films is what's the story and what's the performance? If you try to stay true to the story and try to stay true to the performance, then the way you tell it is your individual take on it. Two filmmakers could make the same script in black and white and it would come out so different. I was grateful for this opportunity to shoot something with a majority of it being in black and white. You take that opportunity and make the most of it. And you never know what the next project will be.
A version of this story appears in the February issue of Entertainment Weekly, on newsstands Friday and available to order here. Don't forget to subscribe for more exclusive interviews and photos, only in EW. Check out more from EW's The Awardist, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best films.

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Belfast cinematographer breaks down the ways black-and-white gives the film clarity and naturalism

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The past is rarely black-and-white. But in , it is. The highly personal film from writer-director Kenneth Branagh follows 9-year-old Buddy (Jude Hill) as his family grapples with the onset of the nationalist conflict known as the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

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During  R&D week, I decided to visit the cinema to watch Belfast, Directed by Kenneth Branagh. The film portrays the conflict between the catholic and protestant church in the late 1960s, from the perspective of a young boy named Buddy and his family. The film depicts the somewhat peaceful nature of a village in which encompasses both churches whom live harmoniously until the ultimate conflict. I wanted to see this film as I was very interested in its depiction of the event, whilst also holding a strong narrative and picturesque cinematography.

Whilst watching the film, I felt the cinematography and black and white nature was very captivating and beautiful, but made the film seem more rose-tinted in its portrayal of the disturbing bing events. Whether that be due to the perspective of a young child or a bold directors visual choice, I felt it lacked the rawness and horror that would have elevated the emotional scape of the film. Narrative-wise, it felt quite safe and unambitious. I feel as if the director wanted to keep the film somewhat lighthearted and nostalgic in order to reach and captivate a nostalgic audience; those who lived through this era and event. This lead me to believe that perhaps I was not the intended audience.