Last Updated: February 15th, 2020

One of the recurring themes of things we have read many photography blogs seem to lack is useful information regarding the artistic side of things – in particularly narrowing in on what identifies a good composition, and what types of things a photographers set of eyes might be looking for that your average person may not look at.

We have been discussing amongst ourselves some possibilities for opening up our blog to explore some of these overlooked topics, and the first way we’d like to look into this is by conducting an analysis of some scenes from movies we really love. We hope for this “photographer’s analysis” of The Fountain to be the first in this series – and for more to come in the future.

Our reason for choosing The Fountain as the first film we look at in this way for our blog is simple: we really love this movie.

What is The Fountain About?

Before we get into our analysis of the elements that photographers can value in this film, we’d like to have a small discussion about what The Fountain is about.

If we’re not thinking too deeply about things, it can be easy to ignore the simple reality that what a thing is about can dictate how we choose to photograph them. In some extreme cases, what a thing is about might also turn us away from photographing.

The Fountain sticks with us due to it’s simple story told in a fairly complex manner. In essence, the film’s story utilizes a triptych approach – with 3 timelines happening sequentially. This is convoluted intentionally, both in how these scenes intertwine with one another, and in the simple fact that the main actors play all of the roles.

Taking a page from Buddhist philosophy and the idea of reincarnation, whether these are things you believe in personally or not, in the context of the film they do wonders to convey the larger underlying motif – that is of undying love.

We’ve seen this movie quite a few times, and it’s meaning seemed to have missed it’s mark on us the first few times. It was only after repeat viewing that it really hooked into our minds, and it was at that time it became an instant classic for us.

In many scenes in the “present day” timeline, we embrace a fairly standard couple (well…as standard as Hugh Jackman being involved in the relationship can be) with maybe mundane struggles (guy works too much and so on). As the story evolves, it takes on more complexity as we are faced with ugly realities that impact most of us at one point or another. To say the film turns quite existential would be an understatement, and we’ll leave it at that to avoid spoilers for you in case you have not seen it.

Throughout the film, the stories progression is both in the present day, as well as “the past” (taking place during the Spanish Inquisition) and the distant future in some amorphic blob of a “spaceship.”

While subject to interpretation, the film goes to great lengths to reveal a nature of love that is not a finite thing, except insofar as it may be associated with the concept of Samsara. During one life cycle, one lives, breathes, dies…and repeat the process…

The Fountain displays snippets from this experience, and each extended vignette brings with it a powerful beauty that is revealing of the human condition – to love and be loved, and to overcome the fear of death (and fear of losing the ones we love), to be born again.

Much like the quantum strings you might find associated with string theory in quantum physics, “love” remains one of the few constants, even despite the evolution and changes that come with time.

At it’s core, The Fountain represents something very raw, while also quite abstract in our minds. What is being told in the story is fairly simple once you break it down and view it in three parts, however so many elements, such as the graphic displays and masterful music compositions by Clint Mansell raise it to more surrealistic heights. The real power comes in the areas where it does not tell you anything, instead opting for quiet, or sometimes a brooding tribal drum, or dissonant screeches of a orchestral quartet, or fading the imagery on screen into a serene black-and-white.

The Fountain as seen by photographers

So you may be wondering…but The Fountain is a movie…movies are film, not photographs!!

This is true. But, breaking down the most memorable films, some of the best scenes can be summarized in a single image. While cinematography and the ability to capture the movement of time with a video camera is excellent and an artistic skill in it’s own right, and some moments such as those that come to screen in the form of extended takes, can be truly fascinating to analyze in their full lengths.

For our purposes, analyzing The Fountain as photographers requires taking a step back and looking at standalone and still images from the movie. These can be quite beneficial if you are looking to learn more about photography from an artistic perspective, and we will highlight some of the elements that cause these things to stick out in our minds.

With this said, let’s highlight a couple images from The Fountain and discuss them from a photography lens:

1). The “Spaceship”

One of the most memorable parts of The Fountain is the depiction of the “space ship” floating around. It’s basically an orb the contains a man, a dying tree, and his memories.

As a photograph, this is really quite stunning. There is a reason why it’s occasionally popped up as a wallpaper on our desktop. The first thing that is immediately appealing is the color palette. It manages to be both soft and intense, while also conveying this sense that this is a thing floating around in space. Maybe drifting past some nebulae. Who knows 🙂 It’s one of the greater mysteries that humans are continuing to uncover – what sort of unseen things exist out there? The amber color tones are not exactly Earth-bound, certainly not in the ways we are seeing depicted here, and no doubt this inspires fascination.

From a compositional standpoint, the image is also quite phenomenal. The outer left edge of the orb forms leading lines to the top-and-bottom of the image frame, to which your eye follows and returns to the right side of the frame. Along with this, the image utilizes the rule of thirds quite significantly, with negative space constituting the left-most section of the frame, the protagonist of the film front-and-center (even a little closer to the camera than the other subject), and the woman and tree to the right-most section of the frame.

What pulls the image together for us is the use of shadows and highlights to both diminish parts of the scene not as necessary to the viewer, and enhance the importance of other things. In the foreground, there is a black mass (maybe dried wood or grass, or some other thing) that is almost entirely dark. It is quite interesting in itself how this only comprises the right half of the image, while the left is devoid of a foreground object – enhancing the negative space and increasing the sense that this spaceship orb is literally floating around on it’s own in space.

The highlights pull our eyes to both the man, the woman, and the tree. While it is certainly valuable to know the context of the location, the people and the specific object are the core subjects of the image. Given the greater context of the story – where these people are located are perfect to convey their feelings.

If you haven’t seen the movie, it may not be instantly clear, but much like when we photograph weddings – the images you see often require knowledge of the context for them to be better enhanced.

2). The Tree of Life

Near the end of the film, we are treated to this image of The Tree of Life. This has been a symbol depicted time-and-time again in many movies, religious texts, and tattoos of angsty college kids. It immediately has a beautiful and simple design, taking a heavy cue from what one might expect to have existed at the top of a Mayan ruin. The background landscape is a beautiful one, and parallels what we have seen ourselves from the top of the Mayan ruins of Coba when we were in Mexico.

The background regarding the Mayan civilization actually makes this image more interesting to us. The dense jungles lush with trees and a massive array of animals hide secrets – even to this day. It’s easy to imagine such an impressive fantasy totem to exist in a place like this.

As photographers, what we first notice about this image is the time the photo was captured. The early morning golden hour is one of the most beautiful, treating us to an array of natural light and color that adds drama that is impossible to replicate during high noon sun. The layers of color, shadow, highlights, and so on play into this considerably. It makes for shots like this to be far easier to achieve, without a doubt.

As with the prior image, this photo takes distinct advantage of the rule of thirds and a center-focused subject (the tree). Strong leading lines (the edges of the pool of water) draw the eye to the tree repeatedly. The pop of highlights from the sun in the center of the frame also bring your attention to it further. It signifies that something is important about this object – even if you didn’t know the context from the story.

Of course, the image is better enhanced by the inclusion of the shadowy figure in the foreground. Blink and you might have missed him, but his presence in the photo is actually significant. From the context of the story, it reveals the arrival of this person to The Tree of Life (a pretty big deal). As a compositional trick, “human-for-scale” is actually a really easy way to show the size of something to other people. Given how small he appears compared to the tree, it’s evident the tree is of greater importance. Had he been much closer to the camera, it could have been possible to convey the opposite.

3). Xibalba

In terms of visual effects, the imagery of space showcased throughout The Fountain are pretty groundbreaking. While you may be inclined to think this was just CGI, the reality is a lot cooler. If you want some background on how the visuals were created, we suggest checking out this quick documentary on The Fountain, where it is explained how these sequences began as images and video capture by a macro-photographer.

From there, other items and images were stacked to create a larger composite image. Interestingly enough, this is an extremely common technique – not just used in cinema, but even by more simple photographers like ourselves. This is an effect that is fairly easy to achieve in a program like Photoshop, and with some technical skills, capturing an in-camera double exposure is also entirely possible.

For this particular image, this is revealing a segment of the movie where the main protagonist is heading towards transcendence. In the foreground, we have the subject himself, very distinct but entirely silhouetted. His shadowy figure is very strong to our eye not just because he is front-and-center, but because his dark figure juxtaposes strongly with the backlit and much lighter circle he resides within.

The macro photography shot that comprises the background is in it’s own realm, and due to the natural fractal like forms along the sides, as well as the structured cloud-like rings that comprise the core circles within the image – it is difficult to imagine how this was really created. Using a certain mix of chemicals in a petri dish, as well as good timing and probably some luck, this is the result. A surprisingly natural and organic thing that looks like a digital art creation.

This is a simple and excellent image. If you play “Death is the Road to Awe” from the soundtrack while viewing, you will probably like it even more.

4). Conquistador

At this point, if you haven’t yet seen The Fountain, you are probably wondering…”what the heck is going on?” The involvement of Mayan myth into this story is quite interesting as we’ve discussed, and on occasion throughout we see visual representations of this.

There is a lot of interesting things going on in this still shot from the film. The choice of attire, from the simple black clothing of the individual on the right, to the more elaborate garb on the fellow on the right – as photographers this is one thing we certainly are keeping in mind. Even simple portrait shoots can be made or broken by the appropriate selection of clothing, and this is increasingly important as more people are brought into the frame that they wear clothing that works collectively.

From a post-processing side of things, it is quite interesting to see the specific aesthetic used in this scene (and frankly through much of the film), which involves a good deal of desaturation to colors that might have distracted from the image such as in the reds and blues. You can also see the introduction of a lot of warmth, with a good deal of boosted oranges emboldening the skin tones and making even the backing wall pop more.

The actual image composition is balanced, yet again taking the rule of thirds very seriously and utilizing the flaming sword to great effect to draw the viewer into the action. It functions as a leading line, taking us from the Mayan priest to the protagonist, and it contains a  lot of raw energy that you can easily read into to make a determination about what will happen next. It’s a form of foreshadowing, but only of something that comes just a few frames later.

5). Searching for Enlightenment

Despite the many excellent wide shots that stand out in The Fountain, there is also a significant emphasis on close up shots as a means to showcase emotions. There is so much that can be taken from just the look on the actors face – particularly in the eyes.

The choice to bathe the entire scene in a yellow color cast is also interesting, and while in most instances probably would not work, it functions here as you can feel how their is an influence of light coming from another source within the films world. A bright blinding light of the sun, perhaps?

The image itself is also unique compared to those we have seen thus far, in that it takes advantage of a wide aperture to highlight the man’s face. You can see the rest of his body from his shoulders and down his back appear as a blur – this is representative of the focus being placed exclusively over the eyes and face, and anything outside of this viewing plane becomes blurred as a result.

6). Closeness

This is a powerful image that is actually quite unique, as in itself we are only really treated to disembodied heads. In a sense, it is sort of creepy without the larger context, but fortunately only subtle visual queues are needed to allow us to know what is actually going on here. Or maybe they’re not so subtle…

While much of the background is basking in shadow, almost an oppressive form that covers the left of the scene, we are able to make out that this is a plain bed and natural light is emanating from a window to the right of our field of view. We can tell this based on how their faces are illuminated, and how the shadows are cast on them as well.

Unlike most images that emphasize the rule of thirds for composition, this image appears more like it is leveraging a grid with four core components roughly equally balanced within the frame. This is hugely important as it showcases the ability to break away from the standard, but still maintain image structure, even in such a simple, and maybe even less important, scene. The far left and far right components of the frame are just simple colors, while the two individuals comprise their individual, yet encroaching, spaces in the frame.

7). Awakening

Probably the least flattering still shot we could have pulled from The Fountain is also interesting to us because of it’s position within the film. Generally speaking, blown out faces in harsh white light isn’t exactly an appealing look. If a shot like this would have came up during a wedding shoot, we probably would have taken a step back and rechecked our flash settings.

What we are actually observing is the moments between this character speaking, and a fade to white leading us into another sequence. In the singular moment that this is happening, the image itself manages to convey something different than most other scenes – that there is an ethereal, maybe even angelic, occurrence at play. Few times do we see such harsh whites throughout this film, but when used sparingly, the jolt of color can serve us psychologically to force it to resonate in our memories.

This is important because, in the context of the photography we participate in, the ability to document not just a singular moment, but rather an extended period of time, is important. With wedding day photography, when a client receives a gallery of several hundred images, these are curated in such a way that by viewing them chronologically – the client can virtually play back the day in their mind. Through the curation process, we pinpoint the moments of most importance or that otherwise showcase something of importance worth remembering.

With this image, on its own it is not really that interesting, but in context it provides a lot more to consider.

8). The Maya

We saw The Tree of Life image earlier in this post, and this view provides even more for us to gawk at. You can tell the importance of a moment when it is captured from multiple perspectives. This helps further showcase the scale, and even the surreal location in this case.

At it’s core, this is an establishing shot to showcase the location where an important event will occur in the movie.

As a result, the photography tip of “filling the frame” is simple and effective, and quite easy to do in a location such as this that is dense with things to look at and a nice array of golden light colors. Most interesting to us is the juxtaposition of the tree with the ruins. Looking at the image from right-to-left, we can see the sun light is illuminating the tree (this is done intentionally as it is the most important part of the scene – and your eye is immediately drawn here first) and the image is far darker as you move to the left. The ruins themselves are important to the context, but less important than the tree. They certainly standout against the background, but much less than the well lit tree.

9). Quiet

While there is much beautiful and surreal imagery throughout The Fountain, this is actually one of the most accessibly beautiful scenes because it feels very raw and human. While the scene does serve a purpose to convey a certain sensuality, it does so tastefully and within the greater context of conveying a sense of love and longing despite an existential crisis.

The actual image is powerful in so many ways because it carries with it a sense of both intended purpose (ie: how certain items and positioned within the frame), as well as a sense that this is a naturally occurring and candid moment being captured. In the movie, we can chalk it up to some very good acting ability as these individuals have a natural chemistry with one another. In the still frame, here is what we are seeing:

At first glance, our minds are captured by the woman in the bathtub. She is illuminated softly by a video light, and is the focus of the frame. As a photographer, we would place our focus right on her face around her eyes.

Next, we observe the tub itself and how it is a quite interesting leading line that actually goes in a circle around the frame – providing much depth. The right side of the bathtub in particular leads us to the male subject in the scene, where we are stopped where both individuals hands meet. Continuing to follow this line, we return back to the foreground of the image where we can see slightly blurred foreground objects in the left of the scene – perhaps a candle or soap holder? Due to this effect, as a viewer we are given a more voyeuristic role, almost as if we are observing something we shouldn’t be.

The rule of thirds is ultimately on full display here, though it is a bit trickier as how this is broken out in three segments is actually quite interesting due to the placement of the main subjects that compose each section. On the left, we see the candle/soap holder, and this really solidifies our place as a viewer of the scene. In the middle, and receding back into the scene, the man and woman are the focus – intentionally centered to be the main focus of the shot. Lastly, on the right of the image our eyes are drawn to the pattern of light on a rainy window in the background. In the larger film context, this amorphic pattern resonates with the surrealistic “spaceship” scenes that take place in some future existence – yet in this singular moment, it acts as a simple point of color adding depth to an otherwise soft and dull color scheme.

10). Standing Before the Gates

The last scene we will look at is this one – revealing the Mayan priest as a silhouetted figure standing in the doorway of a temple. There is a lot to love here – from the use of the sun to backlight the subject, with the exposure set to capture the ambient light resulting in the person being shrouded in shadow. This is certainly something done intentionally, and in truth as a photographer, with the appropriate flash setup, one could use high speed sync (HSS) to expose for both the individual and the background together.

Yet, that would make a far less compelling shot. There is a certain drama that comes from the silhouette, and an uncertainty of who this person is. The stark illumination by the sun works to the advantage of this character to give him god-like qualities.

Visually, the first thing we notice is how this character is framed by the walls and entry way very distinctly. All focus is on him because there is so little else for us to want to focus on. From there, the rest of the image is quite simply taking advantage of the rule of thirds, and using a very limited color scheme.

Final Thoughts on The Fountain

Sometimes as photographers we can be lured to think that our art needs to be complicated. Fortunately, the truth is far simpler.

Knowing some simple rules about composition, and applying it to your photography is invaluable. As you will have noticed, the rule of thirds as a compositional principal was recurring in the majority of these scenes. In the instances where this was broken, it was done so very intentionally and with a purpose.

There is so much to consider when looking at images like these, and we hope you are able to find our look at these still shots from The Fountain to be useful in helping you identify areas to look out for and consider in your own photography as an art form!!

If you have any thoughts on any of this, we’d love to hear from you in the comment section below!!