Winters Bone (Ellis Carroll Lighting-&-Setting Remix)

The film winters bone uses the setting and lighting heavily to express what the main character (Ree Dolly) is feeling at any given moment. The film takes place in the Appalachian mountains in the winter season. So with almost no effort everything is almost instantly dark and depressing. The constant heavy fog, and tall ever present pine trees help the audience identify with the way Ree feels trapped by the place she lives in. The only time the mood ever lightens is when she is with her brothers. But the only thing that really changes is that it usually gets brighter. the pine trees and the fog tend to stay. When Ree goes on the hunt for her dad who abandoned the family, something very interesting happens with the setting. Whenever she finds something terrible about her father, or whenever she gets in trouble with the people who knew him, the setting is very open and light. kind of a reversal of the normal. every time she seems to be on to something, the setting gets open and light, only to be shut down by the people who live there. this is an interesting method that i haven't seen in many other movies, and is very effective.