Lighting

The lighting increases the emotional depth in this movie intro.

In the opening scenes, where the bully wakes up and gets ready for school, we can use dim lighting. By using this, it represents his internal struggle. We can include soft light shining through the curtains in his room, contrasting with the dark lighting in his room. This represents how he is in real life, tough on the outside, but soft on the inside. We could also use lighting to focus on the bruises on his arm, showing the audience a small, but very important detail. With the POV shot of him driving to school, it could be more dim, as the sun could be covered by clouds, showing his sadness.

This is something like we could go for, dark lighting, but
bright lighting from the window.

He gets to the school after, and we will use brighter lighting, copying the effects of normal hallway lights. By shifting from dark to bright lighting, it shows how much his personality really changes. There is no darkness in the hallways, showing how his classmates don't know of his true pain. When he eventually arrives back home, the lighting goes back to being dark, but a little lighter, has his public persona is wearing off. The final cut to black after the door swings open cuts to black, leaving the audience shocked and uncertain.

This use of lighting really shows how no one is aware of the bully's true pain, and the bright light symbolizes his "true self" leaking through.