At the beginning of American Beauty, the setting is portraited as an ugly shot in a dark, ugly room a kind of visual manifestation of Lester, the main character’s, unease and discontent. At work, he is stuck in a boring and meaningless job writing for a media magazine. In these scenes, Lester is not very happy with his job, to him, it is like a prison. In the first shot, Lester is meeting with Brad, his company's new efficiency expert. Brad is telling him that his work is not up to standard and that his job is at risk. What's interesting here is how differently the two men are presented. On the topic of lighting, its showcased as low key, the room itself is ugly, undecorated and very dull and grey. Lester is first seen with an Offscreen space when talking to Brad, outside of the frame. Brad is shown in the next scene, as blocking, occupying a large portion of the frame, emphasizing his position of power. Visually, Brad is presented as being dominant in a high key lighting. Brad’s desk is large, has a brightly shining nameplate, gold pens, the picture and its frame, the Venetian blinds. Almost everything is straight edges, angles, and points. Everything is hard, sharp, threatening. The main purpose of this scene was to emphasize Brad's dominance over Lester, the soul-destroying nature of their workplace and Lester's hopelessness and vulnerability.
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