Lighting - spotlight

In my storyboard for the doctor's office scene, I suggested a shot in which the ambient light of the room is replaced with a spotlight-type effect to literally make it look as though Gary has been 'put on the spot' by the doctor as he imagines hearing bad news from him.

I took influence for this idea from Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in which this technique is used frequently to differentiate between 'reality' and the character Joel's dream-world as he relives memories.

 I only realised after including the idea in my storyboard for the scene that my favourite example of this technique in Eternal Sunshine... is in fact in a doctor's office as Joel revisits the office in his dream-world:

The effect in the film is to create an unsettling, unreal feeling, which is particularly effective as a light is attached to the camera, meaning the 'spotlight' only covers a portion of the frame, leaving the rest of the scene whenever it isn't in the centre of the frame to fade into nothingness.