A look at: Moonlight's Visual Direction

Moonlight 

Study Painting by Myself

Moonlight's narrative focus on character is translated in the film's cinematography through the focus on the face of the camera's subjects. A low depth of field is also used to draw attention exclusively to the foreground subject.

In my own study (above) I aimed to replicate the emotive nature of the scene - emulating the director of cinematography's approach to the scene - centring 'little' in the wide aspect shot leaves him 'separated' from his environment, it pulls the narrative away from where he is and instead toward his continence and emotive state.

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Raw vs Colour Graded Moonlight Stills

Grading is key to moonlight's aesthetic - driving a large amount of visual depth into undramatically lit, overall de-saturated raw shots. The beauty of the film's cinematography is its ability to create intense drama and emotion where it is easily overlooked. Grading is key to this drama but composition, for instance, a still camera helps to drive this 'focus' consistent throughout the film's framing.

Dunkirk
On the Beaches Still

Dunkirk utilises such framing techniques to create emotive and tense scenes. The film's narrative is keen to describe the raw emotion experience by the allied combatants at Dunkirk. The films erratic camera cuts, contrasting to Moonlight, describe how the experience of the focal characters is one shared by many and their hardship isn't unique. Moonlight, instead reduces surrounding characters and environmental features to background space with framing and depth of field - to highlight Little's loneliness and sense of rejection toward his environment.