Planning Cinematography - Miss Miller

It is important to use cinematography within a film sequence because it helps to portray different atmospheres and emotions and manipulates the mood of the audience.It also portrays the dominance and status of characters, giving the audience ideas about the narrative.  Planning is required in order to produce excellent sequence because it allows yo u to think about the objects and characters or facial expressions that are focused on or emphasised in a shot that can give the audience information about the narrative or help them build a relationship with the characters. Thinking about different subjects to focus on gives you a basic guideline to follow as you create your sequence. It helps you think about all possible cinematography techniques to use and therefore allows you to use as many as possible.This is what my group have done; we discussed ideas for cinematography which allowed us to all visualise the sequence similarly.

As a group, we plan to use a variety of camera angles, shots and movements. I will aim to use a high angle shot by positioning the camera above the subject, making them appear smaller. The shot will take place in an isolated setting; the victim is tied up in a dim room in an abandoned house that is in the middle of a forest with seemingly no one else around. .I will use this shot when the victim is tied up in the abandoned house because I hope this will highlight the vulnerability and inferiority of the victim. This helps the audience to build a relationship with her as they imagine themselves in her position and how they would feel. Because of this they feel empathy for the character. This convention shows her as a possible victim because she is alone. This makes both the character and audience wonder what will happen next.                                                                                                   This is conventional to a thriller film because it exposes the vulnerability of the character and focuses on her as a potential victim which engages the audience as they want to see what will happen next. An isolated setting is a typical convention of a thriller film because victims are usually isolated before something bad happens as this means there is no one around to help. This makes the audience feel alone and frightened like they expect the character to be feeling. They have put themselves in her point of view because they build a relationship with the character and feel worried about her. The audience also feel uncertain and expecting of something bad to happen.

High Angle Camera Shot

I will also use a low angle shot which is the opposite to a high angle shot as the camera is positioned below the subject, making it appear bigger so the camera shot also has the opposite effect on the sequence to a high angle shot. This shot will be used when the antagonist is looking over the victim at the end of the chase scene. I hope this will portray dominance and confidence as it is suggested he has done this before so knows what he is doing and so the audience understands the victim will inevitably be captured by him. The viewer will build a relationship with the victim from this angle as they will share her emotions, such as fear and anxiety. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it creates suspense by focusing on him as a potential killer to keep the audience engaged. Another reason the audience is engaged is because they do not know what will happen next. It also makes the audience feel as though they are a part of the scene and therefore share emotions of the characters ad fell as if it is happening to them which allows them to build stronger relationships with both characters.

Low Angle Camera Shot

My group initially planned to use the panning technique as a camera movement in our opening thriller sequence to reveal the interior of the house and show several different iconography items and aspects of the setting that suggest ideas about the narrative. However, panning is when the camera moves from steadily side to side to follow a moving object and we did not plan to have a moving object in this scene so we decided to use steadicam instead as the camera still remains perfectly level and steady as it moves around but it does not need to follow a specific object. Hopefully this will portray how rough the conditions are, asking the question why would the man live there. As well as giving the audience an idea of what the storyline will entail and some aspects of the antagonists background story.  This will help the audience build a relationship with the victims because they feel sympathetic as they now see the conditions that they are being kept in. A relationship is also built with the antagonist because elements of his background story re revealed and so the audience may feel empathetic towards him. This is conventional to a thriller as it explains the story line to the audience and because no characters are shown in this shot, the audience feels as though they are there and looking around the house themselves. Enigma is connoted because the audience wonder why a man would live in these conditions and why his is killing people.

These images are all taken from the opening sequence of American Horror Story



  

Another camera movement technique we have decided to use is Handheld which is used to create jerky and unsteady images. This technique will be used when the victim is running through the forest in the chase scene. This can also be seen as a point of view angle as we will create the shot so that the audience sees what the victim sees as she runs. I hope this will portray a sense of chaos and urgency which is conventional to a thriller film because it procokes panic and uncertainty in the viewer.This camera technique will also focus on the fear of the victim and her want to escape. We will accompany this technique with sound effects that will further increase the feelings of fear, panic, chaos and uncertainty. We will use sounds such as a beating heart, heavy footsteps and ragged breathing. This is typical of a thriller film because it creates suspense and tension as the audience wonders whether or not the victim will escape. They will also be hoping that she does escape which helps them to build a realtionship with her because the point of view angle allows them to put themselves in her point of view and therefore feel empathic towards her.   

Handheld Camera Movement

Next we decided that an extreme close-up will be effectve to use once the victim has fallen down in the forest and the antagonist drags her backwards. An extreme close up is when an image fills the screen so no background is seen. The camera will focus on her facial expressions before she is dragged backwards. This will empahsise on her fear which allows the audience to realte because both them and the character wonder if the anagonist will find her. This creates suspense and keeps the viewer engaged as they do no know what will happen next. The victim is exposed as vulnerable with makes the audience feel sympathetic.

   As the victim is dragged backwards, shock will be provoked in the audience which is conventional to a thriller film as well as the fact that the audience will feel helpless as they now have an idea of what will happen next as it is conventional of a thriller film for the antagonist to take the victim by surprise before they are attacked or killed.

Extreme Close Up Camera Position

The last cinematography technique we discussed was shallow focus. This is used to show a main subject in full focus whilst the rest of the shot is out of focus and blurry. We will this technique near the start of our sequence when the antagonists polaroid pictures are pinned on the wall and the camera sans over them. It will then focus in on the last image (of his next victim who is tied up in the house) and everything else will become unfocused. Hopefully, this will portay that ye victim is his next focus and that the others he killed are no longer important to him. They are just a blur in his mind and he is umpased by the amount of innconet people he has killed. This shows that the antagonist is not symapthatic or affected by his murders like most others would be and that he is psychologically damaged because of this.                                                                                             This part of the sequence will allow the audience to build a relationship with the antagonist as they can see what he would be seeing. It also allows them to see into his head and understand what he is thinking. From the pictues they can see he has killed previously and is therfore a serial killer, they understand killng does not effect him negetively like it would do to others and they understand that he is about to kill again as he focuses on the lasty picture of his next victim. The audience knows that once he has killed her, he will move on again and his focus will be on his knew victim. He will keep doing this until he stops which makes the audience ownder if he ever will be stopped, keepinmg them engaged and wanting them to watch the entire film. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it provies a clear narrative of what the antagonist is thinking and aiming to do. The audience know that the victim is going to die before she, herself knows.

Shallow Focus Camera Position

I think my sequence will be more effective through the use of cinematography because it can create several effects on the audience by empahsising on a subject or manipulating how it is presented in a shot. Planning each cinematograhy technique out like this, allowed my group to have a clear image of what our final opening sequence will look like.  It is conventional in relations to the thriller genre because one main aim of cinematography is to provoke shock, suspense and surprise in the audience as well as building tension and making them jump. It also places character representations, empasisesd different atmospheres and emotions and creates enigma around a scene to engage the audience.  I found this planning helpful in preparation for filming because it allowed my group to put all of our ideas together and produce a structure for our thriller sequence.