Planing Cinematography-MIss Miller

Planning Cinematography
12-12-13
Vasil Nikolov

Cinematography is important in thriller films as it creates an atmosphere for the audience and creates emotion throughout the viewing of the film. For every scenario, we discussed the different camera angles we can use within it. This helps us create a relationship with the audience building tension within the film. Camera angles are also important because they create suspense, shock and surprise for the audience as they might slow down the pace of the film or suddenly change the atmosphere. Planning is required to produce excellent sequences because without planning it is easy for us to go off track and lose sense of what our plan actually is within out thriller. The plan for our cinematography is critical so that it makes our scenes more interesting and effective making and inspiration a reality.

In our group we looked at many different camera angles and analysed whether they would work well in creating shock, surprise and suspense in our thriller. There were a few shots that stood out in creating these things, they were

• Close up
• Long shot
• High angle
• Low angle
• Point of view

We will use these shots in our opening sequence as we believe they create an emotional atmosphere and engage the audience into our thriller.

We will use the point of view shot in our piece as it engages the audience into the scene. This is because this shot puts the audience in the characters position as they can see what the character is seeing. We will specifically use this shot when the killer is entering the couples house and takes a knife from the draw, the shot makes the audience feel as if they are the killer as they can see what he sees which creates a relationship with the audience as they believe they are in the killers shoes adding suspense as they feel guilty for what the killer is about to do. This shot will also make the audience sympathise with the wife's situation as she is about to get killed and the audience can see it from the killers POV so they feel like they are guilty for whats going to happen. We hope this shot will create shock and surprise for the audience through the fact they don't know who the killer is and that he has taken a knife from the drawer. This would be conventional to a thriller as if it creates suspense and tension for the audience as directors like to make their audiencee feel both of these elements. 

Another camera angle we will use is a close up shot. This is because these shots focus on a characters facial expression and body language, this would be good in our thriller as throughout our thriller the characters will be frightened so close ups would show there un settled facial expression in great detail. This will create tension and suspense as the audience will not know what he character has seen but know that it is something to be scared of. We have used this angle when the women opens her bedroom door to the killer standing broad and intimidatingly at the door. This angle is effective as you can make the emotions from the characters create a relationship with the audience, from changing to sympathy and regret, to suspense and dread of what is going to happen next. This is conventional to the thriller genre as the facial expressions focused on are ones used every day which creates a sense of reality in the audience.

We have also used a high angle shot in our opening sequence when the killer is in the loft and looking down on the husband. We have used this as it shows the superiority of the killer and the inferiority of the man who's life may about to end. This creates suspense and tension because the audience are wondering who is looking down on the man and why they are in the attic. This creates a relationship between the audience and the husband as they feel sympathetic for him as they know that he is about to killed and they will feel helpless. We want this angle to make sure the characters are portrayed as vulnerable so that the audience feel sympathy for them making them create a relationship with the characters themselves. This is conventional to the thriller genre as many thriller directors use a high angle to shot to portray the inferiority of a character who is in danger from a murderer.

Using different camera angles will create many different emotions throughout our clip which is just what we want to do. These emotions will get more and more tense as the film progresses until the end of the clip where we leave them in suspense as to what will happen next. I believe that us planning what camera shots to do will help us do this as we can take the positives and negatives for each one and use the ones we think are the best at creating shock, surprise and suspense.this has also helped us with the preparation for the filming as it has broken down all of the elements we need to make out thriller more intensifying and scary and also means we know what to do instead of on filming day thinking about what shot we should use.