Research Cinematography

What is Cinenatorgraphy?
Cinematography is looking at the way the shot is framed, the angle it is taken in and the movement of teh camera. All these things give the audienence different representations of the character and allows the audienece to respond in different ways.

Camera sizes
There are many different camera sizes that can be used within film; such as:

• XLS (Extreme Long Shot)

An extreme long shot is a wider frame value in which subjects in the frame are small. Thais may also be known as an establishing shot; used to allow the audience to have a full visual of the mise en scene; often used to show scenes in thrillers such as disaters.

• LS (Long Shot) 

A long shot is where the whole subject is relitivley small enough to fit the hieght of the frame. Allows the audience to see a full length of a character and its body movement.

• MS (Mid Shot)

A mid shot is a shot that shows a character from the waist and up. The audience can see the character in abit more detail than a long shot and can start to focus on the facial expression more aswell as the body angle. In this shot the characters angry facial expression and tensed body allows me to identify the feeling of hatred towards who ever he is pointing the gun at; indecating the end of a fight scene and themes of revenge or good vs evil.

• MCU (Medium Close Up)

A medium close up is when the camera starts to focus on the facial expression of the character more. A MCU shot is useful when creating a build up of tension in a thriller. In this shot the expression of fear, worry and confusion is clear on the characters face.A MCU shot is likely to be used as a build up to a zoom into a close up or extreme close up.

• CU (Close Up)

A close up is when the subject is seen as large and the background is barely vision. It focuses on the characters face from the kneck to the top of the head or on an object in detail. This allows the audience to focuses solely on the characters facial expression; in this image the audience can clearly see the character is sufforing extreme pain, torture and agony.

• XCU (Extreme Close Up)

An extreme close up shows more detail than an average close up showing parts of a face or greater detail of an object. This is used in thrillers during a build up of tension.

Camera Angles:

In film there are different types of angles the camera can shoot from; here are some examples:

• High Angle Shot

A high angle shot is shot from above making the character or object appear small. This can be used to make the victim/protagonist look small and vrunerable or to make the villan/antagonist look evil; in this image of the joker (The dark Knight) he is looking up at the camera making his eyes look dark and evil along with his make-up. 

• Low Angle Shot 

A low angle shot is used to make the character or object appear large.This is often used to make characters look heroic as seen in this image of batman in 'The Dark Knight' 

Camera Movements:

There are a range of camera movements used in film, some examples are:

• Panning Shot

This is when the camera moves horizontally to the left or right; used to track objects or follow movement. Helps the audience to follow the movements of characters or objects. Often used in action thrillers.

• Tilt Shot

When the camera moves up and down often used to film a signiture landmark or building. Used to create a more dramatic energy amongst the audience.

• Cran Shot

This is when the camera is placed on a crane to film; allows more flexible camera movement and allows the auidence to see the scene from different areas and angles smoother and in a shorter amount of time.

• Zoom

This is when the camera moves between/from a larger shot to a smaller shot. Often used in thrillers during a build up of tension as it creates fearful excitment and makes the audience anxious.

• Point Of View

When the camera is filmed from an angle that looks like its from a characters point of view. For example; a conversation between 2 people being filmed from an angle inwhich the camera is facing one person and we can only see that person as the other person is situated behind or next to the camera. This makes it seem like we as an audience are looking from the characters own eyes giving off a more realistic feel.

• Hand Held

When the camera is moves with the character. For example is a character is walking the camera is moving along with the person.

Conclusion:

I have now widened my knownledge of Cinematorgraphy and have a clearer plan of which techniques i would like to involve in my own thriller. I am considering using close ups, mid shots and low angle shots to help create tension within my thriller; along with point of view and panning shots.

Research: How do thriller films make the audience feel?

What is a genre ?

A category in which a film would fall into based of its characteristics, for example; romance, thriller, action, comedy and many more.

What is a Thriller film?

A thriller film is a film which falls under the genre of thriller. It uses various techniques to created fearful excitement amongst the audience. Thrillers tend to fall into the target audience of 15 or 18 age rating. Thrillers may fall under various sub-genres such as; psychological thriller, mystery thriller, action thriller, science fiction thriller, and many more. Thrillers are normally aimed at people between the ages of 15 to adults; however, some thrillers are not suitable for people under the age of 18 and are aimed are adults between the ages of 18 and 50.

Examples of thriller:

When a stranger calls (2006) -

The film takes place in large maze-like house which is situated in an isolated area and is where the majority of the film is set. This is where the protagonist, Jill, spends the night babysitting two children. She spends he time on the phone while the kids sleep only to then start receiving phone call from a strange man who is stalker her while she stays in the house. She then has to play hero and save the children as well as herself.

This is a thriller because it uses dim lighting throughout the whole film which creates a dark airy set; along side other characteristics. It also uses mystery to create suspense and tension.

Final Destination 5 -

This film takes place in various settings unlike 'When a stranger calls'. It is part of a sequence of films which all involve the protagonist visioning a natural disaster right before the event occurs; saving a group of people by warning them about disaster and 'cheating death' to then later suffer a gruesome death in order of how they died in the vision.

This is a thriller because it uses such gruesome and sickening deaths to thrill the audience. Also, it uses a wide range of camera movements to build up thick tension and suspense.

What is a sub-genre ?

A sub-genre is a division of a genre into smaller categories. Examples of sub-genres within the thriller genre are:

Action Thrillers -
Focus on a lot of action and movement to thrill the audience.

Science Fiction Thrillers -
This is a very wide sub genre which uses science fiction to thrill the audience. The story lines are normally out of this world and unrealistic often involving aliens, natural disasters and other aspects of science.

Psychological Thrillers -
Characters need to fight battles mentally instead of psychically. This often involves the antagonists playing games with other characters minds.
Thrillers are known for using a range of codes of conventions to create tension, suspence and thrill the audience. These include:

Common themes

There are alot of common themes amongst the area of thrillers. These include:

• Revenge
• Obsession/ stalking
• Good vs Evil
• Death
• Kidnappings/ abduction

Audience response to thrillers

A thriller is a genre that uses different characteristics to create fearful excitement in the audience. Thrillers can be action, psychological, criminal, science fiction and many more. There are many techniques that are used to have a large effect on the audience. examples of these are:

• Low Key Lighting

Thrillers are likely to be set at night time and have dim, dark, low key lighting. The reason for this is that using low key lighting gives a more eerie feel to the scene; creating tension within the audience.

•  Build up of sound/movement

Something we experience alot in thrillers are the dramatic changes in sound and movement throught the movie. This extremely increases the tension and suspense the audience feels as they literally wait and expect something incredibly thrilling to suddenly occur.

•  Grusome deaths

It is very common for thrillers to include the most grusome deaths by their characters. For some thrillers they use other codes of convetions to created a huge build up of suspense until the audience reach the peak of their excitement then suddenly drop the most shocking death.

These are just a few techniques used to engage the audience.

Conclusion

Researching about thrillers has increased my knowledge about the genre and what it means. It has given my ideas about how i can create my own thriller considering what sub-genre i would like it to fall in and what themes i would like to use. For example; I am considering using themes of death in a psychological thriller.