Planning cinematography - Miss miller

Cinematography is the art of motion photography, it is important in a film because it portrays clearly what is happening on screen. Also the use of different camera angles can connote different feelings and emotions to the audience, I will be analyzing the cinematography that my group will be using for our thriller opening in this blog.

First of all we are using a zoom-in shot at the beginning of our opening, the camera will slowly zoom in to highlight the significance of the boy playing in the garden, this is because the zoom brings the camera view very close to the boy so the audience can clearly see what he is doing and not confuse them as it might do from a distance. This use of cinematography at the beginning of my opening scene is conventional because the audience need to have a good understanding of the storyline so they are intrigued and not confused.

We also used a panning shot to show where clip is set, we are using a pan shot to show the audience the garden in which the majority of the opening scene is filmed, the way the pan sets the scene allows the audience to again, have a better understanding of the scene. The pan of the garden makes the audience suspicious of what killer or mysterious character could be hiding behind the trees, this creates enigma which is conventional to the thriller genre.

A hand-held camera shot is used to create an emotional link between the audience and the characters, when the babysitter runs through the house the hand-held camera shot is used, the audience will feel her emotions and fear as the shot makes them feel as if it is them running. The emotional link created makes the audience feel the fear of the characters which is very intriguing when watching a thriller film, the fast pace of the camera movement creates the element of excitement to the audience which is typical of a thriller film.

A POV shot is used in the garden when the little boy looks up to his window, this creates alot of tension as the audience do not know what could be in the window when he looks up. The face that they see this from a little boys point of view creates empathy as the boy is helpless which refers back to Aristotle's theory which our opening is based on. These feelings and emotions are conventional to thriller films.

A reaction shot is used when the door knocks and the babysitter looks over, the use of a fast transition to the door creates a surprise to the audience, and also put the audience in the babysitters point of view as they will wonder who it could be and why. This creates enigma and makes an emotional link between the audience and the characters as they have similar thoughts and feelings which is typical of films in the thriller genre. 

I think that the camera shots and angles used in our thriller opening clip will create fear, horror, suspense, enigma, tension and many other conventional thriller aspects which will entice and engage the audience. Sticking to Aristotle's theory we will try to evoke empathy as much as we can which these shots will do.