Research: Cinematography

What is cinematography?

Cinematography is camera shots, angles and sizes of something/subject that has been filmed.  Cinematography is important because what it does to the film is capture the lighting, the mood, the focal, depth of field and the camera placement and all of these things help the cinematography as they will make out how the film is seen by the audience, also it can help the audience with understanding the story as most of the cinematography helps make out the narrative of the film. Every shot that is filmed by a director/cinematographer is carefully chosen because what the shots would do is tell a big story in the film as how the shots can make the characters look in the film, either strong and powerful or vulnerable and weak.

Cinematography is analysed in three sections:
- Sizes
- Angles 
-Movement

Camera Sizes:

Establishing shot (ES) – The establishing shot is when it is in the beginning of a film to show where the film has been taken placed, or where the scenes of the film has been taken place. What the establishing shots can be used for is the locations of some of the famous places in the area where the film is set to indicate the city and where the action of the film is taking place for example The Big Ben to identify London, also the Las Vegas Strip. What this does is show where the film is set and the establishing shot is most likely shown in the beginning of the film. What does for the audience is show where the film is set as said before.

This establishing shot is from the trailer from The Dark Knight Rises, as most films the trailer has been opened up with the establishing shot. Why the director has done this is to show where the film has been set which is Gotham City as you can see the city in the beginning.

Extreme long shot (XLS) – The extreme long shot is when you see the character full body (head to toe) also they would have a lot more of the surrounding shown more than the long shot, what this does for the audience is that the audience would also have an idea of what could also be happening in the background because of the director using this shot. 

In The Dark Knight Rises this shot was in the trailer, and this is an extreme long shot as you can see the group of people but also see quite a mass area of the plane and sky to show the background and was is going on in the sky. This effects the audience because in reality this wouldn't happen and this gives the audience chills and trills as they wouldn't expect this to happen.

Long shot (LS) – This Is when there is a subject and you would take a shot of the subject with some of the background, as that would be the long shot, what the long shot does is show some sort of relation to the background with the subject, also the long shot is a lot similar to the establishing shot but the long shot focuses on the subject with the background or location. What this does for the audience is that they would know the subject is there but also be focusing on the background as that is what the purpose of the long shot is.

This is a long shot in The Dark Knight Rises, the subject is clearly shown and this is a long shot as you see the subject and you have a good see of the background of where the protagonist and antagonist is. What this shot does in this part of the film is show the two subjects that are there and you also have a good look of where they are, as you can infer from this is that the protagonist and antagonist is about have any fights, also there is more excitement to the audience because there is low key lighting in the scene which makes it more interesting. 

Medium close up shot (MCU) – This shot is when the character is being shown when they would be focused on something, the shot is when the character is shown from the shoulders and above, what this does is shows the characters facial expressions and also their body language a little bit. The purpose of this shot is to show the facial and body language of the character to the audience but not focus too much on facial or the body language.

In The Dark Knight Rises trailer, there is this medium close up shot where the two characters are talking, the two characters are clearly shown in this medium close up. What this does is focus on the two character talking but the camera focuses on the both of them with there facial expressions and the body language that is shown. What this does for the audience is show some of the emotions the character have to allow the audience to have some feelings towards them.

Medium Long Shot (MLS) – This shot is used to show a person from the knees up, as they would want to focus on more other things in the film but still capture the subject. You would see this in a film when two characters are chatting and the camera is at a medium shot because it would show the characters talking and a little bit of the background but not as much as the long shot would. What this does to the audience is allow them to interpret that the conversation might not be that important.

In the Medium Long Shot it is almost the same as the long shot but it is closer as it ends at the subjects knees or the thighs up-wards, this shot gives you an opportunity to see the background and if there is other subjects that come into the shot.  

Extreme close up (XCU) – What the extreme close up is when it is used to show the characters emotion facial features or movement, for example when taking this shot you would have an extreme close up of the character with only showing the mouth, eyes and barely any of the background depending on the angle of the shot. What this does to the audience is that they would notice that the character is in some emotional from sad depressed ETC; this affects the audience because they will have some sort of feelings towards them. 

In this photo the extreme close up was used to show the female protagonist. What this extreme close up does is show her facial expression to the audience, you would expect this shot to be used in very dramatic scenes as well because it would show the emotion that the audience should expect and see because of this shot.

Close up (CU) – What a close up is to show the detail of the subject or object as it could be important in the narrative of the film, the close up would display the most detail in the shots then all the others because it wouldn’t include the background of the object or subject. What the close up shot could do in the film is create the emotion of the character as it would be a close up and the audience would understand why the close up is there because the director is trying to show the emotion of the character to the audience though this camera shot (close up).

In This shot which is a close up and what this does is show the characters emotion very clearly, what this also does is emphasise's the emotion coming from the character as it will effect the audience much more. What the close up does is show the emotion side of the character much better than the other shots such as the mid-shot and long shot which allows the character emotion to be enhanced even more because of the close up shot. Here you see the famous film Psycho in the shower scene the female victim is being killed and you see the facial reaction to this, also the fast paced editing of this part and the sound that goes with this increases the tension to allow the audience to feel even more scared.  

Angles…

High angle shot (HA) – The high angle shot is to show how weak or small a character is in the narrative of the film because it would make them look small and weak because of the shot. What this does is show what the character could be like, as the high angle shot will make the character look small. What this shot could be used in when there is someone that they are talking to, to make the person they are talking to look small because of the high angle shot of the camera. 

This high angle shot is taken to show the weakness and how she is the victim, in this scene she is weak and vulnerable because she the protagonist and she is the victim what this shot does is express on how weak she is and helpless because of the antagonist, what this does to the audience is allow them to have feelings toward her as she is the victim of the scene. 

Low angle shot (LA) – The Low angle shot is the complete opposite of the high angle shot, what this low angle shot does is allow the character look stronger and bigger also more powerful then the other character because of the shot. What this shows the character could be like big and strong and low angle shot does this expression well because it will make anyone look massive. What this shot could be used in the same scene as when they are talking but to the other character to make this one look tall and strong and powerful because of the low angle shot of the camera.

This Low Angle shot does to the antagonist in the film is that it makes him look stronger and more powerful, you see this in the scene when he is attacking the female victim. What that does is show the power of the antagonist, with this the audience can become more afraid of the antagonist.  

How This Effects Thriller?

This effects the thriller genre because of all the camera shots that can be used, to show all the different characters to make them look small, tall and also the camera shot allows you to show the location and area where the thriller is set furthermore what this does is that it can make some of the scenes of the thriller make it even more scarier as the shot would help improve the feeling the audience would feel when watching this thriller film.

Movement...

Panning Shot –What the pan shot is when the camera is still but is moving left and right constantly, what this action is similar to is when a person is shaking their head side to side. When the panning shot can be used in is when the subject is moving and the camera stays still and follows the subject while taking the shot. 

In this Clip the panning shot is used to follow the ghost through the house as she is walking around, this happens in the clip at 0:45 - 0:50, this effects the audience as they see the ghost. What this does is scare the audience as they dont know this was going to happen.

Tilt shot – This shot is used to show an object/subject to the audience the tilt shot can be used to look up and then down or down then looking up, what this does is can make the character look more mysterious because of this moving camera shot. This shot can make the character look more dramatic just by doing this shot. 

Crane shot – The crane shot is mainly used at the end of a film because it would enhance the effect that the director is doing for the film. This is because this is show in the movie White House Down, to show the Abraham Lincoln Memorial at the end to enhance how the character view Abraham Lincoln in the movie. This is because at some point in the movie the president was shot and it was Abraham Lincoln’s watch that saved his life and this is important because this character wanted to make a name for him.

Point of view – The point of view shot is when the film shows the characters point of view in the film, for example in the film when the character's view is shown in the film to the audience to show the point of view of the character. What this does for the audience is show her point of view as she is seeing herself though the mirror. She is show in this way because the director is trying to show the character putting on the necklace, as the necklace is important in the film at some point. This is an example of a point of view.

Hand held – The hand held shot is when the character is hold a camera to show whatever that they are trying to show, for example when you video some family moments that could be important and memorable to the person, this shot effects the audience because perception of this shot shows that it could be reality and enhances the audiences emotion to the film as they could become more scared to the film. This is shown in the movie paranormal activity 2 at the beginning, the character is holding the hand held device to show the new house that they have moved into, what this does is show a bit of reality into the movie furthermore it shows the characters emotion because the hand held shot could be shaking to show the character is scared this bit is shown at the end of the paranormal activity 3 shows this perfectly because of the character is being chased by the antagonist. This is an example of the hand held shot.


 

Audience Response

What the main elements of the thriller is linked into the cinematography because it will enhance the feeling the audience can feel, if you try show a person is tall and strong but use a medium shot the purpose of what you are trying to show is not there that is why you would need to use the low angle shot. That is an example of some of the shots that would help enhance the meaning of the film that you are trying to make. What this does to the audience is allow them to stay on the edge with the narrative of the film and with the film it is showing the emotions or whatever the director is trying to show though the camera shots as well as the story of the thriller film, this works effectively because the cinematography works well to show all that is wanted to show for the thriller film.

Conclusion

During the research of how cinematography works to help create and enhance the narrative of the film. What I’ve learnt is that cinematography is one of the most important parts of the movie as it can help make the audience feel more emotion to the film. What the research has done is allow me how to understand how the director and cinematographer can make the audience feel just by using different camera shots and angles in the movie, furthermore the cinematography allows enhancing the audience reaction to what happens in the movie, because of the cinematography can make the audience sit on the edge of their seat. When i am going to plan from the thriller clip i am going to make, cinematography as all the different camera shots and movement can determine how a thriller is made. I will defiantly going to use the low and high angle shots because i know that thrillers mainly all have this to show the power of the antagonist with the low angle shot and the victim with a high angle shot to show how small and weak they are. 

What Is A Thriller Genre? As Media Ms Begum

What are Genres?

What a genre is where a film fall into, as that there are a range of different types of genre starting from action, comedy, thriller, horror, drama and sci-fi, what the genres do is that they will set a target audience for the film/storyline that the audience would watch. In all genres they all have a typical thing that the genre does for example romance always has two people that fall in love, or relationships and they are very dramatic, Action has lots of guns and explosions where they keep the film/storyline flowing with excitement of what could happen, a thriller is a genre where it is scary and unpredictable what could happen. 

Thriller Genre…

In the thriller storylines the narrative would have a mission or mystery or a psychological, also there are always antagonist and protagonist as mention before thrillers are unpredictable, for example in thrillers when you would be watching the film the characters in the film would do something unusual which might make the audience think that they are the protagonist when this character really might not, which is where to get the people wanting to know more from the film and making them wondering what is going to happen next, also what this does is make the audience become full of excitement making them wanting more.

Also another thing that thriller does to the audience is that it builds tension, and what this does is allow the audience to have mixed emotions as they are watching such as, being worried for the character and being uncomfortable, also another great thing about thrillers is that it builds up the tension which make the audience have a greater reaction from the sound of the music and the actors, for example scream hearing a window slam or glass breaks or something falls down. In thrillers there are certain things that are always in thriller films/storylines, which is iconography such as a knife missing or a knife with blood left in an odd place, also the lighting changed at specific parts of thriller film showing, the change of emotion, body language, lighting given from the people which would make the audience feel sympathetic.

Also the most common themes that shown in the thriller movies is ransoms, revenge, death, kidnapping and obsession and what this does to the audience is to know what the thriller storyline could be and to know what they would be watching. Furthermore the common conventions of thrillers are mirrors, low key lighting, shadows, obtrusive editing, quick cuts, changes in camera angle, tension music, stairs and also flashbacks in the thriller movies.

Example of Thrillers

       

Examples Of Sub-Genre Of Thriller

What a thriller sub Genre is a stem from the mainstream genre, sub-genres of the thriller of more detail of the thriller type film should be laid in, also what this does is specifically tell you what type of thriller it is, for example; psychological thrillers or action thrillers what this does for the industry is important, because what the audience would know what the film would specifically be because of the genre of the film the audience realize that the genres is more that categorization.

Audience Response

What the main elements of the thriller is excitement, tension and suspense. What this response the audience that is watching would react to certain parts of the thriller movie because of the scenes that happens for example the protagonist is being chased by the antagonist trying to kill the protagonist what this does to the audience is that they want to see what happens, and if the protagonist gets killed in a gory way to some of the audience they would cover their eyes or scream or grab something and hold it tight. Also with the character running away or something popping up out of know where, the audience would have a scare from that but they would also stay engaged with the film as they would be interested because they are waiting/wondering what is going to happen next while trying to stay with the story line as much as they can.  

Conclusion

With my conclusion is that thrillers are great if you liked to be thrilled, also with the narrative of the film keeps you on your seat (interested in the film) and keeps making you want more from the film, what this does to the audience is allow them to enjoy the film, as the audience will enjoy the film then they would come and watch more of the thriller type genres, since the audience has enjoyed the film. And this is what makes the audience like the thriller genre/sub-genre.


By Darhyl Matias