Today, like my past posts, I will be utilizing these two presentations to explore the genre conventions of horrors and psychological thrillers: these url's (http://www.slideshare.net/arronbettley/generic-conventions-of-horror) and (http://www.slideshare.net/marine18/horror-genre-conventions)
Due to the fact that, through more research, I'm beginning to stray more toward the psychological thriller aspect of my film opening than horror, I will be discussing editing and shots that will aid me in bringing about that genre better.
Types of shots and filming techniques typically used in psychological thrillers as to make a scene more intense and suspenseful:
POV Shots: Used to show character's perspective, especially when in a scary situation. I know this is not a movie, but the viral video game Slender Man became a massive hit due to its extremely scary/suspenseful nature, for the entire game was from a first-person perspective at night where the player was placed in an isolated, dark setting.
Types of shots and filming techniques typically used in psychological thrillers as to make a scene more intense and suspenseful:
POV Shots: Used to show character's perspective, especially when in a scary situation. I know this is not a movie, but the viral video game Slender Man became a massive hit due to its extremely scary/suspenseful nature, for the entire game was from a first-person perspective at night where the player was placed in an isolated, dark setting.
High and Low Angles: Used to insinuate that the character is being watched or is in a nightmare of sorts. Nightmare On Elm Street (2010) utilized low angles like the one scene from the bathtub as to infer fear and that the character could not be in current reality. Giving high and low angles at a fast editing rate can also create a triply feeling if fast pans are added to the mix.
Handheld Shots: Used to make the film seem more personal to the character and makes it so that the viewer cannot tell all the time what is going on due to the sometimes blurry movements and shaky image. Cloverfield (2008) was a suspenseful, action-adventure movie that was shot entirely from the perspective on a hand held phone. This made it so that the viewer did not fully comprehend what was going on at every point in the movie, adding to the suspenseful feeling that would resonate with the viewer where they would oftentimes probably be asking, "What just happened... What's going on." (Honestly though, this movie actually made me nauseous because it was filmed in this shaky first-person fashion the entire movie and I felt carsick during it. Unless you can handle intense visuals over a long period of time without feeling queasy, I would not recommend this one.)
Slow editing: When everything becomes slow in a horror movie, the viewer already knows that something horrible is about to happen where the scenes are going to once again become fast paced. Like a jump scare is about to occur or something of that nature. The thriller/mystery movie Prom Night (2008) featured a scene where the main character hid under a bed and the camera would have many close ups on her face as she tried her best to keep her mouth shut as her stalker entered the room. Everything became very quite, and the shots would slowly shift from the character's face to a POV from the character under the bed's view of the stalkers shoes.
Depth of field, focus pulls, and shadowing/blurring the screen are techniques also used often is psychological thrillers as to make the scene more intense, suspenseful, and interment. With psychological thrillers, the main goal is to make the viewer feel like they are in the same terrifying situation as the character portrayed, and through using these camerawork techniques, I should be able do accomplish that swimmingly. (Don't you love that word 'swimmingly...' cause I do)
Until next time my lovelies! <3
XOXO
-A
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