Planning Cinematography - Miss Miller

Cinematography is defined as the art of movie photography, this includes both the shooting and development of film but is usually used to refer to the use of camera angles and shots within a scene. Cinematography plays a crucial role within thriller films as it uses specific camera shots to evoke certain emotions within the audience and help form a bond between the characters and audience. After releasing this significance me and my group decided to plan what cinematography we plan to use and what effect it will have. Following this planning we concluded that we will use cinematography to specifically emphasise the suspense scene at the beginning of the scene and the fast-paced, exciting chase scene.

The first use of cinematography within our clip will be a establishing/panning shot. This shot is often used within thriller films to set the scene and also give the audience a slight understanding of what might take place within the film as they can possibly recognise the setting and relate to it. Our establishing/panning shot will follow a car (driven by the antagonist) down a dark scary road with a grand mysterious tower in the background. As well as setting the scene we hope this camera shot creates suspense as it is showing a mysterious setting and successfully capturing the eery elements such as the tower and nights sky.

We will follow this shot with another significant shot to the narrative. This shot will be a long shot as well as a shallow focus shot and partially a POV shot. This shot will film the car mirror and in the reflection of the mirror will be standing in the distance in a mask. This shot has a huge impact on the narrative because it is the first appearance of the antagonist and will therefore create suspense as the audience are scared due to his hidden identity and use of iconography. A shot similar to this is often used within thtiller films as the antagonist is usually spotted in the distance but partially hidden.

Within my opening scene i also plan to successfully use a point-of-view shot to create excitement within the audience and empathise with the characters. I will use a POV shot during my chase scene and will be the view of the victim who's running for her life, this is a stereotypical use of a POV shot as it helps the audience empathise with the emotions felt by the characters and therefore excites them as the character is in danger.

This POV shot is similar to a hand-held shot which we will also use is quick succession with this POV shot, this shot creates a scene of panic and chaos within the audience as the camera is usually violently shaking. This makes the audience scared as they had previously made a relationship with this character and now this shot portrays them in a chaotic situation. Both shots (POV and handheld) feature within the majority of thriller films during the exciting fast paced scene's to also create excitement. A handheld shot is used to document the vast majority of the scenes within the famous thriller series Paranormal Activity, within these films they document the scary occurances through a camera used by one of the focal characters. This helps create a relationship between the characters and audience as they can relate to their use of a camera.

To conclude cinematography plays a key role in evoking specific emotions and within our thriller we plan to use numerous conventional camera shots to create a certain affect and atmosphere and evoke emotions which will entice the audience and enhance the narrative.