Cinematographer - Pre-production Evaluation Questions

What do you consider your role to be in this production?
As my role in this production is cinematographer I consider my main roles to be looking at the scene we are filming and considering what different shots we could use to make the production look the most effective, shots from different angles, taking into account the different rules such as the 30degree rule and 180 rule. I also have to consider the lighting in the scene, how different lighting will add different effects to the film. Putting a strong light close behind a character will place the front of them in dark shadow making us unable to see their face and so this may be helpful in some parts of our production when we are not revealing the full identity of a character.

Where did your idea come from? Films reference (Camera/Lighting/Composition)

A lot of the ideas came from films like ‘the orphange’ . 

This picture above for example, the composition of this shot is very interesting as it is a long shot and as the shot is taken through a long corridor the walls closer to us look darkened as if we are the ones in danger from the approaching threat. This camera angle also reminds us the threat is a child, making him look small rather than using a low camera angle and making the threat look larger. This is useful for us as our threat is a little girl and so we will be using shots like this to remind viewers the threat is a small child meant to be seen as harmless.

Some ideas also came from another scene in the orphanage. In this scene where we can see a character in the foreground and also a character in the background. This camera work looks really good as the camera focuses on the person either nearest or furthest away from the camera with the other still being in the shot and so we do not forget this person is in the scene. This camera work is also useful for introducing the threat, having the threat in the background whilst the protagonist is in the foreground and then switching the focus so the threat is then in the foreground which would make us jump.

What Films do you believe show good cinematography 9Tension/Fear/Shock?)
I think films such as the ones I have mentioned above show really good examples of cinematography. Also the film ‘The sixth sense’ has really good cinematography as it build us tension very well, concealing what is supposed to scare us until the last moment and this building us tension greatly and increasing the shock the audience receives. The ring also has good cinematography in that the when the threat, the girl Samara is shown the shots she is in are filmed to have the utmost chilling, shock effect on the audience.


How will your opening engage the audience? (Tension/Fear/Shock) (Camera/Lighting/Composition)
Our opening will engage the audience as it has many different shots including lots of close-ups which should make the audience feel more involved in the film as they are closer to the actors. There are also corridor shots which will create shadow and increase tension as it is the unknown. As our threat is a little girl we also have shots from her point of view and as this will be a low angle everything will seem larger and more menacing. As the house we are shooting at is quite big and the outside of the house has many sharp shapes looking at these from a low angle should make everything look scarier.

5. What conventions of the sub-genre have you conformed to?
The conventions of the sub-genre of ghost films we have conformed to is the most typical one of the genre, being the ‘haunted house’, as mentioned previous the house we are filing in is quite big and can be made to look slightly like a haunted house, it also has many long corridors and so this is also quite conventional of horror movies, long, dark corridors we cannot clearly see what is happening. As the treat is a little girl we have challenged the fact that children are seen as innocent, also as it is a little girl, in horror movies it is conventional for the females to be the ones needing saved and not the ones that are the threat and so this goes against the usual conventions of a ghost film.

Shannon Scott