Cinematography

Cinematography is the art or technique of making a film with the combination of camera elements and displaying how a scene is shot. The three main elements that make up cinematography are:

Camera movement- camera movement represents audiences view point or perspective, during the course of filming. Movement plays a significant role in the emotional language of films images and audiences reactions to the action on the screen, as the camera itself may be moved to create effect.

Camera angles- The camera angle marks the precise place in which a camera is placed to take a shot. The camera angle provides the audience with the most effective and advantageous view point, and adds a unique perspective which can effect the audience perception of what is happening within a scene.

Camera positions- This is the positing of the camera, and how the scene is shot. camera positions helps the director convey different conventions an audience expects to see throughout a thriller film, and helps show a characters facial expression enabling the audience to understand how they are feeling.




 In scream 4 we see a number of different cinematography elements used throughout the film, for example a close up is used showing us a large surface area of screams face which shows us that he has a hidden identity. This shot relates to the conventions of a thriller film as the killers face is hidden and the audience are in suspense. This convention is commonly used throughout thrillers so that the audience do not know what is going on so therefore continue to watch the film.







Another shot i thought was important to why thrillers include certain camera shots was a mid shot showing a girls body and facial expression it is used to show the girl in more detail  whilst still showing  enough for the audience to feel as if they are looking at the whole of her. In this case from this shot we see the girls fear and anxiety. These types of camera shots are important in thrillers as the audience can feel the characters emotions engaging them more into the film.




A shallow focus shot is another shot used in scream 4 which shows Sydney in focus with her background blurred it is used to demonstrate subjectivity. This is used to hide the killer identity keeping the audience in suspense as they are unaware of what events are going to happen next. The shallow focus shot makes the audience feel uneasy as not knowing when the killer is going to appear.





Cinematography has helped me understand what and when to use cinema shots during my thriller for example i would use a close up to show the facial expressions of the character. It has also helped me understand the different camera shots that can be used in different situations. From this research on cinematography I want to use a shallow focus shot in my thriller as it gives a interesting effect by focuses on the subject and nothing else.

Sound

Sound is used in thriller films to inform the audience of the different situations that the characters are going through. sound used in thrillers are typically noisy  and  a lot of diegetic sound during the course of the film such as bangs and screams which build up to help create suspense and tension.

In scream 2 a variety of different sounds are used, we see and example of off screen sound when a woman is on the phone to the killer and we can hear what he is saying to her. This informs the audience about the conversation between the victim and killer, the audience now finds out slightly more about the killer. This type of sound relates to the conventions of thrillers as we can see and hear how frightened the woman is.


Parallel sound is another type of sound used in scream four when a man is being stabbed by the killer, it informs the audience that the man is being killed and enables us to know how without it actually being shown. The parallel sounds are conventional to a thriller film as it informs the audience that a murder is taking place and this is a typical narrative which the audience would expect to see. This type of sound would make the audience feel sympathetic towards the victim as he has just been killed by his stalker.

Non diegetic sound is used through out scream 2 to build up tension and suspense, it is typically used when the victim is aware the killer is around but cannot been seen by the victim, and example of this is when Randy is in the park on the phone to the killer where he says that he can see Randy where Randy cant see him, diegetic music is played throughout the conversation to bring up the intensity. This relates to the conventions of a thriller film as the build of of suspense is what the audience want to feel to make the film more interesting. this type of sound make the audience more intrigued to find out what will happen next.

Editing

To create tension most thrillers use different editing styles to create different emotions, especially in thriller films style editing are used to create tension, which the audience expect to happen in a thriller film.

In the film strangers slow editing is used when a women is walking to the door while someone bangs loudly, this builds up tension and makes the audience scared as the people are in the middle of nowhere. A reaction shot is used when a woman is checking the person has gone from looking outside from her window after she heard footsteps. This editing focuses on showing she is scared and wanting to know if the girls has gone. This editing style is conventional to a thriller as it creates tension and shows the women scared.

A linking shot is used when the woman looks out the window again to make sure the woman has gone for the second time. The shot shows that the woman is still very frightened and wants to check no one is there even though she knows there is someone. This shot relates to conventions of a thriller because it shows the the character is on her own and very venerable,