Genre Conventions - Cinematography

Genre Conventions - Cinematography 

These are some shots that can make a horror film look unique to its genre, which are used to build tension and create a tense atmosphere, these shots are:

1. Extreme close up

These shots can be used to show the raw emotion on the actors face, however these can also be used as ECU's have connotations of being confined and can make the audience feel uncomfortable. This is helpful in horror films as the more uncomfortable the audience gets the more perceptible to jump scares they are. The extreme close up also blocks the background so the audience can't see what is happening and this could make it easy for an unpredicted scare.

2. Wide shots/Long shots

These shots can be used to show how isolated the character is and this could evoke feelings of sympathy or fear for the character from the audience. The usual horror film wide shots/long shots are shot through windows, this gives a creepy effect of somebody watching the characters. This might evoke an unsettling feeling which could be really effective if shot under the right conditions. These shots can also show the audience what's in the background of the frame, a technique which urges the audience to feel the need to shout and warn the character, this is essentially keeping the audience on the edge of they're seat.

3. Birds eye view shots 

These shots can be used so that the characters look small and vulnerable, they also have the same effect as high angle shots in which it makes the camera have a power position over the character. This camera angle mimics a bird chasing its prey and this results in it already having connotations of threatening behaviour and death imagery and this could evoke a feeling of worry and foreboding from the audience.  

4. Hand held/Point of View shots

These shots are normally shaky and used to disorientate the audience. Some films make the actor hold the camera to create both a hand held and a POV shot, when running or turning this can make the audience feel dizzy and dazed out. This can be used as a build up of tension or to make the audience panic as it stimulates humans natural instincts to run away- in this case with the characters, momentarily feeling like the antagonist is chasing us. These shots can also be used to give the viewer a sense of reality, as it feels as if you were in the scene. Most film makers do this as it makes the audience experience the fear that the main character is feeling.


A film which was filmed in all hand held and point of view shots. This film had mixed reviews as some found it hard to watch due to the camera never being still, however others think that the camera makes it seem like reality and is the scariest film they have seen, a stated by a critic in the quote "It is the scariest movie I've ever seen. Not the goriest, the grossest, the weirdest, the eeriest, the sickest, the creepiest or the slimiest... Just flat out the scariest."
 YouTube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmYsRcLMvO8

5. Tracking shot

This shot is basically the camera following the characters movements, this can have connotations of being followed or being watched, in a horror film this is a useful cinematography technique. This can be used to make the audience scared for the individual. These shots can be used to show how frantic and chaotic the scene is.