HOW CAMERA SHOTS ARE USED IN OPENING SEQUENCES

TO CREATE MEANING

Anthony Luongo

CLOSE UP SHOT

This close up shot establishes a specific item showing that its significant, especially within this movie as the phone is the main source for the murderer to try and scare his victims. Being shot so close to the prop allows the audience to focus solely upon the phone and nothing else.

MEDIUM SHOT

This medium shot (consisting of seeing the characters waist and above) of the character allows the audience to see the characters body language but to also see the background of the scene allowing to familiarise themselves with the scene.

LONG SHOT

This long shot of the house from the outside allows the audience to establish the scenery and lets them know where the scene is happening.

TRACKING SHOT

A tracking shot is a camera technique in which the camera follows the character making the audience feel that they are following the character in the film. As seen here each shot shows the character walking down the corridor with the camera following close by. This allows the audience, as stated previously, to keep track with the character but in this case whilst she moves to another room, allowing the audience to stay in the action.

PAN SHOT

A pan shot is a shot in which the camera is stationary but it pivots left and right on its stand, in the two screen shots the pan shot is used to keep up with the character and allow the audience to stay with her and not lose focus.

TILT SHOT

The first screenshot shows the character at the same level as the camera and then in the second screenshot shows the character at a lower level than the camera making it tilt down. This show generally brings superiority the viewer but in this case the camera is making sure that the character is within shot whilst it tracks her allowing the audience to have their eyes on her.

ZOOM SHOT

This shot generally begins as a extreme long shot to establish the scenery and gradually zooms in to a medium shot to show the action, this mainly occurs in actions movies, but in this case in the screen shots it allowed the audience to see the characters facial expressions. As seen in the first screen shot, the character is shouting then as soon as the antagonist turned aggressive to and threaten to kill her, the expression upon her face then changed thus using the zoom shot to show this.

CUT

A cut is the jump from one seen to another within a split second. Its used to create feeling in the air whether it be a action film in where you see someone in cover and then cuts to them fighting, or in this case, a horror film you see the character calm and cosy in her home and then it cuts to the outside of her house were it is dark and eerie with cricket sounds, this could make the audience thing that something is going to happen to either the house or to the character.

PACE

Pace is used to build tension within films to draw in the audience. In the first screenshot we can see that the character is walking around her house calmly and cleaning any mess she sees, at that stage the non diegetic sound is not heard but in the second screenshot the non diegetic sound increases pace and gets louder, this mimics the character within the scene. Using this drags the audience in and keeps the on the edge of their seat.

PERFORMANCE

The first screenshot shows how the character is calm and collective whilst on the phone to a stranger alone at home, on the other hand when the stranger breaks the ice by saying “Because I want to know who I'm looking at” this instantly made her face drop with fear and the audience were able to see this by the close up shot of her face.

DIEGETIC SOUND

Diegetic sounds are the sounds in which the character can hear in the film. The first screenshot of a phone when it rings provides a normal feeling to the situation and makes people feel like its just a normal phone call, this also applies to the second screenshot when she picks up the phone to answer. As for the third screenshot in which the antagonist breaks the ice saying “ I want to see who I’m speaking to”, it provides shock to the audience as well as making the character within the shot scared, if the character had not heard it, it wouldn’t be very effective.

NON-DIEGETIC SOUND

Non-diegetic sounds are used only for the audience to hear. In the first screenshot a quite and low drum beat occurs, this encourages the shock to the audience and signifies the moment in which the antagonist breaks the ice and then in the second screenshot loud music and quick, beating drums are heard which allows the audience to understand that something bad is happening to the character and the action is about to begin.

MISE EN SCENE

From the shot we can see the majority of the kitchen and all the equipment within her kitchen and also seeing her clothes shows how she may be wealthy and well off. The screen shot on the right backs up the point about the character being wealthy and well off as we can see the size of the house and half of her garden.