Horror

1. HOW CAMERA SHOTS
ARE USED IN
OPENING
SEQUENCES TO
CREATE MEANING
Anthony Luongo

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.