Research Into Cinematography - Miss Miller

The clip I chose is from the thriller movie Gothika. I will be explaining which parts of cinematography is shown in the clip and what the effects of it are. Cinematography is defined as the art of making motion pictures.

The start of the clip shows an extreme longshot as we see Halle Berry running through a dark swimming pool. An extreme long shot is when the camera is positioned at a further distance to minimise the importance of the subject and increase importance of the background. This shows that the place the female actress is an important part of the film and shows that the swimming pool could have a big part to the rest of the film. It is used to show the environment and situation that the female character is in and shows how desperate she is to go to an unusual place like this. It helps to connect the viewers to the character and we sense her fear which makes viewers fearful.  It also creates a scary effect as a swimming pool is quite an unusual place to be at night. 0.08 seconds get picture.

As the female actress is running away and hiding from the guards the camera slowly zooms in as she is sliding into the swimming pool. This shows the importance of the character and shows she is a big part in the scene as it is drawing her in to the viewers attention. It shows her facial expressions as she is getting deeper into the pool and we can tell she is extremely nervous and frightened by the look on her face. This connects the viewers and the actress as they slightly feel what she is feeling which adds tension.

We also see a close up of Halle berry as the rest of her body enters the water as she is hiding. A close up is when a smaller part of the scene is shown to empathise something for example in this clip the characters face and neck fill the shot. This shows an up close of her facial expressions which we can see she is extremely frightened. This engages us with her and makes us almost sorry for her and build suspense as we can tell something is about to happen, Get picture at 41 seconds.

When the female actress is hiding in the water we see a shot of her point of view, Point of view is to show the audience the same image as a character within a film. This helps viewers connect with the actress as we see what she is going through and image what we would be like in her situation. It also creates a sense of fear and suspense as we cannot see what is behind her or what is coming and as we can see her view of a dark empty swimming pool. 57 seconds.

This research will help me with my own thriller clip as it will help me to create tension and engage the audience with the characters and help me to pick which part of cinematography to a specific section of my opening sequence.