Research into cinematography - Miss Miller

Cinematography

The cinematography in the woman in black (0:00-1:07)

Cinematography is the use of different camera angles throughout a film, these vary so that they can help the audience understand characters status for example if a high angle shot is used it makes the character look smaller, showing that they are of lower importance and possibly quite weak and vunerable. Cinematography communicates important information to the audience about different characters emotions and feelings, for example if there is an extreme close up shot of someone, the audience will be able to see the characters emotions very well and therefore build a relationship with the character and feel more indulged in what is happening as they will consequently be feeling the same emotions portrayed in the scene. Cinematography also allows the audience to become comfortable and aware of the setting and surroundings for example a establishing shot or a zoom out would show a large amount of background to the audience and therefore make them feel more aware and established with where the scene is taking place, this will also help them to understand more what is happening throughout the scene. The cinematography used in 'The Woman In Black' helps the audience to have a better understanding of what is going on in the scene. The different camera angles create different moods and lets the audience see different parts of the background and actor.

At 0:50 (shown below) a point of view camera angle is used when Daniel Radcliffe is looking down the corridor. This shows the characters point of view to the audience  and what they are seeing. This helps the audience relate to the character as they are shown the same image as what the character is seeing, making them feel more scared as it makes them feel more involved in what is happening. This is conventional to a thriller as it makes the audience feel like what is happening to the character is happening to them, making the audience feel more frightened and in suspense not knowing what is going to happen.

At 0:47 a mid shot is used  where you can see the character from the waist up, and a large amount of the background. You can see that the actor's clothes show that he is a well respected person which tells the audience about his status in society. This helps build a relationship between the audience and the actor as they feel like they can relate more to the actor if they know more about them. This is conventional to a thriller as it allows the audience to become familiar with the surroundings of the character and therefore feel more involved with what the character is doing. It also builds suspense as the audience doesn't know what might happen next .

 At 0:17 there is an establishing shot when the actor is looking out of the door and you can see the room he is in behind him. This allows the audience to become familiar with the location the actor is in and gives the audience a perspective of what is to follow. It shows that the scene is set in a dark Victorian childs room with toys everywhere and corridor in the middle of the night. This is conventional to a thriller as it establishes its genre by showing the audience the surroundings, and building suspense by the fear of the unknown of what is going to happen.

At 0:27 a close up shot is used to show the actor's facial expression and reaction to looking down the corridor waiting for the woman in black to appear. This builds suspense as it shows the audience what the character is feeling and guides the audience on how to feel about what is happening in the scene. This also creates tension as the character looks concerned about something as he is frowning, so the audience is expecting something to happen, and therefore prepared to be shocked as they can see the actors facial expression shows he is nervous keeping the audience in suspense.

Overall i have learned that a variety of cinematography is a vital element to include in my thriller clip. To make sure that i use the appropriate cinematography i will plan out carefully what i am going to include to make sure the different camera angle creates the right effect for the audience. It is vital that i use a variety of camera angles as they all have a different effect on the audience from; making them aware of the surroundings, guide them to feel a certain emotion and to make different characters status's clear.