Stylistic Influence

Our film is a low budget thriller and for that reason we need to use camera in a really effective way to tell our story and to create tension.  There are a few examples of use of camera that we think are really effective and we want to aim to recreate this style in our own work:

Luther

Luther was a BBC drama series which played on the conventions of thriller in the use of camera.  There were often very tense moments with careful attention to the framing of shots, which were often extended in order to create tension.  The timing of cuts in the series was very clever - often lingering on a point until the very moment the audience member felt uncomfortable before moving on.  This creates a building of tension that we want to replicate.  The example below shows this:

There are many effective shots used i this extract. One of the first ones is where he is walking to the crime scene. The camera uses rack focus, it only focuses on the back of Luther's head. This shows us that he is a very important person and is the main character of this TV drama. The second shot that i find very effective is when he has just entered the house and the camera is placed on the floor, off center and is low angle. The low angle shows us that Luther has power. Having the camera off center makes us feel uneasy and creates a bit of mystery. When Luther first walks into the house the editing pace slows down and so does Luther. We see his walk slow down and his facial expression shows us that he is shocked and a bit worried. Whilst this is going on there is use of non - diegetic sound. This music creates a lot of tension as the notes have been dragged out and is played quite quietly in the background.


Scream

Wes Craven is a very influential horror director and his opening scene for the film Scream has some very clever shots.  The audience are wondering where the threat to the lead character is and Craven chooses to linger on certain things to force us to look, which makes us feel threatened.

In this extract there is no particular parts. As i said earlier the director likes to linger on certain things and it is clear in this clip what he lingers on , the girl on the phone. This creates tension as we want to see what she is looking at when she is on the phone. They show us what she is looking at when she looks out the window but other times we can see her eyes staring at something but it never shows us what. The camera shots are mainly all close ups and some medium shots. The use of close ups is really effective in this clip as we can tell that she is scared and when we think the camera is going to show us we are kept guessing as to what and why she is looking even more worried or even more scared than she was in the other shot. All the sound that we hear is natural. There is no tense music. Although there is no tense music, when the phone rings it is very high pitched and if you are the audience watching this film and you are so gripped to it the sound of the phone will be enough to make you jump.