Planning Cinematography - Miss Miller

Cinematography is the use of camera shots and angles to create certain moods and atmospheres within a film. Cinematography is very important to a film, and all shots/angles are planned out carefully. Planning is crucial for a film to achieve the desired effect with its cinematography. We have chosen to use several camera angles and shots in our opening sequence.

The first shot of the sequence will be a panning shot. This will show the entire room that is featured in the opening scene. The audience will be introduced to the setting and everything in it, which will then give them some idea of what will happen in the rest of the sequence/film. This is important as the first impression of a scene/film determines the mood of the rest of the scene/film. The shot will portray the general wedding-theme - as shown by the iconography - which will intrigue the audience and make them anticipate a unique narrative, as it is unconventional and uncommon for thrillers to incorporate a theme of weddings/romance. Furthermore, panning shots are conventional as they are an effective way to show all of the objects/characters that are in the same setting.

Another shot in the scene will be a close up shot of the woman/ex-bride's face. This will help convey her strong, negative emotions, and the audience will understand that the woman wants to get revenge on someone (they do not know much about the actual plot at this point). This will create and build the relationship between the audience and the killer. Moreover, close up shots are conventional to the thriller genre as they help convey small but important parts of the scene. The use of this type of shot then goes on to engage the audience with the narrative and/or the characters.

In the sequence, we will use handheld shots during the flashbacks of the wedding. The handheld shots will symbolise the unsteadiness of the wedding, and the villain's mentality. The audience will then infer that the wedding could be the cause of something terrible, or that the wedding was terrible. This will engage the audience as they wish to find out what will happen next [or what already happened that they will find out about in a flashback - the deaths]. Handheld shots are conventional to the thriller genre and are commonly found in thriller films, as they convey unsteadiness and instability, and we chose to use handheld shots for this reason. We will also use them with the flashbacks to the [implied] murders.

Similarly, some shots in the sequence will have a canted angle. This will also suggest uneasiness and unsteadiness, and portray the ex-bride's unhealthy mental state, and negative emotions, as well as how the wedding was ruined. The canted angle will be present when the 'bride' is writing on the wedding balloons, which will portray her unhealthy mental state - she is dwelling on what could have been. Canted angles are common in the thriller genre, as they help portray unsteadiness and uneasiness in a similar fashion to handheld shots. Canted angles tilt the shot and make the audience understand that something is uneven or disorderly.

Point of view shots will be used in our sequence when the camera shows the photos in the 'wedding' photo album. We will use this type of shot as it connects the audience with the character as they can see what the character sees, and therefore experience what the character experiences. Point of view shots are typically used in films, particularly the thriller genre, to build and enhance the audience-character relationship. When the audience can relate to the character through seeing what the character sees, it improves the viewing experience because the audience feel more emotionally involved with the story.

Our sequence will be more effective through our use of cinematography. We have planned each shot appropriately, and are going to use only the most suitable shots throughout the sequence. The shots used will help portray a character's emotions, in turn provoking the same emotions in the audience, as the shots help the audience identify with characters. Our use of cinematography is quite conventional to the thriller genre as we are going to use a lot of close up shots, panning shots and handheld shots. All of these shots help the audience connect with the narrative and the characters. Planning our cinematography has helped us greatly as we know exactly how we want our sequence to look, which emotions to portray and where.