Reflections on Shots - BLK H/W

Conventions of the Horror Genre

Before we started shooting, we decided that our chosen genre would be Horror, because everyone in the group knew the stereotypical conventions for the Horror genre; there should be a young, innocent, female victim and a broody (although not always supernatural) murderer with a grudge. The horror genre also uses low key lighting, particularly on the face of the murderer, to make he/she look much more ominous and spooky, and also to create a sense of foreboding.

My Chosen Shot

I decided to choose this shot, because I thought that the framing and use of space here was quite effective; the girl in the locker, looking terrified, looks so small and compacted, and the audience feels sympathy towards her for having to take such measures to escape from the murderer's wrath. Also, the medium long two-shot shows the necessary details without missing out or adding any unnecessary information; we see the girl, victimised, her face terrified and listening closely against the locker for the footsteps of her attacker; we also see the attacker full on, looking deranged and maniacal, his hands tense with rage; we can also work out the setting of the still- it is clearly in a school because of the use of motif via the lockers. 

If We Had To Reshoot

One of the key problems with this Horror shoot was the lighting- it was midday and the Sun was very bright, causing our shots to look far brighter than we had planned them to. I think that the lighting on the girl looks good, because she is in a very dark shadow, but maybe next time, we should choose for the attacker to be in a much darker light, in order to make him look far more threatening. I would also not have the left edge of the frame, where the lockers are appearing midway from the frame and curving up, because it looks messy and uncomfortable to look at. I would also have the attacker come forward more, because there is a lot of empty space above his head and it looks unnecessary.