Cinematography

In the last two lessons we have been focussing on Cinematography which is the art and craft of the camera itself, in terms of its position and choice of shot type to film a scene and how this contributes to making meaning in the film. We looked at two films in particular, Chicken run and Wallace and Gromit which are both similar as they both are animated.

We looked closely at the length of the shots and how that portrays a different character with or without power. For example when looking at Chicken Run, I couldn't help notice that when Mrs Tweedie enters the camp the camera makes her look very big and aggressive by shooting the scene beneath her so that we are looking at the chickens perspective. This makes it seem that the chickens are tiny compared to her as they are looking up and it also shows she has power and authority whereas the chickens are vulnerable. 
I can link this idea of vulnerability and authority in my own film opening by filming the shots in different angles. Another example, is using different angles such as canted angles. This makes the audience uncomfortable and unsettled as we don't know why the camera isn't at a straight angle. Once again this would be a perfect technique to make my audience feel unsure in my thriller opening. This technique is used in Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, in the scene where Wallace experiment goes wrong and the camera is darting around the place to show chaos.

Lighting is also a big part of expressing the genre in a film. For example, in a horror / thriller film, dark colours such as black, greys and whites are used to create a spooky and unnerving scene. Both film clips we have looked at have included dark and sinister weather. Whereas for a rom-com bright colours would be used to show love, happiness and joy. I will be looking shooting my film opening in are dark and run down place.