Reflection on shot!

Reflection on shot

A dominant reading may interpret that the still is from a typical horror TV series due to the eerie blue background, which gives a hint of darkness to the shot. By placing a blue filter in front of the camera, (which we obtained from the portable light) we thought that this would make the still look more sinister as cold and tenebrous backgrounds are important genre conventions in horror TV dramas.

In addition, the framing of the shot is very wide; this was for the audience to absorb the setting of the shot, as it is located on very steep stairs. This saturates the audience with fear as we tried to make the characters in the shot look isolated. Furthermore, we shot the still from a low angle to add mystery and to encapsulate the antagonist’s legs, which therefore made the shot look more threatening.

Regarding the mise-en-scene further, we did not include any props in the still, as we did not have many that suited the gothic theme. However, we wanted the audience to denote the protagonist lying on the stairs and ask themselves, ‘What happened to her?’ Moreover, the protagonist is lying on the floor in a very awkward position, as she is upside down on the stairs, therefore, the audience may connote that she has been pushed or that she is dead.

We wanted our narrative moment to be the climax of a typical horror TV drama. In addition, we wanted the audience to denote that the character is lying on the stairs unconsciously as her eyes are closed. Furthermore, the lighting of the shot is pre-eminently dark, which is very conventional of a gothic drama. We did this by trying to pick a location which was enclosed and we did not add any additional lighting.

This makes the shot look more suspenseful as it engrosses the audience, forcing them to search for further clues about what happened to the protagonist. However, one may argue that it is lighter on the left-hand side of the still, this makes the shot look scarier as it makes the lighting look uneven, however this was due to a window on the left-hand side. 

Overall, I think that this shot is very successful, I like the secluded setting as it is not obvious that it is in a school, therefore, the audience may infer that the still is in a basement. However, in hindsight, I think that we could have improved the still by adding more props, such as a knife or a hammer. This may have made the still look tenser and thus added to our conventional horror genre.