Cinematography Analysis

Media Shot Analysis: Orphan Trailer

Camera shots are very important for films because it can change the focus, set how the audience views the film & how they connect with all the characters.

The first shot that I analysed was a zooming in close up of the mother trying to open Esther's (the orphan) door. This shows that Esther must be hiding something because this door is locked and the person who plays her mother seems very panicky. This is conventional for a thriller movie because there is always an element of mystery and it helps to add to the climax of the movie. Another reason why they would have put this in is to help keep the audience engaged and adding the mystery will make the audience have questions which they will want to have answered.

Another significant shot was where Esther was screaming into the camera. It is a close up with a hand held movement which adds to the chaos that you can see in the screen. They also used a shallow focus, where everything in the background was blurred, which shows the audience that she is the most important thing and that she is the main focus. This is also conventional because you would normally chaos around the antagonist because they are the ones to create trouble. The chaos also makes the audience realise that Esther must be a main character and the chaos will make everyone pay attention to her and it is conventional for the antagonist to get the most attention in a thriller movie.

Another conventional camera shot used in this Orphan clip was the point of view show when the mother sees her car rolling down the icy road with her daughter in the back. You can see that it is a point of view shot because we can see the railing that we saw was in front of her in the shot beforehand, where her son turned her around. The point of view helps the audience connect with the mother because the audience can understand the distress she must be going through and it can help the audience feel pity and empathy for the mother, as it makes everyone wonder what it would be like to be in her position. This is conventional because in thriller films the female character is normally the weaker one, so you would expect that something bad is going to happen to her and she will not be able to handle it as the main male protagonist would be about to. Also we see her running for the car afterwards in a panicking and shock like state, which indicates that she cannot do nothing about it, whereas conventionally, the audience would expect a male protagonist to be able to stop the car somehow. Both the anticipation of something bad, the weaker female and the empathy for a character makes this clip a conventional one.

From this analysis of the 'Orphan' clip, I have learnt that the thriller genre uses shots that build on the character audience relationship (with the protagonist). The shots also keep the viewer on edge as this keeps the audience entertain and hooked into the film. This has also helped me with my consideration of what shots to include in my own thriller.