LO4: Influences

When working on my short film pre-production, one of my greatest influences is James Wan's horror 'Malignant', particularly the portions of the movie set in Madison's house. Similarly to my short film, the characters are taunted by something stalking them within the house. Tension is created through the cinematography, such as the use of tracking shots. The camera would often follow the characters through the house as they investigated strange noises, lights turning off and objects moving. This makes the audience feel as if they are in the scene with the characters, creating tension and scary scenes, fulfilling the genre expectations of a horror movie. 

I will take inspiration from the cinematography of this movie by also using a tracking shot as my character investigates the kitchen. Similarly to Wan, I will use a fast panning shot at the end of the tracking shot to catch the audience off guard, allowing me to conform to typical horror conventions. As well as this, the scene will be mostly lit by the blue fridge light, opened by the entity. 

This will colour the scene with an overwhelming and intense blue, similarly to how Wan creates a unique visual style using highlighted colours that leaves a lasting impact on the audience and gives the movie an otherworldly supernatural feel, as well as connoting the spine chilling fear our character is currently feeling. The camera of the fast panning shot will turn with the character in the scene, this helps to give the character with a very short amount of screen time sympathy amongst the audience, as they feel as if they have been put in her shoes through the last horrifying moments of her life.

Another influence for my horror short film is the Evil Dead 2013 Remake, this is because of the movies 'chiaroscuro' lighting style. It uses a strong contrast between the light and the dark to often hide the antagonist in the darkness of the forest or cabin. It is effective within the horror genre due to its ability to create palpable tension and fear with the lighting. In scenes where we see the antagonist there is often dark shadows casted over them/around them in order to partially hide their appearance. This helps to create the fear of the unknown within the audience as they question what is happening and hidden just beyond sight. This creates tension as the audience never truly knows just what's around every corner or hiding in the shadows waiting to jump out at them, keeping them on the edge of their seat, successfully fulfilling the genre expectations of a horror movie. 

I will take inspiration for this primarily in my final scene, where the lighting will be used to hide the antagonist just barely out of sight, but still able to see their silhouette in the darkness. This climactic moment helps to re-create that fear of the unknown as the antagonist is revealed to us, however in the most obscure way possible. This gives the audience the satisfaction of being given answers, but still not enough to leave the audience with the full picture. This will also be used in scene 3, where the chiaroscuro lighting will hide my actor so that only their hand is visible reaching out from the darkness. 

LO2: Lighting

 3 Point Lighting

3 Point Lighting is a technique that uses three different light sources placed at various different angles and distances from the subject in order to properly light them. Each light source serves a specific purpose in casting and correcting shadows.  

KEY LIGHT: The primary light that makes up 3/4 of the light on screen.

FILL LIGHT: The secondary light is meant to fill the available unlit space to bring out further detail in the subject.

BACK LIGHT: The final light to define the outline of the subject to emphasise three-dimensionality.  

This is an important technique because: it ensures the audience can see the intended subject and achieves more unnatural lighting looks for different genres. This is beneficial to me as i want to achieve more unnatural and strong lighting for my horror short film. 

Chiaroscuro 

In cinematography, chiaroscuro can be defined as high contrast lighting. This technique has been used in art since ancient Greece, developed by renaissance artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci. Its often used to create dramatic effect and creating tension as characters hide and are revealed in the shadows and bright light. This will be a very effective technique to use in my horror film as the plot revolves around an intruder in the house lurking in the shadows and corners of our eyes just out of sight from our protagonist.

Soft Boxes 

Photographic lighting is a modifier that creates even and diffused light by either passing the light through a scattering material or by reflecting light off of a surface. This is usually enclosed around the bulb, and looks like an umbrella, appropriately named the 'umbrella light'.

 This effect minimises dark shadows and is useful for shooting in areas you want to appear well lit. This is what i could use in creating my final shot, where a bright all encompassing light is seen in front of our protagonist as their fate is sealed.