Personally I find handheld camera work being the most effective way into scaring your audience. It takes P.O.V shots and makes them incredibly creepy. As an audience we are still very limited with what we see and since the camera is far more unsteady it really gives you the sense that you're the one behind the camera and that you're far more involved, making the whole cinematic experience more realistic and in effect frightening.
Blair Witch Project (1999) is most famous for its documentary style of filming with it almost entirely being filmed with handheld cameras. I find it one of the most scariest films I've watched yet through out it we are never shown any gore, violence, or witches, believe it or not. This may also be the case for many other thrillers yet if they don't depend on visuals to create tension music takes over. Again, there is no sound track of any kind with the only aural elements in the film being conversation between the student film makers. Handheld camera work is the reason in why this film is so scary and such a success, tension is incredibly high throughout the film as you really find yourself believing you are stuck in the forest with the other students desperately wanting to find your way out.
The reason I looked at Blair Witch is that it was both incredibly cheap to make and a great success. Handheld camera work can at times look unprofessional if used for the wrong genre but i feel we can take the disadvantage of us having basic equipment and a very low budget and use it to our advantage, hopefull making a truly frightening thriller opening.
Amen That Brother!
ReplyDeleteI personally love handheld camerawork. If used effectively it can get you feeling like your actually inside the head of the character and experiencing their fear. Getting int he mind of the audience is a key convention of the thriller film, and this technique is a great way to achieve this.
Good post James - no doubt handheld can add immediacy and a certain sense of subjectivity to a scene/film but so long as it is not overused. Don't forget the value of the tripod in all this either! Using handheld selectively can be much more powerful.
ReplyDeleteCertainly with Blair Witch handheld was ideal in that it made it look more like student work (realism) and suited the low budget of the filmmakers. At times though (particularly when walking or running with the camera) you run the risk of making your audience feel sick. Many people walked out of BW suffering from motion sickness. I remember feeling a little queasy at one point.
Interesting how BW success lies in that classic thriller device - the principle of concealment (the 'not showing' as you say). A real Hitchcock staple - to let the audience's own personal fears come out through their own imagination - one of the reasons why he consistently ranks in so many 'top tens' for Thrillers.
I'm not so sure about the hand held gorring. Like mr.m said, it can turn out just looking like you're at sea! Look at the reviews for "Cloverfield" that is mainly hand held, and is making the audience sick!. However, I agree that if done well, it can be extremly spooky! POV's are the best for engageing the audience and their imagenation, but there's nothing wrong with using a tripod!
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to the cloverfield reviews on "rotten tomatoes"
ReplyDeletehttp://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/cloverfield/
Hmm. I can entirely support Kat's concern about the vomitworthiness of excessive handheld. I watched the last half of Cloverfield with my eyes shut it was making me feel so nauseous!
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