Horror Still Analysis

1. Describe your shot and identify in what way it could be seen as representing horror.
Extreme Long shot. High-key lighting. The shot looks like a victim has been pushed down the stairs, and the camera is from the perspective of the ‘killer’. I also like the light coming through the railings, it creates an eerie effect. Shows feelings of claustrophobia, entrapment and vulnerability. It creates an enigma because you are not sure why the person has ended up at the bottom of the stairs, however you know it represents horror because a convention of horror is many deaths, in different ways. The character in shot would not be the main character as they main girl usually triumphs and doesn't die, this character is probably just a random victim, perhaps who was in the killers way.

2. What did you do to achieve the effect?
To create this effect the person taking the shot stood at the top of this narrow staircase while the actor in the shot appears dead at the bottom. We took a long shot because it shows the surroundings and emphasises the fact she has been pushed down the stairs, a CU, or MS wouldn't have got across the creepy staircase and wouldn't have been from the killers POV.

3. What is successful about your shot?
The high angle shot makes the dead body look more like a victim, and from the perspective of the killer makes him seem really powerful, and shows the victim was vulnerable, and was trapped and couldn't escape the killer. The fact you can see more stairs to the right of the body where there is more light, gives the impression that you don’t know what is going to happen. It has a very clear meaning of what has happened in the shot.

4. What would you do differently in hindsight?
Have more effective lighting, perhaps darker with just the light coming though the railings at the top. I would have tried different locations to have more variety and tried many different shot types. We needed low-key lighting to make it more scary.