Coursework research: similar insitutions

 In this blog I have looked at been given the task to look at similar insitutions to see whether they use the same conventions. So for this blog I decided to look at the music industry and percifically horror/thriller music videos.

This is a video from Rihanna called disturbia. The themes and connatattions of the video are based on the horror/thriller genre. I have chosen this video percifically because of the composistion of the shots and camera angles as well as the fact that the use of editing is extremely intriguing.

The first thing to notice in the vidoe is the cinematography and in particular the lighting and colour palette. The director of the music video has used dark blue's and greys to add the the sinister atmosphere, and this slowly builds tension. This is something that I too hope to implement in my work. Then the director has used editing through the use of excessive cuts and jump shots. The effect of this is that it gives the illusion that something supernaturnal or transcedental is on the agenda. And it elludes to the fact that the characters are not safe. Another thing that interested me was the use of non digectic sound. The music slowly builds in the beggining, with a piano and other instruments used sparingly to add to the suspense. Me and my partner Jack were intitially playing with the idea of using slow music in the beggining of the trailer and the effective way that it is used in this video confirms my beleive we should try and use it.

Here is a screen caption from the video. The director has used lens flares and alos some lighting tricks to distort the images.

The lighting is also powerfully used. The director has some how been able to accentuate the colour of yellow all around the room. This helps to make the characters stand out and makes the imagery much more profound. Thie importance of this is that these images stay firmly in the viewers head long after seeing the video. This links in with my movie trailer because we want some of the imagery to be earry and powerful to the point where if we were to release the fictional movie the images that are in the trailer will have been running minds for a prolonged period of time , that it got to the point that they were desperate to see the actual movie.



But the most important thing I can take from this process is the use of camera angles. Here's 2 captions showcasing  both a low angle and a high angle. The low angle has been used to show the emotional fragility of the character and this has been juxtaposed with a  high angle that's highlights her loneliness and venerability. And because the protagonist in my film trailer is going to be character who is very emotionally unstable, the use of these shots will appropriately convey this wide range of emotions without the need for any dialogue.