Initial Research: Genre Specific Analysis 2

"Pictured" 2014 Short Film Analysis:

A creepy picture plays with the fear of a woman. But maybe there is any connection between the girl on the picture and the woman who trys to find out the secret behind the glass.

Director:

David F. Sandberg

Writers:

David F. Sandberg,  Lotta Losten

Stars:

Lotta Losten,  Hanna Johansson

"Pictured" - short film

Through this analysis of "Pictured", I will be analysing different aspects of what all films should generally have, for example, camera shot, angle and movement will be a title for my analysis. This is so I can look at camera angles and therefore show how these certain shots, angles and movements are effective within the film, and therefore gain research into using it in my film.   

Camera Shots/Angles





A medium shot is used to show her walking through her hall, the camera moves slowly with her so as she walks towards the camera. The camera is slowly moving backwards. In this shot, it begins to introduce the character and what she is wearing. It appears to be wearing normal clothes, so we can tell by the time of day its afternoon/evening.

This shot is used to signify that something bad has happened. Used to formulate an idea in the audiences mind that she isn't the only one in the house. This type of idea we will use in our film, as when something such as an object in the house that has moved from the original position, creates a sense of fear to say that you aren't the only one present in the house. This shot can also be used as a POV shot, which creates an effect that you are actually there, adding tension slowly.

A reoccurring shot in this short film is at 2:27 onwards, where the women notice the plant pot mud leading up to the painting. This close up shot of the painting introduces where and who the problem is. As you can see, the close up is important as it provides the viewing screen to only allow you to focus on the women in the middle. As well as this, there is no wallpaper or bright colours, this could be used as a technique for the audience to only be distracted by the picture and the picture only. This technique we will use, as the less distractions from the main plot there is, the easier and more scarier the plot is to understand.

This close up shot of the women, realising that the 'thing' can only move when she isn't looking at it, covers her eyes with her hand. The same technique of the last screenshot is shown here, where the only close ups shown have plain backgrounds, so therefore create an effect that they are the only thing in the shot.

A close up is used to show the killer in the women. This is to create a scare as we see what he looks like. The killer is placed in the centre of the frame with little in the background, this is important because the killer needs to be the shock. If there was a lot in the background it would take away the attention of what is necessary for the audience to see.

These two shots at 2:48 and 2:39 are matching. This is a nice effect, as the storyline is a lot easier to follow because of this and creates a pleasant flow to the film. However, despite the lack of camera shots in this film, the variety of camera shots it has create a lot of tension through out the short film. A limiting side to this is that the audience only get a small amount of camera shots to see and view, limiting there views on the film, and also they may get very bored on the fact that its the same shots repeated, but just different.

Sound

In this short film the sound is not as strong as it could of been, the only section it had good sound in was near the bit where she realised there was a problem with the picture. In general there is not a lot of sound used in the film but I don't believe that it is very effective at all, it is very quiet and slow paced which doesn't add much tension at all and therefore made the film less effective in its entirety. To prevent this happening in my film, I will make sure that the music in our film is copyright free, and therefore then having the music as a lot of tension added, to present a lot of tension to the audience. 

Editing
The initial editing for this film is good. The continuity of the film is also very good, as there is no problems transitioning between different shots and cuts. However the special effects of the film, for example the women on the picture aren't the best, they add to the film as being very childish, and doesn't add much fright at all. The editing of the close up of the women face between the picture is quite poor, as it shows that something is going to happen as she keeps closing her eyes, making the film very predictable and therefore doesn't add much of a jump scare. From this film I know that the close ups of the actors within the film must be good as it then makes the editing worth while within that the shots chosen will create effect on the audience well.

Mise en scene

To begin with the mise en scene was very good, the clothing and makeup the actor was wearing was good and the picture was very effective on how it moves and changes throughout the film. However the set does not really conform to the codes and conventions of a horror film, the set is very pristine with neither high or low key lighting where in a horror film you would expect to see slight odd or different things about the set and with a lower key lighting that was actually used. The clean set does connote innocence and the unexpectedness of the actor but not enough to make it a necessary thing, ti would of been more effective if David conformed to the conventions of the horror genre and made it a bit more mysterious and spooky, using low key lighting to convey the sinister parts of the film as well as to build tension. Im going to learn from this because i want my film to be innocent when it can be and very scary when it needs to be as well.