Horror Still Analysis

This shot is a CU of a young female character. To the right of the shot is a brick wall, and she is looking upwards around the wall to the right of the frame as if she is hiding. The expression on her face is one of fear, and there is a diagonal beam of light which illuminates her eyes.

This still is clearly from a horror film, clearly represented by the dark colours and shadows, which distorts our view of the background, limiting the information given to the audience; the audience fear the unknown. The shaft of light illuminates the girls eyes, adding to the expression of fear on her face. The light also points in the same direction as she is looking, to the right of frame, as if the light also illuminates whatever she is looking at. She is hiding behind a wall as if she is hiding from something, whatever she is looking for.

To achieve this shot, first we had to find a dark location, which we found behind the stage in the great hall. In this area there were also many props from school performances, including the wall we used in our shot. We set up the camera on its tripod at head height, and used the zoom function to get the frame tight on Ciara's face. To light the shot, we closed the shutters on the portable light so that it only illuminated a narrow shaft of light. We concentrated this shaft on Ciara's eyes and took the shot.

I feel that the framing, and the expression of fear on Ciara's face was very successful in creating an effective shot. I also think that the lighting was effective, the darkness and the shaft of light making it clear that this shot is from a horror film.

With hindsight, however we should have used two lights, one to create the shaft of light, and one to illuminate the whole frame, as the shot is currently too dark. We also should have made sure that we took the first shot quickly, within 2 or 3 takes, allowing us to take more shots at different locations, and then we could have chosen our final shot from 3 or 4 good shots.