Cinema Lecture

What a way to end the last week of the semester. I thoroughly enjoyed the discussions we had concerning cinema and it was fun to be able to discuss the elements of cinema and then see examples of how those elements are used in film. Of the elements that we discussed, I feel that the camera shots and angles of used in the film make up the meat and potatoes of the film. First off, camera angles seem to be used the most in film and seemed to be used to add dynamics to the film. Films use specific shots in order to give the viewer a certain feeling or point of view. One type of film that comes to my mind when I think of camera angles are horror films because they seem to accentuate the use of camera angles to give that scary or eerie feeling to viewers. In horror films, you often see a close up of an individuals face after they hear a strange noise to show their reaction to the sound. Usually, their facial expression give the viewer the idea that the character is horrified and yet they still venture out to determine what the noise was only to end up eaten or cut in half. Horror films also like to use the high angle and low angle shots to indicate to viewers which characters hold the power or authority over the other characters. One scene that comes to my mind that uses this idea comes from the scenes we viewed in class from the movie the omen. We could see that the nanny standing at the top of the stairs obviously held the authority over the mother standing at the bottom although the mother was barking orders to the nanny. Although the nanny eventually gave in to the nanny, it is obvious that the nanny new more than the mother about the boy and held a higher stewardship over the boy than did the mother. Obviously the nanny knew more about the boy than the mother giving the nanny even more power over the mother. It was also interesting to see how the high and low angle shots were used to portray the boys vulnerability to the church. The film showed shots of the church as if the boy was looking up at the church and then shots of the boy as if the church was looking down at him. Films uses these concepts to give you the feeling that they want you to have. What I appreciate most about the lecture on cinema is I now have a better understanding of films use of these concepts. This will aid me in my own interpretation of cinema as well as to have a better understanding of what is occurring in the film. Sometimes films use these elements to give away little secrets about the characters throughout the film without giving away the ending. I mean, look at the scene from the omen where the mother is at the bottom of the stairs and the nanny at the top. This scene is totally giving away what is occurring in the film or what is about to occur in the film. Therefore, as we have a better understanding about how these concepts are used in film, we can have a better understanding of the characters and how interact with one another.