36 Quai des Orfèvres. Directed by Olivier Marchal. Madman Films, 2004. All Rights Reserved.
6.9
EYE SLIDE
A character's Point of View can be one of the strongest ways to reveal new information. This works when your character is expecting to see one thing, but actually sees another. In the example shown here, the character thinks he is creeping up on a sniper. When he gets there, it's actually a tailor's dummy dressed as a sniper.
After building expectation, it takes a lot of visual effort to break that expectation. Although the wide shot clearly shows the dummy, it takes a moment for the audience to work out what they're looking at, because they were expecting something else. The audience goes through exactly the same moment of surprise as the character. If you only use the wide shot, you'll find you have to linger on it for quite some time to make your point. Instead, you can use the Eye Slide move.
Cut to a longer lens, giving a closer look at the object or person in question. In reality, your character can't zoom in his vision, but the use of a longer lens simulates his attention being drawn into the details. He looks at one end of the dummy, and then slides his eyes rapidly to the other end. This fast motion, between slight pauses, creates a dynamic shot that gets the information across.
Set up your camera a good distance away from whatever object or person you're revealing. It helps to create tension if you're looking through something else, such as a hole in a wall. Shoot the scene with the camera motionless. Then change to a long lens. Start the shot at one end of the object, pause, then whip pan to the other end of the object.
Enemy at the Gates. Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. Roadshow Home Entertainment, 2001. All Rights Reserved.
7.1
BUILDING TENSION
One way to create suspense is to stare into empty space, expecting something to appear. To make this even more frightening, you can hide the view from the audience for a while.
In the example shown here, the character is staring into an empty corridor, listening for sounds of approach. That is frightening enough, but is made more tense by beginning the shot with the empty corridor out of view. As the camera slides along behind the character, and we finally get to look down the corridor, the tension is unbearable.
The move itself is nothing more than a simple track and pan, but knowing when to use this is key. It doesn't work if you're actually revealing something in the corridor. If you reveal a big alien at the end of the corridor, as the camera slides across, that simply leaves the audience feeling cheated, because they were excluded from information known to the character. By tracking across to show empty space, the audience shares the character's unease.
Your character should, therefore, be staring through a doorway, down an alley, or into another space. Set up your camera low to the ground, to increase the sense of vulnerability. Frame your character on the left, and maintain this framing as you track across. When the move is complete, your character will either turn and run, or walk into the empty space.
Alien Resurrection. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 1997. All Rights Reserved.
7.2
MISDIRECTION FOR SHOCK
Audiences love to jump at a moment of surprise, but they hate it when you try to surprise them and fail. With modern audiences being so aware of movie techniques, it's more difficult than ever to make them jump. Many directors fail, because they show the protagonist walking down a corridor with their back to a big empty space, and the audience just knows something is going to jump out.
A variation on this technique is to show the character shocked by something mundane, such as a can of paint falling over, and just as they sigh with relief, the serial killer jumps out. Again, this is such a cliché that the audience nearly always sees it coming, and there is no genuine surprise.
To actually surprise the audience, you should build tension, apparently relieve tension, and then, when the audience relaxes, shock them. One way is to have the character apparently distracted by something off-screen. In this example from Minority Report, Tom Cruise leans over the pool, and we're tense, wondering if something is going to happen. But then he looks up and calls across to somebody off-screen. Just at the moment we're wondering who he's talking to, the girl leaps out of the water, and the audience jumps out of their seats.
Set up your camera so that your character appears to be alone in the shot. You can go in quite tight, but if you stay out wide the audience is less suspicious of an impending surprise.
Have the character look past the camera, to something off-screen. This forces the audience to wonder what he's looking at, who he's talking to, and what he's about to say. This is a genuine distraction, and means the audience is guaranteed to be surprised. A moment after the second character (or monster) jumps out, cut to a tight close-up, perhaps from an extreme angle, so that we engage with the character's shock.
Rather than just having a random noise happen off-screen, which catches the character's attention, there should be a legitimate reason for the character to look off-screen. In Minority Report, Cruise's character asks a question to somebody off-screen, which makes perfect sense for his character at that moment. This is better than forcing a random event to happen, just to create the distraction. The more logical and character-driven the distraction, the better the surprise will be.
Minority Report. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2002. All Rights Reserved.
7.3
FEARING A CHARACTER
Characters who've been driven over the edge are usually far more frightening than any monster. A good script and good acting are essential, but the performance can be enhanced greatly by a simple camera move. Essentially, you keep the villain's eyes in the exact same part of the frame throughout the scene.
The example shown here was shot by Kubrick in the nearly square 4:3 aspect ratio, but was cropped to widescreen for the cinema. In both versions, the effect is the same, because no matter how Jack Nicholson moves, the camera compensates to keep his eyes in the same part of the screen. This is true within each shot, and even between shots in the same scene.
To make this even more frightening, the victim appears in the same part of the frame as well. This is only possible when you frame your characters centrally. The slight “jump cut” feeling adds to the effect. It also applies whether or not you're using an over-the-shoulder shot.
How you set up your camera will depend entirely on the subject matter of the scene, but to get this move right, direct your camera operator to keep the actor's eyes in the same part of the frame. Direct your actors to limit head and body movement, so the camera doesn't have to jerk around to follow them. To create the sense of fear, have one character back off, while the other follows. As Kubrick illustrates, you don't need to be limited to straight lines or one level for this shot to work.
The Shining. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Warner Home Video, 1980. All Rights Reserved.
7.4
FEARING A PLACE
In horror movies and thrillers, we expect characters to be afraid of other people, monsters, explosions, and so on. Surprisingly, though, the fear of a place is one of the most powerful ways to convey a character's unease. In truth, nobody is ever scared of a place; you're scared of what might be there, or what might appear. In that moment, though, you look into the empty space and feel the fear. If you can capture this on film, you create a strong moment that will live on in the audiences' mind.
The way you position your actor is a crucial part of this. The effect you want to achieve is of feeling somewhat trapped, but at the same time being in a relatively open space. This apparent contradiction is solved by putting your actor up against a wall, as shown in this example. This lets the audience see that the character is backed up against a wall (literally and metaphorically), and that there is a long corridor behind her. This is much more effective than showing a shot from directly in front of her.
Her gaze, pas
t the camera, makes us want to see what she's seeing. When we then cut to the shot of an empty space, we share her fear of this place, wondering what's going to happen next.
Place your actor against a wall or other object, and position the camera as close to the wall as possible. Frame the actor so that she is to one side of the screen, revealing the dark space behind her. Then, reverse the camera and show the empty space she's looking at. Do not shoot from behind the actor, as this is meant to be a Point of View, and the actor should not be seen in the shot at all.
Underworld. Directed by Len Wiseman. Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment, 2003. All Rights Reserved.
7.5
WIDE SPACES
When your characters are walking in a wide-open space, there are many opportunities to create fear. The example shown here demonstrates how a change of direction signifies a move into danger. In this particular shot it's emphasized because the characters are leaving a visible path, but it works equally well when no path is visible.
The shot begins with the characters in a wide space, which is scary, because the light drops off so dramatically. What's unseen in the dark captures the imagination of the audience. The characters then move off their path, and the camera moves with them. To the audience, this feels as though they're moving out of the light and into the darkness. If this takes place in daylight, it feels like moving from the known and ordinary into the unusual and frightening. It's so powerful that it should be used only when your character is truly taking a step into the unknown.
Set up your camera directly in front of the actors, and have them walk toward the camera. When they get quite close, have them move off their path (whether there's an actual path or not) and track with them. The track shouldn't be quite fast enough to keep up, so that they move out of the frame as they walk.
The timing of your tracking move is critical. It should begin at the moment the actors move off the path. Although this move is quite abrupt and noticeable, that's what you want. If you started the shot with camera moving, the audience would not sense any change when the actors move off the path. Keep the camera still, and then move with the actors. It's important to let them move out of the frame, to signify that they're going into the unknown.
An American Werewolf in London. Directed by John Landis. Universal Studios Home Video, 1981. All Rights Reserved.
7.6
VISUAL SHOCK
One of the best ways to give your audience a fright is to fill a previously empty space with something unexpected. In this example, we see Claire Danes struggling to start her car, and as she bends to pick up her keys we see the empty space through the window. When she sits back up, her attacker is standing outside the window.
To get this to work, you don't want the audience to know that a surprise is coming within the same shot. They know a surprise is going to happen soon, because the character is being pursued, but you need to misdirect them. Here, the struggle with the car keys appears to be the subject of the shot, even though it's actually building up to the moment of shock.
The effect works best when there are no cuts, so your move should begin by showing an empty space behind the actor, then move to show something else, then move back to show the space refilled. This does not work well if you neglect to show the empty space first. If this shot began on the car keys, then moved up to reveal the attacker, there wouldn't be much surprise at all.
Set up your camera so that the foreground actor appears to be framed in a relatively conventional way. That is, don't leave a huge empty space around or behind her, as this gives the game away. So long as the audience sees an empty space, even if glimpsed, that is enough.
Move or tilt your camera to follow the action. Make sure the motivation is realistic, such as a dropped object. When the actor moves back into the original position, move the camera into its original position. Block carefully to ensure that the second actor is clearly framed, perhaps by getting the foreground actor to sit further back than before.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Directed by Jonathan Mostow. Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment, 2003. All Rights Reserved.
7.7
A CHANGE OF MIND
When a pursuit is underway, one of the ways to make it seem more horrific and frightening is to have your characters struggle to choose an escape route. Rather than seeing them run, watch them struggle as they move in one direction and then another. You can emphasize this by moving the camera around them as they shift.
The example shown here illustrates this well. Upon hearing ominous howling, the characters turn away from the camera. The camera moves faster than they do, and gets in front of them as they come to a halt, uncertain of where to go.
Once again, they turn and move away from the camera. Although they are in a different place, this repetition of their turn and move away from the camera is essential for the best effect. Without this repetition you still create a sense of unease, but the repetition emphasizes that they aren't really getting anywhere.
You can start your shot with the characters facing the camera, but they should then turn and move to the side. As they do, arc your camera around them, moving faster than they do. It's almost as though the camera gets in their way and causes them to stop. Then they turn around and walk away from the camera once more.
You can cut between several different versions of this shot, to really stress how trapped they feel. When the attacker is heard but unseen, you get the strongest sense of despair.
An American Werewolf in London. Directed by John Landis. Universal Studios Home Video, 1981. All Rights Reserved.
7.8
SHIELDING ATTACKER
Misdirection is the key to creating surprise. If the audience is convinced to pay attention to something else, they will be surprised when the attacker returns. For this to work you need it to seem impossible for the attacker to catch up, and you need to give the audience something else to focus on.
Here, Harrison Ford is struggling on a window ledge. That gives the audience something to think about. They don't forget that the attacker is out there, but they're wondering whether he'll fall, rather than whether he'll be attacked. Secondly, it seems impossible that the attacker could leap out here; it's a window ledge, after all. When the attacker bursts through the boarded-up window, it's a complete surprise, and the audience jumps out of their seats.
Set up your camera with a long lens, with the unseen attacker closer to the camera than the other actor. This makes the attacker's appearance more dramatic. The long lens also foreshortens the distance, making it seem unlikely that anything or anyone could fit into that space, thus increasing the moment of surprise.
Time the attacker's appearance to come just a moment after the other actor makes a move. As Ford reaches for the window ledge, that's the moment the foot bursts through the window. By combining many layers of misdirection, you create a strong effect.
Blade Runner. Directed by Ridley Scott. Warner Home Video, 1982. All Rights Reserved.
7.9
WINDOW OF FEAR
There are few things as frightening as a face appearing at a window. The problem is that we are so used to seeing frightening faces appear at windows, that the moment we see an empty, dark window, we expect to see a face there. If you want the moment to really shock, you have to give the audience something else to think about.
The trick is to have your character do two things at once. In the example shown here, the character is tying to do something to the door, at the same time as she's trying to do something with the faucet. She can't quite reach both at once. By having her torn between the two things, the audience is directed to really pay attention to her struggle. We watch her hands, and we try to work out if it's possible for her to do both things at once. This means we completely forget about the blank, dark window, even though we know it's there.
Better still, her movement between the faucet and the door means that as the camera follows her movement, the window goes momentarily out of frame. When the windo
w reappears, the face is in shot.
Your camera can be set up on a tripod, with no more movement than a simple pan to follow your actor's movement. What's important is that you set up a plausible conflict for her to deal with. Make sure she has two pressing needs that she needs to move between, in order to make the audience forget about the window.
Friday the 13th Part II. Directed by Steve Miner. Paramount Home Entertainment, 1981. All Rights Reserved.
8.1
OBJECT GUIDE
When you're shooting a continuous scene — without cuts — how do you move from one place to the other without it seeming forced? In truth, most directors don't bother about this, and either cut from one place to another, or just pan from once character to another. That's fine, but not as flowing and beautiful as a choreographed shot that camouflages the movement behind an action.
This example shows how a relatively insignificant piece of paper is used to give the camera a motivation to move. The first character hands the paper to the second character, and we follow her as she takes it to the third. The piece of paper is not insignificant, but neither is it the focus of the scene. It merely gives us a reason to move from the right of the set to the left. When executed well this is far more satisfying than simply cutting, or swinging across without motivation.
In this example, the two sides of the scene are in communication with each other. They are talking to each other across the café, so the move joins the two parts of the scene. You can use this technique equally well to end one isolated conversation, and move to another within the same location.
MasterShots Vol 1 Page 7
