Cinematography

In preparation for the creation of my teaser trailer/poster/magazine cover I thought it would be useful to study the cinematography in two vastly different films. The look/mis-en-scene of a film is very important, for my own film I will be going for more of a 'Tyrannosaur' type style rather than a complicated, high budget, picturesque film like 'Inception'. This distinction is important as it partly dictates where a film would be shown, in smaller arthouse cinema's you usually find lower budget films whereas in large cinema's e.g. Odeon popular blockbuster films are quite usually exhibited. This is due to the scale of the film and it's budget. Films such as Inception are full of special effects, CGI, big name actors and action, the full effect of this would not be suitable on a small screen, through condensing the size of the screen the splendor of the scenes would not be fully appreciated. This contrasts to films with a small budget and lesser known actors.

The film Tyrannosaur, a typical arthouse film, focuses more on the power of acting and atmosphere to attract its audience rather than effects and scale. In my opinion, the lower budget films have slightly better acting, this is because they cannot rely on effects and CGI to carry the audience through the film. Arthouse cinema's are usually quite small and homely, they create a sense of nostalgia as the screening rooms are much more intimate and condensed. This creates the effect of sitting in a living room or somewhere like home, which allows the audience to relax and connect with the film. Acting in lower budget films, as I said is very important and effective, I believe this is appreciated fully in a small screen as the audience has much more intimacy with the film, with none of the noise and food crunching that you find in large cinema's. Here are some examples of cinematography in the two films;

These images are all from different scenes in the film Inception, as you can see they all rely on a sense of grandeur and hyperreality, this is emphasised by the large scale and special effects. The images are very 

powerful because of their surrealty and the sense of wonder around them (as they are based in dreams). The film would be enjoyable simply because of this imagery that is featured throughout, it would still be effective even if the acting wasn't great. This is seen in a lot of high budget films who are popular mostly because of their effects rather than the level of acting or storyline (thor, tron, generally marvel films...). Only in my opinion of course.

These images from the film Tyrannasaur appear very raw and gritty, which contrasts to the grand imagery in Inception. These images are all set in everyday locations, which need no special effects or large budget. The images focus on the actors rather than the surrounding, emphasising emotion and atmosphere. The films are very different in style, as you can see the colour and surroundings here are all slightly desaturated and dull, which related to the dark themes in the story. Inception focuses on dreams and the impossible, which is most effective when filled with colour and effects.
For my own film, as it will be arthouse in style and on a low budget may be similiar in appearance to that of Tyrannosaur, This is England or perhaps Dead Man's Shoes. I will look at some of the film posters and perhaps magazine covers (if there are any) for these films, to try and find inspiration from their styling and photography.
When looking at psychological horrors it is clear that a lot of the imagery is dark and dismal, to conform with the horror theme. Evil and darkness is a recurring subject matter in this genre of film, and so the imagery will often accomodate to this. I believe my locations will reflect this well, being of dark and sinister nature, I will go into this further on a separate post.
The cinematography in my own piece will act as a basis for my magazine cover and film poster, I plan on using images from the trailer to use in these artifacts. This will link all three products together and will generate interest for the film.