Shot Types

Match On Match Action
An editing technique used for continuity. One shot will cut to another shot showing the action of the subject in the first shot.





180 Degree Rule

If a cameraman is abiding by the 180 degree rule the characters will have the same left right relationship with one another. Filming will only take place within a 180 degree angle, such as during a conversation.












Shot/Reverse Shot
Shot/Reverse Shot is another type of editing used for continuity. 
During it, the camera will focus on a character and then switch to an object or other character that the first character is looking at, and then back to the first character.

Suspense

Suspense is defined as"A state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what is going to happen".
Suspense can be created in films through a number of different methods.

Extreme Close Ups

Close ups of only a characters feet when they are running or a character's face are used to build suspense. An extreme close up prevents the audience from seeing what a character is running from or what they look so afraid of.



Lighting
Dramatic contrasts between light and dark (e.g. silhouettes), bright disorienting lights, and dark shadows are all examples of how lighting is used to create suspense in film.







Music
A technique used classically by Hitchcock, music is used to create suspense in horror films. Low, booming sounds work but high pitched, shrill noises are more effective.

Cross Cutting:
Cross cutting can be used to create suspense as it provides the audience with knowledge about what could happen to a specific character but the character is shown as not knowing so there is no information as to whether he will be alright or how he will react.

Horror Film Conventions

Conventions of the Horror Genre
Setting:
Isolated environments or small communities. More urban areas will usually feature dark alleyways, run down or dilapidated areas.
Most buildings that the film is set in will have a dark past for instance the bloody history of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining.
Good locations for a horror film include:

• Abandoned houses 
• Woodlands
• Cabins 
• Insane asylums
• Underground tunnels
• Graveyards
• Farms

Camerawork:
Camerawork tends to be unnatural and expressive.
Low angles are used to portray a sense of lack of control or submissiveness. High angle shots are used when looking down on someone and usually precede a jump scare.
POV shots are used from the character's point of view to involve and invoke fear in the audience. They can also be used to show things from the monster's point of view (as in The Evil Dead when the monster is chasing Ash through the house).
Handheld shots make it difficult for the audience to figure out what is onscreen such as in The Blair Witch Project. This creates fear through uncertainty.
Depth of field makes it harder to see monsters approaching the protagonist from behind and creates jump scares.
Extreme Close Ups can be used to guide audience reaction and generate more fear as the monster is not in the shot (fear of the unknown again).
Sound:
Diegetic sounds can be used to create fear and suspense e.g. screaming from characters, footsteps, and unnatural monster noises.
Non-Diegetic sounds can also be used to create fear and suspense e.g. rapid heartbeats, and atmospheric music.
Visuals:
Dark colours like red and black are often common in horror films, they link to evil, blood and danger.
Lighting, like the camerawork is usually not naturalistic and expressive. Low lighting or limited light sources (such as a torch) can be used to create suspense through fear of the unknown. Specific props have become well known and associated with certain characters in the horror genre (chainsaws, claw gauntlets, machetes) but typical props in horror films are: weapons, masks and religious and supernatural iconography.
The iconography of classic monsters is also used to connotate fear and revulsion (mummies, vampires, werewolves).
Characters:
Common character types found in horror films are:


Themes:

• Good versus evil
• Religion/cults
• Traumatic childhoods
• Revenge
• The supernatural
• Ghosts
• Nightmares
• Science errors
• Madness/insanity
• Lust
• Envy
• Suicide

All of these themes are fairly dark and have negative or frightening connotations in society.

Common Horror Cliches (just for fun):

• People making bad decisions: splitting the group up, withholding information from those who may be able to help you, messing with Ouija boards.
• Car not starting.
• No phone reception.
• That One Guy: kind of a jerk, has a bit of an alpha male complex, will argue with the hero and no one will really be sad when he dies.
• Adult figures of authority never seem to help much.
• No guns (or everyone has terrible aim).
• People involved in sexual acts tend to die.

Film Genres