Cinematography Techniques - An analysis of The Shining

 

An Introduction to Film Form

In the shining clip we see the boy riding his trike through the hotel while being followed by a camera man with a steadicam, This gives the viewers the sense of actually being in the hotel following the boy around and watching his every move. The use of a steadicam removes any sort of abnormalities as if you were just holding the camera with your hands and walking behind the character there will be a lot more camera shake which would distract the viewer from what is actually going on in the frame. The steadicam makes the whole shot more fluid which adds to the realistic effect of putting the viewer in the hotel with the boy and following his movements.

The shot types differ in this scene as they have to show the child's movement and the surrounding setting in order for it to be an effective scene. The shot type used at the start are full shots. This is because all of the characters body is visible in the shot and also fill most of the frame. This is used so we can assess his body language which comes in very useful when they use the over the shoulder shot later on in the scene when he gets off his trike and looks at the door 237. When we are looking over his shoulder it gives the viewer a sense of what the character can see in front of him, therefore bringing the viewer into the film even more by getting them to see exactly what the character is seeing and then making their own thoughts on what will happen next.

The use of the close up shot on the character face is especially effective at building suspense. This is because the viewer can only see is his facial expression which therefore builds up a tense atmosphere as we the viewers can't tell what has shocked him and react like that so keeps us engaged throughout the scene. This too makes the viewer think of what is going to happen after this scene and how the rest of the film will play out.

The use of the mid shot helps us to distinguish the size of the character in correlation to the setting in which he is in, This is particularly effective as it shows how he is out of place as the things around him and the door he is trying to open are such big objects when compared with the small child. 

The use of a shallow depth of field helps keep the viewers eyes fixed on the character and not to wander to something in the background. This is good as the character is the main focus of the scene so the director will want to keep the viewers focused on the characters behaviour and movements not something that is off in the background that is irrelevant to the current scene in hand.