Manipulating Emotions Through Film Research

   As I mentioned on my last blog, controlling the feeling of the scene is so important when it comes to post-apocalyptic films. In our film opening, we want our character to feel isolated, so this is an emotion we should try to convey also to the audience. 

But How?

   There are several ways that we can do so, a few being, camera angles, camera movement/speed, and sound. Let's start off with the camera techniques. I could list many ways of how to make an audience feel through camera movement/angles but I will only list a few that would be beneficial to our film opening. First, the pan and tilt. These two are used to guide the viewers eyes onto the scene and bring their attention to a certain aspect of the shot. With the pan and tilt, tracking can also be incorporated which makes the audience feel as if they are a part of the scene. This would be prominent for our scavenging scene as we would want the viewers to feel as if they are foraging through the building with our character and allow our viewers to focus on the Twinkies or cup of coffee in the scene. Another technique we could use from my research is a whip-pan. This would be by quickly panning left or right to create a sense of urgency. This would be super helpful for the ending scene of our film opening when the character hears the train. Another effective camera technique could be a static shot. This keeps the audience focused on a specific action and can intensify the feeling that the character is experiencing. 

   Following with camera techniques, certain angles can also create specific emotions for our film opening. Using a high shot forces the audience to look down at the character and can create the feeling of being belittled or defended. The opposite can occur for low shots, it has the audience look up at the character making them feel empowered. This could be used in our film opening in the beginning and end to establish the different feelings of our character as they believe they are alone but then discover they never were. Another effective angle would be the point of view shot. The POV shot emphasizes what the character is seeing and draws the audience deeper into the scene. We could use this to our advantage in our film opening for the ending.

   Lastly, being able to utilize the lighting and sound of the atmosphere is key to manipulate the emotions of a scene. Just the simple decision of using music can completely change the feeling of a scene. The perfect ominous music could be the key factor to building suspense for the end of our film opening. After reading through source for this reason, I realized it is essential to take your time to be able to create suspense for any scene.