Cinematography : Diary of a DP - How to Shoot Horror Films [& Scare the Bejesus Out of Your Audience!] by Amanda Toney

COOL blog. Useful tip on plug in wall circuit light. Arri M18 sounds like its easy to carry around. Blue gels another useful tip. Agree with holy trinity horror camera pans (POV, hand held, dutch angle). However Worm’s Eye View is another good one. Eg Someone being buried alive, their point of view. Another good camera move leading up to a big shock, long slow shot, then sudden quick shot. Another one is fluid camera movement following protagonists, then camera never moves at point they in danger. Folks equate Blair Witch Project with hand held, but it was shaky hand held and pointed to the ground. It felt “great” for some scenes but I got irritated when it became the whole film. I’m a fan of the gritty reality of hand held as long as audience know what the hell is going on. Guessing what was going on in the whole film, to me, gave no respite or payoffs. Sound can be distorted to create fear/disorientation eg moment something bad happens, background noise changes. Layering props well to make them more 3D than 2D. Eg Picture on a wall in ordinary drama, is just that, an ordinary household item. In horror would be layered with ceiling fan, moving curtains and the picture itself would be shot at weird angle. In other words horror props become another character in the scene, an entity in themselves. Emotional beats suddenly changing can also create shock horror. Eg Father speaking normally at dinner, suddenly stabs someone in the eye with fork. Placid to Raging technique. Thanks for share. Happy Sunday @All.

Re my ranting on Worms eye view. Apart from obvious POV of onlooker, a kind of fourth dimension can occasionally be achieved, in that the person or thing the protagonist is looking at becomes a character also. These three camera pans are three different takes on exactly the same moment in a film. YES they look completely different, but they are exact same moment from a different angle. Just an example of how well worm's eye view works in horror/shock. Happy July fellow Horror makers.

Thanks for sharing this!

Debbie, your "worm's eye view" shot falls into the category of a "subjective shot". As delineated in many places, there are 3 shot types, objective, subjective and point-of-view. Mascelli's very worthwhile classic textbook "The 5 C's of Cinematography" explains them nicely. Of course these are very broad categories.

Hi @Andrew I agree about text book terminology. But some shots do not fall into a written formula because of the “thoughts and feelings” surrounding a take. If a baby was being smothered and this is what their little eyes see, I would say POV from purely a psychological viewpoint.

I do love your "worms eye view" description :-) Certainly evocative.

Mascelli had a specific approach when describing, over many pages, what shots are. Worth reading and then moving on.