Photo Reflections

The photograph that I have taken is a mid-shot and represents the thriller genre. I think that this represents the thriller genre because of its use of lighting. The actor in the shot is half hidden in shadow, signifying that he is concealing something, and the darkness of his clothing and hair contrasts with the bright, natural light directly behind him. The pose of the actor is also very typical of the genre. The clawed hand has an evil, monster-like quality to it, and the fact that the actor is looking towards something we can't see makes us wonder who he could be hiding from/spying on.

To achieve these effects I made sure to shoot this photo from a slight high angle in order to make the actor look more hidden and concealed. I zoomed in and made sure not to leave too much space to the right of the actor to achieve this effect. As for the framing, the shot is wide enough to give the audience a little bit of knowledge about the setting, but close enough for them to be drawn into the actor's expression. I also wanted to make the hand very dominant in the foreground of the shot to emphasise the menacing quality of it.

I think that the actor's pose works very successfully with what genre I was attempting to portray, but if I were to retake this shot, I would make sure that the actor wasn't wearing anything other than the colour black, as the green watch distracts from the rest of the shot. I would also try to change the lighting on the actor's face; perhaps by having a light just to the right of the frame to cast the left half of the actor's face into a stronger shadow.

This excercise was useful as our opening sequence movie idea will be, or have elements of, the thriller genre.