To make sure that we correctly engage with our target audience for our film we looked at 'Cinematic Storytelling' by Jennifer Van Sijil to study the most powerful and useful film conventions, I list them below as well as a brief description and examples of each one.
Smash Cuts
Some examples of smash cuts, a term referenced by Jennifer in which there is a sudden, seemingly abrupt hard cut to an entirely separate scenery or sound that is different to what the story has been focused on. Examples are listed below:
Psycho : In this film a smash cut is used to jolt the audience by sabotaging the audiences building expectations. Psycho did this whilst also incorporating the use of a high angle shot.
American beauty : the smash cut in this film changes a scenery of a vast city of buildings to a close up of a clock. This also affected the audio as well, turning from a silence to the loud banging of an alarm clock.
If I was going to use the smash cut in our my own production it would be to cut time from unnecessary traveling and allow us to make full usage of our limited time. This would also allow us to maintain the audiences attention by not adding in any un-necessary filler scenes.
Climate
The natural elements that surround the scenery it enhances the actions of the characters, and when used correctly it enhances the mood of the film in the genre, for example darkness in a horror film, or soft lighting within a romantic film. Examples are listed below.
Sixth Sense : The woman enters the basement and breathes out a cloud of cold air, which leads the viewer to believe that it is initially due to the coolness of the basement, however as the movie develops we notice that the temperature drops whenever any ghosts appear in the film. Which provides an early clue that the protagonist is in fact a ghost.
Directing the eye
By directing the eye to make the viewer fell that something could happen it engages the audiences attention. This can be used to subvert the expectations of the viewers and to make them more engages in the film itself and direct they eye to the screen and the story being told.
Citizen Kane : Some journalists are shown watching a movie about Kane's life then the lighting decreases and only scattered light is shone of the central characters. This centres the attention onto the small variety of characters shown and makes the viewer gain a sort of tunnel vision, as they are told only those that have light shining on them are of importance to the story.
