Red Room: The Camera Work.

The first shot we see in Red Room is an establishing shot, primarily done to set the scene, it shows a lonesome car travelling down a road with a wide expanse of countryside around it, this one done early on to highlight the characters loneliness, however showing such a wide shot in the daylight, helps the audience establish that for the moment the main character is safe and nothing paranormal of frighting is happening yet. The camera cuts to a over the shoulder shot of the protagonist driving the car, this is done so from an early on point in the film the audience empathise with the character, and understand it is from his point of view they will be seeing the film and therefore later on, feel concern for him, which would heighten the tension of the film overall. Next we see a tracking shot of the car travelling down another stretch of road, this helps reinforce it is this character driving the car, the film will be focused around.



We fade to a POV shot, of the lawyer talking to the main character, instantly and coupled with the unnatural lighting and the dream effect, the audience according to bourdieu’s theory of cultural competence recognise this to be a flashback. The POV shot was employed here to help this recognition. Also using this technique again helps the audience understand how the character is feeling during this emotional scene. We employ the use of shot reverse shot here to show the characters in conversation, or more so the lawyer talking and the protagonists reactions. This is a conventional technique used across all genres of film making. Originally we had used the 180 degree rule in this scene to show the characters in conversation, however the images captured looked bad as the room was tight and we couldn't keep the camera steady, without the use of an expensive steady cam harness. The majority of the scene was filmed using a handheld camera technique to give it a more gritty and dark edge, which reinforces the scripting and the bad news the character is getting.



At the end of this scene we zoom into the main characters face, to capture his emotions and the cut to an insert.

The next shot is a voyeuristic shot of the main character climbing up the stairs in the house, the camera is handheld and the shot is captured between the bannisters, this gives the audience the impression that something is watching the main character, something sinister, coupled with the scary music and the low key lighting its works really well. The character being behind the bannisters also symbolises the character being behind almost prison bars, being trapped, which is a running theme through out the film. We then move on to a close up of the character walking up the stairs slowly, the shot is close up to highlight the fact he is walking up the stairs carefully and to reinforce the idea he is climbing into the unknown. This is again reinforced with a low angle shot of him climbing the stairs, making him seem almost inferior to the house. Which heightens the already tense atmosphere.



We go on to see a few close-ups of the character doing things to move the plot along, such as picking up books and turning off gushing taps, before we see the character turn a lamp on in the Red Room, the shot is wide and he is placed in the centre to again show his isolation in the house and highlight his loneliness. There was another shot in the original less reviewed film which was a personal favourite of mine, it combined a long shot to show his isolation with a voyeuristic shot through a doorway to give the impression he was being watched. It looked really creepy, however in the grand flow of the film I didn't work so it was removed.



The character sits down to read a book he found earlier, and the TV turns itself on. We wanted this scene to almost convey the TV as a hostile entity so we framed Will (The actor who plays the main character) on the left, and the TV on the right, with a wide expanse of space between them, this shot almost looks similar to a wild west show down, and I think you get a real sense of tension between the protagonist and the TV in this shot, which reinforces the audience's perceptions of the house being sinister. This scene boosts similarity's to the almost lifelike sinisterness of the hotel room in Room 1408 and the house in Paranormal Activity. Next we see the character approaching the photo wall, we wanted to create a very documentary like feel for this scene, we wanted to symbolise the character approaching the unknown in a very raw and rugged way. This helps the viewer relate to the characters fear and his unknowing also. To achieve these goals we used a hand-held camera, and reacted to the characters movements as if they were not on cue, much like the camera work one would see in a documentary. We did however frame the shot so to get a clear view of the pictures on the wall.



Next we see the bathroom scene, in this scene we employed the use of a mirror, we captured the scene like this so we good clearly see the characters reactions, it was also important for the audience to know, the character knew the hands were there physically, not just his imagination, therefore we used a mirror so it was obvious the character knew the hands were there (because he sees them in the mirror)and we were also able to capture his reactions.

After we see a shot of the main character staring at the photo wall, he faces the camera in a mid shot, this is done for two reasons, one to capture his body language and emotions at the photos on the wall, and secondly to capture in the corner of the shot the door slamming by itself indicating the paranormal entity's have locked the character in the room. We had to have will face away from the door, as it was part of the plot for him to become locked in the room, however it needed to be surprise, using this shot we can highlight this too.

In the montage act we see alot of running and jumping, the camerawork spec here was always to capture the shot so the audience could see what was happening, symbolism came second. One of the first shots we see is the stare jump shot, the shot starts of with a handheld camera following the character into the jump, it cuts in mid air to a high angle shot of him landing, this is the break out scene, the transition to a high angle shot whilst the character is in the air is designed to show his escape and conquer over the house.



Next we see several tracking shots of the character sprinting and approaching the nurse, these shots were employed to bolster the speed and excitement of his escape and discovery. We see a shot of character running through a bush, the same hand-held, documentary style look was used here to again, symbolise the characters unknowing of what is on the other side, and this shot style helps the audience relate to him.

Finally soon after we see a POV shot from a unknown driver of a car, the character runs out into the road and stops them, we choose to use a POV shot here to highlight, the main characters distress that he would run our into a road, and also to show someone else of significant value has been placed into the story. As again using Bourdieu’s theory of cultural competence, the audience will recognise the shot being from someone's point of view, and link this into them being an important character.