Point of view- Victim/Killer Deconstruction

Really starting to think about the filming of our film opening, I decided to do a deconstruction on the points of view portrayed through camera angles and editing within different films.

First of all, I wanted to look at the way the camera portrays the point of view of the victim through angles, still making them look like a victim within the sequence. This is a favoured type of point of view to portray within a Horror/Slasher movie as it gives opportunity to create "jump" scares and red herrings, tension when it is unclear what is going to happen next and terrifying mystery when the audience is forced to go into darkness, not knowing what is within it. It also gives opportunity to add "clues" for the audience to decipher who killer is and why he wants to hurt his victims.

Saw 3D

I looked at Saw 3D first, a well known, successful slasher film, to see how the many victims within it are shown with camera angles, and how their points of view are portrayed on screen.

To the left and right shown screen grabs of a few of the different victims within the film. The scenes that they are in show their points of view, and I wanted to see how they did this.

 The first thing that I noticed was that their faces are used as a visual aid in deciphering their emotions and thoughts at each time, having close up shots on this.

They generally have mid shots of the victims rather than showing their entire bodies, to emphasis the idea of "fight or flight" reaction and the fact that their  self survival is all in their mental ability to get out of the "trap" that jigsaw has placed them under. The only exception to this is when the victim wakes up, from having been taken by jigsaw, and the situation that they have been put in is revealed to the audience so they know what is happening with establishing shots of the room and mechanism they have been put in.

Scream 4

The majority of Scream 4 is in the victims point of view. Most of the death scenes are shown in the You Tube clip embedded.

 The different ways that I noticed that the camera represented the victim's point of view were firstly they had close up shots of their faces- just before the killer started to attack them. The face was illuminated with high key lighting in a generally low key lighted surroundings, so that the audience can see the victims emotions at that time.



Throughout the "chase" of the victim by the killer, the camera always followed the victim running firstly, and then as the victim hid somewhere, it would stay with the killer, to show the audience what is happening, opposed to only letting them know as much as the victim would know in that circumstance.


Camera angles also changed when in the victims point of view, with high angle shots, making the victim look more venerable, reflecting their terror in the image shown on screen.

Finally the lighting was another interesting feature within the death scenes. The victims were always much more illuminated  than the killer, and, as seen in the last three screen shot above, when the victim is on screen, and hurt, the killer is always in the shadows, in the background, symbolising the fact that the victims are no longer concerned with the killer hurting them, as they already have been hurt, they are simply thinking about themselves- this is what the audience would be thinking also because of the positioning and lighting reflecting this view on screen.

Having looked at the victims point of view- an aspect that we may wish to use within our film opening-, I am now going to look at the point of view of the killer. This is POV not widely used, as it takes the element of terror at not knowing who the killer is, or what his/her story behind the killing is. It reveals the killer to be what he/she is, letting the audience see them completely, making it harder to scare them with "jump" shots. This also brings psychological components, making the audience think into the mind of the killer.

Killer and his "Father" conscience

Dexter

The first thing that I thought of when the idea of the killers point of view came up, was "Dexter". This, though a television series, is in the point of view of a serial killer named Dexter. From the very beginning, the series starts with it being in his point of view, and until it ended, the series was very popular, especially in America.

Features within this TV series that make it a good "killer's point of view" include the continual close up shots of the killer's face, showing his emotions and relaying his thoughts through his facial features.

A voice narrative symbolising the killers thoughts is also used to allow the audience to get a better idea of what the killer is thinking, used mostly when he is stalking his victims or when he is worried about getting caught.

The killer's father- Harry- appears when he is struggling with something or making a decision that could effect his future. His father, being dead, is just a ghostlike portrayal of the killers mind and conscience, reasoning with him to make him make decision such as would not get him caught killing people. The fact that this "conscience" appears to the killer as his father symbolises "daddy issues" that are present also.

The Fall

The fall is another really good TV series that shows the killer's point of view. A few of the different techniques that represent the killer's POV are shown below:

Close ups of the killer's eyes are used to show his emotions during his kills.

The camera also follows the killer, and the audience are exposed to scenes and scenarios that they wouldn't see if it was in the point of view of the victims.

Following the killer, it allows the audience to get an idea of what his "ritual" of killing is and why he does it. You get to see his ability to kill, his planning, his technique and understand it, rather than are afraid of it.

Low key lighting is used to make the killer look as if he is in the shadows again, like in the scream deconstruction of the victims POV, but the shadows represent something different- his ability to get away with what he is doing and still be able to have a normal family and life.

The killer is always the subject of the scene. It is focused on him when he is in the shot. This lets the audience see inside of the killer's mind linking to the physiological aspect of looking at the killer's POV within a film.