What We Do In The Shadows Film Techniques

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The 2013 horror mockumentary film ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ directed and written by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. The directors satirize classic horror films through the manipulation of various tropes of the genre, this is maintained throughout the film to develop the characters and the story. A range of techniques which can be seen through the directors use Cinematography, editing, soundtrack and Mise-en-scene. The Film focuses around a Group of Vampires flatting together in Wellington, New Zealand. In the Second act of the film the new vampire, Nick boasts about being a vampire publicly, leading to a vampire hunter breaking into the flat and killing Petyr. This leads to Deacon fighting with Nick with Vladislav and Viago trying to break …show more content…

The horror genre has many iconic types of cinematography which are used to create suspense, fear and give a sense of uneasiness. Techniques such as close up shot, Handheld (shaky cam) and Lighting are all staples of the classic horror style, all greatly influence the final result of the film and how we view the characters in it. The close up is commonly used in horror to create fear in a tense moment by reducing what we can see of our surroundings and only allow us to see through the emphasized expressions of the subject. ‘This shot ‘lacks dignity’: since it ‘makes nearly any subject sinister, aggressive and nasty’’ (Thompson, R. 1998 as cited by Dix, A. 2008). In the scene, the use of close up is used on Viagos face as he explains how he has hypnotized the cops. Unlike the use of close up in horror in the scene the shot is satirized and instead used in an interview from taking away the sinister and aggressive appearance usually given. Waititi and Clement have done this to again create a point of relatability to the 4 Vampires rather than using the trope in the traditional scene as seen in other parts of the film, it is changed. Through this manipulation we can also understand the tenseness of the situation as Viagos hypnotism could ‘ware off any second’ another Technique also used in this scene is handheld camera or ‘shaky cam’ this is used to convey a sense of POV or realism the handheld cam is commonly used in the horror genre to depict found footage which helps limit the amount we can see and is used to build tension. However in ‘What we do in the shadows it’s used to add a realism to the film as a ‘documentary’ also used in tangent with the documentary convention of interview intermittently which satirizes the horror genre by over exaggerating tension in the scene by following Viago run to the door and during the dialog. The technique

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