Reflections on Practical: TV Drama Still

1. We constructed a storyboard including the framing, positions and poses of the actors involved. We then used this as a guide when taking the shots in order to stay organised.

2. The dark lighting of the shot helps to convey the horror genre as it has scary and mysterious connotations, which creates a tense atmosphere. Virginia in the foreground of the shot conforms to the innocent and defenceless character type due to her paying no attention to the apparent killer behind her, and no defensive weapon present in the photo. This is a character type used heavily in the horror genre, which as such helps to convey this genre. The mysterious character of Kush in the background has his hand out with clear malicious intent, and this conforms to the serial killer character type. This is also used heavily in the horror genre, and this convention helps to convey the genre of the still.

3. The semic codes of the dark room helps the audience to interpret the still as one conforming to the  horror genre, with a clear victim and killer scenario made clear by the conventions of this setting. Enigma of where the room is helps to create tension in the audience due to its isolated nature, which allows a dangerous meaning of the still to be communicated.

4. The framing in this shot was successful, with a mid shot of Kush in the background and a close up of Virginia in the foreground. The lighting of the still was also successful, with dark lighting around them but also with their faces lit up for the audience to see, helping to create tension.

5. If done differently, I think I would have tried to polish the lighting even further, and have Kush's hoodie much darker than it is in order to create a much moodier atmosphere to even further convey the horror genre.