The Cabinet of Dr Caligari is a 1920 German silent film directed by Robert Wiene. It is widely regarded as a pioneer of the horror genre and an example of Expressionist filmmaking, a movement that emphasized highly stylised visuals and exaggerated performances to convey a subjective emotional experience, much like in classic theatre acting.

Wiene’s use of mise-en-scene can be seen in its usage of angular shapes, exaggerated perspectives and distorted sets. These three elements help to stir emotions of unease and disorientation in an audience, whilst conveying the inner psychological states of the characters. These visuals were heavily influenced by the impact of the First World War, the Expressionist movement evident in the style of each set piece – art was becoming a means to express trauma and anxiety through looming, often irregular forms as a response to the economical, social, and political state of the country at the time.

Cinematography within The Cabinet of Dr Caligari is used to create a sense of tension and mystery, as seen in its use of low-key lighting, deep shadows, and high contrasts. Close-ups and extreme angles are also placed to emphasise the disfigured and otherworldly nature of the film’s visuals. Additionally, handheld camera movements throughout various shots are used to intensify feelings of disorientation and unease in audiences, further amplifying the film’s atmosphere. These techniques form links with Expressionism in the wake of WW1, by replicating a similar, encapsulating urgency and claustrophobia, and feeling stuck in a constant sense of discomfort and anxiety – something often experienced by the war’s victims and survivors.

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari is renowned for its use of editing techniques that contributed to the development of horror genre conventions. These techniques, such as non-linear storytelling, help to create a dreamlike and unsettling mood throughout the narrative. Non-linear storytelling involves cutting between shots that are not in chronological order, often used in flashbacks – such as in Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane – which disorientates and confuses the audience. Discontinuous editing is also a key technique used, cutting between shots that are not in chronological order or a logical sequence, creating a sense of fragmentation and unease, which accentuates the almost broken state of mind of the characters, adding to the unnerving and eerie tenor of the film. Montage editing is another technique in the film, where a series of shots are assembled in a specific sequence to create a specific meaning or emotional effect – in this case, it’s used to build suspense and tension leading up to the film’s climax, increasing the effect of the psychological horror and unease on an audience.

Overall, the innovative use of mise-en-scene, cinematography, and editing in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari contributed to its success as a pioneering horror film and influenced many subsequent films in the genre. The film’s highly stylised visuals and use of exaggerated perspectives, low-key lighting, and discontinuous editing techniques all contributed to a heavy sense of psychological unease that remains effective to this day.

We took various clips from other people’s projects on our V drives, and created something inspired by the works of Gerasimov, such as Battleship Potemkin.

Watch it here – https://jerseyedu-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/r/personal/g_flavell13_hautlieu_sch_je/Documents/gerasimov%20task.avi?csf=1&web=1&e=cmlSob

watch here – citizen kane – the boss.avi

Establishing Shot

An establishing shot within a film sets the location for a specific section of the narrative.

In this case, this shot of the outside of my house sets a narrative inside the building.

Medium Shot

A medium shot shows both a character and their surroundings, which allows them to interact with the environment and give audiences a better sense of the space the narrative is currently running in.

This shot of me, for example, shows me in my bedroom, showing off, my positioning, my facial expression, and the environment surrounding me. This gives audiences good insight into the casual setting of my room, and provides context to what kind of person I might be.

Close Up

A close up shot is often used to show what a character is thinking in higher detail, and can also be used to conceal what’s behind the camera, such as what the character might be looking at. It keeps the shot very focused on the character and their personal experiences rather than the world around them.

In this shot of me, it is clear in my facial expression that there’s a slight confusion in my face, which leads the audience to believe that I’m looking at something that doesn’t seem quite right, which provides interest into what happens next.

Shot-Reverse-Shot

Shot-reverse-shot is a technique where two separate shots are used to create a link between them, often with a character’s eyeline to show what they’re looking at to the audience.

With this shot, you can see me looking off into the distance, and then a shot of the view from my window. This gives an audience more context to the placement of the characters and to what’s happening in the narrative.

Blade Runner (1982)

The influence of classic Soviet constructionist cinema on Blade Runner is evident in its visual style, design, and editing techniques, which help to create a futuristic, dystopian world that is both mesmerizing and imposing on an audience.

Ridley Scott, the film’s director, used the works of Soviet Constructionist filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov as inspiration for the film’s visual style, in particular, the use of monumental industrial architecture, strong geometric shapes, and stark contrasts between light and shadow in the film’s sets, reminiscent of the visual conventions of Soviet constructionist cinema.

Additionally, the use of montage in Blade Runner is also influenced by Soviet filmmaking techniques, using quick cuts and juxtapositions to create a sense of disorientation and fragmentation, similar to the techniques employed by Soviet filmmakers to create a heavy sense of dynamic movement and energy.

Tron: Legacy (2010)

Tron: Legacy is a perfect example of how the principles of Soviet constructivism have continued to influence modern-day cinema, particularly in the genres of science fiction and fantasy.

The film’s director, Joseph Kosinski, took inspiration from Soviet constructivist artists such as El Lissitzky and Alexander Rodchenko for the film’s visual style. Kosinski’s use of neon colors, geometric shapes, and clean lines establishes a very clear connection to the roots of Soviet Constructivist cinema.

Kosinski also drew inspiration from the conventions of Soviet constructivism, particularly in his use of modular design and simple, functional forms. The film’s sets, costumes, and vehicles all reflect various iterations of Soviet constructionist designs, with sleek, angular shapes and use of bold geometric patterns.

In addition, the film’s visual effects, created using a combination of live-action footage and computer-generated imagery, also display the influence of Soviet Constructivist art. The film’s use of digital light and shadows, combined with its sleek, minimalist design, create a futuristic, stylised environment that clearly displays the effect of Soviet Constructionism on the final project.

Metric Montage

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

This montage within Requiem for a Dream uses metric montage to recreate the disorienting experience of taking drugs, using only nine frames for each shot, giving the scene an almost psychedelic factor to it.

It adds more weight to the tone of the scene, and gives an audience more insight into the character’s experience so they can further relate to their issues as the narrative progresses.

Rhythmic Montage

The iconic montage from Rocky II (1979) uses the technique of rhythmic montage to form links between the triumphant soundtrack and each shot. With a heavy use of match-on-action cuts, it connects the intense exercise with the intense emotions Rocky feels as he trains, which shows his progress to the audience as he grows in strength.

Tonal Montage

This scene from The Revenant (2015), uses tonal montage to connect ideas of one of the character’s vapour from his breath with a smoking pipe and a foggy sky. Tonal montage is often used to connect shots with emotions or aesthetics, much like the Kuleshov effect.

Over-Tonal Montage

Overtonal montage is used in the Disney Pixar film Up (2009), to stir poignant emotions in an audience early on into the film, to help them understand the reasoning for Carl Fredericksen’s cold demeanour. The use of repetition in this montage shows Carl and his wife, Ellie, happily together in their youth, and juxtaposes it with Ellie’s fall before she passes away.

Overtonal montage is often used to amplify the mood of a scene even further, by using colour and contrasting ideas to exhibit this.

Intellectual Montage

Intellectual montage is the act of placing two shots together in the hopes of connecting them with an intellectual concept, such as in Eisenstein’s 1925 film Strike, where he places shots of workers being killed next to shots of a bull being slaughtered in a montage format. This creates the ideology that the workers are being treated like animals – killed once their purpose has been served and cast to the side. This example was used in Strike as a propaganda piece, to rile up audiences and giving a means for action to be taken.

The Expressionist art movement emerged in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century, and it was characterized by a rejection of traditional artistic techniques and a focus on subjective emotions and inner experiences. Some of the stylistic conventions associated with the movement include bold, exaggerated forms – Expressionist artists often distorted the proportions and shapes of figures and objects to create a sense of emotional intensity and to emphasise their own psychological states. They also used strong, contrasting colours to create a sense of drama and emotional intensity. Bright, vivid colours were often used in combination with dark or muted tones to create striking visual contrasts.

Simplified and stylised forms created a sense of emotional depth and conveyed the inner experiences of the subject, another technique often used by these artists. Additionally, Expressionist artists used dynamic and energetic brushwork to convey a sense of movement and further display emotion. Expressionist art often focused on the psychological state of the subject, accentuating the emotional experiences of the individual over objective reality.

These stylistic conventions were used across a range of mediums, including painting, printmaking, and sculpture, and they influenced other art movements, such as Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.

The Weimar Republic’s political, social, and economic state had a significant impact on the production and content of German Expressionist cinema. The country was experiencing political instability, economic crises, and social dislocation, which created a sense of anxiety and uncertainty that found expression in the themes and aesthetics of German Expressionist cinema. The films often depicted characters who were alienated from society, haunted by dark inner impulses, or struggling to find meaning in a chaotic and uncertain world after the end of WW1 and during the buildup to WW2. The use of stylized sets, costumes, and lighting created a sense of otherworldliness, and the distorted camera angles were used to emphasise the characters’ psychological states. The films were often critical of the established order and sought to expose the underlying tensions and contradictions of German society. The filmmakers used this to convey the anxieties and uncertainties of their time, creating films that continue to inspire and influence filmmakers around the world today.

A director decides many things about a film’s production in order to capture their vision of what they want their final result to be, through the visuals, symbolism, sound and messages. They tend to have almost complete creative control over the film and many famous directors are considered to have their own unique styles, which is often impacted by the way the film crew work.

I am heavily inspired by Stanley Kubrick, particularly his 1980 psychological horror The Shining, which uses concepts of liminal spaces and isolation to build a truly maddening, horrifying film that shows a mans gradual descent into complete psychosis in an eerie, breath-taking manner.

A cinematographer’s role within production of a film is to create the baseline of a film’s atmosphere using the movement of their camera, ensuring that the lighting is perfect in each shot, either for elevating the tone of a scene or just displaying the shot in good lighting – typically to better portray character/prop movement. They also work closely with the rest of the team – editors, directors – to make sure that they understand the reasoning behind each and every element of the cinematographers camerawork within a shot or scene, to product a more effective final film. They’re also in charge of using and finding the right equipment for their shots, such as tripods, dollies, different lenses, drones, etc.

I am inspired by Roger Deakins’ cinematography, in particular his continuous long-takes in such films as 1917, used to display the intensity of a war-torn country in a way that’s considered ‘honest’ for a staged film. His work in Blade Runner 2049 is also inspiring, his cinematography capturing vast computer-generated landscapes.