CINEMATOGRAPHY- The Shining.

Stephen King’s shining was an over the edge story. When it was converted into a film, nobody thought that it would become the most iconic horror film of all time. And why not? Jack Nicholson’s amazing acting, the nailbiting story and the dramatic sound effects that keeps the audience on edge and most importantly, the amazing cinematography by John Alcott altogether delivered an award winning movie. Directed by Stan Kubic, he left no lose ends for critics to criticize (except for the author himself, but that’s altogether another story. This psychological horror movie was released in 1980.

The story is based on a writer and his psychological struggles in a haunted hotel. The overlook hotel was the largest hotel built in the history of cinema.  Most of the indoor shots were done in studio by setting up fake hotels, the outer shots were taken on location. Steadicam , a new  type camera to shoot motion picture was developed and used in the movie that allows the camera to take smooth shots in uneven surface.  All types of camera shots was taken including handheld shots.

Lets talk about angles now. A brilliant example of high angle shot is when Danny is shown playing with his toys from above. The shot is taken very creativity with immense sound effects keeping the audience anticipated scared to know what will happen next. The shot also depicts Danny being in danger at the hotel. Coming to low angle shots, in a scene where Jack is shown irritated with his wife Wendy, her face was shown from low angle which made it look oversized and letting the audience share the same feeling as Jack.

One can also see the clever movement of camera during a quarrel between Jack and Wendy near the stirs at the climax. The camera there is not steady and unbalanced which makes the viewer feel tensed and uneasy and a feeling that someone is watching. Most of the time, the director keeps the camera attached to the character to make the viewers feel what the character is feeling.

Not only these scenes, there are multiple scenes in the movie where camera movements were shown creatively. Every scene was shot thoughtfully. Most of the time, to create anxiety and tension and a feeling of uneasiness. No matter what, the shining remains a classic horror movie for the modern times and influence many cinematographers to use more creative camera techniques.