The Early Horrors; Nosferatu 1922

When horror began, the element of colour and dialouge were non-existent and horror films focused on using music as a way of creating suspense and getting the audience scared. Chiarscuro, italian for light and dark, was also a key element of the first horrors produced. This is because the absence of colour meant that directors had to focus on using light and dark to make the viewers feel certain things and specific ways. This is clearly shown in the extract above where light and dark are used in specific scenes to allow the viewer to feel the tension and upset within a specific scene.

Also, I feel that the way the Nosferatu uses shadows works very effectivley. Throughout various scenes the placement of characters represented the type of character they are. For instance, the 'bad' characters tend to be loacted in a frame which has a low, dim and dark lighting however the 'good' characters are usually placed within yellow and bright lighting. This is evident in a scene at the middle of Nosferatu where the male protagonist is walking behind Dracula and he is walking through a dark passage way. This has inspired me on the basis that the representation of characters in this scene through light and dark works really well as the audience are able to identify Dracula as the evil character.

Sound is also a key aspect of Nosferatu that has inspired me.The way that the director has used the tempo of sound in relation specific characters to give the audience an impression of what is going to happen o each character and when something bad is going to happen.The use of parrellel sound within Nosferatu creates suspense and unease, something of which I would like to include within my groups teaser trailer. Therefore when selecting sound to be used within my teaser extract I am going to aim to find sounds that I can use within the extract when something is going to happen. For example a screaming noise could be a clue to the audience that something is going to happen. This noise could be repeated through the extract as a sign of evil coming closer.

Although I did not enjoy the story line of this film and found it hard to watch due to the lack of dialouge I feel I have gained some needed inspiration based on sound, lighting and chiarscuro.