CLOVERFIELD!!

Cloverfield.

Key Cast: Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, Odette Annable, Michael Stahl-David.

Director: Matt Reeves.

Writer: Drew Goddard.

Genre: Action/Horror

Themes: Friendship, Romance, Survival.

Release: 2008

Budget: 25,000,000

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxqSIsxMlYQ

A group of friends are on a rescue mission to save their friend after a monster attacks New York City.

Micro-features:

Cinematography is important as the whole film is shown through a handheld camera. The events that unfold in New York City is recorded by the one of the friends from the group. This is important as it is used to show to the audience exactly what the characters are seeing and experiencing. It also makes the audience feel as if they are along side the main characters, being apart f all the chaos. Throughout the film, what is going on is not always clear as the camera is constantly moving and doesn't always capture everything. This makes the audience as clueless as the characters in the film. The handheld camera affect makes the audience more tense as not everything is revealed. This fits in with the horror genre as a lot of horror movies use the handheld camera affect to scare the audience (e.g The Gallows).

Key Scenes: A key scene within Clover field is at the end of the film where Rob and Beth are under the bridge trying to hide from the monster and the bombs that have been set up to kill it. This is an important scene as through out the film Rob has done everything to keep him and his friends alive and save Beth. At this point in the film, Rob and Beth realise that they are going to die. They record themselves confessing their love for each other. This is an important scene as the main mission in the film is to be with Beth, now that Rob is with Beth he has fulfilled his task and now accepts that they aren't going to be alive for much longer. This goes against what the audience would of expected from the film as normally the hero gets the girl and lives happily ever after. In this film that is not the case. This exceeds the audiences expectations.

Comparable: A similar film to Cloverfield is Paranormal activity. It also uses a handheld camera to document what is going on. Both films show different severities of a catastrophe, for example Cloverfield is about a city catastrophe and Paranormal activity is based on an event that is targeting a specific family. The handheld camera makes the film full of suspense as the audience can literally see the character nerves and chaos from the movements of the camera.