Short film research: Atrophy

 Conventions within the film:

Use of silence throughout beginning scenes. No non-diegetic sounds increases the feeling of emptiness with small diegetic sounds breaking the silence occasionally. The long pauses between any sound also contribute to this feeling.

Long takes with no camera movement. These are used to drag out scenes and make the scene feel mundane or even painful at times. During some of these scenes, the camera is placed in a stagnant location. These out of the way locations are reminiscent of security cameras or something similar. One shot in particular is on a shelf at a low angle, putting the audience in that position as if they were watching from that shelf.

The pace is slow throughout, but towards the middle and end more things begin to happen at once than before. Sounds such as the music player constantly echoing in the scene give more of a feeling of dread that something bad will happen. After that scene there are more ambient sounds typically heard in horror movies. 

During the shower scene, the video and audio are in slow motion, but there are much faster cuts in comparison to the previous scenes. After the man leaves, the shots return to being long, dragging out the scenes again but with ambient noise. There is tracking on the woman as she crawls across the floor. There is also a shot-reverse-shot during the final dialogue.

This aspect of the horror genre was shock value through disturbing imagery, not through typical scares. The scenes were made to make the audience feel uncomfortable, and unsettled at what they were watching as they were watching it.