Conventions & Techniques - Providing & Withholding Information

This is a strategy used by editors to help keep the viewer engaged, it is usually used in genres such as Horror and Thriller. It is effective in these genres because the viewer does or does not know what is happening because he is withholding information. Information can be shown with cut-a-ways or cut-ins.

An editor of a horror film may select to use a POV shot as it restricts the viewer from seeing what is happening in the rest of a scene, and in the right setting this can generate tension as they are seeing it from the perspective of the victim of the horror scene.

Example: The Conjuring

The extract I have chosen is from The Conjuring and in this tense scene the director James Wan has withheld information from the audience by using a POV shot of the character looking down the stairs. This is withholding information because we do not know as the viewer what is going to happen next. This is a really effective way of withholding information as it restricts the viewer from seeing what is happening in the rest of the scene, and therefore is a good method for creating a jump-scare.