Providing & Withholding Information

Providing & Withholding Information

Providing and withholding information is a useful method of keeping the audience engaged in the story. This strategy is often used in genres such as horrors, due to the audience not having a substantial amount of knowledge as to what will happen next in the action shown. 

This strategy can be carried out by using cutaways and point of view shots considering that extending the amount of time before a viewer can find something out can leave them on the edge of their seats wanting to find out more. Again, point of view shots are frequently used in horrors and thrillers to make the audience feel as if they are the victim themselves and are unaware of the events that can happen next. 

This image is a point of view shot of a character running in the street, this is an example of making the audience feel as if they are running along and feeling as vulnerable as the characters in the film. 

This is also an example of a point of view shot from what seems like a horror/thriller. This could be represented as a victim looking at its attacker as they lay on the floor, which again can make the audience feel as vulnerable as they are.