Why does The Bay of Silence (2020) use a lot of wide angle shot?

Many shooting in small rooms e.g. in home in the film is wide angle shot, the image on the edge are distorted. Although wide angle can contain more people at the same time, but it seems to be not common in most films like this.

cinematography the-bay-of-silence

Best Answer

I haven't seen the movie, only the trailer, so I can't fully relate to the plot and therefore this is going to be more general than if I could relate the shot usage directly to the storyline.

There are two types of wide angle I see in use, to similar but not identical effect. The director is using both rectilinear and fish-eye lenses (or possibly a zoom that's almost rectilinear at the long end).
In the simplest terms, a rectilinear lens means you can see more, but vertical lines stay straight & upright. A fish-eye lens distorts to give a curved field of view.

A rectilinear lens used in this way can increase the sense of distance & isolation. The central subject looks larger compared to the background if shot from close-up, but if shot from a distance, the overall feel is to make everything look 'smaller' emotionally as well as visually.

When you start to go towards fish-eye, then I'd consider this to be a cinematic cue to the audience that "all is not as we think we see", especially in what looks like a mystery/ghost/madness/thriller type of genre.
It's to heighten the sense of unreality.

If you want to see what I consider to be almost unparalleled use of wide angle, then you must see the original UK version of the TV show Utopia. There are no trailers on IMDB, though some of the stills are good. I found two trailers on YouTube that are well worth a look…
Highly recommend to watch them in fullscreen.

TV Trailer