Visualising Disease Through Lens: Camera Shot as Visual Storytelling in Transforming Reality to Art Cinematic in Disease Film

Abstract

The directors used visual storytelling to show the viewer how a physical or psychological diseases may significantly alter the world. In order to turn invisible diseases into visceral, visual experiences, this article explores how camera operation can actively externalize interior by transforming unseen dangers into a visual narrative. This study uses cinematic analysis to find comparable camera patterns in five disease films, including The Craziest (dir. Breck Eisner), Contagion (dir. Steven Soderbergh's), Cabin Fever (dir. Eli Roth's), Carrier (dir. Alex and David Pastor's) and The Happening (dir. M. Night Shyamalan's). The result shows all five films used similar camera shots pattern to manipulate the disease victims and the situation during pandemic. The resulting camera work traps the audience in the character’s subjective physical reality, eliciting profound empathy and discomfort. In conclusion, the camera work does translate the pathology of disease directly into the language of visual storytelling, altering the audience's physical and emotional perception of the narrative.