18.05.10
Important camera angles, utilising depth of field and more
Mis-en-scène originated in theatre and its literal translation is ‘putting on stage’, the placing of the actors and props etc on the theatre stage. It transcended into film terminology and is used to describe pretty much everything that appears and happens in front of the camera, from what we place, such as subject matter, scenery and lighting, to create the shot. Mis-en-scène is integral to how the audience reads a film. We have all become accustomed to TV and film being a large part of how we live, and certain things are cleverly placed within shots that trigger our subconscious in understanding what is happening within the scene. These things have become so ingrained in our subconscious that we are not even aware that we are processing them.
Let’s take a scene. In the first frame, there is a man sitting in a room. He looks deep in thought, holding a leather book. We haven’t seen the title of the film. What does this picture say to you? To be honest, it just says that there is a man, deep in thought, holding a book. Now, imagine a small crucifix on the wall behind the man. It automatically gives the shot a religious feel — to be specific, a Christian feel. We start to ask ourselves deeper questions. What part of the Christian faith is he? Is he praying? He reaches into his pocket and pulls out some rosary beads, so now he becomes Catholic. Little identifiers are placed within the shot. This is layering your film or photograph, making it dynamic and imparting information. The shot may last only a few seconds, but our brain processes everything in all of them. This applies to documentary film making, too; indeed, all forms of visual art. In documentary, it is in the way you film your subjects in their surroundings. Don’t forget that the shots you choose are the ones the audience watches. They are not there when you shoot, so they are relying on you to show them what happens. Every nuance of what you do is read by your audience; for example, a wedding video would be very boring if you just had the bride and groom in shot all the time. Your audience will probably want to see who else was there, what was the church like, what the food was like, what the cake was like etc. All of this may sound obvious, but complacency breeds mistakes.Remember the who, what, where, when and how from the February issue lesson. The way we read this layering of the image is called semiology.
Camera angles are not only used to record the subject — they are used to reflect mood and tension, to create power relationships between your subjects and environments. These are called power angles. They are not just randomly selected, but usually thought out well in advance. This is not only applicable in film, but all visual art forms, from recording or painting an image to how you are going to display it. For example, religious art is often placed high above the viewer, forcing them to look up. This gives the viewer a feeling of awe, like a child looking up to its parent; this is where semiology fits in. If you are interested in learning more about reading images, the leading philosopher was Roland Barthes, whose life’s work revolved around such topics. Many of his published books and articles will inform you on what you are doing visually, whether in film or photography.
When shooting a film, understanding camera angles and movement is imperative. The choices you make when shooting will determine how your film will look. These choices should create a coherent sequence of images that give the meaning of the scene. It’s just like writing a coherent sentence, where you must order the words and punctuation properly for it to make sense.Every camera operator will have their own personal mental checklist that they go through before taking a shot. The details below are a general guide to what the functions of shooting are, because as film language has developed, some terminologies have taken on different meanings to the original ones. The lines between, say, a close-up and mid shot have become blurred. There is no bolted-down standard dictionary of film terms, so, frustratingly, like a lot of film students, you may get frustrated when researching camera work. But the guide I have set will serve you in your need to shoot a well-ordered film that makes sense to the audience.
When describing a shot, we have to use terms that indicate what the audience will see. The field of view of the camera will be dictated by how much subject matter is set within the frame, the choice of lens and what distance you set the camera from the subject. Each type of shot has its own purpose and function.
- A wide establishing shot at the start of a scene is like the capital letter at the start of a sentence — good syntax.
- Extreme long shot (AKA establishing shot) is generally the first shot of ascene which is usually outdoors and establishes the setting.
- Long shot (AKA wide shot) is a shot that usually shows the entire human figure, allowing the audience to view the subject within the surroundings.
- Medium (AKA 3/4 shot) frames from the waist up on the human figure, showing some background.
- Close-up is where the subject or object is tightly framed to show details. Used as a cut-away from a medium shot to show more detail such as the emotions of your character,
- or for cut-aways from a mid shot when, for example, someone is doing something intricate with their hands. Extreme close-up is used to get really close on a small part of the subject, such just the mouth in a face. There is no background in this shot.
- A two shot is when you frame for two people in a shot.
The angle of the shot
The camera angle will dictate powerful meanings of how the audience observes the subject. Do we see them from a high or low angle? The audience can be made to feel empowered by a high shot looking down on a subject, while from a low angle we can be made to feel threatened and insecure. Look at horror films — you will see low-angled shots used, to make the audience feel scared. The Shining is a good example.Bird’s-eye view The scene is shown from overhead, often putting the audience in a god-like position, viewing the action from above. You will see this often in war films, when a character the audience has been made to feel close to dies — the camera will often lift up and pass over the fighting in the battlefield as if the soul is leaving the body. This can give a feeling of spirituality.
High angle
Not as extreme as the bird’s-eye view, but still gives an authority. Looking down on a subject around the 45-degree angle makes the subject seem smaller and insignificant.
Eyeline angle
This is the most common shot. The camera is positioned at the eyeline of the subjects and their heads are in level with the focus. This is a fairly neutral shot, which is why it’s the most common.
Low angle
The low-angle shot is the reverse of the high-angle shot. When the camera is placed low and pointing up at around the 45 degree angle, it gives a feeling of powerlessness, making you feel almost childlike. You can be made to feel fear by the dominating appearance of a figure on the screen.
Over the shoulder
The camera is positioned behind a subject, revealing their shoulder and part of the head, while another subject is shown front-on in the background. This is used to encapsulate the interactions between two subjects. Dutch Tilt (AKA Dutch angle, oblique and canted angle) This is where the camera is set on a diagonal axis, achieved by tilting the camera to one side. It gives a feeling of uneasiness to the shot.
Point of view
Shot from the point of view of your subject. Horror films utilise this when they cut to the POV of a murderer spying on their victim through a keyhole, often giving you some idea of what is to come.
Is there any movement within the shot?
You have to decide what type of camera movement you intend on making. This will depend on the location and equipment, the time you will have to shoot and the pace of scene. Do you want to use lots of quick shots to move you around the action? Or are you moving the camera to match the motion? Quick, fast-paced shots are synonymous with action. Moving the camera, such as for a tracking shot that needs a few seconds on screen to be effective, will slow the scene down.
Tilting
This is a movement that scans on the vertical axis eg moving from someone’s face to their hands.
Panning
This is where the camera moves from one place to another along the horizontal axis eg moving across the horizon.
Tracking shots
The camera is placed on a dolly, a piece of equipment that allows you to place a camera on wheels, and pushed along tracks to follow movement. When I was a student film maker, we couldn’t afford a track and dolly, so we borrowed a wheelchair and used that instead! There’s always room for improvisation.
WHITE BALANCE
White balance is usually the first thing that beginners in camera operating ignore, but it is essential for creating films. It’s a lot harder to correct a colour imbalance in post production video than it is in photography, due to the fact that you have to match colour from shot to shot, not just a single photograph. There’s nothing worse than seeing a shot in the middle of a sequence that is slightly too blue (cool) or orange (warm). If you see this, it is down to the white balance when you shoot. Our eyes naturally adjust to compensate for variations in colour temperature, but a digital camera cannot. What is white outside in the sun is completely different to what is white under artificial lighting.
Imagine you are shooting a wedding. The bride pulls up outside the church and she is, more than likely, wearing a white dress. She looks beautiful and you know it’s going to look good as you have already set your white balance for the sun. That’s 5,600 kelvins for film and 6,300 kelvins for digital video. Then, you quickly run inside the church to set up the camera for when she walks down the aisle. But oops! You forget to set your white balance for Tungsten lights — 3,200 kelvins — and as the bride walks into the church, she suddenly looks a bit orange. She won’t be happy to look like a tangerine in her wedding video, so it is ruined. White balancing is basically telling the camera what is white. When setting the white balance, you are removing any unwanted colourcast from your shot. It’s easy — I simply use a white bit of card in the area where I am shooting and white balance against that.
White balance tips
Only use the presets if you are in a rush. If you have the time, white balance manually. Most, if not all, high-end digital cameras will have this function. Check your user manual to find it. Learn it and then learn it again. As with all the techniques I have shared with you, if you want your films to be good, they need to be instinctive. Check online for colour temperature cards — there are hundreds out there. You will notice that there are differences in each one, but they are handy just to look at and get familiar with. Just remember: daylight/blue, tungsten/orange. You can preset different functions on all digital cameras. Use them to your benefit. Like the church scenario above — preset your white balance indoors and outdoors, so when the bride turns up and you move inside, it’s just the matter of pushing a button.
DEPTH OF FIELD
As photographers, I think most of you will probably know what depth of field is, but for those of you who don’t, it is the amount of area within the frame that is in focus. If you zoom in and open the aperture, you are going to get a shallow depth of field. Camera operators will often refer to this as blowing out the background. If you use a wide lens and stop down a bit, you are going to get an almost infinite depth of field. Shallow depth of field is used, generally, to isolate your subject. This is true in film, too. Focusing only on an aspect of a person’s face, we can make the relationship between audience and subject more personal. Varying depth of field through a sequence is an essential part of a cinematographer’s arsenal. For example, we start off a sequence with a wide shot of the inside of a waiting room in a hospital, with a very long depth of field. We see people pacing up and down, hear the banging and clattering of equipment. Cut to a mid shot of a man clutching a teddy bear. The depth of field shuts down slightly, so only the things immediately around him are in focus. Cut to a close-up. The only thing in focus is his face. Every nuance, every twitch the man makes is heightened by the closeness of the camera and the shallow depth of field. We see a tear fall from his face and realise the pain that he is suffering. Nothing has been said, it’s just all clever use of camera techniques, including depth of field. You can see this mainly in dramas, where they have painstakingly worked out each shot and its meaning, guiding us into the emotional world of our subject. As a film maker, you are in absolute control of what the audience sees and hears. Think about what you are trying to say with each shot. Respect your subject matter and it will pay dividends.
Rack focus/focus pull
What if there are two points of focus in a shot, and we only want one point in focus at a time? This is where racking focus comes in. This technique is a secret weapon of all cinematographers. In theory, this is simple, but in reality it can be tricky, especially for first-time film makers. It relies on your knowledge of depth of field and is purely used to switch the audience’s focus within the frame from one subject or object to another without the use of a cut.
EXERCISE
The only real way to learn each of these shots and angles, coupled with movement, is to practise. Make sure you have a sturdy tripod, and when you’re next out and about, go through the list above and just shoot. Remembering composition rules from last month, practise panning with people walking across frame or tilting from head to hands and back to head again. Angles are best practised on stationary objects. Find a statue and set the camera up and record it from different angles. You can also practise close-up shots while panning and/or tilting. If you have someone who can help you, get them to walk towards the camera as you have it set at a low angle and notice how massive they look from that point of view. When you have done that, find someone you know who has an absorbing hobby, such as someone who likes train sets. Try to show this without the subject telling you about their hobby, using only images. Start off with a wide establishing shot of the person playing with the trains. Then shoot close-ups and mid shots from varying angles to show the interest. The only limit is your imagination. There are no right or wrong combinations, just choices that read better on film. Using the principles of the editing exercise from month one on Windows Movie Maker, order the footage you have shot in different ways to see how they read when you put it together.
EXERCISE
The best way to practise racking focus is by using inanimate objects, so find a table and place two cups on it. Set the camera so it is at an eyeline angle. Move the camera back as far as you can go and zoom in. This will help narrow the depth of field. Place one cup to the right of frame but close to the camera, then move the other cup back a couple of feet and to the left-hand side of frame. Open up the aperture as wide as you can. Focus on the distant cup. This should throw the closer cup out of focus (you should now log the focal distance by writing it down). Then focus on the closer cup. The farther cup should now be out of focus (log focal distance again). Record what you are doing several times. Rack focus at different speeds between the two focal distances to see what effect this has when you view it back. You have probably noticed that, in films of quality, this technique is used a lot. Sometimes a camera operator has to rack focus several times in a shot, but when done right, it really does make things look slick. Because it takes time to set up these shots, you tend to see them in higher budget productions, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot achieve similar effects. Patience and practice!
This feature is from the April 2010 issue
Back issues can be ordered by calling 01858 438840 or by sending an email to photographymonthly@subscription.co.uk
- Average Article Rating 0 Stars
-
Your Rating
Login Required!
Sorry - You must be a registered user & logged in to rate this.
Login | Register
Back to Categories