What
Makes up an Angle?
A
complete description of a camera angle includes
the subject size, horizontal and vertical positions,
level and lens. (Two other descriptors, population
and purpose, are covered in a nearby sidebar.)
By understanding these five components, you can
manipulate them singly and collectively to frame
precisely the image you want.
Subject
size is simply how much of
the subject is included in the frame. In terms
of a standing adult, a long shot, for example,
shows the whole body with considerable space around
it, a medium shot cuts the subject at the waist,
and a closeup includes head, neck and usually
a bit of shoulder.
Horizontal
position is the orientation
of the camera toward the subject. Typical horizontal
positions include front, three-quarter, profile,
three-quarter rear and rear angles.
Vertical
position is the height relationship
between camera and subject: bird's-eye, high,
neutral, low and worm's-eye. (These terms describe
the camera's position, not the subject's.)
Level
is the camera's tilt or lack of it. Classically,
the camera was aligned parallel to the horizon,
except when tilted sideways for a special effect.
Today, however, off-level (so-called "Dutch")
angles are much more common.
Lens
is the magnification range in which the lens is
set: wide angle for broad coverage in deep perspective,
normal for perspective that mimics human vision,
or telephoto for high magnification and shallow
perspective. |
Angles
Deliver Information
The
bread and butter job of every angle is to display
information effectively. Doing this means controlling
subject size and point of view (POV).
In
setting subject size, ask yourself two questions:
how clearly should viewers see details of the
subject and how much of the subject's context
(surroundings) should be visible? To use a clichˇ
of movie westerns, we might start with a long
shot of cowboy Will White Hat riding through a
rocky landscape, then cut to a medium closeup
of Bart Black Hat, hiding in ambush and cocking
his rifle.
The
first subject is small because we don't need to
show the details of riding a horse, but we do
want to get the lay of the land in which the action
will take place. The second subject is much larger
so that we can reveal exactly what he's doing
with that Winchester 73.
(See Figure 1).
In
the classic formula, the ambush sequence might
open with a neutral-angle full shot of White Hat
and his horse Willard, before cutting to the long
shot, and that second shot would be a very high
angle. The following medium closeup of the villain
would be from a matching reverse low angle.
The
neutral full shot lets viewers identify White
Hat. Then the long shot shows him from the hidden
bad guy's point of view. Black Hat's closeup wouldn't
have to be from a matching low angle, but the
symmetry enforces the spatial relationships. Together,
the two POV angles establish the spatial geometry
of the scene.
Incidentally,
if White Hat was riding toward screen-right, then
Black Hat would be aiming screen-left to establish
screen directions. |
