With this said, I have come to appreciate the era of the silver screen and learned a thing or two about them during my years at college. Alfred Hitchcock and the three stooges are the only movies I will watch in B&W. I think I watch Alfred Hitchcock because of the way he makes his movies. He has a particular style that I love and I am usually inspired to implement some of that in my filmmaking.
There is a lot to be said about Alfred Hitchcock and his movies but, I am going to be as focused as possible so I don't make this blog into a book. One thing about his filmmaking is Alfred Hitchcock focuses on storys that have a thriller or mystery like quality to them. Alfred Hitchcock is able to allow the audience to get into the mind of his characters by using the camera in such a way that shows the inner perspectives of the characters. When the actors are shot the camera often often shows them in there present emotional state with the appropriate matching camera angel and camera perspective.
There is a lot to be said about camera angle, frame size and prospective and the meaning behind each one and could take a whole semester just on this subject alone. But the focus I am going to talk about in this blog is the three types of filmmaking perspective.
The three types of filmmaking perspective are Inner perspective, Outer perspective, and nonobjective perspective. This theory can go hand and hand with the man vs man, man vs self and man vs nature theory. You can mix and match and some times even combine them within a given film. Remember the camera is a visual narrator of sort and can be described as such. during production the camera placement camera has a huge impact on how the audience will interpret the mood. The camera in a sense gives the audience visual clues that tell them subconsciously what to think or feel about a particular scene or character. Music does a simular thing in that it sets the mood and pace of a film. Music tends to foreshadow the action while the camera tends to narrate in the present.
The rules of camera technique do not change, its the motivation of camera technique that influences a particular shot. The key here is finding the motivation between each seen moment by moment. If you know what the motivation is you know who or what the scene is about and that will help you focus on that particular character or thing during filmmaking. Motivation is everything in filmmaking it is what keeps the rhythm of the over all piece and allows for focused storytelling. The script will tell you what the motivation is in any particular scene you just have to let the story speak to you the filmmaker. Perspective filmmaking and camera motivation go hand and hand.
In inner perspective filmmaking a low angle shot could could make a character seem menacing, invincible or powerful. Low angel shots could foreshadow impending doom for the receiving character. For instance, A low angle shot could show a big mean cat who corners a mouse. Likewise, the mouse could be shot using a high angle camera to show that it is vulnerable or powerless to the cat.
Inner perspective filmmaking typically has a lot of extreem close ups and angles. Its very up close and personal. The reason why inner perspective filmmaking has such extreem closeups and angels is to invoke tension or chaos or even a particularly intense romantic feeling to the audience.
Inner perspective filmmaking works is because people have a spear of comfort the closer or more exaggerated a position we are in the more mental chaos sets in. It creates a sort of analysis paralysis.
The term "analysis paralysis" or "paralysis of analysis" refers to over-analyzing (or over-thinking) a situation, so that a decision or action is never taken, in effect paralyzing the outcome. A decision can be treated as over-complicated, with too many detailed options, so that a choice is never made, rather than try something and change if a major problem arises.
When humans receive too much information it can cause information overload brain. Extreem Closeups and extreem angles make the audience make absorb too much information at once. For instance, an extreem close up shot of a face has a lot of detail that we would not see in a wide shot. Typically humans are not used to seeing people that close. Humans are used to seeing things and people at eye level and at a normal distance he or she is accustom too. When you combine a short duration of a shot with an extreem close up and extreem angle it can be a bit overwhelming and can cause the person to feel tension. That tension can translate to Sympathy.
Sympathy is a social affinity in which one person stands with another person, closely understanding his or her feelings.
Sympathy in this case has nothing to do with feeling, but rather projected understanding of a universal awareness.
This extreem methed of camera perspective is a forum of translated energy. Much like a person feeling shock or a burn of different intensities. The same can be said for visual intensity. The time it takes for the body to send and receive information throughout the body is most always at a constant rate of time. However the intensity of that information can cause the body to respond with the most appropriate chemical and Physical reactions the mind sees fit. This phenomena is something we can not controle. We have these built in us primitive, but instinctive reactions to help us survive. These instinctive reactions can effect our subconscious that inevitably effect our cognitive responses.
So in reality, inner perspective filmmaking has nothing to do with what the character is feeling, it is simply a visual way of manipulating the brains chemistry based off of a learned response. That response can be associated with that of the character on the screen. Hence causing us to think it is the characters reaction or emotional state. When in reality it is our own emotional projection. Its all about visual perception.
In outer perspective filmmaking, the camera motivation is focused on showing the relationship between characters. Orson Welles pioneered many filmmaking techniques and understudied how to capture the relationship between people within a frame by placing characters at appropriate distances from one another and at different hights. The combination of camera placement and character position sets a tone that translates in to a mood for the audience to understand.
Typically in outer perspective filmmaking the camera frame size is mor relaxed and natural with what humans are used to seeing. In inner perspective filmmaking if we where to view the action the way the say Hitchcock filmed his scenes then our bodys would be in all sorts of weird positions. But outer perspective filmmaking tends to take on the natural perspectives we are accustom too.
In outer perspective filmmaking, it does not matter if the camera is canted, or has a high or low angel or far or close its all about the intensity of those elements. The more intense the camera angels, frame size and camera placements are the more the it is translated in to inner perspective filmmaking. You don't have to go over bord with trying to achieve inner or outer perspective filmmaking you just have to know what camera placement will cause what effect.
Inner and outer perspective filmmaking is simular because they both use a variety camera techniques to achieve different emotional or reactive responses from the audience. The big diference in inner and outer perspective filmmaking how we define those camera techniques in relation to the motivation of the scene.
The definitions we use in camera technique can vary because of the perspective and motivation of the scene. So for instance, definitions in inner perspective filmmaking take on a physiological perspective between people, places and things while outer perspective filmmaking is more defined by the relationship between people, places and things.
lastly, Nonobjective perspective in filmmaking is all about the action in the frame. Think of Nonobjective perspective filmmaking like you, the audience member, sitting in a theater observing the performers on stage. The technique is very bland in camera placement frame size and angel. There is no motivation to this style other then to capture the action and reaction. The idea is to rely on the content or characters to tell the story. This technique is used for comedy, news, daytime TV dramas, documentary programs etc... The idea is to let the content speak for its self. There can be angels, change in frame size and camera placement, but this is only to capture the action and reaction.
lucille ball who is known for I love lucy Pioneered the 3 camera technique for television. The show is also an excellent example of nonobjective prospective filmmaking.
Objective filmmaking has more to do with the filmmaker telling the audience what to subconsciously think or feel based on camera placement and editing.
Non objective filmmaking relies on the action and reactions of the environment. Minimizing exaggerated camera placement, frame size and camera angel reduces or eliminates subconscious visual stress or tention that could cause conscious biased thinking from the audience perspective. In comedy, there can be no visual perspective stress to allow the mind to let it guard down sorta speak, reducing the flight or fight responses.
When a family sits down to eat dinner and watch a family comedy it serves exactly this purpose, to take the mental stress away. The family feed off of the visual energy that in turn creates a pleasurable chemicals responses in the body. Hence a way for people to relax after a long hard stressful day of work. In other words, the motion picture can be used as a sort of mental stimulus or drug. All drugs effect the brain function in one way or another and visual stimulus is another way of manipulating those brain functions.
So when creating a film, the script will ultimately tell you what perspective to use. These motivational perspectives can be broken down scene by scene and can interchange without causing disruption to the theme of the story.
By
Robert Sawin
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