Watching

Watching the boy

You can use one of these over the shoulder shots. This will show where the characters are in relation to each other before we see them in separate shots.

The wide angle version on the left has more dramatic perspective. It’s a deep focus shot (both the boy and the girl are in focus).
The telephoto (zoomed in) version is a shallow focus shot.

Here, we see the boy from the girl’s point of view, then we see her looking at him (shot-reverse shot). The shots work together because we followed a set of ‘rules’:

Looking space: the girl is on one side of the screen with more space in the direction she’s looking.
Eyeline match: the direction she’s looking lines up with what she’s looking at, which is on the other side of the screen.
The 180 degree rule: the camera stays on one side of an imaginary line between the two characters (the axis of action).

The shots below break the rules.

What happens if you use them in the film instead of the ones above?
Can you work out what’s wrong with them?

Selecting close-ups

You need close-ups to see the girl’s expression.

These three are all low angle shots to make her appear more powerful.
The first two are big close-ups which show the head but not the shoulders.
The one in the middle is shot with a wide angle lens which distorts the girl’s features, making her look strange.
The shot on the right is an extreme close-up.
Try putting two of these shots together and then play them.
The jerky effect you get when you join two shots with similar framing is called a jump cut.
Once you’ve seen this effect, take out one of the shots.

This shot from the side is at the same level as the girl, and she’s facing away from the camera. This makes her

look less threatening.

This insert helps us to see a gesture which we wouldn’t have noticed in a wide or long shot.

Back

Report abuse