POV Shot

This POV shot shows a friend of the main character hanging dead from a tree, and follows a shot of her looking up - We can see what she can see, and are thus understanding of the terror she is facing.

Point of View Shot

A POV shot is a shot used to show exactly what a character sees...through their eyes. What is shown is what the character sees. The purpose of this shot is to give the audience an understanding of the character and something they see as important. We often know a POV shot is a character's perspective because the shot is either preceded or followed by a character obviously looking/peering at something off-screen.

Often, a good POV shot puts the audience into a characters shoes, and helps get the audience to empathise with a character. This is important in horror, because the film maker wants us to connect with a character so that we live their fear right alongside them.

This POV shot from 'The bef' shows what our main character can see as he is seen peering through a door in the shot that came before this one. The POV shot is enhanced by the shaky-cam movement to give us a sense of the characters movement as they look out.

This POV shot of the mysterious stranger from 'Greif', shows the odd behavior that Kevin experiences which explains his increasing annoyance and assertiveness. This also works to put the audience into Kevin's shoes, and unsettles us because it really is strange behaviour.

When the new cookie jar is introduced in 'Kookie', we see it through the eyes of Bree, our main character. This reveal is sudden and unexpected, so by revealing it through Bree's eyes, we connect and empathise with her suspicion.

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