Cinematography II - Camera Angles

You must learn these terms and use them at all times throughout your essay when discussing key sequences of the films you are analysing. Whilst camera angles will form only one part of an essay on cinematography, every film uses a variety of camera angles and these angles are used to create relatively consistent effects for the audience across those films. Writing about camera angles is relatively straightforward so I would suggest that most essays about cinematography should include a paragraph on angles.

Remember, most of the time the director will use eye-level angles as if the audience are viewing events straight on (as in the medium close up of Combo from Shane Meadows' This is England directly above) - there is no need for you to discuss this kind of angle (though you may want to discuss the distance of shot and the elements of mise-en-scene that are foregrounded). Occasionally, however, directors will use specific angles to create meaning for the spectator and it is vital that the terms for these angles become an integral part of your description and analysis of scenes. The shot at the top of the post, of Lil' Dice from Fernando Meirelles' City of God, is shot from a low angle and is part of a brief montage of low angle shots which show the character's violent power and his increasing dominance and control of life in the favelas.

Sometimes the questions in the exam will focus broadly on film form, whilst at other times the questions may direct you more specifically to discuss cinematography, encouraging you to consider the ways it is used to create meaning for the audience. Questions on film form are applicable to ALL of the films studied on the course and a thorough appreciation of camerawork (here, camera angles may form one part of your discussion) and the effects of choosing particular angles will also be crucial in your practical coursework (both in your script and your storyboard).

In the exams, questions might focus on other Core Areas of Study (such as aesthetics, representation and context) or Specialist Areas of Study (including spectatorship, narrative, ideology, auteur, critical debates and filmmakers' theories). Even though these questions do not specifically ask you to discuss film form, you will be expected to discuss film language (including camera angles) in your essays.

REMEMBER, camera angles are usually used to suggest something specific about characters to the audience or may be used to create expectations for the spectator about what may happen next in the narrative. They can also be used to reflect a particular character's point-of-view (for example, if a character is looking down, the audience may see a high angle shot of whatever that character is looking at). The shot above, taken from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, shows the teaspoon from Vincent Vega's perspective as he looks down on it whilst he 'cooks' the heroin before he injects it.

HIGH ANGLE

In a high angle shot, the camera is placed above a character looking down on them (or above a setting or prop, looking down on it). High angles, such as the shot above of Dom Cobb taken from Christopher Nolan's Inception, are usually used to make a character appear vulnerable, in danger, isolated or weak - victims are often shot from a high angle reinforcing to the audience the threat they face. In the shot above, the high angle emphasises the fragility of the dream layers that Cobb and his team work within and highlights Cobb's, and the team's, vulnerability as their 'extraction' has been discovered by their victim.

Whilst high angles are most commonly used to reinforce notions of a character's vulnerability to the audience, angles can be used aesthetically and might not necessarily be loaded with the typical meaning associated with that angle (or shot). In the shot above, of Butch from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Butch's bloodstained costume and broken nose, alongside the high angle shot, appear to reinforce his vulnerability but, in reality, he has just spotted the weapon that he will use to kill Zed and Maynard and free the man that Butch has double-crossed (gangland boss Marcellus Wallace). Butch's actions here lead to a truce and enable him to escape to a new life, resolving his strand of the narrative. The example above, which works against the conventional meaning of this type of shot (something that Tarantino does frequently in the 'experimental' Pulp Fiction), highlights that it is therefore crucial, before discussing meaning associated with a shot, you consider the context; what is happening at that moment in the film/scene that you are watching.

LOW ANGLE

In a low angle shot, the camera is placed below a character looking up at them (or below a setting or prop, looking up at it). Low angles are used to make a character appear powerful, in control, sinister or threatening and are often used for villains or antagonists. Alternatively, low angle shots can be used to make a character appear strong and heroic and are, therefore, frequently used when shooting the hero or protagonist. The shot above of Shaun from Shane Meadows' This is England reflects the shift in power he feels as a result of joining a skinhead gang (which transforms him from a figure of fun and a victim of bullying into a confident young man with, for the first time, a sense of belonging to something important). It also hints at the negative transformation within Shaun, as he becomes embroiled in a world of violence and racism that he does not really understand; experiences that, for a time, give him a false sense power that threatens to destroy his innocence.

As with high angles, there are times when low angle shots will be used for purposes other than representing a character as either strong and heroic or sinister and threatening. The most common alternative use of a low angle shot is as a representation of a character's point-of-view as they look up. In this case the shot is most likely to focus on a character or building (as with the shot above taken from Ariadne's POV in Christopher Nolan's Inception), with the POV shot bringing the audience closer to the character by enabling the audience to see events through that character's eyes. In the shot above, the audience experience exactly the same adrenaline rush and sense of wonder as Ariadne does as she witnesses, for the first time, the ways that the mind can alter the framework of reality.

BIRD'S-EYE VIEW

Characters, locations or props are shot directly from above in a bird's-eye view shot (also known as extreme high angles). Bird's-eye view shots are often exciting and unusual for the spectator as the audience is placed in an unfamiliar position, seeing things from a perspective that is largely alien to them. Bird's-eye view shots are frequently used in scenes to suggest that characters are being controlled or manipulated (these types of shot are frequently used in the thriller and horror genres where events are often out of the control of the films' protagonists) - either by other characters or organisations (such as governments) or by a higher being, a supernatural force or an abstract concept such as fate. In the bird's-eye view above, taken from Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, the film's protagonist, Ofelia, is shot directly above as she enters the labyrinth, suggesting to the audience that she may be being manipulated by the Faun, Pan. Bird's-eye view shots are frequently used throughout the film to suggest that Ofelia is not in control of her destiny in either the real or fantasy worlds that her character inhabits.

The shot above, taken from a montage sequence in Fernando Meirelles City of God, shows members of Lil' Ze's gang killing rival gangsters in order to take control of the favelas. Again, the bird's-eye view reinforces the ways in which Lil' Ze and his gang strive for total dominance and control of the favelas through a mixture of violence and fear and through pay-offs to the police who, for a while at least, allow Lil' Ze to rule unopposed.

WORM'S-EYE VIEW

Less common than bird's-eye view shots, worm's-eye view shots show the subject directly from below. These types of angles are incredibly unusual and can be unsettling and disorientating for audiences. Often they reflect the POV of a particular character (as in the shot above from Trainspotting, which is from Renton's perspective as he lays in his bed, locked in his room as his parents attempt to wean him off heroin) and frequently they are used to unsettle or disorientate the audience, or reflect the disorientation and confusion/panic of a character. In the shot above, the worm's-eye view is just one of a number of techniques that director Danny Boyle employs in Trainspotting to reflect a character's drug-addled state. In this particular scene, Renton is hallucinating as he comes off heroin and the unusual angle (combined with tightly framed shot compositions, elongated moving camera shots and relentlessly thumping non-diegetic music) reflects his nightmarishly disorientated state of mind.

CANTED FRAMING/DUTCH ANGLE

With canted framing or Dutch angles, the camera will appear to have been tipped to one side, as in the shots above taken from Christopher Nolan's Inception and Fernando Meirelles' City of God. These types of angles are unusual and very noticeable to the audience because instead of horizontal and vertical lines, the frame will contain diagonal lines (as in the doors and walls of the hotel corridor that Arthur is striding over in the shot from Inception above, and the police car, wall and pavement in the shot from City of God).

Canted framing can be used to reflect a character's confused and disorientated state of mind (as in the shot above from City of God, which is a POV shot from the perspective of Rocket, the film's narrator, who finds himself in the crossfire between the police and the violent gangs who control the favela where he lives) or they can be used to unsettle and disorientate the viewer (as in the shot from Inception which highlights the fragile and unstable nature of the various dream layers that the characters in the film find themselves in).

Scenes of chaos and confusion in films often contain canted framing or Dutch angles and the technique is frequently used to indicate to the audience that violence is about to erupt or that something unusual or unexpected is about to occur in the narrative. This is the case with both of the canted angles in the shots above; Arthur must race against time to fight off the security, who have come to take him down, before the dream layer crumbles in Inception and the canted angle in the shot from City of God foreshadows the extremely violent climactic shootout between rival gangs that brings about the resolution of the film.