camera angles

Try to find good examples of camera angles used to create atmosphere or alter the meaning of a scene or shot. Consider viewpoint, relationship with the characters on screen, status of the character on screen, suspense, tension of expectation. Does it create a particular feeling or mood?

I have chosen Psycho as a clear example of the use of camera angles. 
In frame 1 shown below we can see Norman Bates and his stuffed birds from a low angle. This is the scene where we can first see that Norman mental state might not be very sane. The low angle is unnatural within the scene, but show him as a threat, emphasised by the menacing wings of the owls behind. 
The second shot, frame 2, shows Lila Crane in the shower from a high angle, and the perspective allows to see that someone has got into the bathroom. The camera angle helps to imply how fragile she is in that moment. Suspense is created as the main subject is giving her back to the peril. 
Frame 3 shows Norma Bates with a knife from a very low angle. This is again not natural point of view. Nothing in the scene would be located there to help the angle to be a POV from a subject in the scene (Lila, the shower head, Norma bates) but it makes the killer look bigger and more  frightening. Lila would be in front of Norma's character and is not shown. These scene is accompanied by the famous music that creates the terror environment. 
Frames 4 to 6 are taken from a high angle, and it is clear for the viewer how powerless is the woman against her killer. The frames are maintained very little time and there is a great deal of action. The scene achieves that viewer would feel anxious.

powerful, emotive frames

Find some examples of powerful, emotive frames. What feeling you get and how the framing has contributed to this?

Frame 1
Jeff Wall, A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai), 1993. Image from www.tate.org.uk

The image is a very wide shot, where the landscape and the action of four people affected by a sudden gust of wind is depicted. The detail of who or how the people are is difficult to identify due to the wide frame.
The picture is hilarious in a way. It makes me feel both happy for the beauty of the moment with the objects flying around, and amazed at the same time, for the opportunity that it seems that the photograph had and cached so brilliantly. As it sometimes happens, the image is not casual, and it is actually a collage of staged pictures taken in a period of 5 months, therefore the very formal composition is not an accident.
The very wide frame is critical to give sense to the image, as the action of the wind needs to be shown from afar. A midshot of any of the will make a poor picture and the link between the elements would be lost.


Frame 2
Film The Shawshank Redemption

The character of Brooks Hatlen, played by James Withmore, has been released from prison after doing time for most of his life. He feels like a fish out of water in the outside world, and also feels lonely and miserable, what makes him decide to take his own life.
In this scene we can see how Brooks dress up, stands on a table, signs on the wooden beam "Brook was here" and then shakes the table to end up hanging in the air. I find the close up of the feet, showing some dust from the carved wooden beam, a very moving frame. It needs to be understood with the whole sequence, and possibly with the whole film, but it's a subtle and kind of poetic way of depicting the character's death, showing nothing else than his feet and a close up of his satisfied smiling face, looking at his carved message.  I feel that showing a wider frame would be less subtle and less intimate.




Frame 3
Un chien andalou by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali

This extreme close up, part of the surrealist short movie by the spanish artists Buñuel and Dalí, shows the detail of a man with a razor blade cutting the eye of a woman. In this frame you have seen the man sharpening the blade, and you know therefore what is in this hand. The woman looks calmly at the camera and makes a very strong, powerful (and very disgusting) image.

exercise: shooting a short sequence

You are an alcoholic alone in your home

• You look around your empty room
• Nothing interests you
• You notice a bottle
• You hold the bottle and unscrew the lid
• Something attracts your attention, you look round
• Nothing happens
• You look back at the bottle and pour yourself a drink 

Sketch out some basic story boards to remind yourself of the images you visualised. 

Record these shots on your video camera.  

I sketched the sequence the day before. It was a rainy day so I was visualising a quite depressing sequence. It turned out that the day after was a beautiful and sunny day, even though, I guess images are more appealing this way. 

1. The protagonist is alone at home
2. She has a coffee. 
3. Watches TV, nothing interesting. When she looks around she senses the bottle that she knows is on the shelf. 
4. She tries to distract herself with a book, but she can't concentrate
5. She stands up and decides to pour herself a drink
6. When she takes the bottle with shaky hands she hear's her name... is there somebody at home? ... no, that's not possible...
7. There's no one in the room so she pours the wine.
8. She drinks.

I came across this series of photos by photographer Miyoko Ihara. I want to share the link, although I would not dare to comment on them (not yet) as I have not done any of the photography courses. Just say that I have enjoyed not only the nature of the pictures, the two main subject matters and the feeling they transmit, but also the light and the vibrant colours.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/9698490/Photo-series-of-the-bond-between-a-grandmother-and-her-odd-eyed-white-cat.html?frame=2407642

MAD//13 - Madrid Aerial Demo-Reel from cromatica45 on Vimeo.

A friend sent me this video earlier today. I love how the music works with it, and the beauty of the scenes, just because of the angle, the slow motion and the clarity and quality of the image... probably also because it's Madrid, it's my city, and I miss it so much.

Am I being subjective?

What do you think?

The song is Any Other Time, by Thomas Newman, and it goes perfectly with simple images, as it can be seen in the movie American Beauty, in the scene of the bag: a carrier bag is dancing with the wind, in random directions, up and down, then static for an instant, then again... and the music helps to find the scene surprisingly moving and beautiful.

exercise: visualisation

Place yourself in the scene; don’t think about what is there objectively but what you would see if you were there.

You are talking to someone in a shop

The person is facing you talking in an animated way, using their hands.

Knocking on a door

You knock on the door.You wait.The door is opened.

You are having an illicit affair

You are alone having a passionate conversation with your loved one.
A sudden sound in the background causes you to glance round.

frame

I've come across this simple definition of a frame. It's simple, but yet I find it beautiful and poetic:

"The camera and the lens work together to record a particular horizontal rectangle of reality. The    rectangle is only a small segment or cut out window of the total sphere of the physical world around the camera operator. This cutout has a finite and defined border, called the frame." 

Thompson, Roy & Bowen, Christopher J. (2009), Grammar of the shot. 2nd ed.Oxford: Elsevier.