Animation: Interesting Article On Camera Angle
Steve K
Posts: 3,235
I tend to focus on settings, characters, props, and character animation. But I think other factors can really help with selling the story. Note that shot width (focal length) is mentioned, along with camera angle.
https://nofilmschool.com/2016/09/how-camera-angles-12-angry-men-indicate-character-highs-and-lows
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thanks for that - it also helps when constructing a narrative made from still images
Yes, very much so. I recall a single ~still shot in HBO's great series "Rome". Kind of hard to set up but ... the two protagonists are a Roman army officer and a big muscular army infantryman, both very capable fighters under Julius Caesar. The latter is assigned to teach Caesar's yound grand nephew, Octavian, to fight, which proves to be futile for the skinny, intellectual kid (who BTW is asked by and gives advice to Caesar about running the Empire, uhh, Republic at the time). Later, before a military action, a teenage Octavian is riding his horse and explains to the two of them the political situation of the entire Empire, in about 30 seconds. The next shot is of the two of them standing side by side in a desert from a high angle (Octavian's POV from his horse I guess), with a wide angle lens showing lots of surrounding world. They look like toy soldiers, looking up at him with no clue what he's talking about. Guess which one becomes the great Roman Emporer Augustus.
thanks.
i luv study of camera angles.
had a lot of fun with dolly zoom ala vertigo movie.
pulling back the camera yet zooming in at the same time. trippy
advice from good friend mentioned the importance of what;s off camera.
brain still chugging on that, lol
Yes, a famous dolly zoom in one of my favorite movies, "Jaws":
Not sure about "what's off camera". Is that like the important part of music is the spaces between the notes? (Claude Debussy) Or maybe the (offstage?) slamming of the door in Ibsen's "A Doll's House"?
I have always been a big fan of creative, and imaginative, cinematography that ehances story telling and grips attenton. The 1960s Twilight Zone, and Outer Limits, TV series made great use of camera work. They were lucky enough to hire movie studio cinematographers during the collapse of the old Hollywood movie system. That is one reason I detest the later remake of the Outer Limits in the 1990s which had deadly boring camera work, boring lighting, bad stories, boring directors; a flop if there ever was one. The same applies to all the remakes of the Twilighe Zone; crapola.
Great cinematography, lighting, etc. can even make a mediocre story interesting, and finally there is the music. Both the original 1960s Outer Limits and Twilight Zone had great instrumental music. That all disappeared in later American Television. My generation took over and like Chinese Red Guards smashed the old standards and produced as a result mostly crap, with very few exceptions.
There I go again, ranting. So I will censor myself before the moderator throws a pie in my face, or you do.
I am also a huge fan of the original "Twilight Zone", and recommend the book "The Twilight Zone Companion" by Marc Scott Zicree. It gives lots of background on all the episodes, e.g "Long Live Walter Jameson". (SPOILER ALERT!) At the end, the main character dissolves through aging stages to pile of dust. " ... the metamorphosis consisted of three separate and distinct age makeups, each older than the one before it. For the first change, a trick was employed [from] "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1931. This consisted of drawing lines on the actor's face - in this case age lines - in red makeup. The set was then lit with key lights with red filters ... rendering the lines invisible. As the scene progressed, the red lights were dimmed while simultaneously lights with green filters were raised ... the line became visible. Since the film is in black and white, the color change is undetectable ..." The change is in the first 30 seconds of this clip.
(Yes, that's Kevin McCarthy from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", another example of camera work contributing to the story - everything just gets tighter and tighter: "From the very first frames there is attention paid to establishing an atmosphere of ever-escalating paranoia and claustrophobia.")
Steve K /
Atmosphere. That was word I left out of my post, and that is what I like most in feature films and TV episodes, an atmosphere created by well crafted camera work, lighting, music, and of course a well written story.
I bought a copy of the "Twilight Zone Companion" by Marc Scott Zicree many years ago and read most of it. One of my local radio stations had a two hour commercial free Science Fiction Talk Show titled "Hour 25" and they interviewed Marc Scott Zicree. It was such a long time ago that I don't remember what was said in that interview and I don't think I taped it.
There is a well made SF film from the 1960s starring Rock Hudson titled, "Seconds" that has some excellent atmospheric camera work, and the original "1960s "The Haunting" (not the crappy remake) made excellent use of camera angles, and editing.
Some of my very favorite Twilight Zone episodes are "And When The Sky Opened", "The Lonely", "Perchance to Dream" "Third from tthe Sun, "The Obsolete Man", all of which have a haunting atmospheric quality. The lack today of that kind of film making is tragic.
The 1960s original "Outer Limits" had some episodes directed by Bryon Haskin who was a great director for creating atmosphere. I wish he had directed all of the Outer Limits episodes.
Yes, those are all on my favorites list, especially "The Lonely", together with many more of the 150+ episodes. On Mr. Zicree's book: " A book that practically reads like a short story collection." -- The Washington Post
Amazon on "Seconds" (7.7 at IMDB, 4.5/5 Stars Amazon): "This paranoiac symphony of canted camera angles (courtesy of famed cinematographer James Wong Howe), fragmented editing, and layered sound design is a remarkably risk-taking Hollywood film that ranks high on the list of its legendary director’s [John Frankenheimer] major achievements." And its available from the Criterion Collection, high praise. Sounds like it fits the topic here, thanks for the tip, its in my Amazon Cart, awaiting a Free Shipping total order.
"The Haunting" has the same ratings and reviewers seem to agree with you about the original/remake comparison, e.g. BBC (2000): "The recent remake of "The Haunting" kills off any suspense with a barrage of special effects. Interestingly though, it is very much style over substance that saves the original."
I didn't know that "Seconds" is now in the Criterion Collection. That usually means very expensive, though.
Years ago I managed to watch expensive Criterion DVDs by renting them from Netflix. My account and renting plan with Netflix ended and I have no idea if they still rent films or if everything is now downloads and no snail mail option.
Another great old film that used both camera and lighting in a very atmospheric creative way is "The Beast with Five Fingers" starring Peter Lorre in one of his best roles.
The DVD is $18, a little pricey but you usually get a lot of extras with Criterion. Amazon has an HD streaming version for $4 rental.
I always enjoy Peter Lorre movies, the reviews of this one look pretty good, a little humor apparently is part of the package.
18 dollars is not bad for a Criterion dvd. I remember that they wanted 35 dollars years ago for a 2 disk DVD set of weird SF/Horror film titled "Fiend Without a Face"
I attached 2 video snaps from a 1960s Outer Limits episodes that display their camera and lighting style. That's a young Ed Asner in one of the pics seeing the energy monster for the first time.
Yes, that's the kind of thing I tend to forget about, I'm always keeping the camera level. In the book "Cinematic Storytelling" by Jennifer Van Sijll, examples are given of "Film Element: Orientation". One is the opening of "Apocalypse Now" with the face of Captain Willard upside down ... the story and character are not going to be ordinary. In "Barton Fink", the protagonist playwright is in a Hollywood hotel room, far from his cocoon home. The camera begins to rotate giving an inverted orientation indicating turmoil for the character. Effective stuff, but I think to be used sparingly.
I finally got around to watching "The Haunting" (1963), a good movie (7.6 at IMDB) with some pretty impressive use of the camera, all right, especially for 1963. the trailers and stills at IMDB don't do it justice, but the 4 minute scene below gives a taste. For me, the most impressive scene had the camera climbing and spiralling around a spiral staircase that was wobbling and about to collapse as a character climbed. Probably took some doing in those days, and probably more impressive in a dark theater on a large screen.
Steve K ,
Sorry about this late reponse.
It's the Halloween Season so this is a good time to talk of old Horror films. The Universal Studios series of old Horror films, from the 1930s and 1940s. made fantastic use of camera and lighting; "Frankenstein", "Dracula", The Wolf Man" and even their sequels made some interesting use of camera and lighting. Although the Hammer Studio Horror series of Dracula and Frakenstein films had great actors in them, they lacked the kind of atmospheric camera and lighting style that was in the old Unversal Studios Horror films.
Yes, horror movie time. I've been watching a lot to get in the mood for the contests that come around this time of year. I've just abouit finished the first contest entry, so I'm kind of burned out on horror. I do have a box set, "100 Years of Universal" with 25 movies including "Dracula", some good movies in there.
Steve K,
Returning to the original, "The Haunting", film. It has to be seen in a good movie theater to get the full atmospheric effect. I saw it the first time when I was a kid and the scene with the violent knockings on the doors scared the hell out of me and the audience, and the scene when the large wood door gets pushed in by the unseen entity was terrifying and had the whole audeimnce on the edge of their seats.
Another classic old horror film, that is very atmospheric and that makes good use of camera angles, lighting, and music, is "The Curse of the Demon". It has a very well written screenplay, fine actors, and the demon monster is fantastic and still gives me the creeps.
I have not seen "Curse of the Demon", but it sounds good based on the IMDB wirteup. As I mentioned, I'm a little burnt out on horror (we delivered our horror video contest entry today). A favorite source of good, hard to see movies is the annual Oscar Shorts Nominees, which we attend every year at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH), both live action and animation (we skip the documentary category). A little off topic since camera angle is not the focus, but some very nice camera work in general. I don't think all the old magic has been lost, these film makers have some chops. Amazon has some good collections, and here is a full live action winner from a couple of years back, "The Stutterer":
Steve K ,
Maybe you can make "Curse of the Demon" the "grand finale" for your Horror film marathon, or maybe watch it in Novemner since nothing much happens in that month.
Maybe you have heard of it, but I will mention that there is an small web company named Sinister Cinema that offers hard to find old, and not so old, SF, Horror, Fantasy, films, etc. Their DVD quality is very good, to excellent.
From Amazon: "A British production, NIGHT OF THE DEMON was released in the UK in a 95 minute running time. For the American market, the film was cut to 82 minutes, re-titled CURSE OF THE DEMON, and released in 1958. This DVD presents, for the first time in the US, the fully restored 95-minute version as seen by British audiences in 1957, as well as the rare, truncated American release." Its in my cart waiting to get to $25 & free shipping. And thanks for the tip on Sinister Cinema, I sonetimes have trouble finding movies that people mention and that sound interesting.
A good 8 minute video "Buster Keaton - The Art of the Gag". He tried to avoid "dialogue" (title cards), the average being 240, the most he ever used was about 50. He told the story visually, and with wild success. Also, there is an interesting comparison of camera angle choice (staying ot topic a little).