Camera view, angle, movement, shot continued

Panning - In photography, panning refers to the horizontal movement or rotation of a still or video camera, or the scanning of a subject horizontally on video or a display device. Panning a camera results in a motion similar to that of someone shaking their head "no" or of an aircraft performing a yaw rotation.

Film and television cameras pan by turning horizontally on a vertical axis, but the effect may be enhanced by adding other techniques, such as rails to move the whole camera platform. Slow panning is also combined with zooming in or out on a single subject, leaving the subject in the same portion of the frame, to emphasize or de-emphasize the subject respectively.

In video technology, the use of a camera to scan a subject horizontally is called panning.

In still photography, the panning technique is used to suggest fast motion, and bring out the subject from other elements in the frame. In photographic pictures it is usually noted by a foreground subject in action appearing still (i.e. a runner frozen in mid-stride) while the background is streaked and/or skewed in the apparently opposite direction of the subject's travel.

The term panning is derived from panorama, a word originally coined in 1787 by Robert Barker for the 18th century version of these applications, a machine that unrolled or unfolded a long horizontal painting to give the impression the scene was passing by; Barker also invented the cyclorama in which a large painting encircles an audience.

Point of view shot - A point of view shot (also known as POV shot or a subjective camera) is a short film scene that shows what a character (the subject) is looking at (represented through the camera). It is usually established by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character's reaction (see shot reverse shot). The technique of POV is one of the foundations of film editing.

A POV shot need not be the strict point-of-view of an actual single character in a film. Sometimes the point-of-view shot is taken over the shoulder of the character (third person), who remains visible on the screen. Sometimes a POV shot is "shared" ("dual" or "triple"), i.e. it represents the joint POV of two (or more) characters. There is also the "nobody POV", where a shot is taken from the POV of a non-existent character. This often occurs when an actual POV shot is implied, but the character is removed. Sometimes the character is never present at all, despite a clear POV shot, such as the famous "God-POV" of birds descending from the sky in Alfred Hitchcock's film, The Birds. Another example of a POV shot is in the movie Doom, which contains a fairly long POV shot which resembles a head-up display in a first-person shooter video game, with the viewer watching through a character who is venturing through hallways shooting and killing aliens.


"Point-of-view , or simply p.o.v., camera angles record the scene from a particular player's viewpoint. The point-of-view is an objective angle, but since it falls between the objective and subjective angle, it should be placed in a separate category and given special consideration. A point-of-view shot is as close as an objective shot can approach a subjective shot - and still remain objective. The camera is positioned at the side of a subjective player - whose viewpoint is being depicted - so that the audience is given the impression they are standing cheek-to-cheek with the off-screen player. The viewer does not see the event through the player's eyes, as in a subjective shot in which the camera trades places with the screen player. He sees the event from the player's viewpoint, as if standing alongside him. Thus, the camera angle remains objective, since it is an unseen observer not involved in the action." - Joseph V. Mascelli in The Five C's of Cinematography


A POV shot need not be established by strictly visual means. The manipulation of diegetic sounds can be used to emphasize a particular character's POV.

It makes little sense to say that a shot is "inherently" POV; it is the editing of the POV shot within a sequence of shots that determines POV. Nor can the establishment of a POV shot be isolated from other elements of filmmaking — mise en scene, acting, camera placement, editing, and special effects can all contribute to the establishment of POV.

With some POV shots when an animal is the chosen character, the shot will look distorted or black and white.

When the leading actor is the subject of the POV it is known as the subjective viewpoint. The audience sees events through the leading actor's eyes, as if they were experiencing the events themselves. Some films are partially or totally shot using this technique. In fact, there is an entire genre of pornography dedicated to filming technique known as Point of view pornography.

One of the first films to use this technique was Rouben Mamoulian's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Everything is seen through Jekyll's eyes, as he leaves his house to go to the medical lecture. Then, as he begins to speak, Jekyll is seen for the first time. When Jekyll first transforms himself into Hyde, Mamoulian once again uses the subjective camera to record his agonized reaction to his own drugged drink.

Film, directed by Alan Schneider written by Samuel Beckett and starring Buster Keaton also uses POV extensively, switching between the main character's point of view and the view of the camera as a way to illustrate Berkeley's quote "to be is to be perceived and to perceive". Interestingly, Film is also said to refer to the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

In the film noir Dark Passage, the protagonist has plastic surgery, and when his bandages are removed, he is revealed to be Humphrey Bogart. But until that moment, everything is seen through his eyes and the viewer has no idea what he looks like.

In another film noir, Lady in the Lake, directed by and starring Robert Montgomery as Raymond Chandler's detective Philip Marlowe, the entire film is shot from a subjective viewpoint, and Montgomery's face is seen only when he looks in a mirror. The film was not a critical or popular success.

"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" uses the POV shot with a tilt shift focus to imitate the lead protagonist loss of sight in one eye.

The Plainclothesman, a moderately popular crime series aired on the DuMont Television Network from 1949 to 1954, used the technique. According to David Weinstein's book The Forgotten Network, the show was even used in police training in some cities.

The British sitcom Peep Show is shown mostly through the viewpoints of the characters and even lets you hear the two lead character's thoughts in the scenes.

In Gaspar Noé's 2010 film Enter the Void the beginning of the movie is shot in first-person.

Racking focus - Racking focus is the practice of shifting the attention of a viewer of a film or video by changing the focus of the lens from a subject in the foreground to a subject in the background, or vice versa. It dated back to the time when cameras did not have reflex lenses so the operator would have to "rack focus" the camera by looking through the viewfinder, then sliding the camera over so that the shot would be in focus. The technique can be seen in as early as 1929 in the early talking picture Applause (film), directed by Rouben Mamoulian. American director Richard Rush claims that he and cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs invented the technique, first used in the 1968 motorcycle film The Savage Seven. Rush owns the patent on a lens used in the technique.

Reaction shot - Reaction shot is a term used in motion picture production and cinematography referring to a basic unit of film grammar. It is a shot which cuts away from the main scene in order to show the reaction of a character to it.

A reaction shot usually implies the display of some sort of emotion on the face of the actor being shown, and is thus most commonly a close-up shot (although a group of actors may be shown reacting together). A reaction shot is also generally bereft of dialogue, though this is not an absolute rule. Its main purpose is to show an emotional response to the immediately preceding action or words of another character in the scene, or to an event in the immediately preceding scene which may or may not involve another actor (e.g., an explosion, monster, empty room, etc.)

The assumption behind the logic of the reaction shot is that the emotional reaction of the actor being depicted will either advance the story forward, reveal character traits of the character in the reaction shot, or emphasize character traits of another character that were displayed in the action or dialog present in the preceding shot. A completely unemotional reaction may also be important if it provides information to the audience or is unexpected in the context of the scene.

Reaction shots can be especially critical in comedy, as the reaction of an actor or actors to a dramatic incident provides a psychological cue to the audience about how to respond to that incident themselves.

In some cases; the deliberate avoidance of showing a reaction shot can be used by a filmmaker to dramatic effect; for instance, if the filmmaker does not want the audience to see a character's reaction to a particular incident at that point in time.

Shot reverse shot - Shot reverse shot (or shot/countershot) is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

SnorriCam - A SnorriCam (also chestcam, bodymount camera, bodycam or bodymount) is a camera device used in filmmaking that is rigged to the body of the actor, facing the actor directly, so when he walks, he does not appear to move, but everything around him does. A SnorriCam presents a dynamic point of view from the actor's perspective, providing an unusual sense of vertigo for the viewer.

The SnorriCam is named after two Icelandic photographers and directors, Einar Snorri and Eiður Snorri, who –although they are not related– worked together under the name Snorri Bros.

The concept of the SnorriCam has been around for decades. Various ad hoc versions of the device were implemented in films going as far back as Seconds, in 1966. However, the practicality of such a point-of-view device was limited by the weight of the camera. Since most 35mm motion picture cameras were simply too heavy to easily carry, there was no real point in developing such a device. However, with the emergence of the Steadicam and the manufacture of small, lightweight, soundproof cameras that could fit on the Steadicam platform, an added bonus of these newer, lighter cameras was the possibility of a point-of-view device such as the SnorriCam.

Uses in film

All the following films use SnorriCam sequences[2]:

* Mean Streets, where the lead character (played by Harvey Keitel) can be seen moving through a crowded bar and passing out drunk in the back.
* Truck Turner - the character played by Yaphet Kotto can be seen in his final throes of death through the eyes of a SnorriCam
* Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels when Eddie (played by Nick Moran) is leaving the boxing ring after the game of poker.
* 25th Hour
* "Psycho (film)"
* Enduring Love
* Armageddon, when an astronaut gets hit by outgassing he zooms off into space and we see him scream from a virtual Snorricam
* The Lovely Bones
* π and Requiem for a Dream, directed by Darren Aronofsky, use the SnorriCam extensively.
* Kannathil Muthamittal
* Rakta Charitra
* Dil Chahta Hai
* Angst
* Dalkomhan insaeng
* Malcolm X
* Seconds
* Babel
* La sirène rouge
* Jacob's Ladder
* Guru
* The Exorcism of Emily Rose
* Stay
* Azumi 2: Death or Love
* Heyy Babyy
* Kicking & Screaming
* See No Evil
* I Am Legend
* Kidulthood
* Adulthood
* Inside Man
* Max Payne
* Tell No One
* RocknRolla
* Revolver
* District 9
* Slumdog Millionaire
* Dev.D
* Rann
* The Hangover
* Orphan
* Juice
* New York
* Terminator Salvation
* 28 Weeks Later, a zombie wears it while chasing Robert Carlyle's character.
* Touching The Void
* Bound
* Get Him To The Greek, where Jonah Hill parties and later receives an adrenaline shot.
* Va
* No Smoking
* Kaminey, used in the music video of 'Dhan Te Nan'
* Jackie

Ideas and Reflections:
There are some very interesting shots listed above although it is unlikely that I will be using these in my own film.