Camera Angles

The camera is our eye into the action. Putting the camera in different places is important for making the story interesting. Remember that instead of just shooting everything at eye level, the camera can go above, below or behind the subject.

High Shot                                                        Low Shot

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


A collage of two images: the first shows three young boys smiling and looking up at the camera on a grassy field, the second shows a person dressed as Batman standing against a cityscape background with smoke and debris.

A High Shot looks down from above. This can make people look weaker or smaller. If you want to make a person or thing seem important or scary you can use a Low Shot that points the camera up at them.

      Birds Eye Shot                                                         Dutch Angle

Left: Aerial view of empty parking lot with parked cars and streetlights. Right: Woman in a red dress standing on the beach with arms raised, reflecting in the wet sand.

Some more quirky kinds of shot include the Birds-eye shot, which looks straight down at the scene or a thing. These are not very common unless you have a drone. With a Dutch angle, everything in the scene is on a slant. You can use it to make things seem odd, wacky or cool.

Show your students this video which explains the different types of camera angles:

Basic Camera Shots and Angles for Beginners https://youtu.be/mfcWXC-ILvo

Exercise: Camera Angles

Practice shooting these different camera angles with the camera team, using scenes from your chosen script. Ask some of your actors to help too. This can be very rough while you learn.

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