STAGING THE CAMERA

INTRODUCTION

A director’s use of the camera falls into three

major categories:
(1) Covering the action (revealing what is
happening, telling a story) (LS)
(2) Creating emphasis (providing impact
for significant elements) (CU)
(3) Contributing to a drama’s mood and
atmosphere (SPX)
COVERING THE ACTION

 The most accepted pattern of covering the

action emerged in early Hollywood films with
the camera starting wide and moving close –
Beginning a scene in a wide angle and
provide the audience with orientation – Then,
as tensions grew, camera angles came
closer until, at a scene’s climax, the action
played in close ups – The pattern remains
valid today.
 Camera usage and style vary from director to
director:
(1) Some prefer a fluid, moving camera
(2) Others shoot a single master angle that
covers action of the entire scene and
then break the scene into closer angles
that an editor can assemble later
 Each camera position is called a setup
 Master angles usually are wide – They show
physical relationships between characters and
movement that cannot be seen in closer angles
 Master shots sometimes start wide and then move
closer
 Sometimes master shots start close and then move
wider
 Occasionally, scenes are shot with no master angle
at all
CREATING EMPHASIS

 Because certain moments in drama are more

significant than others, directors use their cameras to
emphasize those moments – They achieve such
emphasis through:
1. Closeness
2. Separation
3. Positioning
4. Duration
5. Variation
6. Visual Composition
1. & 2. Closeness & Separation

Close angles do not create significance; they:

1. increase/intensify
whatever dramatic values already exist
2. clarify
allowing audiences to glimpse details and
sense emotions they would be unaware of in a wider
angles
3. create a feeling of intimacy
allowing sympathy between the audience and
a character
3. Positioning

A character facing camera achieves greater

impact than characters in profile.
 Over-shoulder shots do not have the impact
of closeups, but they create a strong feeling
of relationship between characters
4. Duration

 Emphasis may also be achieved by

prolonging a moment, through:
1. Slow motion
2. Editing
a. expanding key actions or
reactions by adding cuts.
b. shorten or eliminate dull
moments
5. & 6. Variation & Visual Composition

 Emphasis changes many times in most dramatic scenes:

1. Cutting between angles
the most common method for directing audience
attention from character to character
2. Changing (or racking) focus
audiences give attention to what is most easily viewed
- When a foreground character appears sharp and
the background character is out of focus, attention
centers on the foreground character.
CREATING MOOD AND ATMOSPHERE

 Cameramay contribute to a drama’s mood

and atmosphere through:
1. Position
2. Movement
3. Lenses and Filters
1. (Camera) Position

 Viewersmake inferences based on camera

placement:
1. A high angle shot
looks down on characters
2. A low angle shot
looks up at character
making them appear powerful and
dominant
 Although the camera usually provides an objective
view of action, occasionally it becomes subjective. In
the most usual form of subjective photograph:
1. POV (point of view) shot
the camera literally assumes a character’s
angle of vision
2. A character’s state of mind
The entire treatment of subject matter
(lighting, sets, music, and so on), reflects that (the
external mirroring the internal).
 Also:

1. Tilted or canted angles

suggest disequilibrium (the world of a
mad man or a drunk)
2. Hand-held shots
associated with news and special event
coverage
2. (Camera) Movement

 Everymovement should have a dramatic

motivation:
1. Forward and backward (e.g. a dolly)
usually echo the viewer’s increasing or
decreasing involvement
2. Trucking and tracking
usually impelled (driven) by the
movement of characters
3. Lenses and Filters
 Lenses and filters affect the quality of an image:
1. Lenses control the optical qualities
a. Both wide angle and long lenses distort
the image (the wider or longer the lens,
the greater the degree of distortion)
b. Wide angle lenses enlarge objects in the
immediate foreground and diminish
background objects (creating the illusion of
increased depth)
c. Long lenses reduce depth, flattening the
photographic field
2. Filters modify the image
by making aesthetic corrections, affecting the color
balance, or changing the exposure
a. Star filters
transform highlights into star-shapes flares
(creating an effect that is bright,
upbeat, glitter)
b. Diffusion filters
soften an image, concealing imperfections,
idealizing subject matter
 c. Fog filters
originally used to create illusion of fog, today
almost replaced diffusion filters (create
a soft, hazy, luminous image)