Camera Work: What's Your Angle

Of the seven deadly camera sins that I denounce so sternly from this pulpit, "upstanding" may be one of the harder to eliminate.

Upstanding is the act of videotaping everything from standing eye-level, and it's a tough habit to break because standing is what you're usually doing as you shoot. It's simply where you start from.

But if you remain there permanently, you risk blighting your video with a bland and boring sameness. To perk things up, you need to find different--sometimes even unusual--shooting angles. So that's the topic of this month's harangue. We'll show why you should seek new camera angles, how to use them effectively and what to watch out for as you do so.

But before we launch the discussion, note that we also use the phrase "camera angle" to label image size (long shot, close-up, etc.) as well as camera position. Here, though, we're not referring to how close you are to your subject, but where you place your camcorder to capture that subject on tape.

There are several compelling reasons for varying camera angles. First and simplest, you'll add variety and novelty to your video program, and that will increase its overall interest.

Using different angles will also make your video more dynamic and dramatic. That's because standing eye level is the bland white bread of camera angles. The more you deviate from it, the more energetic the visual effect.

Shooting from varying angles also enhances the illusion of depth in your visuals. Remember that a video is a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional world. By placing your camcorder at different vantage points in three-dimensional space, you help convince the viewer that a third dimension still exists in the flat pictures they're watching.

Perhaps the most important reason for using different angles is to help ensure that each and every shot on screen is precisely the right shot. Good professional directors reliably show you exactly what you want (or need) to see at any given moment in a program. To do that, they have to control both the subject matters included in each shot and the perspective from which you see it. That means carefully selecting the framing and the camera angle.

Sometimes, of course, you choose a particular angle for a more modest reason: because that's the only way to get the shot. For example, you may have to tape a passing parade from a high angle simply to clear the heads of spectators in front of you. (In standard movie terminology, a "high" angle occurs when the camera is higher than its subject and shooting down on it. With a low angle, the opposite is the case.)

But high camera angles are useful for more than just seeing over things. They're great for looking down on things as well.

In some situations, high angles sort of choose themselves for you--as when you shoot a child, a pet, or perhaps a flower. But at other times, you need to get yourself upstairs in order to gaze down on the scene.

Why? For two reasons: orientation and drama. A very high angle can produce an image resembling a map, to help viewers place people and things in a complicated scene. When my niece got married recently in a garden ceremony, the wedding videomaker perched a camera on a second-story porch to capture a bird's-eye angle of the event. This showed the principals in a context that no garden-level shot could match. You can achieve the same effect, in any church that has gallery or balcony seating.

A high angle can also be very dramatic. Imagine that your camcorder is on an overpass, pointing almost straight down at the highway below it as a pair of cars races past. In an ordinary shot, the cars would appear at one side of the frame and disappear off the other. But from a bird's eye angle, they unexpectedly start at the top (or bottom) of the frame instead.

Whether you're holding your camcorder aloft to clear spectators in front or extending it over an overpass railing, it helps if the viewfinder will swivel downward as well as up. That way, you can watch what you're taping. Most full-size VHS camcorders have such viewfinders, but only a few compact models retain this feature--a point you should definitely remember when you choose your next camera.

In the case of the overpass shooting, a down-swiveling finder also lets you operate safely, without leaning out over the speeding traffic below. Remember that high angles require high places, and high places demand safety precautions.

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