I began looking at the main principle of Objective and Subjective Camera Shots, here are the main points I discovered:
- Subjective and Objective camera angles are all about the unique view of the scene which you give the audience and this in tern is what grips them. These camera angles also help to lead the audience into feeling certain ways about what they are seeing.
- Objective camera angles and shots are most commonly seen in film and are shots where you look onto the scene as as an observer watching the action almost like fly on the wall. However you are an invisible and the actors don't interact with you, if they did they would be breaking the forth wall. Common shots which are objective are establishing shots but like I said the film is usually made up of a lot more objective shots than you would have realised previously.
Perks of Being a Wallflower, Objective Shot
- Subjective camera angles and shots are shots which the audience see the view from the subjects eyes. This is essentially a Point of View Shot (POV) where we see what a character would be seeing in that moment which then tends to make you empathise with a character more or in some cases not. These are less likely to be seen too much in feature length films however are still a effective when used and even more so if they are used as a technique in a shorter format like music videos to get a point across.
'Smack my B***h Up' Prodigy Music Video, Subjective Shot
Now that I have a good understanding of the difference between these two types of shots I then want to look more into how they can be used along with others to give a sense of empathy. I know that most of my planned shots are objective simply looking at the symbolism however I feel like I could add some POV shots to really try and make the audience connect and this could be done with a Go-Pro underwater shot from the point of view of the face (my face) which is drowning.
Other Ways to Add Empathy...
While trying to find some material I came across a really interesting article/essay called 'The Cinematic Chiasm: Evoking Societal Empathy Through The Phenomenological Language Of Film.' In this article the writer Nisha Gupta analyses the film 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' in which this film manages to create empathy towards the main character who has become paralysed. It does this in simple ways such as Point of View shots pulling you into the characters world which is enhanced when you see are looking at other people within the film through the characters eyes as this then gives a reason for your sense to open up like the characters simple watching them. It is also then drawn to my attention that to get someone to empathise with a body/person the film itself needs to be treated and formulated as a body. The body of the film should then mimic the body your represented and the way it works and feels. So I need to not only capture the emotions visually but I also need to then structure the film to reflect these emotions too. This calls into questions in my mind weather my piece might work more effectively if I did use real body images (maybe my own body) with in the video to help me structure it in a more relatable way. I found it interesting is the detail it went into when talking about perspectives and the philosophy by Merleau-Ponty. IT claims that in the real world when we interact with people we only have our perspective of them but depending on what they say and how they act towards us then changes our perspectives on them and each and every person may find a different perspective of them. Therefore perspective in film is important, as well as POV you need to find tools which you can use to guide the viewer to the perspective you want them to have. This basically means making sure that every element of my film coincides with the emotions and the journey I am trying to evoke in the viewer so that their perspective is guided to be the same as mine was at the time. Another term I came across was Haptic Visuality which describes the way a film tries to appeal to the sense in a way which technology can't physically control. This was pulled off in this particular film by for example portraying the sense of touch by having shots which were hazy and blurred therefore restricting the actually visuals and instead making you focus on the soft textures, pattern and colours instead which then provoke your sense of touch by soothing you in a very different way. I feel like this idea of haptic visuals is really heavily engaging but in a less obvious way and I want my piece to do the same. I have symbolism but maybe at times this can be represented by the textures I show and in actual fact I had already thought about this which is why so much of my piece is filmed in macro because I want the objects themselves at times to be unidentifiable but to still guide the audience and immerse them in my feeling. I need to continue to do this but to keep senses in my mind while doing so I can make sure they stand out to the viewer in this haptic way. The last important point made is that the editing of this film was done in a way that combine all the sense, the term used was 'multi-sensory editing technique'. This means carefully selecting the images which best represent the theme and then finding a rhythm for this combing the sound and then thinking into the length of shots so editing for me will be really important. They say in this essay...
I need to think carefully about how I arrange my clips so each one works with the other to create province on the next and build up my emotions and how it felt for me as successfully as this film did but also more experimentally do this.
(http://www.janushead.org/14-2/N.%20Gupta%20Essay_rev.pdf)
(http://www.janushead.org/14-2/N.%20Gupta%20Essay_rev.pdf)
This article has been really resourceful for me to look into subjectivity and even further into Haptic Visuality and many other useful techniques I can use to create empathy and a perspective for my film which in tern will make it more of an experiential piece to the viewer.
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