The Camera Frame: Angle and Distance
Have students read the student chapter The Camera Frame and talk them through the initial exercise:
Make a frame with your fingers.
Hold your “frame” in front of you. What is in the frame and what is outside of it?
Still looking through the frame, turn your body from left to right. What do you see?
Pick something to look at, then move the frame closer to your eyes. Now move it further away. What details are left out when you move it further away?
Find something close to you to look at, like something on your desk. Move the frame closer to it. What details are captured by moving the camera closer to it?
Explain that film, and other media that use a “camera eye” (TV, comics, online video, some video games) have a “vocabulary” that you need to learn and understand to be able to either make or analyze them.
Have students read the student chapter Camera Shots: Angle and Distance and go through the different kinds of shots and what they were used for. Start by discussing the distance between the frame and the subject:
Camera Distance
Extreme close-ups show a specific detail: part of a person’s face, for example, or a single object (sometimes called a detail or insert because the shot is often done after main photography.) They are often used to highlight a thing or action as being important.
Close-ups show only one part of the subject, usually in great detail. They are typically used to make us feel a character’s emotions. They can also create tension because we can only see a small amount of the scene.
Medium-shots show most of the subject (often from the waist up). They are used to situate a character or action within a scene.
Two-shots is a special term for shots that ontain two people. They are usually either a medium shot or a mix of a medium shot and close-up. are used when you have two characters in the same frame. The characters will often be posed at different distances from the camera to show who’s more important.
Wide or long shots show the whole subject: a person from head to foot, for instance, or an entire car. They are often used to give us a sense of place, showing us the environment the characters live in.
Before continuing, have students make the camera frame with their fingers again and try looking at something in the room that’s above them, then something that’s below them.
Ask: How do the two “shots” feel different?
Explain that as well as the camera’s distance from the subject, we can also control the camera angle.
Camera Angle
A high angle or bird’s-eye view positions the camera above eye level, looking down on the subject. It is often used to make someone look weak or frightened.
A low angle or worm’s-eye view is just the opposite: it has the camera looking up at the subject, usually making it look strong or impressive.
Now have students read the student chapter Knowledge Check: Camera Shots and complete the quiz. If you are printing the materials, use the answer key below:
#1:High angle, insert/detail shot
#2: Flat angle, two-shot
#3: Low angle, long shot
#4: High angle, over-the-shoulder shot
After you have reviewed the quiz with students, have students discuss the impact of the choices in those shots. Why might the director and cinematographer might have chosen them?
(There aren’t necessarily right or wrong answers—what’s more important is that they engage with the idea of angle and distance as conscious choices that affect the meaning we get form the work.)