Point of View Element

In the last part of the seminar we looked at the final element we have to include within our film which is a point of view sequence. Point of view determines who the viewer identifies within a scene and relies heavily on framing and editing to make it clear to the audience who is the focus of the scene. There are a few different styles of point of view shots and sequences which are continuously used in almost every film made that involve one or more characters.
There are 3 types of Narrative Point of View in films which show whos point of view the narrative is being told from, and they are:

• First person POV -Character tells the story through their own eyes. When the camera shows the subjective view point of the character, conventionally hand held/shaky cam e.g Peep Show.
• Third person restricted POV - Presents the action and narrative through an observer. The camera is not the view point of one of the characters, conventionally a static camera or a pan of characters movement. Used in hundreds of films e.g Saving Private Ryan (opening scene on the beach).
• Omnicent POV - We know what the character is thinking, camera can be doing either examples above but is usually combined with a voice over e.g Layer Cake (Daniel Craigs character).

Camera techniques are a very powerful way of showing what point of view the film is in as well as who the audience should be identifying with in the scene. This is done predominantly through the position of the camera in relation to the characters and their eye lines. The most common sequence used to establish this identification is:

1. The first shot shows the main characters eye line and the direction they are looking in from a third person restricted POV.
2.  The next shot shows either a first person or over shoulder shot of the first character and the object/subject they are looking at.
3. The final shot normally shows a close up of their face straight on from the object/subject they were looking at, but can be a modified subjective, where the eye line is slightly off so the character isn't looking straight down the camera lens.

The film Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock is a classic example of a whole scene that uses this technique religiously throughout.

This is an effective way of showing who the audience identifies with due to the types of framing used on the male character, as well as the 1st person point of view shot (2nd shot) showing the audience who's perspective they are viewing the scene from.