CINEMATIC POINTS OF VIEW
Definition
 The different ways the movie camera sees
the action taking place before it
 Need not be consistent, unlike literature
 Four points of view
 Objective
 Subjective
 Indirect-subjective
 Director’s interpretive
Objective point of view
 Camera is the window and the audience is
outside the window looking in
 Employs a static camera as much as possible
 Suggests an emotional distance between
camera and subject
Subjective point of view
 Forces us to become the characters and
experience their emotions
 Maintained by a moving camera
 Experience becomes more intense and more
immediate
Indirect-subjective point of
view
 Does not provide a participant’s point of view,
but it does bring us close to the action so that
we feel intimately involved and our visual
experience is intense
Director’s interpretive
point of view
 Photographing a scene from special angles or
with special lenses, or in slow or fast motion,
and so on
 The director imposes on the image a certain
tone, emotional attitude, or style