{"id":120377,"date":"2019-10-03T06:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T11:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/?p=120377"},"modified":"2019-10-02T13:18:07","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T18:18:07","slug":"3-angles-add-interest-dialogue-scenes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/3-angles-add-interest-dialogue-scenes\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Unusual Camera Angles to Liven up Your Dialogue Scenes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here are three ways some leading filmmakers have broken new ground and freshened up what could otherwise be shoot-by-numbers footage.<\/h2>\n

If you shoot many dialogue scenes, it’s easy to fall into a routine \u2014 a wide to mid shot, then matching over-the-shoulder shots, with some clean singles for coverage. The characters might be facing each other (or side by side), but this formula pretty quickly becomes stale, unless you find new ways to approach it. So here are a few angles you might want to consider to mix things up.<\/p>\n

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High, On-Axis Single<\/h3>\n

For the Academy Award-nominated cinematography of The Grandmaster<\/a><\/em>, Philippe Le Sourd<\/a> decided to shoot some clean singles of the actors, not to one side of their eyeline but above it. The result certainly looks different and is undeniably engaging because it’s in line with the eye. It distorts the face in a new way that makes us feel as though we’re standing behind the character being spoken to, instead of to the side.<\/p>\n

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The Pacing Questioner<\/h3>\n

Pulp Fiction<\/em><\/a> was a stylistic tour de force<\/em> that put Tarantino<\/a> on the map, introducing us to many of his visual signatures. In one of the first scenes, where Jules (Samuel L. Jackson<\/a>) interrogates his prey, Brad sits in a seat as Jules paces back and forth in front of him. The camera follows him as he walks, turns, and looms over Brad, before finally shooting him. The tight framing means that the camera pans back and forth as Jules stalks his prey, turning what could have been a straight exchange between two men into a tense standoff.<\/p>\n

Tarantino’s framing and blocking mirrors the psychological game Jules is playing with Brad, going from friendly to menacing and back to friendly, as the frame goes from wide to extreme closeup and back to wide.<\/p>\n