this week we're demonstrating motivated
camera movement and more specifically
the three main reasons why you would
move the camera in a certain shot
here's the first question to ask
yourself is your camera move motivated
by an emotion let's start simple here we
have the classic example of a push in to
accentuate a character's reaction
depending on the actor's performance it
could be used when a character sees
someone who they haven't seen in years
or if they're having to make a really
big decision we're intensifying the
moment by bringing the audience closer
and closer to the character now you
could say that camera movement is like
punctuation in books in this case it's
taking the role of an exclamation point
but there's definitely a lot more to it
than that now for this next one you're
gonna have to imagine that our character
is out in a mountainous wasteland and
that they've been stranded for weeks
until this happens
the camera rises up just as the
character finally sees a rescue
helicopter on the horizon of the canyon
now it's really difficult to put this
into words but think of the association
with moving upwards how it would feel to
take flight like a bird or to climb up
really high to look over a city this is
one way we could justify that moving the
camera upwards works well for the scene
because we can make ties between the
emotion of lifting the audience off
their feet and what's happening in the
story but this is also an example of our
second reason to move the camera when
it's motivated by something else moving
now this is a really common way to help
a camera move look natural whereas if
the camera isn't following anything if
it's just moving through a static space
it draws a lot of attention to the move
itself which might be what you're going
for but next time you watch a movie
notice how often the camera is following
something else within the frame for
instance this scene which is heavily
inspired by double indemnity here we
have a main character talking about how
they work in a shop that gives the other
character an idea
he paces clearly thinking about
something
and then he gets an idea he curiously
asks if that means that he has keys to
the shop
evidently he does have the keys and
suddenly our character becomes very
interested
now watch again when he gets up the
camera tilts up he's now on higher
ground taking control of the scene the
camera follows him because it's
motivated by his movement the character
paces up and down we know he's thinking
something through he then stops having
made his decision to ask about the keys
and now once he has he closes the
distance between them because he can see
the value of those keys
as an audience we start to ask questions
why is he so interested in the keys does
he want to steal something from the shop
there was nothing in the dialogue
directly suggesting that and if you
watch the original scene from double
indemnity which i'll put on the blog
post you can see how a good actor can
show just through their face expression
and the way that they move that they're
definitely up to something so it's worth
watching a film to see just how often
they use a simple pan and a simple tilt
in a shot and more importantly how well
they integrate it using the movement of
the actors and the blocking for all the
different things in the scene now let's
go back to one of our earlier shots it
also has our third reason to move the
camera to hide or reveal something
just as the character discovers the
rescue helicopter we as the audience
also discover it now how do we use this
shot in a survival film after the
audience has seen the character's long
struggle in the wilderness then the
audience would have felt the same kind
of relief that the character did no
dialogue required but hang on a minute
why not shoot it like this tilting up
instead of booming up in this case i
could probably say that tilting up isn't
quite as good because our character
isn't tilting his head he's actually
moving up through the space so having
the camera reflect that might be a more
powerful option because that's our main
goal here to justify why a certain
camera movement would be more effective
than just leaving the camera static on a
tripod and it's based on the emotion
it's based on movement within the frame
and it's based on whether we are hiding
or revealing something and i'll leave
you with this on its own camera movement
is worthless but when you combine it
with the performance of the actors and
all the information you've already given
the audience it can be very powerful we
said before that camera movement is like
punctuation in writing and it still
applies the sentence does most of the
work but then the punctuation just helps
to steer it in the right direction now
on the blog post i'll put some annotated
examples of my favorite camera moves in
cinema but my name's simon cade this has
been dslr guide
and i'll see you next week
you