I just ran across a photo that looked very slightly down at the subjects. Sort of like the camera was being held at eye level by a tallish man. A man's eye view.
It occurred to me that when I was a kid, nearly all the TV shows were shot that way. At the level of the adult faces or maybe a little higher. So you were looking directly at the typical male actor, down a little at women, down a little more at kids. Not every show, not every scene, but most of the time.
I don't know when that stopped being true. A decade or 2 ago, I guess. I'd have to start checking shows to find out, and I'm not likely to bother.
I assume the change started because new tech made it easier, and avant garde directors wanted to play around with more flexible angles. But the result today is that a lot of shows seem filmed from the eye level of kids or shorter adults.
Does it matter? Maybe not. But it instills a somewhat different self image in the viewer. You feel more powerful and safe with the older view that has you looking down or as an equal. Less powerful, more at risk when you are looking up. And that's just scratching the surface.
Just throwing out the observation in case anyone else has ever had occasion to notice this.
It occurred to me that when I was a kid, nearly all the TV shows were shot that way. At the level of the adult faces or maybe a little higher. So you were looking directly at the typical male actor, down a little at women, down a little more at kids. Not every show, not every scene, but most of the time.
I don't know when that stopped being true. A decade or 2 ago, I guess. I'd have to start checking shows to find out, and I'm not likely to bother.
I assume the change started because new tech made it easier, and avant garde directors wanted to play around with more flexible angles. But the result today is that a lot of shows seem filmed from the eye level of kids or shorter adults.
Does it matter? Maybe not. But it instills a somewhat different self image in the viewer. You feel more powerful and safe with the older view that has you looking down or as an equal. Less powerful, more at risk when you are looking up. And that's just scratching the surface.
Just throwing out the observation in case anyone else has ever had occasion to notice this.
