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VISUAL LANGUAGE – The Point of View
My suspicion for some time is that in this day and age of shaky cam epilepsy (see Bourne Ultimatum) that films visual language is slowly being lost. Todays young filmmakers don’t seem interested nor inclined to the study and practice of these fundamentals. Like all artforms, understanding proven methods and techniques only strengthens ones palette.
How long does it take for a man to die in the desert ?
This will be the first article in a series that examines (and hopefully inspires and educates) the visual language of film. Brian De Palma, the visually obsessed master once said “… I try to develop pure visual storytelling. Because to me, it’s one of the most exciting aspects of making movies and almost a lost art at this point.”
Visual Language. It’s a basic core of education for a director, but a complcated one…
The POV shot is a shot that shows what a character is looking at represented through the camera. It is usually established by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character’s reaction. It serves not only as a visual aid, but to immerse your audience into the characters perspective and ultimately the story.
It had been a while since I’ve seen this technique used to perfection. The recent Academy Award winning NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is a prime example of this technique. The Coen’s minimalist style is perfection with each frame looking like a work of art.
Let’s get started.
First let’s take a look at the script segment from the scene we are going to breakdown. This is a 2005 draft adapated by the Coen’s themselves. One thing I found interesting is the use of the word Point-of-view 23 times in the screenplay. These two wrote the script, knowing in vision. This segment of the script however, does not use the word Point-of-view one time.
Read the segment, ask yourself how you would shoot and cover this even going so far to storyboard sketch it. Compare it to the brother’s work.
I hope you enjoyed this analysis and breakdown of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and the use of the POV in film. NO COUNTRY makes extensive use of this technique throughout the picture and I suggest going back and rewatching the film, looking for the technique. Next time you set out to make a film, try this technique, learn from it, see why it works and when it does not. In order to break rules and create your own techniques you have to understand them from the beginning. Otherwise you’ll get shaky spaz cam with zero direction or understanding in visual terms.
Hitchcock said “If it’s a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on.” And that, my friends is visual language.
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Tags: Discussion
5 comments for “VISUAL LANGUAGE – The Point of View”
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Great, great breakdown, John. I love the deconstruction and appreciation for “No Country..”
The more movies that come out these days that are rapid-fire handheld, the more respect I have for controlled camera technique. What happened to the days when a shaky cam was used to convey a certain emotion in a scene? I have much more respect for a film that seems to have deliberate, thought-out cinematography and pacing like “No Country”. Not saying that handheld is never deliberate, just not as creative, and in my mind, won’t burn a lasting memory. Movie making for a disposable age.
This was an educational read John. Thanks.
Thanks guys. I am happy that you enjoyed it.
When I was in film school a professor shared a story with me that I’ve always remembered. It was after a long day of shooting and the final shot they needed was one of the principals walking through a door. My professor told the DP that it was a simple shot and would only take a few minutes. The DP looked at him like he’d just sprouted horns. In a thick Hungarian accent the DP said “Shot never simple, part of film, very important.”
I think directors, especially those raised on a steady diet of music videos, tend to discount basic visual techniques. Instead we get a lot exotic camera movements that call attention to themselves but don’t convey much meaning(see Cloverfield). Go back and watch any Speilberg film, a master of the classical style, and see how effectively he uses wide shots. This eliminates the need for edits where no edit is needed.
In the hands of a lesser director the scene above wouldn’t have been nearly as effective. Brolin doesn’t just see the corpse, he spies on it, like a vulture circling dying prey. He knows that a wounded man can only last so long in the heat, allows enough time to pass for the man to die, then approaches him.
By using POV, which most directors assume is straight forward technique, the Coen bros. give us insight into Brolin’s character. Keep in mind that they do this without sloppy voice over. It’s all visual.
The shot of the watch has watch in foreground and the trees/corpse in the background. Less effective would have been very tight on the watch with no background, or the watch with ground behind it out of focus. Instead, they use this seemingly simple POV shot to convey more meaning.
DON’T TELL ME! SHOW ME!