This is relatable to almost all of us no matter what genre we like. If you are a fan of action, a hero jumping from top of the buildings to save the world or punching five bad guys at once will make you stay with the character. If you love romantic films, the heroin taking care of her ill boyfriend or just holding his hands and telling him- “we are together in this.”- makes you stay with her. Staying with the character is nothing but believing in that character, emotionally investing in a fictional character. None of us do it forcefully, but that’s what happens to us when we watch good films and TV shows.
A hero and a villain or more specifically a protagonist and an antagonist are popularly known as a good character and a bad character respectively. But I always think that the protagonist merely means the main character of the story. A serial killer is the protagonist (Hero) in his story and the law enforcement chasing him is the antagonist (Villain). That does not mean audiences empathize with a serial killer’s character, but they are engaged in his journey from his point of view throughout the film.
But what tells us that this character is our hero?
There is a variety of technical and conceptual elements involved in achieving this. But I am going to focus on how camera angles make us stay with our hero.
This example is from SE01EP01 House of cards, a Netflix original series created by Beau Willimon. This episode is directed by David Fincher.
In this scene Frank Underwood is expecting good news, but Linda gives him bad news that the party has decided not to nominate Frank for a position they promised him earlier. For most of the scene, Frank is shot from a lower angle (establishing the person with power) and Linda is shot from a higher angle (which takes the power away.) Ideally, it is Frank who has lost the power he was promised, and Linda is part of the committee which has made the decision not to nominate him. So ideally Linda was supposed to be shot from a lower angle and Frank from higher. But this works perfectly fine because it establishes Frank Underwood’s character as a powerful man despite what decision his party makes. Shooting him from a lower angle tells us – “stay with him, he is our hero.”
Later when he sits down the camera shoots both from neither high nor low angle. The increased distance between Frank and Linda in the OTS (over the shoulder) shots is noteworthy. It represents the increased emotional distance. When Linda tells him, the decision is already made she is not looking fully into his eyes. Frank is again shot from a lower angle as he listens.
Frank gets up to leave. Linda stops him and tells him that the party needs him. Again, see how Frank is shot vs how Linda is shot. Even in this situation, cinematically Frank does not have more power than Linda because Linda is part of the decision committee. Still we perceive Frank as a powerful person because the way he is shot.
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