The Filmmaker's Eternal Dilemma: Where to Put the Camera

In every movie, there's an extra character that never gets mentioned, but that character's point of view is crucial. That's the camera, because the camera is the viewer. A filmmaker has to make a choice as to what the viewer will see, what they will focus on, and what that point of view means to moving the story along. That decision is also affected by the way the characters in the scene move around, and the way you want the camera to move around, because after all, the camera is representing the viewer.

So many of us watch movies and either enjoy them or not, but never think about the hundreds of different decisions filmmakers have to make with every scene. But those decisions together drive how well a film incorporates the viewer into the story. Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou of Every Frame a Painting (previously at Neatorama) takes us into the nuts and bolts of the rigorous decision-making process behind every film. Or at least, every good film. -via Nag on the Lake