From the course: Video Journalism: Shooting Techniques

Unlock this course with a free trial

Join today to access over 22,400 courses taught by industry experts.

Finding unusual angles

Finding unusual angles

Our natural tendency when shooting video is to shoot from the shoulder, and that's fine. But too much of that can become boring. That's because it matches our normal point of view. To create more interest, take your camcorder off your shoulder. Find a ground-level shot or take it up to a high vantage point and shoot down or shoot through objects. These unusual angles take viewers out of their comfort zone and create interest. Here are a few examples. When I shot this woodturner, a man who takes burls and turns them into bowls, I could have shot it from shoulder height; instead though I got down low because I love that intent look that he has looking down at his work, and also because I knew these chips are going to fly right into the camera lens. Here, I knew this commercial baker was going to dump this huge ton of dough into a vat, so I wanted to get the angle up high so I could catch it falling into it. So, I used this monopole to get that shot. Now, this might not look like an…

Contents