The 2 Ways To Film Stories

INTRODUCTION

In the process of writing, shooting and editing a movie filmmakers are faced with a choice. Do you want to tell the story in a way that is more objective, and detached from the character, or in a way that is more subjective and replicates the character’s point of view or emotions?

Let’s use this video to explore the different ways that camera, lighting, sound and editing choices can be used to create either a subjective feeling or an objective experience.

OBJECTIVE VS SUBJECTIVE FILMMAKING

In cinema, the perspective that you create is incredibly important. It affects how the audience interprets the story, feels about the characters and the kind of emotions that they experience along the way.

Although there are two perspectives: an objective one and a subjective one - there is also lots of middleground between them, and room for this to shift throughout a movie.  

There also isn’t only one technique or way of creating a perspective. It is usually the result of a handful of different methods and ideas that are combined to create a point of view on the story. 

Let’s start with objectivity. This is when filmmaking techniques convey information from an omniscient point of view: as if the shot is being observed by an audience member. There is little emotional emphasis attached to the perspective as the camera passively observes the action from a distance.

Most shots in movies are quite objective. 

CAMERA LANGUAGE

To me, this feeling is best achieved by using a stable camera, operated off a tripod or dolly. If there is camera movement, it is usually because it is motivated by the characters themselves moving.

I have another more comprehensive video on shot sizes, but basically wider shots like long shots or medium shots, place the characters a bit further from the camera and therefore feel a bit more objective - like the camera is observing their actions from a healthy distance away.

Positioning the camera so that it sits at around the same height as the characters, and making sure it is filming at a neutral angle without a tilt, is another way of imposing a feeling of objectivity.

Subjective shots, on the other hand, may try to place the audience in the shoes of the character on screen by using what is called a point-of-view, or POV, shot. This is often achieved by cutting from a shot of the character to a shot that represents what they would be seeing.

Such as this sequence which cuts from a shot of a character whose eyeline is a bit off camera, to a shot of their perspective which mimics the same angle as their gaze.  

Or, this sequence, which mimics a person’s point of view by using a macro lens to shoot the image through a scope - that the character is looking through. This POV technique is also sometimes done by using a black mask or shooting through other devices like binoculars, a keyhole in a door, a telephoto lens of a camera, or to recreate the perspective of looking through night vision goggles. 

Some movies, like Enter The Void, even leaned on this POV technique so heavily that they incorporated the character blinking, by cutting to a couple black frames incredibly quickly to create this illusion. 

An entire genre, of found footage movies, has even been created around the idea of only using shots taken from the literal POV of a character who is filming everything. 

But there are also other camera techniques, other than using literal POV shots, that can be used to create a visual experience which is more subjective and focused on the character. 

Using a tight shot where the camera is placed physically closer to the actor during filming creates a more subjective, closer bond between the audience and the character, than filming in a more objective wide shot.

Shooting from either a low angle, to make characters appear larger than life, or a higher angle that diminishes them, is a way of imposing a feeling on the image. This usually makes the audience experience the shot in a subtly more psychologically subjective way - where the camera makes the character feel stronger or weaker. 

Although it depends a lot on context, I often find that handheld camera movement creates a more subjective language. Perhaps this is due to handheld motion’s connection to the documentary genre - where the character may interact with the camera and is more aware of its presence.

This handheld motion can also be combined with an over-the-shoulder perspective, to make it feel like we are following in the literal footsteps of the character. Again, bringing the audience and the character closer together. 

Another type of camera rig that can be used to create a subjective feel is called a Snorricam - which attaches the camera directly onto the body of the protagonist. This glues the audience onto a close up of the character, so that we move with them in a subjective way.  

A good rule of thumb is that the more stylised and experimental the camera language is, the more it is usually trying to impose a feeling on the audience, get them into the mind of the character, and therefore the more subjective it is. 

While, the more naturalistic the camera’s role is, the more it creates an observational, detached perspective that is objective.    

SOUND

Sound is a filmmaking tool that also plays an important role. Objective shots have sound that presents more of a general recording of the space. We pick up on things like dialogue and any ambient sounds in the location, such as a room recording of broadcast sound from a TV that is on, while excluding special sound effects, or audio that wouldn’t naturally occur from the mix.

Subjective feeling shots will often play with sound, and may share the sound that characters hear with the audience - in a similar way to how the camera uses a POV shot to share the perspective of a character. A good example of this is when the audience hears the same sound that a character is hearing in headphones or on a telephone.

Another, more extreme version of subjectivity is if the plot and filmmaking mechanisms dive into the mind of the character - through what is called a mental subjectivity. 

This could be done by using a voice over spoken by the character, by showing their dreams, using a shallow depth of field to evoke their memories, or even using visual effects or camera trickery to convey hallucinations that they may be experiencing. 

When the language of cinema takes on how the character is experiencing the moment it is subjective.

EDITING

How quickly or how slowly scenes are edited also has an effect on how stories are told. Usually, shots that play out in longer takes or scenes with very few transitions between shots tend to mimic how we experience time in the real world and therefore usually feel more natural and objective.

While rapidly cutting through many shots incredibly quickly has more of a deliberate emotional effect and can create feelings such as anxiety or tension - feelings that emerged artificially due to subjective editing.

LIGHTING

A final cinematographic concept that can be used to tell stories in different ways comes down to how cinematographers use light.

Objective storytellers like to lean into using naturalistic lighting. This is when either only natural ambient light is used, or, more often, when the film lights that are used to add illumination to a shot are placed in a way that is motivated by the light in the shooting location.

A good example of this is how when shooting interiors big sources of light with a daylight colour temperature are placed outside windows, shining in, to mimic the direction and quality of sunlight, while also adding a more cinematic contrast and increasing the levels of light inside the room.

For more subjective stories, cinematographers can employ more expressionist lighting techniques. This may include using RGB LED lights or fixtures with coloured gels, to add different unnatural hues of light to a scene. This use of vibrant, exaggerated colour elevates stories out of the real world, to create a feeling or a tone that embodies how a character sees the world in that moment - rather than merely presenting the world plainly and objectively as it really is.