Examining & Deconstructing The Techniques of Character Perspective

A film imparts a story to its audience. But how is that story told? In asking this, what way do we see that story? Often audiences are concerned with the image on the screen and not necessarily taking in, along with the information in the diegetic space, how we are absorbing information. A video essay by Travis Lee Ratcliff looks to deconstruct the technique of perspective.

As the video essay denotes, perspective can be understood in two ways: subjective and objective. Objective perspective is used to give audiences information with out having an emotional attachment on the character’s perspective. Subjective works as the near antithesis, as it uses visual language of a scene with a focus on an emotional impact, grounding the scene in the feelings of a particular character.

The 2015 film “Carol” uses the subjective perspective to convey the emotional state of Therese throughout different points in the film. We rarely leave Therese, and the camera magnificently follows the impact of story in Rooney Mara’s performance. The 2007 film “There Will Be Blood” leads a more objective perspective. We see character actions and consequences to them, but are rarely asked to be involved.

The video essay also touches on conflation between point of view shots with subjective framing. The 2015 film “Hardcore Henry” resided only in the point of view shot, administering a complicated perspective for audiences. Alfred Hitchcock masterfully cuts between subjective perspective and point of view shots in his 1958 film “Vertigo.” Audiences not only take in information seen through the eyes of James Stewart’s John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson, and then have the opportunity to see how this information affects his mental and emotional state.

In contrast to “Hardcore Henry,” the 2015 film “Son of Saul” expressively lives in the subjective shot. Confined spaces and crowded frames enlighten the audience constantly of the emotional decay in 1944 Auschwitz. With the amount of content now available to us with the click of a button or the purchase of a ticket, audiences have access to stories with varying character perspectives. Through this video essay, we can understand the technique that leads us to be emotional active for hours at a time.