camera conventions

Types of camera conventions

What we know of camera conventions are the basics:

For example camera angles, composition and mise-en-scene.

Applying all these, produces a narrative we can easily follow and understand.

Camera Angles:

over the shoulder shot:

above head shot:

wide shot:

Without these basic camera conventions it would be hard to follow the narrative, meaning that the audience will lose interest and not understand.

Camera angles are important within a narrative but we must make the best use of correctly positioning. for example:

camera cannot cross over the line because then it will confuse the viewer as to what it happening on screen. as you can see the transition the camera should do is shown in the image above.

1st camera angle:

2nd camera angle:

3rd camera angle:

As you can see its easy for the viewer to understand that the person coming from the left is going to sit down from the three camera angles above. if we crossed over the line it would make it seem like we are looking from behind the person who just sat down, which makes it difficult for the viewer to understand what just happened.

Early age of camera convention in animation

most early animations were all done with a basic composition using a wide shot, this was because it was easy to animate a character on a flat background.

It was hard to convey an effect back then because sounds were limited, in order to showcase an effect or an emotions given by a character they would produce indications.

Here is an indication given by mickey mouse from the old cartoon:

  These indication lines above his head are suggesting what hes looking at.

Modern day camera conventions in animation

Nowadays we use camera conventions effectively and in many ways.

We have made compositions of scenes more interesting by adding the rule of thirds, an example of that is with this short clip.

In that small clip you can see how when he picks up the car the scenes continue using the rule of thirds.

Here are screen shots with the rule of third lines:

As we can see here how Mr incredible and the kid are in line with the focus points in the rule of thirds, also because the camera conventions are following the 180 degree rule it makes it an easy narrative to follow.

with modern advancements of composition and technology, we can develop really amazing scenes that could've not been made in the early stages of animations. we use all these different techniques in composition.

one of these effects which are commonly used are blurs. here's a short clip to showcase blur in an action sequence.

https://streamable.com/c0f8