Article May 21, 2012 Issue

Looking for a perfect focus

Daniel Leuschner

Originally published in the Spanish edition of The Herald of Christian Science, El Heraldo de la Ciencia Cristiana.

Courtesy photo

I’ve been studying courses on filming, in school, for the last three years. I’ve enjoyed these classes so much that I’m seriously considering filming as a possible future career. I have learned and am still learning a lot of things I enjoy very much, from the detailed study of how great films in cinema history have been made, to how to convey a specific message in a movie. But what I really like is to discover different ways to shoot the same scene. And also to see that, when deciding on a take, how much the selection of a certain perspective can change the impression of the subject who watches. 

For example, filming a person from an angle below their eye level underscores a position of power, while the opposite effect can be achieved when shooting them from a point above their eye level. Also, placing the camera somewhat sideways, instead of having it straight,
immediately gives the viewer a sense of restlessness or nervousness. This last technique is called dutch tilt. 

I think we also define how things are going in our lives depending on the perspective from which we choose to look. Our expectations determine how it will be in the “movie” of our experience, and we have all the ideas of the divine Mind, that created us, to correct every wrong approach and get good results.

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