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120 A PRACTICAL MANUAL OF SCREEN PLAYWRITING
The problems now are: What are the angles to change to, and how can they be best used to suit the purposes of the screen play?
Low angle. The low angle is a perfect camera position for shots that require extreme dramatic effects. The image caught by the camera in this position is one with figures that loom exaggeratedly large.
When the subject is in a medium shot and is coming into a close shot or close-up, the low angle tends to speed up the action. Thus, in murder-mystery stories, or in stories calling for physical violence, the low-angle shot can be used to good advantage. Under ordinary conditions, the camera is taken off the dolly and set up on a small but sturdy tripod.
At times, though, it may be necessary to obtain action that takes place on the floor and relate it to action occurring at a higher level. Thus, if it were necessary to show a boy feeding a dog under the dining room table and, at the same time, show the byplay of action and reaction between the boy and his parents seated at the table, the entire set would be built on a raised platform, about four feet high. Then, with the camera set at ordinary floor level, and shooting up, the floor action would be shot while the higher-level action continues.
Low-angle shots were used advantageously in Welles's Citizen Kane. Deliberate planning of the sets, so that actual ceilings were built in, enabled Welles to use this angle for purposes other than dramatic effect. The central character was depicted as a financial and journalistic titan, who towered above his fellow men. Welles himself, who is short, could hardly tower unless his fellow actors were all shorter than he. It was decided, therefore, to shoot lowangle to get this towering, overbearing effect into his characterization.
Murnau was the forerunner in this use of the low-angle shot. In his The Last Laugh, Jannings was shot from an extremely low angle when he was a proud, important doorman. Conversely, when he was dejected, he was photographed from a high angle, to convey the opposite effect.
But it is an expensive job to build complete ceilings into sets. Usually only corners are built in whenever the effect is necessary. The use of complete ceilings cuts out the use of catwalks on which